Chapter 73

I didn't really sleep that late. Jack was out of the house by 8:15. He just told me not to sleep too late, gave me a kiss and left. I tried to go back to sleep but I'd had plenty of rest and was lonely. I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes and got up.

I was greeted in the kitchen by Bozo and three quarters of a pot of fresh coffee. Jack had let Bozo out so I didn't even have to do that.

I fried some eggs and made some toast and had a leisurely breakfast. I let Bozo lick some leftover yolk off the plate. I've heard that eggs are good for their fur, although I don't know how he could improve on what he's already got. That's one thing about Bozo. He's a gorgeous animal.

I did my morning bathroom stuff and was out before 9:30. The dishes were in the washer, the table was clean. I went into our room and sorted through the hamper. I had the whole day to myself so I decided to catch up on the laundry.

After I got the first load going, I took my laptop into the kitchen and poured myself another cup of coffee. The test from Mr. Barnhurst was comprehensive but nothing I hadn't encountered before. I had it finished and emailed back to him with plenty of time left before lunch.

The phone rang and I jumped for it. It was Myra, wondering if she could come over. When I told her it was fine, that I was there all alone and could use some company, she hesitated, then asked if it would be a problem for her to bring Billy and Annette with her. I told her I needed something to keep me busy and I'd be glad to have them. I convinced her to plan on staying for lunch and asked her to pick up a can of frozen juice for them when she asked what she could do.

I let them in about twenty minutes later. Billy ran over to me with his arms wide. I picked him up, hugged him, spun around with him in my arms and told him what a big boy he was. He beamed. Annette waited patiently, then hugged me, her face in my stomach as her arms reached around me, hugging me like she meant it.

"I can't get over how quick Billy took to the both of you," Myra said. "He's usually real quiet until he really gets to know you."

"He knows good people when he sees them. Don't you Billy?"

He surprised all of us when he nodded his head enthusiastically. I glanced at Annette and she nodded once.

"What do you kids want to do?" I asked.

"Can we watch Teletubbies?" Annette asked me.

"I suppose. Is it OK with your mom?"

Myra said, "It's fine with me if you don't mind."

I turned on the TV. I knew how to play DVDs but I'd never watched TV on this set. We got the TV going and scrolled through the channels until we found it. I wasn't very impressed with it but the kids seemed to like it. I certainly didn't see anything that should have gotten that evangelist's panties in a wad a few years ago. I wondered if Laurie was into this show.

Myra sent her first email, copying from the notes I'd given her. She sent it off, then created a folder for the person and moved the copy of what she sent plus the original into it. She opened up the next email, read it and started typing a reply.

"You aren't going to write a new email to each person, are you?"

"I was. Why?"

"Do they need to be individual? Aren't you going to say the same thing to everybody?"

"Pretty much. If they ask a specific question, I should answer it."

"I agree. Get back to the one you just sent."

She clicked on the folder and opened it up.

"OK. Now, move your cursor up to the top of the text you wrote. No, below her name. Good. Hold down the left button and scroll down to the end. Good. Let go of the button. Move the cursor up into the selected area. Now right click ... Copy."

I had her open up a blank text document and paste the email text into it, save it as New Email Reply and minimize it.

We went back to the one she'd started to answer and she pressed Reply. She typed the girl's name, hit Enter a couple of times, then pasted in the text. There were no questions so she just sent it.

"Wow, that makes it a lot faster."

"Yeah, you'd be here all day if you had to do an email for each person."

She started to do another and I noticed she was using Jack's email address to send it.

"Don't you have your own email address?"

"Yeah, at home. But I don't want to use that."

"I meant for business. You should be sending them out under your name. That way answers for you will come to you. And the girls won't be confused about who wrote them."

"But I don't have Internet yet."

"We'll just set it up here for now."

I established a new account for her and then added it to the rest of Jack's email accounts in Thunderbird. I set it up to check for new mail every ten minutes, like Jack's.

Myra sent out the rest of the emails under her name. For now I had her make folders for all of them in the Local Folders section of Jack's program. I'd have to figure out a way of transferring folders from her computer to his when she started using her computer again.

When they were all sent, I said, "Did Jack tell you to add them to the address book?"

"No. I remember something about there being one but it's in my notes at home."

I showed her how to access it and then how to cut and paste the info into each person's card. It wasn't as slow as typing but it still took a lot of time.

Lunchtime came around and Myra and I went down to her car. She had Billy's high chair in the trunk, the legs sticking out. I got Annette's booster and a bag with some toys and a game from the back seat.

"Too bad you can't figure out a way to use his car seat," I said.

"I know. But it doesn't do anything to lift him up. I'd be happy with a portable high chair part that you could put in top of a regular chair."

"There you go. Come up with one and put it on late night TV and you'll become a millionaire."

"That would be something, wouldn't it?"

We had Campbell's tomato soup and sandwiches for lunch with purple-berry juice for them to drink. The kids had peanut butter and jelly and we had cold cuts and coffee. I took care of Billy while Annette had her mom watching over her.

I got a towel and put it on Billy as a bib before he started eating. I let him rip apart the sandwich as he saw fit but I fed him the soup. The lower part of his face looked diseased by the time he was done and his hands were covered in PB&J, but he survived. As a matter of fact, he looked quite proud of himself when lunch was over. And he cleaned up just fine.

Annette was a little lady and made it though lunch with a small purple mustache as her only mark. She brought the dishes over to me at the sink so I could rinse them off and put them in the dishwasher.

I was drying my hands when the phone rang. I went into the bedroom to answer it. It was our lawyer.

"Hi, Jill. It's Arthur Duncan."

"Hi Arthur. What can I do for you?"

"I'm just getting ready to submit your application for incorporation and I have a few questions."

"OK."

"First of all, I did a search and J&J Enterprises, Inc. is available. Is that still all right?"

"Perfect."

"Good. Web Pages by Jill is a go, so all we need is a name for Jack's company."

"He wants Jack's Pics."

"OK. That should be fine. If somebody's already using it, I'll give you a call and we can figure out something else."

"Oh, while I've got you. We got new cell phones." I gave him both numbers.

"One more thing. Is Jack over 18?"

"No. Not until next March."

"I don't suppose he's been emancipated..."

"No, he hasn't."

"That presents us with a slight problem. There's nobody old enough to run the corporation. If either of you signed anything, it wouldn't be legally binding because you're both underage."

"When I get that insurance check and you take it to the courthouse..."

"Then, you'll be able to sign all the documents you want."

"Are you telling me we can't incorporate?"

"Not at all. You just need some officers who are over 18 years old."

"So we'd be working for somebody else?"

"No. When the corporation is formed, stock is issued. Since the two of you are forming it, you would each typically get 50% of the shares each."

"How many shares are there?"

"As many as you want. A company such as yours usually starts out with 50 or 100."

"OK. So what good does that do us?"

The two of you can vote on any matters that affect the company. The people who hold the offices would essentially do what you told them to. As majority shareholders, if they did anything you didn't agree with, you could call an emergency shareholder meeting and vote it down."

"I still don't see what they cost us. Nobody's going to run a company for free."