Jackson had felt better since Amanda had confessed her situation, as it were, to him. He didn't have to feel she was avoiding him because she had no feelings for him. Though that meant no progress in their relationship, he was surprised to find, he cared more about getting to be with Amanda than making any particular progress on that. He had never really been in that position before. He would have given up and started dating other women. He had gotten too used to that, and it put him in that category of older, single men who weren't easily affected by a woman. It started to take more and more of a woman to break through the overall indifference. Jackson knew all of this from discussions over the years with his sisters, mainly his sister Colleen, who was a counselor and therefore had insight into these things.
Amanda, in spite of her hesitance and emotional troubles, had an honesty about it all that made up for her timidity in going into the relationship. So many women he knew would have just done it and then it would have fallen apart, all because she didn't face up to her issue and didn't tell him what was going on with her. He realized that Amanda had avoided the relationships, which he felt was a step above all that, because she had been honest with herself all along.
So he listened to her occasional laugh and her earnest attempts to field a sentence in Russian with a happiness he had never known before. Then she would stray into one of those interesting conversations with Zander, where she tried to get him to think, and Zander, ever open-minded, would follow where she pointed him. He would hear bits and pieces of these conversations, but he was always impressed by them.
"He quit his job over it," Amanda was saying. Jackson did not know who Amanda was talking about, but suspected it had something to do with American history, not the people they knew.
"An instrument of slavery and villainy," Zander sounded as if he were reading something out loud. "This Old South Meeting House, that's where they had their protest meetings."
"Samuel Adams, James Otis and John Hancock," read Irina, Zander's 11-year-old cousin.
"That's right," said Amanda.
"What was to protest about?" asked Zander's uncle, Mikhail.
"Taxes," Zander said. "And writs of assistance. Here read this, Uncle, you won't have it easy with words like this."
"Do you remember what writs of assistance are?" Amanda asked.
"General search warrants," Zander said. "With no probable cause. The British could just search any place they suspected any time, without getting any permission from anyone else in the government."
"Which the colonists protested because?"
"Because a man's home is his castle. As James Otis said. And he quit his job as counsel for the crown rather than argue in favor of the writs of assistance."
"Good memory. Now, can you get that across to an eleven year old on the one hand, and your other challenge it to get it across to Mikhail."
Mikhail was smart, and understood the concept with a translation, then tried to make out the English words for it all. This kept Mikhail rather quiet for most of the flight.
Irina bubbled with questions, and in English. Jackson smiled. Amanda was a great teacher, and Zander was clearly her protege.
Jackson usually stayed with his plane to get things ready for their return, but upon arriving at the airport this time, Irina asked if he was going.
"Jack usually stays with his plane," Amanda said, with a smile.
"How come?" Irina asked. "Isn't it safe?"
"It's safe. I just take care of things to save time, things I'd have to do when we got back, if I went with you."
"How much time could it take?" Zander asked. "It must be boring hanging out here. Come with us, Jack. We don't mind waiting for you to get ready when we get back."
"We'll have plenty to talk about," Amanda said, looking at Jackson.
That was enough. "I'll come along," he said. "Thank you, Irina. You've done your part to improve my education."
