Memory Lane

It was the summer of 2012.  

A casual stroll through a quaint New England town had suddenly morphed into  a glimpse of nearly forgotten youth. Expecting to find a cute cafe, but settling instead on a trendy pub, she was startled to find herself in the middle of ‘Memory Lane‘:

She was a chemical engineer in 1970, the lead process designer / software engineer, working out of New Jersey Headquarters of multinational consumer products company, and leading the spray tower automation project in Berkeley, California, slated for start-up that summer.

Her husband was a French teacher, whose Paris sabbatical coincided perfectly with her trip to San Francisco. He was to study for the summer at the “Sorbonne”, while living with a Parisian family. Considering her California project, the timing was perfect!

They said their emotional goodbyes on June 23, and a few hours later, he boarded the plane. They’d been married two years, had never flown, and had never been apart. Still, a summer apart would be good for them professionally, while they were young and otherwise unencumbered.

They wrote to each other every day, but snail-mail daily updates were old news; so their phone call on Bastille Day was greatly anticipated – the day before her departure for the west coast. She had so much to tell him:
    ” I can’t hear you…. your letters….? “
     “I can’t hear you…”
     “It’s Bastille Day …What about being ‘late’?”
     “Honey…we’re….”
     “What? …I can’t hear you…Are you…we….?”
     “Yes! Yes…we’re pregnant!”
     “I love you!”

In mid-August, he flew to SanFrancisco and for the next few weeks they lived in Berkeley motel. She went to work each day at the plant, where each lunchtime he satisfied her new craving – bologna, hard roll, mustard, pickles! On weekends, they got their “freak” on, strolling past lingering traces of Berkeley’s ‘Summer of Love’. 1970 was their summer of love.

In 2012, they finished their artisan beer and bologna sandwiches, smiling at the outrageous stage and at each other.

This is submitted in response to Trifecta Challege.
Prompt word:
FREAK (noun)

1a : a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind, b : a seemingly capricious action or event
2. archaic : a whimsical quality or disposition
3. : one that is markedly unusual or abnormal: as
a : a person or animal having a physical oddity and appearing in a circus sideshow
b slang (1) : a sexual deviate (2) : a person who uses an illicit drug
c : hippie
d : an atypical postage stamp usually caused by a unique defect in paper (as a crease) or a unique event in the manufacturing process (as a speck of dirt on the plate) that does not produce a constant or systematic effect