| General Fiction posted January 28, 2023 | Chapters: |
...54 55 -56- 57... 
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Abby has an idea for an invention.
A chapter in the book Some Call It Luck
Some Call It Luck - Chapter 56
by Jim Wile
| Background A brilliant and beautiful but insecure, nerdy young woman befriends a going nowhere older alcoholic caddie. Together, they bring out the best in each other and collaborate on a startling new invention |
Recap: After getting her master’s degree, Abby goes to work as an actuary at an insurance company. She has two children, and her boss, Leroy, welcomes her back each time after she spends a year at home with each child. Her boss retires and recommends Abby for his replacement, but the company hires an outsider who treats her poorly. She eventually quits.
She stays home with the kids for a few years but eventually wants to return to the workforce. After a lunch with E.J. who encourages her, she soon gets a call from her old boss, Leroy, who has taken over as interim manager of the actuarial department because Abby’s previous boss washed out. Leroy asks Abby to come back and take over for him as the new manager. Abby talks it over with Kenny and decides to go back.
After a year’s time, Abby has the place running smoothly and has earned the respect of all her employees, but she begins getting restless as the challenge of the job is no longer there for her.
Dana Griffin (nee Padgett), who was Abby’s chief tormentor all through grade school, finds herself in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She is a good golfer and joins Kettle Creek Country Club soon after moving there. While practicing one day, she sees a young redheaded girl practicing as well who reminds her of a young Abby. She then reminisces about her relationship with Abby back then and how poorly she had treated her.
Dana is invited to have lunch and play golf with a woman she met on the practice tee. At lunch the next day, who should show up to have lunch and play in the foursome but Abby, who is also a member at Kettle Creek. It’s been 20 years since they’ve seen each other, and although they are cordial, they are also rather cool towards each other. Dana learns from the other ladies in the group how successful Abby is at her job and how good a golfer she is, having won the ladies club championship the previous year. Dana finds out that the young girl she saw practicing on the range is Abby’s daughter, Claire, who seems to be struggling with the game.
Abby Payne
The same day
June, 2004
June, 2004
What a surprise to see Dana Padgett at the club today. Excuse me, Dana Griffin. Who’d have predicted back in high school that one day we’d be having lunch and playing golf together? I certainly wouldn’t have, but life is funny that way.
I’m an actuary, and I understand probabilities, so I guess it wasn’t so far out of the question that we might end up in the same small city 20 years down the road. Pretty remote odds, though.
She seems to have mellowed some since high school. She’s still quite attractive in a more mature way, but with a harder look—especially around the eyes. Perhaps her life has had a few struggles.
There certainly was a coolness between us, as seeing each other brought back a load of memories of uncomfortable moments between us from our school years together.
We didn’t talk much about the past. During the round, she rode in a cart with Lila, while Andrea and I walked and shared a caddie, so I didn’t have much individual time with her during the round. Just as well.
She was a good golfer. She hit the ball a long way for a woman, but had a tendency to slice. I’m a little shorter, but straighter off the tee and had one of my better rounds this summer, shooting a 76. I think Dana shot an 84, which is a good round on a course she had never played before.
Our family took out a membership here at Kettle Creek Country Club about four years ago—a little after I began working at Merton again. It was a relatively new, full-service country club on the east side of Altoona, replete with 18-hole golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts, bocce ball court, and a lovely clubhouse in a modern style of architecture.
As I’ve said before, I first started golfing when Kenny taught me the swing back at Brentwood when I was 21. For fun, I even took a course in golf during my second year as a grad student at Penn State. I learned a lot and surprised Kenny the first time we played a round together. We started playing together quite frequently after that. Kenny is a very good golfer, and he continued helping me refine my game.
During my young child-rearing years, I hardly played at all, then it was back to work at Merton. That first year back as the actuarial department manager, I had almost no time for golf, but once everyone was onboard with the new protocols, we started working together like a well-oiled machine. I got my work time down to a normal 40 hours a week, which afforded me more time to be with my family and to resume playing golf.
It was right about then that we joined Kettle Creek, and I started playing again and practicing in earnest. We came out here as a family and played often as we helped teach the kids the game. I also practiced a fair amount on my own when I had the chance, which culminated in my winning the women’s club championship last year. Kenny and the kids were very proud of me.
Claire had always struggled with the game—a lot more than Greg, who seemed like more of a natural athlete. Kenny and I just couldn’t seem to get her to move her body the right way to consistently hit the ball. She tried hard, but it was difficult for her.
She had a good short game, though, which kept her interested in golf. Kenny had built a backyard putting green at our house, and Claire practiced on it regularly. She might actually be the best putter in the family now. Our friend and Kenny’s business partner, Eddie Phillips or “Uncle Eddie,” as the kids call him, worked with her on that. He’s the best putter I’ve ever seen.
One night, a few years ago, I had a heart-to-heart conversation with Claire as she was lying in bed.
“Mom, I really want to be good at golf, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of the swing. I feel like such a klutz.”
“You know, sweetie, you don’t have to be good at everything you do. You can still enjoy things, even if you’re not the best at them. I’m terrible at bowling, but I still like to go. And I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I still like to sing, even though other people probably wish I wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, you are pretty bad at singing, Mom, but you and Dad and Greg are all so good at golf, and I just want to be too.”
That conversation with Claire stuck with me. It was a few weeks later that Kenny and I were sitting in the family room reading after the kids went to bed. Kenny looked up from his magazine and saw me staring straight ahead.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he said to me.
It took me a moment to collect my thoughts. I looked at him and said, “I want to run something by you. I’ve been thinking a lot about my career lately. Things are going smoothly at work now, and the challenge just isn’t quite there for me anymore. Besides math, I’ve always loved engineering too, but being in the insurance world, I haven’t had anything to do with engineering since college. I’m starting to get antsy now, and thinking that I need a new challenge—something involving math and engineering.”
“That’s interesting that you say that. I’ve often wondered how long you might stay in the insurance field. Some actuaries are involved in scientific and engineering fields too, you know. Are you thinking along those lines?”
“Possibly, but I feel like I want to create something. I had a wild idea after talking to Claire a couple weeks ago, and it’s been rolling around in my head ever since.”
He put down his magazine then and turned his full attention to me. “Let’s hear it.”
“You know how Claire has been struggling to get the hang of the golf swing, and nothing we say or show her seems to have made much difference? I think she actually needs to feel a correct swing. What if I were to invent a ‘golfing suit’ for lack of a better term, that a person could wear and that would teach him or her the proper motions of the swing by swinging for them? It wouldn’t force you but instead urge you to swing the correct way.”
“Huh! I go to a lot of golf shows, and I’ve never seen nor heard of anything like that before. How would you get it to urge the wearer to swing?”
“I picture the suit having thousands of miniature solenoids sewn into the fabric of it, all connected by tiny wires to a microprocessor and power source. The correct motion would be initiated when you start your backswing, then the suit takes over. You could fight it and mess up the swing, but if you just let it do its thing, it will cause you to take the club back then down on the correct plane with the same tempo and timing every time. If you use it enough, eventually you won’t need to use it, because it will have taught you the correct swing, which you should now be able to duplicate.”
“Do you think this is really doable?”
“I don’t know. It would take a lot of collaboration and brainstorming between a mathematician, a mechanical engineer, a computer whiz, and probably an experienced inventor who knows his way around fabrication. Do you happen to know any of those?”
“I think I do,” said Kenny, laughing. “Why don’t we invite E.J. and Eddie over this weekend, and we can all bat it around?”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll get on the phone and invite them over for lunch on Saturday, but I won’t tell them what it’s about just yet. Let’s surprise them with it.”
(8 more chapters)
Abby Payne: She is intelligent and beautiful, yet shy and awkward with most people her age, having been picked on quite a lot while growing up. She worked at the snack bar and as a waitress at Brentwood Country Club during the summers where she met both E.J. and Kenny, who is a member at Brentwood and became her boyfriend and eventually her husband.
E.J. Budrowski: 18 years older than Abby, he is an alcoholic with a traumatic past (an abusive father and a mother driven to suicide) who is a caddie at Brentwood CC. One day he finds a dirty old golf ball on the edge of a pond that seems to have unusual powers, for he makes two holes-in-one with it. He and Abby become friends when she encourages him to take up both golf and bridge again after long layoffs. He finally quits drinking and returns to college at age 40 and earns a degree in computer science. Eventually he becomes a professor of computer science.
Dana Griffin (nee Padgett): Grew up with Abby back in Butler. She is a bully and teased Abby unmercifully all the way through school. Coincidentally, 20 years later, she finds herself living in Altoona, where Abby lives, and joins the same country club as Abby.
Kenny Payne: Abby met him briefly at a frat party in her senior year and was intrigued by him, then she sees him again when he walks up to the snack bar several months later. He is a mechanical engineer and is tall, good looking, and an all-around nice guy. After less than a year of courtship, he marries Abby.
Eddie Phillips: A young member at Brentwood known for his extremely good putting and ability to hustle his opponents. Eddie is friends with Abby and beats Kenny in the club championship with a miracle shot. He and Kenny become best friends after that.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. E.J. Budrowski: 18 years older than Abby, he is an alcoholic with a traumatic past (an abusive father and a mother driven to suicide) who is a caddie at Brentwood CC. One day he finds a dirty old golf ball on the edge of a pond that seems to have unusual powers, for he makes two holes-in-one with it. He and Abby become friends when she encourages him to take up both golf and bridge again after long layoffs. He finally quits drinking and returns to college at age 40 and earns a degree in computer science. Eventually he becomes a professor of computer science.
Dana Griffin (nee Padgett): Grew up with Abby back in Butler. She is a bully and teased Abby unmercifully all the way through school. Coincidentally, 20 years later, she finds herself living in Altoona, where Abby lives, and joins the same country club as Abby.
Kenny Payne: Abby met him briefly at a frat party in her senior year and was intrigued by him, then she sees him again when he walks up to the snack bar several months later. He is a mechanical engineer and is tall, good looking, and an all-around nice guy. After less than a year of courtship, he marries Abby.
Eddie Phillips: A young member at Brentwood known for his extremely good putting and ability to hustle his opponents. Eddie is friends with Abby and beats Kenny in the club championship with a miracle shot. He and Kenny become best friends after that.
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