Chapter 46

Friday night, in the living room, the eight of us were all gathered together. I had spent an hour, after dinner, in with all my children, playing a little, but mostly making sure that I had a chance to spend time with each of them, holding the youngest ones in my arms. They were growing so quickly, changing it seemed, every time I was gone, even if only for a few days.

I had been explaining the progress being made at Macklinson's, and the difficulties I was experiencing by needing to deal with having some of my careful plans derailed. Cindy confirmed what I told the others about the Macklinson tradition concerning not allowing their women to work in the family business.

"Did you father tell you about the newest offer that bond company made to him, Kenny?"

Joyce had changed the subject pretty abruptly. She would only do so if she thought it was important. I hadn't had any chance to really speak with her alone, since we'd all gotten home, right before dinner.

"No. I talked with him this morning, and he didn't mention anything to me."

"They said they are willing to make all the changes he requested, except for having the cash flow supervised with a neutral party trustee. They agreed to only using the income to pay the bondholders, but they say it isn't legal if they aren't the custodians of the collateral and income flow that are primarily securing the offering."

"That was the key element in those requested changes. The offering is like a limited partnership, and the bond company serves as the general partner. They can effectively amend the rules any time they have the support of two thirds of the offerings limited partners. If they control the receivables, there isn't anything we can do to protect our interest if they went ahead and voted to treat the income differently than what we initially agree to. We could file suit, but they would be in the position of saying they were acting to protect the interest of the limited partners. I don't like it."

"You need to talk to him then, because he's flying to New York on Sunday. He doesn't think they will do anything, because the agreement he's thinking about signing says they can't."

"I'll go see him in the morning. Do you know if he's still planning on keeping his appointments with those other people? He isn't planning on signing anything right away, is he?"

Joyce didn't know. I could tell she was worried that I'd make too big of an issue of it with my Dad. Joyce was always reluctant to show any disagreement with my father, or with his decisions. She would usually tell me things though, knowing I'd speak with him about any concern I had. If she did this, it almost always meant she had her concerns as well.

Cindy had chosen a seat on the same sofa where Eddie and Dale were sitting. The three of them were discussing Birmingham, and seemed to be relaxed and comfortable together.

Brenda and Emily informed me that I was scheduled to spend the night with them, explaining that Shirley and Cindy had me all to themselves all week, and Eddie and Dale were going to be with me all of the next week.

When I asked about where Joyce fit in with their planning, I was told by Brenda that Joyce had already made other plans. Emily pointed over at Cindy, smiling at me as she did so. Nobody raised any objections, so I assumed it had all been worked out in advance, with all involved having reached agreement.

I did get a chance for a few minutes alone with Joyce, later in the evening, and she confirmed that she would be in with Cindy and Shirley that night, and I would spend Saturday night with Cindy and Emily. She didn't seem worried about anything, so, again, I assumed everyone had agreed to having it like this.

It was after ten thirty when Emily and Brenda got up, telling me it was time for bed. As soon as I got up, Cindy got up and came over to stand beside me. It looked suspiciously like she hadn't been informed about the sleeping arrangements that had been made. I looked over at Joyce, assuming that she would get things straightened out. In the past, these things were mostly set up beforehand.

"Cindy, you're in with Shirley and I tonight." Joyce was smiling as she closed the distance with Cindy. I didn't like the glare that Emily was already directing Cindy's way. I was already beginning to get a sinking feeling about what might be developing here.

"I sleep with Kenny. That's what he told me." Cindy took my right arm in both of hers, moving in close by my side. She held my arm tight enough that I could tell she was upset already. I didn't remember telling her any such thing. I did remember saying I wanted her to travel with me, to be where I was, but this wasn't what I'd meant when I said that to her.

"I didn't say we'd sleep together every night, Cindy. That isn't something that would work. I want you with me, but not sleeping together every night." She released my arm and took a step backward. She looked like I'd slapped her. When Joyce attempted to give her a hug, Cindy pushed her away roughly. All of us reacted when we saw that happening. I moved over to help Joyce retain her balance, while Eddie and Dale jumped up from the sofa, hurrying over to stand between Cindy and Joyce.

"Cindy!" Three or four of us must have shouted out her name at the same time. As soon as I heard it, and saw the look that she got on her face, I knew we had managed to frighten her. Joyce must have seen it too, because she raised her hands to silence us all.

"Let's all sit down and calm down. We'll discuss it. I'm sure its only a communication problem. We'll get it all sorted out soon." Joyce was motioning Cindy and I over to the sofa that Cindy had previously been sitting on with Eddie and Dale. "You sit down there with Cindy, Kenny. We'll let Cindy explain what she thought was going to happen. Sometimes, we forget this is all pretty new for her." Cindy seemed to regain some of her lost composure and moved over to the sofa, sitting down on the middle cushion. I sat down immediately to her left. Joyce went to her other side, sitting on the end cushion. Everyone else found places for themselves to sit.

When we were all seated again, Cindy looked over at me, but she didn't say anything.

"Cindy, you had to know I wasn't going to spend every night in bed with you? Tonight is Brenda and Emily's turn. Tomorrow night, it will be you and Emily and me. Sunday night, back at the rental house, I'll be with Dale and Eddie. This is how it works out. Otherwise, it would be playing favorites, and that wouldn't work."

All eyes were on Cindy. No one knew how she was going to react to this. The truth was, I was the one who probably should have spoken to her about this back in Birmingham. I didn't, because these were the kinds of things I'd grown used to having Joyce handle for me. She seemed to know just how to put things, anticipating what people would say or do when it came to working out these sleeping arrangements.

"You said we'd be together, Kenny. I don't know why it has to be different here than it was back home. You can pick one, and that's who we'll sleep with tonight." I was beginning to see evidence that Cindy had personality similarities with her father and uncles. Maybe it was like that with the whole Macklinson family, I didn't know. They get an idea in their head, and there was no way to change them from it.

"That isn't what I said, and it isn't what I meant. I've always said that you could join us, but I wouldn't ever give up what my family and I already had. You can be a part of us, but you can't come between us. What you're asking for is something that can't ever happen."

Emily started to say something, in what we all knew to be her confrontational tone. She was quickly silenced by all the angry glares sent her way. We were trying to defuse the situation, not pour fresh fuel on the fire. Emily shut right up, but her angry stares back at us left no doubt that we'd be hearing more from her, and very soon too, about us not letting her talk about this.

"Kenny, I really thought it was going to be us together when we came up here. If I knew it wasn't, I'd have stayed in Birmingham. I shared you there, and I thought that was what we'd be doing here too."

I knew Cindy was only pretending to not understand. There had been nothing ambiguous or confusing about what I'd said to her about me having other wives and commitments. At the very least, she was trying to take advantage of a loop hole of her own devising. It wasn't going to work with me, and I was getting angry that she was attempting it. I realized she had grown up in a family that chose to fight their battles this way. I wasn't going to permit her to do this. Just having to go through things like this with her would sow seeds of dissension among the rest of us. We already had enough pettiness and jealousies surrounding us, without adding more to the mix.

"Cindy, I want you to listen closely, because you need to hear and understand what I'm saying to you. You were invited to join our family, not just me. I'm not going to keep having this same type of trouble that we're having here tonight. Every one of us here shares with all the others. Before you, we were seven. If you can't share, or if sharing is too big of a burden for you, then we can go right back to being seven again."

"What about Dale? She doesn't have to share."

"Maybe I meant a different kind of share. Dale shares Eddie, Joyce and I with Emily, Shirley and Brenda. You don't see her insisting that she spends every night with anyone. No one else is doing that, only you. No one is telling you that you have to have sex with anyone you don't want to, or that anyone has to have sex with you. We all agreed to limit ourselves to only having sex with the other members of the group. We have made exceptions even there, like with Ellen, or Eddie and Dale, before they actually decided to join with us."

"You said I could choose, and I choose you."

"That's fine, but I have two others that I've chosen tonight. When you choose me, and I choose you, there isn't a problem. Tonight, Joyce and Shirley both chose you to be with them. You get to decide whether you want either or both, or else you can sleep alone, or choose someone else instead. This is how we do things. No one is being forced."

"If I knew you were going to do this, I wouldn't have come here at all."

"I'm too upset and tired to fly you back tonight, Cindy. You can either stay here tonight, or you can go over to my mother's house and spend the night there. I'll fly you back home in the morning. I don't seem to have much luck trying to get any of the Macklinson family to live with the conditions I have available to offer them. I'm going to bed now. Let Joyce know what you decide to do."

I got up and started walking to the staircase. Emily was the first one to jump to her feet and follow me. Brenda got up slower, and started walking over to the staircase too. We were halfway up the stairs when I heard Cindy say something, then Joyce answered something back to her. At the top of the stairs I looked back, and Cindy was turned to Joyce, and Joyce had her arms around her, comforting her.

In Emily's bedroom, things didn't go as well as the two girls had planned. I wasn't really in the mood for making love, and Emily and Brenda were arguing about whether or not I'd been too cold towards Cindy. Emily thought I'd been too easy on her. I wound up in bed alone with Emily when Brenda made a few harsh comments to Emily and I, before leaving for her own bedroom. I would have left for mine too, but I wasn't sure who might be in my bed. I didn't want to go back there and find Cindy in bed.

Joyce came to find me at seven the next morning, telling me that Cindy had opted to sleep alone in Shirley's bedroom. Joyce and Shirley had slept together, but Joyce blamed me for spoiling everyone's mood.

Cindy waited until ten o'clock before coming down to the first floor. She was carrying the travel bag she had brought with her from Birmingham. I was talking to Joyce in my little home office when Cindy knocked on my open door.

"I'm ready to leave, Kenny."

I didn't say anything to her. Joyce stood up and walked over to the door, and I picked up the phone to call our maintenance hangar to request that they prepare the plane for us to leave within the next forty five minutes. I wasn't sure how I felt. It seemed like it was a combination of feelings. I was acutely aware that I had absolutely no interest in trying to get Cindy to change her mind.

Cindy and Joyce had gone off somewhere when I got off the telephone. This didn't help my mood any. I was tempted to make another call to Bolling to see if they had another pilot available to fly Cindy back to Birmingham.

When I stood up and walked out to the living room, Brenda, Shirley, Joyce and Cindy were waiting there for me. They had all decided to make the trip down to Birmingham with us. Emily, Eddie and Dale weren't around. I decided not to ask Joyce any questions about whether that meant anything or not. I didn't care to know.

"If we're all ready, let's go. I want to be back here in time to spend some time with my Dad before he flies to New York tomorrow."

The trip down to Birmingham was routine again. All the wives stayed in the back, with the curtain drawn between us. When we got to the Birmingham airport, Joyce told me that she and the other girls would drive Cindy to her father's house, so she could pick up her car.

I was supposed to stay with the plane while we refueled and got ready for a quick turn around. I knew, even without them telling me, that Joyce, Shirley and Brenda believed I was handling this situation in the wrong way.

They hadn't had my experience in dealing with the whole Macklinson family. To them, this seemed a small problem, one that could easily be talked out and solved. I felt differently. I had enjoyed very little success trying to talk any Macklinson into accepting anything they didn't already wish to agree to. I had grown weary of trying to do it.

On the trip back, Joyce sat up front with me. Brenda and Shirley pulled the curtain separating the cockpit from the passenger section back. They were sitting in the two front passenger seats, ready to help Joyce out if she had forgotten to point out any of my past mistakes in the way I'd handled the earlier situation with Cindy. It made for a long and uncomfortable return flight. Right before we flew over Kansas City, I had finally reached the limit of my tolerance for enduring their abuse.

"That's enough! All of you were right there the whole time. You could have spoken up before the situation got as bad as it did. Cindy knew she wasn't going to sleep with me every night. She was just trying to see if she could get more of what she wants. I don't want to play that game with her. As far as I'm concerned, I'm done with trying to convince her she needs to be a part of our group. She already knew what our family was about before she started all of that last night. She wants us to change things just for her, and I'm not going to do that."

"She was really trying her best to fit in, Kenny. All she needed was a little understanding, and a little more time to get used to things." Joyce had barely waited for me to finish my sentences before starting right back in with me.

"I'm sorry, Joyce. I'm fresh out of understanding, for her, and for her whole family. She has all the time she needs to get used to things now. I'm done with her, and I'm probably done with her whole family. I think we'd all be better off if we don't keep picking at each other over this. We made mistakes, I'm sure, but not the one she's trying to make us think we made."

"No one is saying she's right, Kenny. What we're saying is you didn't need to jump right in like that and give her an ultimatum." Shirley was one of the quietest people when it came to how the family was operated. If she believed I'd been too hasty, then, probably, I had been.

Joyce might continue to run right past the stop sign I'd given the three of them, but I was surprised that Shirley had done so too. I didn't believe I'd been too hasty in drawing the conclusion I had about Cindy being too much like her relatives. This similarity didn't bode well for the possibility of her and I being able to get along together. Where I might have been too hasty was in not preparing the rest of the family first. I could have accomplished this by stating all of my concerns before saying what I did to Cindy. I hadn't set the stage properly for it.

"Look, I'm getting ready to land the plane, so I really need to concentrate now. When we get home, I need to see my father, then, after, we can hold a family meeting and discuss this together." That pretty much ended our conversation. Joyce and the others left to sit by themselves towards the rear of the plane, no doubt discussing the situation among themselves.

After I dropped the three of them off at our house, I drove over to Mama's. I spent half an hour with Hans, Gerta, Mama and my Dad, just letting them know that I was doing well, and catching up with how they were all doing. After that, I asked Dad if I could speak with him about the trip to New York. We went into his study.

"Sit down, Kenny. I guess Joyce told you about the new offer the bond company sent me?"

"She told me that they still insist on controlling the cash flow from all the acquisitions. That's primarily what I wanted to ask you about."

"Control them, but with some fairly severe restrictions placed on the uses they can put the income to."

"Joyce mentioned that part too, but, once you give them effective control over those cash flow assets, we'll be the ones who need to justify any misgivings we might have. The other way, using a third party trustee, if they wanted to make any changes in how they used the money, they'd be the ones needing to justify it first. I don't trust them. That's what it comes down to, and I'm very hesitant to do business with people I don't trust."

"I'm assuming that you do still trust me?" There was a bit of frostiness in my father's tone. If I hadn't already crossed the line with him, I was getting close to it. This is probably what Joyce had been afraid of.

"Of course I do. I know you're anxious to get this money for the expansion. I don't see the big rush to use these people when they've already shown a lack of business ethics. I didn't come over here to fight though. I came over to offer you a different plan. A plan where all of us can trust the people involved." My father sat back in his chair, his hands clasped over his stomach. He was waiting to hear what I wanted to say. "Take all my money from Uncle Bunny's trust. If that isn't enough, Mama will loan you the rest. Think of it as a bridge loan. This way, you can start on the expansion right away, then set up a good financing plan later, after you already have known assets to put up as collateral."

"You think this is a better plan than what I'm working on?" My father didn't look happy. I knew he had issues with putting too many eggs in a single basket. In any business opportunity, there is always some element of risk.

"I know it's better for me, because if you do it the way I'm suggesting, I can quit worrying. The other way, I'll stay worried. Even if the worst thing you can think of happened, I'll know it wasn't happening because someone was trying to cheat us."

"I think you'll find that your mother is far less anxious to commit her assets than you seem to be."

"Let's make that the test then. If she says no, or even if she's too undecided to give you a definite yes answer today, you are free to make any financing deal you choose to. If she does agree though, you stay away from doing any business with that bond company."

"There is more at stake here than where we get our financing, Kenny. Until today, these types of decisions have always been left in my hands. Even when Bunny still lived, no one questioned my competence in steering the finances of the corporation. You being here this afternoon, telling me what you have said, calls your faith in my competence into question. I'm certain that this is something I will not tolerate."

"If you think I'm here to question your competence, you're mistaken. I'm here to offer another choice, one that you should see as a clear vote of confidence. I'm more than willing to risk all of my own money on this confidence I've placed in you. I'm pretty certain that Mama feels the same way. Both kinds of financing might work out well for us, but, this way, I will sleep better at night. It isn't your competence I'm doubting, it's their intrinsic honesty I'm calling into question."

"Very well. We'll put your mother to the question. I want you to let me ask it of her. I don't want to make it be a question of emotional import. You have about two hundred fifty million in your trust account, excluding the value of your company shares. I will query your mother as to whether or not she chooses to supply the remaining two hundred fifty million. Should she not say yes, immediately, I will proceed with arranging financing for the expansion without further input or suggestion from you?"

"Absolutely, Dad. I wasn't even suggesting that you needed to listen to me, only that I'd feel better if you did." I stood up and was smiling. My father stood as well, but there was no smile on his face.

"Unlike you, your mother understands the advantages to be had from searching for outside capital for expansion. You will be asking her to assume an unnecessary risk, a risk she will correctly refuse to assume."

"I believe you're wrong, Dad. Mama has absolute faith in your abilities, as do I. Like me, she'll jump at the chance to be fully invested in your economic vision."

We walked out of Dad's study, heading over to the library, where we both thought Mama would still be. She wasn't there, but we did find her in the kitchen, talking with Gerta.

"Bertie, Kenny has come up with a notion, one he insists that I make inquiries about with you. He is concerned about the company we're negotiating with to raise our expansion capital. He suggests that you and he each put up half the necessary expansion funds so that we can move ahead with our plans immediately. He's willing to wait until our expansion is underway, before having me seek out another source of permanent funding for these expansion assets. This would require an investment, from you, of two hundred fifty million."

Mama looked over at me. She was smiling, but it wasn't an amused smile. It seemed less free than a smile of happiness too. It appeared strained to me, like she felt she was being put into an uncomfortable position.

"Two hundred fifty million? From each of us? That is a lot of money, Thomas." She was speaking to him, but she was staring right at me. I tried not to give away, with my facial expression, the fear that gripped me. I had assumed she felt the same way I did. Neither of us had ever come close to losing anything by having Dad investing our money. Much of the wealth we both enjoyed was due to all the years of his highly satisfactory performance in growing those assets. "I think that is a splendid suggestion, Thomas. Why don't we do that? Gerta, could I trouble you for one more of those tiny berry pastries, and another half cup of this decaffeinated coffee?" I let out the breath I'd been holding. As soon as I did so, Mama and my Dad started laughing at me.

I was having a glass of milk and a few of Gerta's pastries, while Mama and Dad told me that Mama had been the first to suggest that idea to him, because she too had misgivings about the wisdom of doing business with that bond company. The joke was on me, but I didn't mind. I had gotten what I wanted, at the same time, avoiding what had been bothering me.

I left to drive back home, this time knowing that what was awaiting me wasn't going to be an outcome that would be as satisfying as the one I'd just managed at Mama's.

'It doesn't have to be that way.' I told myself that as I drove. I had seen, from the way my Dad had acted, from the way Mama had acted, that things don't have to be any particular way. I had expected more resistance from Dad, and less from Mama, although in her case it was feigned resistance.

I had taken a position, with Cindy, and with all the Macklinson family. It was a 'my way' position. I didn't think I was wrong about wanting to change things, or even in how I wanted to make those changes. It was the way I presented the necessity for these changes to them that could have been greatly improved upon.

The same thing was true with Cindy. Joyce, Shirley and Brenda were correct. While what Cindy sought could never be, there was no reason for me to have taken such a closed and arbitrary stance with her.

In the end, I had given her no real options, just like I had done with some of the decisions I announced to Gene and his family. There were better ways to take the actions I felt I needed to take.

By the time I pulled up in front of my house, I'd convinced myself to at least try to be reasonable at the family meeting. I would listen to all their opinions, as long as those opinions concerned a better way for me to have tried to convince Cindy that she wasn't going to get what she said she wanted. I got out of my car and walked into the house.

The gang of six was camped in the living room, ready to do battle, and to take me to task for the way I'd handled the whole Cindy situation. Even Emily appeared to have switched sides for the purposes of this meeting. I came in smiling, not nervous like they probably thought I'd be.

"Did you have a good discussion with your father?" Joyce was watching me when she asked the question.

"Very good. Mama and I are going to finance the expansion ourselves. Later, if he decides he wants to, Dad will find another method of raising the capital, to get our money back out of the deal." I could see she was relieved, just like I was.

"We need to talk some more about what happened last night with Cindy. We've been talking here, while we were waiting for you to come back, and we're all convinced that you didn't give Cindy any choices. She didn't have a chance to find a way to come to terms with what you told her. You can't expect someone to just change the way they think in an instant. Even if Cindy didn't really believe you were going to sleep with her every night, you didn't have to force her to leave because you didn't want to talk with her about it any further. Emily thinks it was something else she wanted, and this was just the point where she wanted to start her negotiations with us."

"I certainly could have handled things better. All of you are correct."

They looked at me like I'd suddenly grown horns on top of my head.

"This isn't funny, Kenny. You can't just pretend to agree with us to end this discussion." Emily seemed upset that I hadn't tried to act the same way with all of them that I had with Cindy. She must have prepared a strong argument for whatever case she wanted to make.

"I don't think its funny either, and I'm not just pretending. You're all right, and I'm just admitting it. I didn't even think about the possibility that there might be a huge difference in the way I negotiate things, from the way they're used to. It's an interesting idea, and it might even be the key to all the frustration I've had in trying to get any of them to do anything I've asked them to do. You all know that I tend to try to steamroller people sometimes. It usually works for me, and it definitely saves me a lot of negotiating and arguing. I never have run into so many walls of absolute resistance before."

"Don't try to change the subject, Kenny. We want to talk about Cindy, and what we need to do to get her back to how things were before last night. She was doing so well. Shirley says she was actually happy all last week." Joyce looked over at Shirley for confirmation of her statement. Shirley gave it too, with a crisp nod of her head.

"Okay, let's talk about it. Does anyone have any ideas? First though, before we begin asking for these ideas, does anyone here want to try to make a case for letting Cindy have her way about sleeping with me every night?" No one wanted to suggest that to me. I was happy that no one did, because I knew that wouldn't work.

"Joyce should call her and talk to her. Find out if she had something else she was trying to get from us. Dale thinks she might have just picked a fight to cover up for her not wanting to be with us when we come down to Birmingham." Eddie was smiling, content to repeat her sister's thoughts.

"That's fine with me. I think it should be either Joyce or Shirley. If Dale is right, I doubt that Cindy would admit to it. I asked her several times if she had a problem with Eddie and Dale being black, and she said she didn't."

"If I call her, I'm not going to ask her about Eddie and Dale. I think it's enough if we find out whether she was trying to negotiate, and what she hoped to gain by doing so. We could be doing that now, Kenny, if you hadn't closed off the discussion." Joyce didn't appear ready to stick to the topic I had chosen.

"I admitted you were right about that already, Joyce. If you want me to, I'll get on the phone, when you call her, and apologize to her. I really believe I made a serious mistake in how I handled myself last night. I'm willing to accept the blame for it. Right now though, I'm looking for ideas on what we should do to reopen our dialogue with Cindy."