Chapter 18

“Are you ready to go, Doug?”

“Go where, Bill?”

“To put in another order for vehicles. You were going to put me on your calendar for a vehicle shopping trip.”

“Sorry, Bill, I forgot to tell Cindy. I can’t think of anyone I was to meet with today. Let me check my calendar  ah, yes, I have the rest of today clear; except for my regular tasks, which I can put off until later. I was talking with Matt about this, so will we need him and when did you want to go?”

“Matt told me that as far as he is concerned, Embassy vehicles fall under my security tasks, and I should take care of this task on my own. He won’t be going with us. I’m ready to leave now, if you are.”

“Okay, Cindy and I will meet you out front in two or three minutes.”

After hanging up the phone, I stepped into the next office, “Cindy, I forgot to tell you that Bill is taking us shopping for more cars, today. We need to leave, now.”

“Let me grab my purse and jacket, Doug.”

Bill drove up to our portable and we got into his car. Sue was behind him driving a second car containing more of my bodyguards. “Morning, Bill. What are we looking for, today?”

“My vehicle shopping list includes another pickup truck for the use of my security people, two more SUVs for Embassy staff, and four SUVs for people who need to run errands.

Cindy asked, “What about vehicles for us, Doug?”

Bill looked at me, so I said, “Cindy recently told me my wives are seriously considering getting driver’s licenses, and they will need cars.”

“What do they want to buy, Doug?”

“I don’t know. Cindy mentioned there need for cars, but we haven’t discussed it further.”

After a few moments of thought, Bill said, “Cindy, I think we should wait to place an order for your vehicles. The four of you need to decide what type of vehicles you want. SUVs are nice; but personally, I think sedans are a better ride, and have better comfort features. Then there is the matter of who drives them. I’m considering the four of you having bodyguards for your in-town trips, and it would be best if your drivers are trained in defensive driving.”

The trip was very similar to our previous car-buying venture. The only reason I was really needed was to sign the papers and write a check. She didn’t mention it, but I could tell Cindy wasn’t happy with the idea of a driver/bodyguard. We checked and learned that our prior order should be delivered to the dealership in a couple of weeks.

Rita and Betty had been busy, so Carol had taken over fixing dinner tonight. It was just as good as the meals Betty fixed. I made sure to complement her on her culinary skills. My other three wives added their complements to mine, and Carol was blushing by the time we finished praising her efforts in the kitchen.

“Doug,” Betty said, “today Rita and I got the names and home phone numbers of three lawyers for you to interview. Ken said they are all good at what they do, and they live in the local area. Two are in Denver and one’s in Greeley. Ken also said that he knew of a few more lawyers who were out-of-the-area, but for the right client, might be willing to move here. The out-of-area lawyers currently work for big companies.

“Ken said we should keep our interest in hiring them confidential, since they are concerned about layoffs in the near future. We didn’t think to get their names. We thought that if the local lawyers weren’t what you needed, we could get the others’ names and contact information later.”

“That sounds good, Betty. Do the three local lawyers work for a company or are they independents?”

Rita responded, “We didn’t ask, Doug. Is it important?”

“Not really. It would just be nice to know, so I can steer the conversation toward or away from certain topics without asking them directly.”

“Oh. We’ll check with Ken tomorrow, and let you know.”

“Don’t worry about it, Rita, I was just curious. Since I have their home phone numbers, I can call them after dinner. I will speak with them to see if they might be interested.”

Betty turned to Carol and said, “Carol, this roast chicken is wonderful. What sort of glaze did you use? I can’t figure out what gives it this flavor.”

With a short laugh, Carol said, “It’s something Mom did when she fixed dinner on special occasions. I peeled and chopped up two bananas and put them inside the chicken before putting it on to roast. I also added some of that fresh ginger root you used in that Chinese dish and a couple cloves of garlic before I sewed up the chicken. While it was cooking, I basted it with a glaze that I made from apricot jam, orange juice, and brandy.”

“You will have to show me how to fix this. Cindy hasn’t paused or said anything for some time. I think she likes it so much that she isn’t pausing between mouthfuls.”

Cindy nodded her head, for her mouth was too full to speak. A few moments later she said, “You got that right, Betty. The two of you can make this any day you want! I always welcome the chance to dine on your superb cuisine.”

I had been wondering why Cindy hadn’t filled my other three wives in on her day’s activities. Considering their interest in getting a driver’s license, I expected the four of them to want me to take them car shopping. I had missed Cindy’s total focus on the food tonight. She is normally not that interested in the meal, it’s just something that she eats. I had to agree with her though; this chicken was to die for!

After dinner, I volunteered to help clean up the kitchen. Cindy joined me, and we talked about what was on the agenda for tomorrow as we cleaned up the dishes. She washed, and I dried. After we finished the cleanup, Cindy went looking for her sister-wives. She would undoubtedly tell them about the additional cars and Bill wanting them to have bodyguards to drive them. I relaxed while I could before they descended on me to express their disagreement with Bill’s opinion.

Rita was in the lead when they returned and she said, “Doug, what’s this about us not being able to drive our own cars?”

I decided that teasing her by giving her a hard time was the wrong way to approach this.

“I talked with Bill briefly about this topic, and that’s not exactly what he means, Rita. Bill wants to have a meeting to address the matter of security for the Embassy staff, and those who live in our compound. Who is authorized to drive Embassy vehicles is one of the topics we will be discussing. The limitation he did mention was for certain circumstances, and he thought that at those times, it would be better to have a trained driver/bodyguard behind the wheel of your car. He also said that he wanted all of your bodyguards to receive special instructions that addressed what to do in an ambush situation. If you want to be in the meeting to discuss this topic let me know. Until then, nothing has been decided.”

I’m not sure why, but Rita stopped arguing with me. I could tell from the look on her face that she would be addressing this topic again. Perhaps it was because she planned to address it at Bill’s meeting.

“Ah, Rita, did Cindy happen to mention that Bill said most of the time he saw no problem with you driving your own car?

“No, she didn’t, but I don’t see why he should have the right to stop me from driving my car if I want to drive it.”

“Wait until the meeting. That will help you to understand.”

Rita had her mind made up and she didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen and consider the whole situation. I had decided that we needed written rules and policies for the Embassy. In Bill’s meeting, I would turn the meeting into a formal discussion and open the door to all aspects of Embassy safety, both for the compound and for its inhabitants. If I got lucky, I would prevent a three-way confrontation between my wives, Bill, and me. I didn’t want to be in the middle of this issue for I needed to support Bill and my wives. It looked like a no-win situation for me.

“You will have to excuse me. I have a couple of phone calls to make before it gets too late.”

Three phone calls later, I had two ‘Yes I am interested let’s talk’ answers, and one ‘No not now’ reply. I also had appointments for the two Yes answers to come out to my office for an interview. I let them know I would have to check my calendar, which was in the office, to find a good time and I would get back to them in the next couple of days.

That night was a repeat of the past couple of nights. I filled Betty and Carol with my seed. Betty assumed her position and Carol did her headstand. Rita was definitely ovulating, and Cindy said she would enjoy practicing.

We were almost asleep when Carol said, “You know this is ridiculous. You keep working at impregnating us, and nothing yet. So far, the only pregnant female around here is Coral and she wasn’t even trying.”

I needed to check with Sereine to find out how Coral was doing. I saw Coral every day and I hadn’t noticed anything different about her. If I remember correctly, she should be delivering her kits in about three months.

Friday morning started off a little different than most of my days. Betty, Carol, and Rita ambushed me as I was returning from my usual morning trip to the bathroom. It didn’t take much persuasion for them to get me to rejoin them in bed. I finally staggered out to the kitchen, and sat down to the breakfast Cindy had prepared.

I made it to my office on time. Somehow I doubt my staff would accept the concept of ‘the boss cannot be late, for he is the boss.’ I know I would be upset if my boss expected me for an appointment and he was late. I also doubted I would mention it to him. Abby arrived a few minutes later for our appointment.

“Abby, I’m hoping we can finalize this issue of people coming to Earth from the Multiverse. The new people we brought back with us on the last trip are getting settled in our compound, but for now they are restricted to the ranch. We need to get their immigration status clarified, so we can get ID cards for them. Before they make any trips, they need to learn enough English to allow them basic communication with the locals. Do you know what has been happening about the query you sent Ken?”

“It’s a typical SNAFU, Doug. Before we left for the Multiverse, I sent the paperwork for obtaining authorization for them to emigrate to Earth to Ken. He was to handle submission of the paperwork to the Immigration Department, and he was going to notify me when the authorization came through.

“Unfortunately, the paperwork I sent him wasn’t delivered to his office until just after he left with us for the Multiverse. He tasked his assistant with submitting the paperwork, when it arrived, and the assistant sent it to the Immigration Department. The paperwork wasn’t routed directly to the person who was to expedite the processing. The person, to whom it was routed, assigned it a low priority, so the paperwork has been sitting on that person’s desk while they took care of their higher priority items.

“About the time Yarl’s crew left, I contacted Ken to find out the status of its processing. That was when we discovered the paperwork had been misrouted. The person who was to expedite the paperwork asked around and found it. It’s being processed now and we should get authorization in a couple of weeks.”

“Thanks, Abby. Ah, what does SNAFU mean?”

“Oh, those of us in government service get used to talking in acronyms. SNAFU is an acronym for Situation Normal All Fouled Up; but some people prefer Fucked Up, which is a crude way of saying the same thing. It’s similar in meaning to FUBAR, which means Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.”

“I don’t think I will ever learn all of these unique words for saying something. Why not just say it?”

“I don’t know, Doug. I never thought about why we do it, we just do it.”

Abby left and I was relaxing before starting my next task, when the phone rang. I needed someone to sit at that desk across from my office and run interference for me. I was too easy to reach, and some of the more mundane conversations were taking up a lot of time.

“Doug, William here. Phyllis asked me to contact you and invite you to join us in a progress inspection of the new Embassy Compound. We made arrangements with Jack to tour the construction area at nine tomorrow morning. Do you want to join us and who would you want to join you?”

“Yes, I will join you. I think Matt, Bill, Mary, and Cindy will be with me, and of course my bodyguards. I may want someone else, but I can’t think of who else would need to go.”

“Have you been over to the construction site since they started work, Doug?”

“No, they have the area fenced off, and Matt and Bill told me it wasn’t a good idea to intrude. However, we have been watching that big mound of dirt building up to the north of where they are doing the excavation. If the Rockies weren’t in the background to put it in perspective, I’d call it a mountain of dirt.”

“Yeah, I heard it was getting to be quite large. Anyway, we will see you a little before nine tomorrow. Bye.”

Just as I was getting started on my next task, Sandy came into my office and sat down in the chair, in front of my desk.

“Doug, I have a problem. Fitz asked me to marry him, and I accepted.”

“Well, congratulations. Have you set a date?”

“No, and that’s part of the problem. Fitz was an only child and he is an orphan. He was raised by a couple who were his parents’ friends, so he isn’t close to the rest of his distant family. His adoptive parents died several years ago, so there is no reason for him to get married in the Multiverse. I on the other hand have a very large extended family. I feel obligated to have Mom and Dad at the wedding, and to some extent, most of my relatives; but, I really don’t like most of them.

“What makes it even more complex is Carla and Andy are also going to get married. Carla and Andy both have large families and both families will want to be at their wedding. Carla is a very devout Catholic so she will want to get married in a Catholic Church here on Earth, and Andy wants to get married on his home planet. Carla and I have also been talking about a double wedding.

“There just doesn’t seem to be any way to make everyone happy. Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, give me a few moments to think about the problem.”

A simple double wedding meant someone would be disappointed. Sandy, Fitz, and Andy’s guests would be at risk of sugar addiction if the wedding was held here on Earth. A double wedding for everyone in the Multiverse would be a logistical nightmare. We would not only have to transport Carla’s entire family to the Multiverse, but we would also need to transport two families, either Andy’s or Sandy’s families, to the world were the wedding would be held. There was no way to resolve this with a single wedding, but there was a way to make almost everyone happy.

“There is no easy way to solve this problem with a single wedding, Sandy. However, multiple weddings should resolve all of the problems, and make almost everyone reasonably happy.

“We may need to tweak this plan; but to start with, Carla can marry Alex here on Earth, or the four of you can get married here in a joint wedding. That allows Carla to be married in a Catholic Church, with her family watching. Then we go to Andy’s home world, without Carla’s family. We spend a week or two there so he and his family can prepare for and have a wedding. Once Andy and Carla have been married there, we go to Slave World. You can tell your parents that you got married on Earth, but you want to get married again according to your religious beliefs. Being already married is a benefit for you, Sandy, for you won’t have to put up with them telling you to not marry Fitz. You and Alan can have a separate wedding on each of your home worlds, or one of the families could travel to the other’s home world for a joint wedding.”

“Yeah, that all sounds good, Doug, but you don’t know my mother. She will insist that I have my Earth marriage annulled. If I refuse, she will go through the courts anyway, because I married without parental permission.”

“I see. Are you referring to the law that requires a person to get permission from their parents, if they are less than a specified age on their home planet?”

“Yes, that’s the one she will use.”

“It won’t work, Sandy, for several reasons. First, according to the terms of that law, she has to file on the Member World on which you got married. You married on Earth and Earth is not a Member World. The second reason it won’t work is, if she were to claim Earth’s status as a Limited Provisional Member World allows her to file on Earth, then judicial jurisdiction would fall to the Earth’s Ambassador. I can find many reasons to reject her filing, and if I allowed it to be heard, I doubt she would be able to present me with suitable evidence to warrant annulling the marriage. Besides, she would have to appear for the court case in person and I doubt she would want to risk becoming a sugar addict.

“The final reason is the Slave World court made me the Administrator of your financial affairs. You formally moved out of your mom’s home and emigrated to Earth. Since you have been on Earth, you have lived as an adult in my home. That alone would be adequate grounds on which to challenge her pursuing the matter in any Multiverse court. Besides, she and your father no longer have the income they received from Henry Archer. Such a filing is expensive, and I will not allow them to use your money to pursue an annulment of your marriage.”

“Doug, you always seem to find a workable solution to any problem someone presents to you. Thanks.”

Well, it looks like we will be making another long trip to the Multiverse in the coming months. Sandy left and before I could get back to my task, Kim knocked on my doorframe.