American History 1988
Chapter 38 - 35 Passionate Susie

Chapter 38: Chapter 35 Passionate Susie

Ohio winters aren’t usually very cold, after all, it’s north of Lake Erie. With plenty of moisture from the lake, the temperature tends to regulate itself automatically.

However, this year is an exception, with the snow season having begun last November and showing no signs of stopping now in January.

Dean learned from the weather forecast on TV that this year’s cold spell would be exceptionally long, likely to last until April or May.

But as a native Ohioan, he and most of the people in this city are accustomed to all of this.

"Dean, are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?" After changing the tires on his Chevrolet pickup, Peter lifted his head to confirm again.

"Dad, I’m just going to a landlords’ meeting, precisely for a survey for my own website. There’s no danger, it’s just a little north of downtown, a fifteen-minute drive away," he reassured.

Only after verifying that the hard drive and everything else was in his bag did Dean reluctantly express again that he didn’t need company.

Since Peter was released from prison, aside from attending an hour of alcohol treatment classes every day, he had become idle.

Just as Wedner had predicted, Packard Electric rejected Peter’s application to return to work.

The reason given was non-compliance with company policy. As compensation, however, they were willing to negotiate a severance package with Peter.

Because there was a significant disagreement over the specific amount, negotiations were still ongoing. Regardless, Peter’s unemployment was a foregone conclusion.

After spending most of his life at the factory, accustomed to working with trucks every day, suddenly having nothing to do felt uncomfortable for Peter.

Mother F*cker, weren’t these days of drinking oneself blind exactly what he had longed for in the past?

Muttering to himself in his heart, Peter wandered back to the front of the pickup. "This old buddy cost me nearly ten thousand US dollars back then. It’s pretty powerful, isn’t it?"

Dean glanced at the patchy paint on the front of the old family car and the bumper with a crack as wide as a finger, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Yeah, you’re right, it is grinning at me."

"Come on, Dean, I’ve been through a lot. As a landlord, I have a lot to say, and I can give you some good advice." Casually tossing an empty beer can into the trash, Peter began to chatter beside Dean endlessly.

"OK, Dad," Dean opened the car door and tossed his backpack onto the passenger seat, "you should find a job, or even community service would do, anything really. You need to find something to keep yourself busy."

Dean knew what his father was thinking; he wasn’t necessarily keen on attending the meeting, just looking for something to occupy his time and alleviate boredom.

"Mother F*cker, I’ve looked through all the newspapers in Youngstown that offer jobs. But Dean, can you imagine? A city with hundreds of thousands of people like Youngstown can’t provide a single stable, long-term job!

Cleaner, warehouse loader, convenience store clerk... all of these jobs are temporary, paid by the day, and you never know when you’re going to be let go.

This would have been unthinkable in Youngstown a decade ago. This country has gone to hell!"

"Hey, calm down, Dad," Dean couldn’t help but soothe his somewhat agitated father, "it’s not your fault, there’s something wrong with this city."

"You’re right, Dean, something is wrong with this city. I can feel it; it’s slowly dying." Peter took off his knitted cap and rubbed it vigorously.

Although Peter was not born in Youngstown, he spent half of his childhood here.

Now, witnessing the slow decay of the city and unable to change anything, Peter felt both unease and anger.

"How about this, Dad? Could you do me a favor?" Dean closed the car door again and decided to stand in front of the car and chat with his father.

"Oh? What is it?" Peter turned and gave him a blank look.

"Help me find out if there’s any news from the nearby community, anything will do—gossip, politics, factory stuff, and so on. As long as it’s happening in Youngstown, it’s worth collecting."

"Dean, are you sure you’re not joking? When did you start caring about these things?" Peter was somewhat skeptical, suspecting Dean was just teasing him. As far as he could remember, a bookish guy like Dean had no interest in community affairs.

"Dad, I’m not kidding. You know, I’ve been working on a website recently. It’s dedicated to stories happening in Youngstown, so I need some material," Dean explained seriously.

"Really?" Peter’s eyebrows raised, a look of eagerness on his face.

"Really," Dean affirmed with a nod.

"Are they that important?"

"Very important."

"Haha, then you found the right person," Peter put his knitted cap back on, a smug look on his face. "I know everything about Youngstown like the back of my hand. Leave gathering news to me."

Reinvigorated, Peter pulled out another can of beer and then turned to walk towards the community. "Oh yeah, I suggest you add a ’Who’s the Hottest Woman in Youngstown’ list to that website of yours. I can bring you that info tonight. Measurements, how they feel... you name it~"

Watching his dad also give him a wink before he left, Dean couldn’t help but laugh. What a rascal.

Opening the car door, Dean got into the Chevrolet pickup and started driving north.

The car belonged to his dad, but since Peter had recently been unable to drive, it had been lying idle in the empty space next to the apartment he was renting.

Dean happened to need to go out, so the old buddy was once again called into service. In Ohio, especially in northern Ohio, it was unimaginable to go out in winter without a car.

Cotton-like snowflakes were hitting the windshield one after another outside the car window. Without the wipers on, Dean doubted whether he could see the traffic ahead clearly.

"Mother F*cker, why didn’t my old man tell me there’s a problem with the car’s air conditioning?" After driving for a few minutes, Dean felt something was wrong, damn it was getting colder the more he drove.

He turned off the outside air circulation at will, and Dean could only wait for the engine temperature to slowly rise. However, by the time he felt the warmth, the car had already arrived at the destination.

The Wester Hotel in Youngstown’s downtown area was quite famous, and most club activities or group gatherings were held there.

Dean was there for the same reason today. After the last landlord training course, the president of the "Youngstown Property Investors Alliance," Kent Hills, had invited him to participate in the post-New Year meeting.

Dean had accepted, and the meeting was scheduled for today.

Grabbing his backpack, Dean tightened his coat around him and hurried toward the hotel.

"Hey, Dean." Just as he entered the lobby, he heard someone calling his name.

Looking up, Susie, wearing a long beige down jacket, had already approached him.

"Hey, Susie." Dean took off his gloves and intended to shake hands with her, but the latter hooked her arm through his right away.

"Dean, I heard you’re developing a new office system for the courthouse?" Susie asked curiously with her bright blue eyes wide.

"Uh... it’s still in the testing phase," Dean said, surprised about how Susie knew this.

"Come on, Dean, Judge Wedner has already revealed this news in the newspaper. You’re considered a genius college student by them, single-handedly handling the work of an entire software company and saving the government a lot of budget."

Susie tightened her grip slightly, and Dean quickly felt the pressure on his arm.

He knew that was Susie protesting his dismissive attitude, so he shrugged and began to explain.

"All right, Susie. I did develop such a piece of software, but as I said, it hasn’t officially launched yet."

The initial version of DCAP had been submitted to Youngstown’s preliminary court. Limited by the progress of server procurement, the software could only be run on one or two machines temporarily.

Still, Judge Wedner had highly praised it. Of course, there was no lack of problems; to fix some minor bugs, Dean found himself running to the courthouse nearly every day recently.

"Cool! Dean, I’m now even more confident in Price’s List," Susie said, linked her arm with his and moved toward the hall where the property investors’ meeting was being held.

Honestly, Dean was still a bit unaccustomed to Susie’s enthusiasm; in his mind was the image of her aloofness when she had stood on the podium in the past.

Hmm, though Dean wasn’t one to reject the closeness of a beautiful woman spontaneously. He had wished at a birthday party that in this life, he must live a carefree existence.

The two arrived at the hall reserved by the alliance in the Wester Hotel, with already about forty or fifty people seated.

"Wow~ I didn’t expect Youngstown to have so many professional landlords." Dean had always believed that the declining Youngstown housing market was limited and would only shrink further.

But the bustling scene before him made him doubt his own views.

After skillfully greeting people around her, Susie turned around with a smile and explained to Dean. "Only a small part has come today, there are even more landlords in Youngstown that have not joined the alliance.

Of course, not all here are landlords; people from house inspection agencies, lawyers, investors... they’re all here."

"Wow, quite an eye-opener," said Dean, who found a place to sit down with Susie and quietly waited for the meeting to begin.

"Dean, I’ve recently taken a special look at your Price’s List. Although I don’t know much about the internet, it seems very lively there." Susie, who had taken off her down jacket and was wearing a pink sweater, leaned closer to Dean.

Mentioning that made Dean quite animated, "Susie, do you know? Just last week, the active users on Price’s List’s website exceeded a thousand."

Since renting the server from AmericaNet, Price’s List had seen a significant growth in registered users.

It turned out that the speed of webpage loading was in a very direct positive correlation with user activity levels.

"Susie, you might not realize what this means..."

"OK, seeing the smiles on your faces, I know everyone must have had a great holiday."

Just as Dean was about to discuss his Price’s List further, Kent Hills, the president, had already stood up with a microphone, ready to speak.

With that, Dean had to drop the subject, and Susie smiled and patted the back of his hand, signaling they would talk later.

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