Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 119: Not an April Fools Joke
Sunday, March 30, 1986
We did nearly nothing but church, studying, and the usual (and unusual) Sunday phone calls today. I spent some time fretting about what to tell Dad, but that wasn’t going to be answered anytime soon. Most likely, we won’t talk about anything big or serious during the Jarre concert (or, rather, before or after it). Easter? I wasn’t sure we would go after having been in Houston twice in the past month, but we certainly might. It was an important holiday for us.
Everyone we called was doing fine. The biggest news was from Lizzie and Janet. Cammie’s bridesmaid’s dress would likely be shipped out in the next two weeks so she could have it altered locally. Cammie was both nervous and happy about that. I had, by far, the easier time, since the most interesting part of my outfit was my kilt.
Janet was cagey on what sort of shirt I should wear. I suspected coordinating with the bridesmaids would be the answer. The groomsmen would all wear the same color, and I think Janet just didn’t want to ruin the surprise for Cammie. God help me if the shirt clashed with the Johnstone tartan, but I would live with that, since neither thing was going to change just for me.
I made a mental note to check out local dance lessons. It might be worth it for me to pay for a few custom lessons with a woman who could lead. I hadn’t forgotten, but I would have one chance to get it right, and it mattered to Lizzie.
Part of the studying was interesting. Angie spent a bunch of time with the CS Contingent, and generally blew us away with how much she knew, but also spent a while after the official meeting talking to various members. Matchmaking, no doubt. I wished her, and them, all the best.
It wasn’t the only group she was busy with, but it felt like she was spending more time there. It might be because she didn’t know them nearly as well, though.
I took a break from the usual calls just before two and called Jane’s home number. At least, I thought that was it. Her secretary had given me this number, and it matched the previous number I’d thought was her home number.
Jane answered right away. After we’d said hello, she said, “So ... last time was engagements and business. What else are we behind on?”
“Business and my personal life.”
“Didn’t we just cover business?” she said, chuckling.
“Things have ... evolved.”
“I worry.”
“Briefly: Michael finally hired a President and Chief Operating Officer. His name is Lee Walker. I was in on the interview, and I had a part in talking him into actually taking the job. He turned Michael down initially, then called me to talk. I wasn’t the only one that helped, but it probably mattered.”
“From what you said, that is a very good thing.”
“Oh, it is! But it also means there’s a three-person board of directors now. One of those is me,” I said.
“Ah! That explains why it’s still a topic.”
“I’ve been in Austin the last two weekends. I’ll be there this coming weekend as well, getting introduced as part of the leadership team. The last and the least, but I’m the nominal tiebreaker.”
“Nominal because...?” she asked.
“If Michael and Lee can’t agree on something, the answer isn’t going to be picking sides, it’s going to be figuring out where the impasse is and resolving it, I think. This should be a consensus operation overall. If we absolutely need a decision to move forward, I can vote, but that’s no one’s preference.”
“As I guessed. Sometimes you have to just make a decision, but ‘consensus first’ sounds wise.”
“Exactly. Personally, it’s all very complicated. The parents know a bit more, but not enough. All I need is to be in some far-flung location unexpectedly and have something come up, and it’ll explode. I don’t expect that, but given the business dynamics ... well, there’s already a major deal in place that Michael was able to make on his own authority last time. I think he still could, but I could easily see a major partner saying, ‘Let’s get your board of directors in on this,’ and off I go,” I said.
“Tap-dancing as always. I’m almost surprised you’ve kept it under your hat this long.”
“Let’s say ... well ... we overachieved just a bit. The nervous part is going to be telling them just how well off we are. People want their kids to do better than they are. Few people are ready for that to be before they’re even twenty-two.”
“You’re already there, and you’re not twenty,” she said.
“I can tap-dance on the big numbers for a bit longer. Until there’s an IPO, those don’t exist.”
“Angie mentioned big numbers yesterday.”
“Big, and also not big. I’m intentionally not mentioning actual numbers...” I said.
“Thank you,” she said, chuckling just a bit.
“But, if and when there’s an IPO, they’ll be in the newspapers.”
“At that point, they’re part of your public life, and I’ll need to know,” she said. “It really is funny. I never had any intention of being a counselor for adults, much less very wealthy adults, but...”
“Two extremely unusual kids happened to cross your path under very unlikely circumstances, and you asked the right question.”
“Exactly! And I wouldn’t change anything. Partly because I know myself. Not asking would have left me painfully curious, and not crossing your path would ... well, Candice is in a very good place. Someone else might have done the same, but...”
“One does not lightly risk undoing positive results,” I said.
“Exactly!”
“That’s all of the business stuff. For now. I can let you know a couple of interesting personal life things. Most likely, just the first one will take up all of the rest of this call, but we’ll see.”
“I’m ... apprehensive again,” she said, chuckling.
“Besides Jasmine, Paige, sort-of Angie — no big changes there...”
“She has dutifully let me know,” Jane said, chuckling.
“Plus Jess, plus — usually not physically — Cammie and Mel...”
“Usually?”
“That’s topic two, or maybe three,” I said.
She snorted and said, “I asked this years ago. Do they know what ‘lesbian’ means?”
“Mel is bisexual. Cammie is a lesbian who happens to love one man, even so. Simple, or complicated, either way.”
“And this isn’t the topic.”
“Nah. Anyway, besides all of them, I’m dating two other girls. Amy is going to take an entire call to explain, because of who she is, so I’ll discuss Darla,” I said.
“Darla, the girl you dated in high school?” she said. “Angie mentioned that she was back in the picture but left the details to you.”
“So ... yes, and also no. No, in the sense that a lot has changed in two years or so.”
“That’s not unusual, but I take it this is.”
“Well...” I said.
Then I started explaining the whole thing, from the initial (and admittedly fumbling) steps, to my learning how to chase, and push (or at least push Darla), and where things stood now.
Jane held most of her responses, but made a few comments along the lines of, “Oh, my goodness!”
Once I’d caught up to the present — which took much of our time — she said, “Well ... that is ... something. Not a role I would have expected for you, though it makes sense now. I was already worried about how many girls you could have wound up with in high school. This would open things up even more, except that you tend to really involve yourself with someone, not just have some fun and move on.”
“That is a natural speed bump,” I said.
“If you weren’t you, the alarm bells would be much louder,” she said. “That sort of relationship is inherently ... very close. Hard to distance yourself from, for either of you. But, since you are you, you are both well aware of that and also have both Jasmine and Angie keeping an eye on things. ‘Both’ is good, since Jasmine is somewhat wrapped up in this.”
“Somewhat. You’ll see why it’s only ‘somewhat’ later.”
“Wonderful,” she said, only slightly sarcastically. “Caution is still good, but I understand why you think this is good for you. And I agree. But much of that is because of who you are. If you change, I’ll be yelling warnings at you.”
“And I hope I’ll be listening. Plus, you have a number of people who can intervene.”
“Thankfully!”
“That’s it on Darla for now. Our next date, more or less, is next Saturday. In Houston.”
“Houston?” she said.
“The Jean-Michel Jarre concert. Rendez-Vous Houston.”
“Oh!” she said. “I heard about that. You think...?”
Then she stopped, laughed, and said, “Obviously, you know it’s going to be a big deal.”
“Roughly 1.5 million people watched in my first life. I strongly advise seeing it. If you don’t, just know I-10, Memorial Drive, and Allen Parkway, at least, are all going to be either totally or essentially shut down during the concert.”
“Even I-10? They haven’t mentioned that.”
“Oh, it wasn’t planned,” I said. “People just parked. Tens of thousands of them.”
“Oh, my!” she said. “That’s bigger than they’re saying. Obviously worth the time and trouble for you to see it again.”
“Oh, it’ll be new,” I said.
“Different company, of course.”
“It will actually be new,” I said. “And ... that reminds me. Angie might not have mentioned one little thing.”
“And now I’m worried again. What could she have omitted that would affect a huge concert? It’s going to be a surprise, obviously.”
“We might have — probably did, and certainly did compared to our, and Laura’s, history — saved seven lives.”
“That is ... something,” she said. “It sounds like a good thing.”
“In our first lives, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched about a week earlier than it did in this world. One of the solid rocket boosters had a seal failure, which caused flames to rupture the main fuel tank, which exploded catastrophically. No survivors. There’s no way to survive a shuttle launch failure while the solid rocket boosters are lit.”
“Oh, my God!” she said. “And you intervened?”
“I called one of the senior people in Florida and gave him just enough to justify pausing the launch if the weather was extremely cold. The cold is what caused the failure. From the news reports, that’s why they postponed.”
“Laudable, I think. Obviously, one of those things with unknown consequences. And this affects the concert how?”
“Ron McNair, one of the Challenger crew, brought his saxophone with him and played the first piece of music recorded from space. It’ll be on Jarre’s next album and played at the concert. In my first life, Jarre nearly canceled the concert in grief. Other astronauts prevailed upon him to continue, and there wound up being a very moving tribute to Ron during the concert. This time, I’m guessing he’ll be on stage,” I said.
“Oh! My goodness! And ... now that you say it, I ... a shuttle disaster would be awful for Houston.”
“Especially during the slowdown. The concert was a huge lift at the right time in my first life. It will probably still be a pretty big lift, but the Challenger explosion was kicking Houston when it was down, pretty much.”
“Amusing that you missed covering that, but it makes sense given everything else,” she said.
“We honestly should have mentioned it way back in August. The problem is, we made the phone call and then headed to England. After that, it was out of sight, out of mind. We were terribly nervous in January, but then things worked out, and now it’s... ‘Well, that’s done. Let’s see if there’s any fallout.’”
She chuckled softly.
“Actually, I think I’m good with all of that, presuming you talked with Jasmine and Paige.”
“Extensively,” I said.
“Then they’re in their roles, while I’m in my role. I don’t have to be the spokesman for this universe anymore. They do that. I can just be a counselor for the two most unusual people around.”
“That’s about where we are. We absolutely value your input on everything, and we need to stay more connected, but...”
“But, when there’s a choice to be made, I’m actually much more useful for topics like Darla than changing world history. The ethics of knowing people will die in a way you could prevent but wouldn’t cause are fascinating, but I’m not really an ethicist, either, and you have obligations to others that you would fail to meet if you got caught. So ... happy to do less of that!”
“Let’s talk in ... two weeks less a day? Saturday? If that works, anyway.”
“It works,” she said. “I can’t wait to hear about the other girl.”
“You’ll be fascinated.”
“I’m sure I will!”
“Thanks, Jane!”
“Thank you, Steve!” she said. “For everything. For trusting me all this time, and for taking me along on this adventure.”
“We’re very happy you’re along!” I said.
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