And ask questions was exactly what my smart, snoopy friend Ramona did. How did Lloyd come to be Joe's driver and aide? They'd stayed in loose touch after Vietnam. Once Joe's sight really began to fail, he contacted Lloyd, one of the few people he could totally trust. Lloyd, who was doing some diddly shit job at the time, jumped at the chance to work for his old friend.
When Ramona asked what was going on in Joe and Caroline's marriage, Lloyd grew silent. He said he didn't like to discuss other people's business. Then, with a devilish grin, he added that things sure didn't look good in the world of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. Caroline had gone to Bolivia to be with her elderly father last October and now it was May of the following year and she still wasn't back, what did that tell you? "Do you think she's having an affair?" Ramona asked.
Lloyd's face grew wary. "Like I said, I don't like discussing other people's business."
"Well, tell me how Joe and Caroline met," Ramona asked. She's a gifted interrogator. I could just imagine her shaping her lips into a little pout and giving Lloyd that look, like maybe I'll kiss you if you give me some answers.
Lloyd fell for it. He'd already been working for Joe six years when Caroline came into the picture, a beautiful lecturer at the University of Texas who needed a blind person for some research she was conducting. Intrigued, Joe agreed to participate in the project. Lloyd walked him to Caroline's office where he lay down on a couch and electrodes were placed on his scalp as he listened to symphonic music. What Caroline was interested in, specifically, was identifying the sort of imagery produced in Joe's brain as different passages of music sounded through the headset. Lloyd was never apprised of the results of the research. All he knew was he walked Joe to Caroline's office once a week for a month, and each time they went there Joe grew more and more ebullient. After the project was completed, he drove Joe to a fancy French restaurant where he had his first date with Caroline, and then things really took off, and it seemed like Lloyd was chauffeuring Joe to different places every night to meet his new beloved.