Chapter 8

Breakfast was served buffet style with a nice selection of foods. Pat’s cook would also cook to order, but that option was not included in the price of the room. We were more than satisfied with her buffet selections.

After breakfast, we looked at Pat’s rack of fliers that described the local attractions. She joined us and took a map out of the rack, and then said, “This is the map I recommend for you. It is prepared for beginning hikers and for more accomplished hikers who just want a short pleasant stroll.

“Phyllis mentioned she was interested in an easy trail that would end in the downtown area after an hour or two of walking.”

We were located south and slightly east of Lake Stevens, the lake, just off of Machias Cutoff road. Pat used a yellow highlighter to mark a route to the lake and then north along the east side of the lake to Lake Stevens, the town. She also marked a route along the west side of the lake and back to the B & B.

She said, “This part of the route to the lake is a little over a mile, but it includes part of Machias Cutoff road, and that road has no sidewalks. Walk facing oncoming traffic and step well off the side of the road as far as you can when you see or hear an oncoming car. You also need to be aware of cars approaching you from the rear.

“The maximum speed limit between here and the lake is thirty miles per hour. But Machias Cutoff is a windy road with a narrow area on each side of the road for pedestrians. Some of our drivers like to take the road faster than is advisable, and they cut corners on the curves. More than one driver has lost it and ended up in the trees along the side of the road.”

“If you are interested in walking around the lake, the route I highlighted is about eight miles of mostly flat terrain through residential and business areas with sidewalks. Side trips to towns along the return route can easily increase the distance to over ten miles depending on how many places you want to see.

We followed Pat’s route and adhered to her advice. We didn’t have any problems getting to the lake, other than wet shoes from walking in wet vegetation while being passed by an approaching car. We did notice a couple of places with damaged vegetation near the curves that looked as if a car had run off the road in the past few months.

When we got to the lake, Alicia said, “I’m for a walk around the lake and finding a place to eat when we get hungry. If it is too far for us, which I doubt, we can always catch a taxi back to our cabin.”

We all agreed, and when we got to the residential area, we stayed on the sidewalks. We set an easy pace, to conserve our energy, along the eastern side of Lake Stevens heading north to the city of Lake Stevens. Once we were on the sidewalks, our pace was a little faster than it had been along Machias Cutoff road.

Pat had suggested we take our windbreakers to wear since the temperature was on the cool side, and the wind off the lake would be even colder due to the lake’s cold water and the wind chill factor. We wore our windbreakers with the zippers open most of the time, but also had to zip up several times.

As Pat had told us, our route was mostly residential. We were looking for property to buy, but the housing was tract homes with small lots. We had no interest in living like sardines packed into a can. The stores in Lake Stevens were mostly for the locals, but there were stores that catered to tourists like us. We stopped at about a third of those stores, and bought a few souvenirs, which went into the backpack I was wearing.

Toward the end of our walk, I said, “This pack mule thinks that the next time we take a walk like this, we should all wear backpacks and carry what we each buy.”

Madge replied, “Okay. That means we can shop longer, but you will still get our overflow.”

Ka-ching. I didn’t really object to the purchases. It was just that our souvenirs from prior trips typically cluttered up the house until we cleared them out and donated them to either the Goodwill store in Snohomish or the Salvation Army Community Center in Everett. We alternated our donations between the two charities. What we bought today and tomorrow would likely have the same fate.

Dinner was in our B&B’s dining room. We garnered a bit more attention than this morning, but nothing objectionable. It was mostly the wives of our fellow diners. Due to our enhanced hearing from our Stage 1 upgrades, we overheard a few comments about a man with three female friends and their obviously close relationship. The wives seemed split between my being a kept gigolo or a dominating stud with a willing harem. Their husbands, or possibly boyfriends, just listened to their comments, and a few agreed with them. A few wanted to exchange places with me.

I don’t think any of them recognized us as the Facilitators. Our casual attire and wind-blown look gave us a very different appearance than the look we had as the well-groomed, formally-attired Facilitators who most people had seen on TV and in the newspapers.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and packed our things in the car. We then checked out of the B&B, so the cleaning staff could prepare the cabin for its next group of vacationers.

Once we were checked out, we took a hike on one of the easier mountain trails that Pat suggested we try. The hike was a loop that Pat marked on our map that brought us back to the B&B. It was a moderately long hike that we completed close to lunch time. Half of the route was asphalt-paved paths suitable for hikers and bikers. The other half of the route was along the shore of Lake Stevens and included part of the route we previously hiked. We had to use Machias Cutoff to get to the paths and back to the B&B.

During the hike, we paid attention to the area next to the asphalt paths and its lack of housing tracts. Most of the homes we saw were on very large lots and separated by almost a hundred yards, so they weren’t right next to each other. We didn’t consider that to be tract housing. We also observed open areas with no houses.

Madge would have to check out this area for large lots. We would be happy if there was a very large house suitable for our current needs plus two wives and children, but if there was no house on the lot, we would have the option to design what we would need for vacations in ten years. Of course we also had the option to demo structures on a lot and build what we wanted for a mini-vacation in this area.

After lunch, we thanked Pat for the help she had given us during our stay. My wives had explained our concept of mini-vacations when we first arrived. Pat let us know that we were always welcome, and that we should let her know when we were ready for another weekend vacation. If we let her know, she would pencil us in for the next available weekend, and inform us of any cancelations on a weekend before that date.

We elected to go around the lake again to do some more shopping, but this time we took our car. When we finished shopping, which turned out to be more window shopping than purchasing souvenirs, we headed home.

We liked the area around Lake Stevens, but wanted to look at other locations before we settled on a place for our vacation home, or should I say one of the places where we would buy or build vacation homes.

During the next weeks, we spent a lot of time at the Trapp Title Insurance Company. Alicia and I initialed and signed the paperwork for selling all of our properties to JAMP Leasing. The proceeds of the sales went back into our personal bank accounts to replace the monies we provided for JAMP Leasing to buy the properties. Madge and Phyllis were taking turns signing Trapp’s paperwork as the buyers of our properties. Copies of the sellers and buyers’ statements went to our accountant Dick Wells.

We signed all of the Title Company’s paperwork before the first day of the meeting. Things were settled on that front, now we had other things to address.

Maria and Tyree had accepted our job offers. During the first week of the two buffer weeks, Lillian had them do the necessary HR paperwork and sign their NDAs. She then delivered them to Madge.

Madge had made arrangements for us to talk with them about what was expected of them in their respective positions.

Once we were all comfortable in our meeting room, Madge said, “I want to make it clear that you both work for the four of us. We expect both of you to work together to the benefit of JAMP.

“Maria, as the President of the Fairbanks Real Estate, LLC your primary task is to expand JAMP’s presence in the real estate market. Initially, you will do this by creating new branch offices of the Fairbanks Real Estate Agency in our state’s major cities. Later you will expand into the major cities of our neighboring states. Ultimately, I would like to see thriving branch offices in all of the US’s major cities. You may want to consider opening additional real estate chains.”

Maria asked, “How would that work if one chain is in competition with the other chain?”

Madge replied, “The second chain doesn’t have to be in competition with the first. Until recently, the Fairbanks Real Estate Agency has been involved in residential properties. A second chain could be set up to handle the sale and purchase of commercial property.

“Another thing to consider is ... there is enough business in a large city to support multiple agencies. From the agencies’ points of view, customers will go to the agency that they are comfortable with, especially if they have dealt with the agency in the past or if a friend recommends the agency. So if we have chains of agencies with different names and a customer is not comfortable with one of our chains, then they may go to one of our other chain’s agencies. From JAMP’s point of view, it doesn’t matter which of the chains earns the commission. In fact, we would not be upset if you have three or four chains of agencies in a very large city. That way your LLC will have a larger percentage of the market in that city.

Maria nodded, so Madge continued, “The main problems you will encounter are finding good people to manage the branch offices and not expanding at a rate that is too fast for you to keep up.

“Tyree, your primary task is to support Maria in establishing new branch offices. You will also monitor the performance of the branch offices and if you think you see a problem with one or more of the offices, work it out with Maria. If you have problems doing so, I want the two of you to come to me. If we can’t solve the problem, then we will involve Jeb, Phyllis, and Alicia.

“I suggest the two of you go find a place to have lunch together and discuss your respective views of your business areas and what you each expect of the other’s area. Develop a means of working together in an amiable manner. One of the things you will each need to start working on, is a policy manual that clearly defines the policies to be followed by the employees of your respective area. Check the HR Policies and Practices Manual for specifics of what has to be covered and the approval cycle for your manual.

In the afternoon, Elba met with us to review her drawing package for the IT Department construction, and we had Terra Ives, the IT Department Manager, join us. We spent the afternoon going through the drawing package. We made a few minor changes, but they wouldn’t necessitate another review of the package.

Once the changes were incorporated, we would check the affected drawings and specifications. Elba would provide us and Edgar with copies once we approved everything. Edgar could then apply for a permit.

I think Terra was starting to become enthused at the idea of having offices for herself and the people she was in the process of hiring. We had temporarily moved her to the first floor, so she and her staff would have a place to call home until their new area was built. One of the oversights Terra caught during the review was the work area had no ESD provisions. Terra explained why Electro Static Discharge protection was important, and explained to Elba what she needed.

When Elba ensured her that she would provide an earth ground with essentially no resistance, Terra laugh. She apologized for laughing, and then she told us a story that happened at a company she had worked at when she first started working in the IT field. The incident occurred many years before she started at the company when ESD protection was a new discipline and very few people understood its requirements.

Terra said, “I used to work at an R&D company that had a division that manufactured electronic products that the company sold.

“One day the manager of the assembly area was told that her people had to start using ESD equipment connected to a good ground without any explanation of what was needed. Since ESD protection was a new discipline and the manager knew nothing about ESD, she consulted with one of the company’s engineers to design a good grounding system for her assembly area. He set a design goal to provide less than ten ohms of resistance between a common ground point, which was a buried earth ground rod, and all of the benches’ ground points.

“The company hired a construction company and their employees moved everything out of their way, cut through the concrete flooring, dug down four feet, and installed the ground rod system according to the engineer’s specifications. The hole was filled in and concrete was poured. When the concrete had cured enough to support the weight of the benches, everything was put back in place and the work benches were connected to the common ground point. The work created a large amount of dust, so the production line was shut down during this period with the employees receiving time off with pay.

“The people on the assembly line set up their ESD protected work stations and started using their ESD equipment. The manager and her assembly line people learned that there was a one megohm resistor in series between each assembly person’s wrist strap and the ground rod. The same was also true of the grounding mats on the benches and floor. Apparently, a high resistance path was necessary to provide a slow discharge rate for static electricity.

“It cost the company over two hundred thousand dollars to install the engineer’s grounding system. The company was upset when they learned that drilling a hole through the concrete and driving a ten-foot copper-clad ground rod into the ground would have provided a more than adequate ground point. Their in-house maintenance staff could have done the job for less than two hundred dollars. It would have been even cheaper and easier to have connected a ten gauge stranded copper wire between any copper water pipe and their common ground point.”

Author’s Note: The above – excluding a few embellishments – is a true story that happened at an R&D electronics firm prior to my being hired by the company back in the 70’s. The company had an assembly division, which is the group that required the ESD grounding point.

When we finished our review, we invited Elba and Terra to join us for dinner. Terra declined due to a prior engagement. Personally, we thought she was just uncomfortable associating with the big bosses. Elba accepted.

Dinner was at one of the better restaurants in Snohomish. We enjoyed our meals, drinks, and conversation. Once we finished eating, it didn’t take long for our conversation to switch from business to our potential personal relationship.

Elba said, “I know what I would bring to a relationship. But what do you expect of me and what would a relationship with you provide me?”

Alicia said, “We have a very complex relationship, Elba. Our business activities are more complex than you are aware of and those activities have a major effect on our personal lives. For now, we won’t get into how the business area affects our lives. That is also true concerning our involvement with the Alliance Agreement meetings.

“When we exclude business and the meetings, our personal relationship becomes far less complex. Jeb loves and is devoted to the three of us ladies. Each of us ladies loves and is devoted to Jeb and to our two sister wives. We are a family and we face the world together.

“If and when you join us, the only thing that will really change is, there will be four sister wives. The rest will remain almost unchanged. The few changes that will occur will be primarily due to what you bring to our relationship. You will add another and different view of things that will make our family stronger and more resilient.”

Elba said, “I’ve known people who were in a threesome. They said much the same thing that you just said. But then the jealousy started and one of them cheated on the others. It destroyed their relationship. That could happen to the three of you also.”

Phyllis said, “I don’t know your three friends. But I know people who had similar threesomes. They all failed. The reasons given for their failures varied, but jealousy was the central reason.

“The four of us are in a different situation. There is another person involved with us, but you won’t meet her until after you commit to a relationship with us. It is difficult to explain, but while she is an integral part of us, she is not part of our relationship. You could think of her as a very good friend who provides us with guidance, advice, and adds stability to our relationship. She is the main reason we have a stable relationship for she has shown us there is no need for jealousy in our relationship.

“That is the best that I can come to explaining it, Elba. You just have to experience it, and then you will understand.”

“When can I meet this person?”

I said, “We could introduce you to her tonight, but we won’t. You are not ready to meet her, and you won’t be ready for a couple of weeks. But there are a few things we will share with you about her.

“For now, think of her as a psychic who has a ninety nine point nine percent accuracy record in her predictions. She told us that you will join our relationship and be part of us for the rest of your life. We believe her prediction is true, but she also told us that you won’t be ready to join us for several weeks.

“She has also informed us of a few matters concerning our future. So we know some of what will happen to our group. Unfortunately, her predictions are too general to allow us to plan our future in any degree of detail.

“That is why we are being so open with you about many things. We know without any doubt that you will join us and be very happy in our relationship. I suppose you could say that the ball is in your court. How big of a risk are you willing to take, Elba?”

“I have to think about all of that, Jeb. Regardless of your friend’s accuracy rating, which if true is very impressive, she is right about my not being ready to join the four of you in a relationship.”

Madge said, “We know how you feel, Elba. We have been in your shoes and have had similar concerns. The one thing we all know is, once you decide on what you want to do, things will progress faster than you expect. Our friend will make sure of that.”

“Is your friend going to take over my mind and make me do things I don’t want to do?”

Madge exclaimed, “Not only NO, but HELL NO!!!

“Our friend is highly ethical and would never do something like that. The same type of thing happened to me. I was hesitant to join Jeb and Alicia in their relationship. I decided to join them, and suddenly all my worries and the roadblocks in my path seemed to melt away. I now understand why that happened to me, and I have no problems with how our friend helped me. What she did for me was to open my mind to facts and possibilities I had not considered.

“Once you make your decision, the same thing will happen to you. Once you are in the family, all will be made known to you. You will understand why the four of us have no worries about something breaking us up. The only thing that could do that is death, and that is far in the future for us.”

Elba said, “I’m thirty, so I expect to have close to forty good years of life in front of me barring unexpected health problems. I would say you are in your early thirties, Madge, so the same is true for you.”

Madge said, “There are many things you don’t know about us, Elba. One of those things is, the members of our family are eligible for what the Empire calls ‘Enhancements.’

The four of us have received the first stage of enhancement, and will receive the second stage soon. One of the things the enhancement did was improve our bodies, so they will last longer. The Altairians aren’t certain how long the enhancement will extend our life. They have said that for Altairians a twenty five percent increase in life expectancy is not unreasonable for the first enhancement, and that we earthlings are similar to Altarians. So add at least another twenty years of healthy life to our life expectancy. So, we won’t start our decline until we are close to ninety and that decline will be slower than typical due the improvement of our bodies. The Altairians also told us that no Earthling has ever been enhanced, and there are small genetic differences between the people of Earth and Altair. They said those differences may result in us living even longer, or shorter, lives than they anticipate.

“We have also been told that the second stage of enhancements reinforces the changes to our first stage enhancements, so that may add an additional increase in our life expectancy.”

“Are you telling me that if I join your relationship, I will receive this enhancement?”

Madge said, “Not exactly, Elba. Enhancement is a very expensive process and only the people the Empire deems worthy of enhancement are enhanced. For reasons we can’t explain now, the Empire authorized us the first two stages of enhancement.

“If you join our relationship, I believe you will also be authorized the first two stages of enhancements. Our friend will explain it to you after you meet her.”

“It seems like you just hung a carrot in front of me to get me to join your relationship. Then you tell me that I may not get to eat that carrot. What is going on?”

Alicia said, “You need to remember, Elba, that the four of us know you will join us. It is just a matter of when, and we aren’t worried about the when. What Madge told you is what happened to us. Our friend told us that enhancement is authorized to all the future additions to our family. However, that authorization requires that a request be submitted and approved. To the best of our knowledge, it is a done deal; but, politics is involved. Once politicians get involved, things can take forever or they can happen very fast.

“We believe that once you join us, you will be enhanced, but when you join us and are enhanced, is not known to us.”

“You mentioned Stage 1 and Stage 2 enhancements. What are the differences?”

I said, “It would be best if our friend explained that to you. But basically, the Stage 1 enhancements are done at the physical level and affect our bodies and minds. The Stage 2 enhancements reinforce and improve on the Stage 1 enhancements, and they are done at the genic level. What that means is, if we have children, our children will inherit our enhancements.”

“Good God Almighty! What you are telling me about enhancements is almost enough to get me to jump into bed with the four of you tonight.”

“We understand, Elba. But we also know you aren’t ready to join our relationship now, so it won’t happen. You still have a degree of doubt, and it will take a while for you to overcome that doubt. The more time you spend with us, the quicker you will overcome your doubt.”

After dinner, we went our separate ways. My wives and I each shared a passionate kiss and hug with Elba before she left. She was a bit hesitant about a passionate kiss with another woman, but didn’t hesitate after the first kiss. By the time she had receive four passionate kisses and hugs, we could tell her motor was running. I was the last to kiss and hug Elba good night, and she jump started my motor. There would be moans, groans, and screams of passion coming from our bedroom this evening and long into the night.

When we got to the office the next morning, Shane handed us each a draft of the contract legalese that we would use when contracting work with Johnson and Tailor Construction. He wanted comments from us. He also told us that he would use what we approved as boilerplate for future contracts with Johnson and Tailor Construction and other contractors.

According to Shane, our contract was similar to the one used by Johnson and Tailor Construction, so they should not have a problem with our contracts.

After reading what he had given us, I realized that what Shane had given us was basically the framework of a contract stated in legal terms that referenced Appendices for the details and the specifics, which included: the work to be done, the financial details for the materials and labor, overhead and profit, and the terms and conditions. He would tailor the Appendices to each job and they would become part of the contract with the framework of the contract tying everything together.

I liked what I read and didn’t have any comments. I certainly didn’t know enough about the law to comment on his legalese, but after checking on a few definitions, I think I understood what he was saying. Before we get to the contracting phase, I will have to display my ignorance and ask Shane to explain what each passage actually means.

When we met with Shane to discuss our comments, my wives had a similar need for an explanation of what he was saying in the contract. Shane walked us through each part of the contract explaining what the passages meant in layman’s terms. We were happy with the framework of his contract.

The meeting site was ready. The meeting, media, and dining tents had been set up. A slightly larger Army field kitchen had arrived and been set up, and would soon be placing orders for food from our suppliers. All of our equipment had been retrieved from storage and set up in the appropriate tent. The porta potties were in place and the tables and chairs had been delivered to the tents and set up according to our diagrams.

PUD had increased our electric and gas services by installing higher capacity lines and pipes. We had installed the heater and air conditioning units in storage sheds next to the dining, meeting, and media tents. We also had a humungous backup generator and an external fuel tank containing sufficient fuel for seventy two hours of operation. It was situated a good distance away from the tents, behind a sound berm and in a shelter. The fuel tank included a pump that pumped fuel through a replaceable fuel filter and directly into the generator’s internal fuel tank.

One of the problems we had with the heaters and air conditioners was, they were too heavy and noisy to install inside the tents. That is why they were in storage sheds.

Our tents used a modular configuration system. We had chosen the fifty meter wide tents. We had originally bought four end modules for the meeting and media tents and we added enough fifty meter by ten meter expansion modules to create the desired lengths of our two tents.

Alibaba’s crew had installed air registers and insulated ducting to route the hot, or cold, air into the tents. The ducting had been routed through the sidewalls of the four tents. For the meeting and media tents, the ducting was routed up one of the supports, and then hung inside the tent from the braces that were between the support frames. The support frames were located at ten meter intervals, and they supported the tent’s roof and PVC end panels. Smaller diameter ducting was used to route the air to the registers. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

The generator was our back-up power source, and we would only use it if we lost power from PUD. If we ever lost PUD power, there was an automatic switch-over network that started the generator and switched the load from PUD to the generator’s output. When power was restored, we had to manually switch back to PUD and stop the generator. At least we would never have to manually add fuel to the generator’s internal tank. All we had to do was keep the external fuel tank supplied with fuel.

Throughout the meeting, we would keep a staff of technicians and maintenance people available to resolve any problems we had and to service and maintain all of the equipment.

Simon, Vert, Relpt, Paul, and Aaron had coordinated the preparation work for us, and we were very appreciative of their efforts. They were glad to help for it ended their boredom. They hated boredom.

During the site preparation effort, we received almost daily verbal accomplishment reports from them, and Phyllis updated our schedule to reflect the progress.

My wives and I had accomplished most of what we wanted to complete before the meeting started. All of the preparation tasks were complete. Some of the meeting tasks we needed to do extended into the time frame in which the meeting would take place, but we knew that up front. My wives were going to do those tasks, and I would assist them when possible.