Chapter 19: Foundation

Mary called me on Sunday afternoon.

"Jake, I'd like to talk to you sometime, soon."

I hadn't heard from her in a month, since Sandi and I had held a party announcing our new non-profit for young women who wanted to straighten themselves out after realizing they were 'Young'n'Dum!', so to speak.

Since Sandi was now a wealthy ... well-fixed, anyway ... woman, and I no longer needed my lottery based trust income, it made sense to fund something for a tax write-off. And unlike other such groups, we would keep it under the radar and pick and choose our own beneficiaries.

It took quite a while to find a tax attorney and accountant who could point out how to keep it legal without taking it 'blind', meaning handing over the fund to strangers; but finally found a loophole funding vehicle which was previously only used by 'minority' politicians to curry favor, elicit campaign contributions and 'party hearty'. We had plenty of judicial precedent, as well, to shield us from the feds taking us to court without them looking silly.

Here was the premise, the recipient would:

Be from the lower income, or welfare brackets.

Would have high intelligence, and could refer to former teachers in terms of their 'potential'.

Demonstrate, without prompting, the desire to leave their old, usually high-risk, lifestyle.

Be willing to isolate themselves, totally, from friends, former acquaintances, and even their family if we felt it was necessary for a 'new start'.

Be willing to work part-time while in the program, at any job we felt would benefit their life-experience.

Have no record of being arrested for any violent felony. 3rd Misdemeanor arrest resulting in felony, was exempted. As, we decided, should be auto theft.

Be willing to dress, act and conduct themselves as prescribed by us.

At any rate, Mary hinted that she had found a good candidate, and wanted Sandi and me to meet her for lunch at Frisch's the next day.

We got there early and ordered the salad bar and no sooner had filled our plates, than Mary arrived with a young black woman in tow.

"Sandi, Jake ... I'd like you to meet Tanya Wilder; Tanya, these are the wonderful people I told you about."

Tanya took Sandi's offered hand in a firm handshake, and accepted my simple clasp, with proper ladylike reservation. It seemed she had been raised with better manners than her appearance indicated.

Her hair had been corn-rowed, not expertly ... and several home-drawn tattoos showed on her wrists and forearms, and one on her neck.

Her clothes were a little out of the ordinary for one her age, a plain clean tee shirt, a long sleeve flannel shirt over that, and worn but serviceable jeans ... a few sizes larger than might be expected for a girl to wear. All clean, though.

Mary explained she had met Tanya in a pizza shop as she was waiting for a carryout order; she was reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and Tanya was sweeping the floor, and, as she went by, asked Mary if it was as good as she remembered it. They started talking about it and Tanya remarked she had started reading her dad's copy and never had finished it.

Of course, all the above made an impression on Mary, considering Tanya's appearance, race and circumstances and she stopped in again a few days later to follow up.

She found the girl to be indeed as articulate and bright as she had thought. Tanya listened to this with a little discomfort, of course ... so Sandi broke in.

"Excuse Mary, please, Tanya. She's enthusiastic about everything she does ... as I guess you've found out."

"Yes, ma'am. She practically dragged me down here. And I have no idea what this is about."

"Call me Sandi ... what this is about is a new program we're setting up."

Sandi then described our concept of finding young women who realized they had made wrong choices in their teens and giving them a second chance while they were still young.

Tanya listened politely but you could see in her face that she was skeptical.

"Excuse me, ma'am ... er ... Sandi. Why would you do this? What's the catch?"

"We want to do this because we have some money that we could use to donate to charities and write off on our taxes, or we could work with deserving people one on one and see the results."

Sandi paused to let this sink in.

"Tanya have you ever seen the movie, 'Pay It Forward'?"

"I don't think ... wait, is that the one with the 'I see dead people' boy?"

"That's right. That's what we're doing ... except a little more personally involved."

"That shi ... that stuff don't really happen, that's just a movie." Tanya retorted.

Sandi laughed.

"Yeah, it does happen, Tanya. We've done a little research and found out that it really DOES happen."

Tanya was still doubtful from her expression.

"But it doesn't matter whether someone else actually has done it, or not. WE are going to do it ... are you interested?"

Tanya thought a few seconds.

"What do I have to do?"

Sandi gave her a company card. "All you have to do is show up here for an interview. It's going to take maybe 4 hours, we want to know everything ... and I mean EVERYTHING ... about you."

They set up a time when Tanya would be off for the day. It worked out well, because she had Monday off.

"So ... you want me to tell you about my sucky life ... will he be there?" She gave a nod toward me.

"No ... just us girls. There will be several others, but all women. We're all white, though. Is that a problem?"

"Nah, that's fine. Just don't want to be dishing out my personal dirt in front of no man."

This was the first time she had used the language of the street. Understandable, though.

"I just thought of sum'p'n ... TWO things! Y'all aren't lesbians, are you? And do I get to ask questions?"

Sandi and Mary both giggled.

"No ... and yes, you get to ask all the questions you want."

Came the day, and Tanya did indeed show up. They met in one of the building's empty offices in which we'd set up a conference room for out of town buyer meetings and the interview actually went on for the four hours allotted. Beside Sandi and Mary, Patty, and Lisa attended. Even Mandy showed up for a couple hours she had between classes.

And Tanya came prepared to bare ALL her dirty linen. It was both worse and better than we'd thought. She had spent several two-day stretches in jail for various misdemeanors, mainly shoplifting and loitering. The loitering came from hanging outside an upscale downtown hotel looking to turn tricks. She had done drugs a couple times but wasn't on them now. She'd been girlfriend to a petty drug dealer for a while, until he hit her and she split.