Chapter 31

Tracy and Cheryl messaged each other back and forth for a couple of days.  The only time that Tracy sent a message or replied to a message was in the evening after he got home from work.  Cheryl, would send and reply to messages both before and after work, though she knew that Tracy would not get back to her until that evening.

Tracy got in the habit of not ever writing anything that would in any way reveal that he was only 20 years old, not 30 years old, that he lived at his parents’ house, and that he was not Jewish.  Every day, Tracy researched and studied Jewish beliefs, figures of speech, culture, and religious practices.  He went over and over these things that he learned in his mind.  It came to the point, that from time to time, he began using Jewish figures of speech at work, to the administrators, his sister, and to the crew workers.

Soon, it came time where Cheryl wanted to exchange telephone numbers and talk on the telephone.  Tracy explained that he would only be able to talk after he got home from work.  In order to not be overheard by his brothers or sisters, or worse, have them yell at him in his room while he was on the telephone with Cheryl, Tracy had to go out and get in his truck to talk on the phone with Cheryl.

When Cheryl thought that she could hear a truck engine running in the background, she asked Tracy where he was, she thought that he was at home.  Tracy answered that he was home, that he lived on a farm, he had to go check on the horses and cattle, that he preferred to sit out in his truck and watch the animals, watch the sun set.  Cheryl thought that this sounded very romantic, that Tracy was very responsible to get home from working all day, and then go look after the farm and the animals.  She also thought that he must be very successful and have money, to be both the operations manager of a company, and also own and operate a farm.

Cheryl asked more about the farm.  Tracy said that it was his grandparents’ farm.  Cheryl began to ask in a round about way if it was all his.  Tracy replied no, that other family members had a stake in it.  Cheryl asked how big was the farm.  Tracy answered that it was four sections.  A section of land is one mile by one mile, one section is 7oo acres.

Tracy did not mind answering Cheryl’s questions.  He understood that women want to know what you have, they are curious, they want to know.  But in the questions that they ask, you can tell a lot about them.  They ask about what they care about, what they don’t care about, they don’t ask about.  So Cheryl could ask him as many questions as she wanted, for every question that she asked, it answered one or more questions that Tracy had about her.

After the small talk and chit chat, Tracy asked Cheryl if she would like to go out to dinner with him on Saturday in Gillette, Wyoming at the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar.  Cheryl said, yes, she did.

Chapter 32

Tracy had to leave Belfield at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in order to make it to Gillette, Wyoming for his dinner date with Cheryl at 6:30 p.m.  Tracy had been to Gillette, Wyoming with his father many times during his childhood to pick up construction equipment, to drop off construction equipment, to buy a horse from time to time.  When Tracy became a teenager, and got his driver’s license, that was just when the oil boom was getting started.  Tracy’s father began sending him on his own, down to Gillette with a Dodge 3500 dually and a long gooseneck trailer to pick up oil field equipment.

The dinner date was at the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar on Douglas Highway.  If he could get Cheryl to go, he wanted to take her dancing after dinner at the Boot Hill Nightclub.  Tracy was not nervous or anxious, this was easier than when he was a young teenager driving a big truck and big trailer by himself to go pick up equipment in Gillette.

Tracy had gone through the car wash with his silver Dodge diesel 2500 mega cab 4×4, and he had made sure that everything that didn’t need to be in the truck was taken out, and that it was clean inside.  Tracy was wearing his new black dress shoes, new dark blue Carhart jeans, black dress belt, long sleeve white dress shirt, his new Pierre Cardin dark grey wool coat, and no hat.  He looked very handsome, and he could easily pass as being 25 years old, but he didn’t quite look like he was 30.

Cheryl was more nervous than Tracy was.  She had only been to Gillette, Wyoming once or twice.  Cheryl had called the Arbuckle Lodge on Thursday to make reservations for a hotel room on Saturday, she was not going to try to drive back to Cheyenne, Wyoming on Saturday night.  But she was sure not going to tell Tracy that she had a hotel room reserved in Gillette, she did not want him coming back to her hotel room.  That is not how she wanted this date to go.  She was looking for a serious relationship, and hopefully marriage.

Once Cheryl knew that she was going to get a hotel room, she thought that she would like to drive to Gillette, and get there at about 3:00 p.m. to check into her hotel room.  She would then go and see where the restaurant was, and look inside.  Then go back to the hotel, and take a shower and get dressed.   She would bring a couple of different outfits, and decide what to wear when she arrived in Gillette, depending on how cold it was that evening.

Cheryl had spent some of her time looking forward to this date, buying some new clothes, getting her hair done, buying some new cosmetics.  She even bought some new lingerie.  Just in case she thought, she might as well she thought.  Cheryl took her mint green color Subaru wagon to get washed and vacuumed at the car wash.

Cheryl had spent some of her time worrying about this date.  At times she was very angry about this date, was this guy going to show up and be some horny 20 year old?  Some times she was fearful about this date, was this guy Tracy some kind of serial killer?  Cheryl made sure to bring her.38 caliber Bersa semi-auto pistol that she usually carried in her purse.  And she wanted to check out the restaurant before the date to make sure she could park where she could be seen,  and she wanted to see if she would be able to excuse herself to the bathroom, and leave through a side door in case Tracy was very creepy in person.