Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 117: ‘Brigadoon’, Lads!
Tuesday, March 25, 1986
I left a message with Kyle in the morning, giving him the outline of what I needed. We would see what he came up with.
I saw about fifteen ‘Howdy is for Everyone’ shirts today. Some people were obviously part of one ethnic group or another. I had mine on, and a lot of people said ‘Howdy’ to me — more than usually would.
My next big step wasn’t on the list, since it was lunch with Darla. We walked to the Hullabaloo Cafe after Statistical Methods. The others were all eating in next-door Sbisa.
“Good Spring Break?” I said, while we were waiting to order.
“Really good! You?”
“Also really good. We went to New Orleans and hung out with Marshall Briggs and his girlfriend, and also Gene’s parents. And did a bunch of sightseeing.”
She giggled and said, “Most people wouldn’t consider hanging out with their friend’s parents a good Spring Break destination. I know you’re very different, though.”
“Very!”
“I’m going to get one of those shirts. They’re on sale at the MSC?”
“They are,” I said. “This one’s a pre-order.”
“Paige was brilliant with this. It’s really cool.”
“Paige is brilliant,” I said, chuckling.
The line moved, and we placed our order, saying hello to Amy in the process, then headed to a table.
Once we were seated, she said, “So ... Mom and I talked. From her perspective, there’s honestly not much new. I don’t think I can even hint at ... um. You know.”
“I have some ideas.”
“Any of it! Yeah. Actually ... oh, heck. I could hint at scarves. Tying a girl up is romance novel stuff. But there wasn’t a point where I would have mentioned it.”
“I didn’t know that. And I agree, there likely wouldn’t be.”
She giggled.
“Not all of them — not at all! — but it happens in some. It’s ... it fits the fantasy.”
“It does, I’m sure.”
“Sooooo. Anyway. The most important part is that Mom knows I’m still ... going ... and haven’t made progress on Mister Right. She’s somewhere between chiding me for not moving on and happy for me for getting what I need now. That’ll shift as time moves on.”
“We all want you to find Mister Right.”
“That’s what I told her. That I have friends who are trying to help, and they have a good track record. She’s on board with that, and figures it’s better than my flailing around dating losers.”
She paused, giggled, and said, “That’s a literal quote — ‘flailing around and dating losers.’ I think there’s a story there. This wasn’t the trip to get it, but this summer? I’m gonna pry.”
“There’s a thing I heard long ago...”
It was about 2005. That was over twenty years ago, now, relative to me, so ... yeah. Long ago.
“ ... about parents and children. Clara ... isn’t good at it.”
She giggled and nodded.
“But it’s important, and you’ll see that. Maybe it’ll help you not be Clara when you get there.”
“I won’t!”
“Everyone says that, and then a lot of people turn into their parents. I won’t, but I also will. There are things I’ve got from Mom and Dad that I’ll do for the rest of my life, happily, because they suit me,” I said.
She nodded and said, “Go on.”
“It goes like this. When your kids are little — that’s up to maybe ten or so, depending — you’re the manager. The boss. You say ‘jump,’ they ask how high. You can be a friendly boss, a demanding boss, even a nightmare boss, but you have to be the boss. Trying to be their friend, their buddy, or whatever won’t work. They’re too young. Very few of them have enough self-discipline or focus or whatever to just do the things they need to do.”
“I grew out of that, kinda, by eight, I think.”
“We were fast learners, yeah,” I said. “The principle remains the same, though.”
“Definitely.”
“So, the second phase is, say ... nine or ten to eighteen. At this point, you’re a consultant. You offer advice, suggestions, but seldom issue orders, if you’re doing it right. Sometimes, because God knows teenagers can be awful jerks sometimes...”
She giggled and nodded.
“ ... but, mostly, you’re consulting. You’re not a friend, though. You’re someone with more experience, more skills, more knowledge, and you have valuable input. But you know sometimes they’re just plain not going to listen and fall on their face. That’s partly why you don’t make edicts. If you make edicts, either they learn to ignore it when you say something is mandatory or they don’t develop the independence they need.”
“And that’s where Mom falls on her face.”
“Pretty much. She did considerably better with you than Daniel, though.”
“Oh, God, yes! But that was me. And the ‘me’ part was mostly debate. I saw all of you, and how independent you were, and I thought, ‘This will work for me.’ And I mostly made it work. Except, you know ... one time it blew up in my face,” she said.
“And Clara had to be a manager in that case. That’s fine. You have to step in if there are consequential things going wrong. A failed test isn’t that. Being pressured to have sex is.”
She nodded quickly, then said, “That works. It really does.”
“The third phase is once they’re out of the nest. At that point, you get to be friends. A friend will act like a consultant when asked, but you need to concede that your ‘kid’ is now an adult. Bossing them around, even with tons of unwanted advice, is, again, undermining that. Now, if they’re not acting like an adult, see the previous one. If it’s bad enough to really put them at risk, step in. But that’s where you make the friendship that will take you the rest of the way through your life, if you’re lucky.”
“If you’re lucky? Like ... as opposed to, say, Cammie?”
“Nah. I mean, that counts, but it’s not where I was going. There’s a final phase, if you get there. The parent becomes the one who needs a consultant or a manager, and the child has to take on that role,” I said.
“Oooh! Yeah. Mom did that with Grandma for a bit. But she didn’t live with us.”
“I think it would be really hard. Hoping to avoid that.”
“Me, too!” she said.
Our food was ready, so we went and picked it up, continuing our conversation more slowly as we ate.
“So ... next week?” she said.
“That’s the plan. This week is just bad all around, so it’s just as well we weren’t trying anything. Or, rather, it’s good, but it’s busy.”
“A musical and a concert. And something in Austin?”
“Yeah. Helping a friend out with something,” I said.
She put on a skeptical face.
“I think there’s something there you’re not sharing.”
“There is,” I said. “But it’s not something simple, and even Cammie and Mel only know a little of it. By their own choice.”
She pondered that, then nodded.
“That’s entirely fair, then. Really, a ‘butt out’ is fair, but you know cats and curiosity.”
“I do. I can promise you’ll know, but it may be a significant amount of time before you know.”
“Also fair. We’ll be friends a lot longer than we’re dating.”
“That’s the plan!” I said.
“And I’m seeing you next weekend, no matter what, for the concert. I mention that partly because next week is exams and I think I’ll be fine, but if it gets to where I can’t handle a date, then I can’t handle one.”
“That also makes sense.”
She reached over and squeezed my hand.
“I love you, Steve.”
I squeezed her hand back and said, “I love you, Darla.”
“And ... I really am looking forward to more time. So, my exams had better play nice!”
“I’m very much in favor!”
As I was leaving, just after parting from Darla, I remembered someone who needed to go on the list. Instead of adding her, though, I just stopped and called Jane’s secretary. She promised to pass along the message that I couldn’t make it on Saturday. Either she or Jane would call me back with the next steps.
I had yet another name for the list. Two, actually. Cammie and Mel. It probably made sense that we pulled back the curtain some more. They could decide how far. If I was going to start making regular trips to Austin, though, they needed to know more. I thought it might be past optional, and offering it — directly — was definitely past optional.
I also called Kyle. His secretary took my request and said she would pass it on to him ASAP.
My last call was to Paula. Jas and I only had a few changes. She said she should be able to turn them all around this week. I wouldn’t be able to do paperwork either this weekend or the next, but she said some late afternoon or early evening time would work.
After my last class, I gave Alice a call. She wasn’t surprised to hear from me, but was surprised to find out it was about her, not Michael.
Initially, she was slightly resistant, but she quickly came around to deciding that, yes, we needed to know each other a bit better. I think she had no real idea who I was, as a person, and most women around thirty probably aren’t that interested in having dinner with a nineteen-year-old. Well, unless they’re playing the cougar game. This wasn’t that, and it was clear both that I wanted a professional relationship and that I knew what one was.
While we were talking, we set up a quick way to verify that I was, in fact, connected to P.C.’s Limited. If someone called her and asked for me by name, she would take their number, then page me with a code unique to her. She had my pager number and knew our system, so that was easy.
She promised to update their switchboard system so that anyone calling the main number and asking for me would get routed to her as well. That would make it a lot easier. Apparently, that was easy for her to do, and she could have it all set up tomorrow.
I thanked her and promised to make time for a meeting sometime soon. When that would be, I didn’t know, but getting the ball rolling was the important part right now.
After checking with Jas, Angie, and Paige — all of whom agreed with me about Cammie — I called a family meeting for eight in the living room. Candice and Sherry were joining us for dinner, but would be downstairs by then.
There was a message waiting from Kyle. He was on it, and would fax a draft document when he was ready. It would be a modified NDA, basically. He thought most universities would be familiar enough with them that it shouldn’t throw A&M’s lawyers, who would undoubtedly get involved.
When eight rolled around, we all settled on the couches and got comfortable.
“What’s up?” Cammie said.
“We think you need to know a bit more about P.C.’s Limited,” I said.
“It’s really none of our business...” Mel started, but Angie cut her off.
“In this case, it’s your business. We’re not discussing numbers or anything, but this affects Steve’s schedule.”
The two of them looked at each other, then nodded.
“Okay. That makes more sense,” Mel said.
I was about to start, but Jas took it, saying, “You know, or sort-of know, what I’m going to say, I think, really. We can hardly pretend you’re stupid!”
Everyone chuckled at that.
Jas continued, saying, “A couple of years ago, Michael started P.C.’s Limited. The four of us — and this is before things blew up with your parents, Cammie, to give it context...”
Cammie nodded quickly. So did Mel.
“ ... invested in P.C.’s Limited over Spring Break 1984. It’s ... both trivial and totally non-trivial. Trivial only because we have ridiculously more money than we should. Again, for context, any one of Camel’s investments is a fair bit bigger in dollars, but the payoff is likely going to be a lot less for all current Camel investments than for this one.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.