Chapter 32

Even before all of us graduated, my father began hinting about wanting to take life easier. Every week Mama had another story to tell us about something Dad had done that surprised her.

In January, he came home from work early and retrieved his and Mama's golf bags from the country club. An hour after that, they were sitting on the company plane, heading for Florida, for a long weekend of golf, swimming, and relaxing by the cabana he'd rented for them both from one of the beachfront hotels.

Mama wasn't complaining, it just was surprising to her that my Dad would start putting personal wishes in front of business obligations. It wasn't only isolated instances either. He was leaving for the office later in the mornings, and often came home before five o'clock in the afternoon.

The summer we graduated, Dad probably drove into the office less than three times per week, on average. He worked at home, using the telephone, and his personal computer, to keep himself in touch with operational functions. He began delegating more and more to Joyce, Myra, Ellen, and me.

Joyce and I had succeeded in hiring Michael Sparkman right before graduation. We didn't tell him it was for our brain trust, just that it was a junior management position where he'd be given a lot of autonomy and decision making authority. He took the position, expecting it to last for only that one summer.

Dale and Eddie graduated with us as well, and moved in with us at the Ridgeline house. Joyce had discussed the sex situation with the sisters, telling them both that sex and brain trust business were two separate, unrelated, areas. Dale made it clear, once again, that she wasn't interested in doing sexual things with any of my wives. Joyce told her that none of the wives were interested in sharing me with her, given her attitude. Eddie said she had no problem with having sex with any of us.

The whole situation might have been weird and uncomfortable, but it wasn't. Dale and Eddie were both very relaxed and easy to live with. The whole sex thing became more of a running joke, than a bone of contention between us.

In late June, myself, Eddie, and all my wives wound up having something of a mini orgy together. It began over at the country club, starting out with some fairly innocent groping and innuendo in the swimming pool. Later, back at home, we ended up getting a little carried away in the family room. When it became obvious that all of us were in the mood to want to take things further, we went up to my bedroom and indulged ourselves. Dale wasn't a participant, not at the pool, and not later either.

The next morning, I was working in my home office when Dale stopped by to speak with me. Everyone else was getting ready to drive to the office in Bolling. I was staying behind, because I had a lot of trading irons in the fire, and was trying to exploit some good trading opportunities.

"Kenny, I don't think living here, with all of you, is working out for me. I spoke to your mother yesterday, and she told me I was welcome to use your apartment, in Bolling, until I decided what I was going to do." Dale was standing very close to my desk as she spoke. I was only slightly surprised by Dale's decision. She had to be feeling pretty left out, especially after the goings on of the day before. We hadn't been very circumspect in our activities, or very quiet with them either.

"I guess I can understand that, Dale, but what about Eddie? She seems to like living here, just fine."

"Eddie already said she was staying. Its only me that wants to move out." Dale seemed upset by that as well. I wondered if it would be better to just wish her well, or to have her sit down and discuss the problem she was having. I was pretty sure it was the whole sex thing, and there really wasn't anything I could do, or even wanted to do, to change what Joyce and the other wives had decided. To me, what they had come up with, seemed very fair. Eddie had no problem, and Dale was free not to participate.

"I guess you have to do what feels most comfortable for you Dale. I'm going to miss having you living here with us. I wish we hadn't brought up that whole sex thing with you. It wasn't fair."

"It would be different if it was you, me, and Eddie, or even you, Joyce, and me. I just don't feel right about having to do that with all the other girls. It's different for all of them, because they like doing that."

"I guess most of them do now, but it wasn't always easy for them, especially Brenda and Shirley. Even Emily had a hard time doing things with any of the girls except Brenda."

"So why did they all agree to doing it like they do?" Dale seemed honestly curious. I think she just thought that all the wives were naturally interested and attracted to other girls.

"I think they were mostly afraid of it, afraid of what doing that meant. The whole lesbian taboo thing. After they did it, and nothing bad happened, they found out they didn't mind doing it anymore. Now, they all seem to like doing it with each other. It made them appreciate each other in a different way, to share a different side of themselves with the other girls. Joyce always liked it, and I think Emily did too."

"Don't they already get enough just doing it with each other? Why do they want to make me do it with them too?"

"I think you're looking at it wrong, Dale. To them, you want something that is theirs, me. Because they like you, they're willing to let you have it, but they want something from you in return. Without that, it would be like you were taking something of theirs. If you were a part of the whole thing, with all of them, it would be sharing, not taking. They did the same thing with Ellen. This is their way of claiming ownership rights, of collecting rent."

"Why can't Eddie pay my rent? She doesn't mind."

"Because Eddie pays for Eddie, Ellen pays for Ellen. It would be easier just to decide not to participate, like you have. There aren't any hard feelings. You living here doesn't make anyone else uncomfortable. No one expects anything more from you."

"How do you think I feel, knowing that all those girls got their fancies tickled yesterday? You know how hard it is for me to do it, so how do you think I feel when I hear all them girls screaming your name? I smelled you on Dee Dee last night, when she finally came to bed. I tasted you from her, but none of what she did helped me any."

"I see. Well, like I said, I'm going to miss having you around, and I'm sorry it isn't working out for you to live here with us." I didn't really have any suggestions to make to her. I liked her a lot, but, she already knew the terms my wives had offered to her. I wasn't free to just offer myself to her. She had decided not to pay the tariff the women were demanding of her.

Dale left my office, looking more disappointed then she had when she'd first come to speak with me. Ten minutes later, Joyce came in, telling me that they were all ready to leave.

"Did Dale already tell you what she's decided, Kenny?"

"She said she was moving to Mama's apartment in Bolling, and that Eddie was staying here."

"We're going to lose her. I tried talking to Brenda and Emily, but they won't budge. They don't care whether she stays or not."

"Did she tell you that she's willing to have a three way, with you and me? She told me she'd do it with Eddie and me too."

"It isn't doing it with women that bothers her?"

"I guess not, at least with some of you. I think part of it is the cut and dried aspect of it. They make it sound like she's supposed to be paying for the privilege of being able to fuck me."

"That's pretty much what it is. I wonder why she said she'd do it with me, and not with Brenda? You'd think, if she'd do it with any girl, it would be Brenda."

"I don't think she's attracted to girls. Brenda's looks don't seem to impress her. I think she likes you, and is more comfortable around you, just like she is with Eddie. I don't think she knows the others well enough to feel that comfortable with them."

After everyone from our house had left, at a little before eight o'clock, my Dad drove over and stopped for a few minutes, on his way to the office. Like all of the other things he had been doing, this too was unusual behavior for him.

"You aren't going in today, Kenny?"

"Not today, Dad. I've been trading all kinds of currency crosses against the grains. I've got the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc boxed in with Dollars on the downside, and the grains on the upside. I need to keep close watch on it, because I'm getting trading signals twenty times an hour. Did you need me for something?"

"I'm not sure about some things, so I thought I'd ask you your opinion, but not if you're busy." He looked like he was getting ready to turn and leave, so I switched off all three of my monitors.

"I'm not that busy. What is it?" I had a nervous feeling. My father hadn't really been acting like himself for the past few months, for almost a year, if you wanted to count that sudden three week vacation to Europe, the previous summer. He had gotten a lot more casual about timetables and deadlines than he'd previously been, and seemed to have lost some of his edge, especially when it came to the aggressive growth of the vending operations. He didn't seem fully engaged by the business anymore. "Is there something wrong?"

"Wrong, no, I don't think so. I've been thinking, evaluating my future plans and options. Now that you kids have finished your education, I've been thinking of possibly cutting back on my own work activities. Giving way gracefully, rather than making all of you wait for me to call it a career. I wanted to touch base with you and Joyce, to get an idea about what you both think would be the best way for me to handle that." I listened to the words, while at the same time, trying desperately to understand what was behind those words. None of this was like my Dad. For all the time I'd known him, the business was the center of his interest. It was who he was, what he enjoyed doing. In my mind, my father was the business.

"Well, we aren't ready yet, and we won't be for a long time. The only way we'll ever be ready is if you work with us to teach us what we'll need to know. They don't teach us that in school. What they have taught us is how to learn, but we need experience and seasoning before we'll be able to step in and actually manage to run the whole company. It has to be the right experience too, not just experience. We're counting on you to finish our education for us."

"I remember spending several years, being anxious for the time when Senior would finally step down and let me take over. The day came, when I finally realized he had no plans to voluntarily step aside, I began to resent him. I don't intend to do that to you or Joyce, Kenny. I don't want you resenting that I wouldn't give way, to let you two take charge of running things."

"That isn't ever going to be a problem with me or with Joyce, Dad. We both have so many other things we need to take care of, to worry about. When you and Mama were in Europe, the hardest thing we had to do was pretend to be you, to sit through the meetings, and read all the reports. You are able to take that in stride and do it. You even make it seem like you enjoy doing it. Joyce likes being part of the action, not all the other parts, the glad handing, and the social parts of running a business."

"All of that is necessary. In fact, that's an important component to operating a large company. You have to have an open door policy, allowing people access to you. Ideas come from below, and you need to be able to sift through them, gleaning the useful, separating good ideas from the rest. People need to put a human face to who they are working for. I consider that a large portion of my duties to the company."

"Joyce and I both realize it's necessary, we just don't want to be the ones to do it. Joyce can handle almost all the rest of it, but she likes having other people to bounce her ideas and plans off of. Joyce is a great organizer."

"Kenny, you're going to find that your attitudes are going to change in the next little while. Right now, it might seem like a good idea to have someone else being the face of the company. That will all change when you find yourself not getting the credit, or the rewards, for all the hard work you'll be doing. That's just basic human nature."

"Dad, I think you're making these assumptions based on your own prior experiences with Senior. Joyce and I are both different than you were. We're not in any hurry at all. We have very different goals and priorities than you had. We're worried that you'll quit too soon, not about whether you'll hang around too long. Maybe we confused you with all our talk about you taking it easier, and not working such long hours. We meant we wanted to put a team together, a team to help take some of the burden off of your shoulders. We want to get them in place early, so they have the necessary experience to do the job whenever the time comes that we need to. We want you to take it easier, not to think about retiring."

"I have been taking it easier, but it isn't working for me. When I go back to work, I have to work harder than normal, just to catch up with what has gotten behind."

"When you left last summer, you didn't tell us what you were working on. We just took care of whatever came up, anything which looked like it needed our attention. Next time, leave us one of your lists, and then see how we do. In fact, that's what we want you to do all the time, make up lists of what you want to be working on. We'll do the things on your list, and you can keep changing what you think needs doing. Other than prepare lists, and be the head guy, you don't have to actually do anything anymore. You can step back in and get more active, whenever we don't come up with what you want or need."

"You and your brain trust?"

"Joyce and me, and the people we can attract that will be extensions of all of us. The more people we have focused on solving our business problems, the better chance there is that we can find good, workable, solutions for them. I want to have a lot more top talent than we need, enough so that none of us need to spend the amount of time you do to keep on top of things. That includes you too, Dad. You should take more time to enjoy yourself."

"Talent costs money, Kenny. Have you thought about what your brain trust is going to cost us?"

"Talent doesn't cost, not real talent. How much has Joyce cost us? The kind of people we're looking for, they'll make us a lot more than they would ever cost us. We might have a higher percentage of executive salary costs, but I'm willing to wager our return on capital each year will be much higher than other, comparable, businesses. You always told me it was the people that made a company succeed or fail."

"That's what I've always believed, but there is such a thing as having too much labor expense. You keep saying you want to find eight to ten people for this brain trust. That's a lot of extra overhead for us to support."

"I'll make you a deal, Dad. I'll set up my own company, and we'll contract with you for our services. You pay us twenty five percent of net revenue growth, computed from today's current base. Pay us that amount, each year. I'll pay for all of our people, out of my own money. You reimburse us for our legitimate business expenses."

"Ten percent would be more like it, with you paying your own expenses." My Dad and I laughed. I knew then that he understood the real advantages of our securing more talent for the company. It wasn't easy to pull the wool over my Dad's eyes, not about business or finance.

After he left, I wondered if I had found out the real reason why he had stopped by to see me. We always seemed to stay on safe topics when we spoke together. He was definitely acting different. I wondered about his health. He looked healthy, and he still kept himself in decent shape, by exercise, and adhering to a healthy diet. Still, if there was something the matter with him, I wanted to know about it as soon as possible. I called Myra, Dad's secretary.

"Hi, Myra. it's Kenny. My Dad just left here a few minutes ago, and I think he's acting a little funny lately, acting different, about work, and other things. Do you know if he's having any health problems?"

"I don't think so. He went for his semi-annual physical, about two months ago, and everything was supposed to be fine then. He's almost never been sick. I think he works just as hard as ever, but, with our computers, he doesn't have to spend all his time tied down to the office anymore. When he's at home, he calls me just as much as he does when he's right there in his office, right in the next room."

I thanked her and hung up the phone. Something was different with him. People don't make as many sudden changes as he was making, not without a reason, they didn't. I knew we'd get to the bottom of it. I'd put Joyce on it. She could talk to Mama. If there was something, Mama would know about it.

At noon, I took a break to have some lunch. Phil and Thelma were in the kitchen with Brenda when I got there. Brenda asked me about Dale anyway.

"Did Dale really move out, Kenny?"

"She said she was going to. I don't think she's moved out yet though. Joyce and I both think she's going to decide against continuing working for us. If she leaves, Eddie will probably leave too. I think what happened yesterday bothered Dale a lot."

"We can't stop living just because she doesn't get what she wants. She doesn't have to live here to be part of that brain trust thing. Why would she quit that?"

"I'm not sure she will, but she might. It has to do with not feeling accepted. She can't fit in with the rest of us, because she isn't interested in doing what we said she needed to do."

"We didn't say she needed to do anything. She can't claim we did either. I don't know why she thinks she's better than the rest of us. We all had to do what we told her she had to do. It isn't like we're asking her to do more than we already did. Eddie didn't have a problem with it."

"Eddie is different. Eddie likes it. She likes girls too."

"I don't like girls, but I did it. Shirley too, she doesn't like girls, but she did it. Emily didn't want to do Shirley or Joyce, but she did it."