Page 29 - Demo

Kendallville Mental School23ing facts and running exploitive stories. Perhaps, like those who didn%u2019t have the nerve to ask, he thought Lynn was pregnant, and the paper would report on a juicy scandal. It turned out to be a pleasant, accurate, inoffensive (but a bit corny) story on the front page of the Kendallville News-Sun. Under the heading %u201cEast Noble Teachers Find Love, Marriage in Team Assignment,%u201d it had our photos, gave our backgrounds, talked about true love, quoted a few lines from Gilbran%u2019s The Prophet, and how much we were alike. The reporter was fascinated by some of our possessions, such as my hand-carved wooden tiki god, the coffin-turned-into-a-stereo, and the big round plastic chair I%u2019d built in college. Afterwards, we became minor celebrities, and everyone in town recognized us.%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022As the days grew colder that Fall, the heating system in our duplex ran more often, and we began to notice a strong chemical-like odor whenever we walked in the door. It smelled somewhat like a carpet store, but was stronger and more biting. We asked the landlord about it and he assured us it wasn%u2019t anything to worry about %u2014 it was just the new building materials airing out. But it burned our eyes and, as winter progressed, we got into the habit of opening the windows for an hour or so to air the place out whenever we came home. The odor never did go away, but airing made it less potent, and we tended not to notice it after we were indoors for a while. It seemed to us that the new building materials should have aired out long ago, but that strange odor continued to linger. So we started leaving the windows cracked open all the time, even had a window fan running for a couple of hours a day. With the extra, continuous fresh air, the odor was finally somewhat less pungent, but it never did dissipate completely.At Christmas time, Lynn and I decided to escape the strange odor and Indiana%u2019s cold, snowy weather, and do some basking in Florida. We decided on a leisurely 9-day trip, with no itinerary, no reservations. When school let out on Friday, we took care of a few odds and ends, then headed south in Lynn%u2019s Nova. That night, we slept in the car at a Tennessee rest area. It was packed with college