Chapter 12

The next day competitions were held at Silver Lining. Kate had arranged things from the beginning so that the employees of Ascendant Arts would never experience the gray monotony of ordinary workdays. There were constant impromptu meetings and competitions. People were supposed to realize their whole potential at the company, not merely function as cogs in a machine.

Kate seized the opportunity to deliver another speech. Demand created supply; she knew many people awaited her words and came to work every day largely for the chance to hear them.

“Friends, I’m going to begin with something many of you won’t expect,” Kate said as everyone gathered around her. “Today is a special day. Natalie is getting married!”

Kate gestured toward her red-haired assistant, and everyone applauded.

“How wonderful that our city has begun generating love! Natalie’s honeymoon is coming up soon, and many of us envy her, myself included!”

Polite laughter.

“But! I want us to think about something. You can, and should, spend your whole life on your honeymoon and marry everything — a tree, the sky, books and every human being on earth, a beautiful flower, even the fresh air coming in through that little window! I want everyone in a wonderful mood, everyone acting silly. That’s an order!”

... The participants began being assigned to male-female pairs for the competitions. Because Kate had been standing off to one side after her speech, she was the last to receive a partner. And the perceptive reader will surely not be surprised that she ended up paired with ... Gordon. Yes, nobody wanted him because of his age. He shouldn’t really have been competing at all, but Kate had made a rule: everybody participates! What matters isn’t winning but taking part! And now her rule had turned against her. Seeing the smirking old man before her, she felt the heavy hand of fate. It seemed Gordon was a curse imposed on her as payment for all the success she’d enjoyed before he came along.

But Kate swallowed her emotions. Everybody around her listened to her, respected her, revered her. Should she really focus her attention on one troublesome old man?

“Good speech,” he said. “So, does that mean you’re marrying me today? Since you’re proposing to marry everything you lay eyes on?”

“I suppose so...” Kate said, turning away and twisting the wedding ring on her left hand.

The competitions began. Gordon was openly holding Kate back. She could have done better on her own, without him, but rejecting the old man would have meant rejecting her own words about participation being what mattered most.

One event required the man to carry the woman on his shoulders along an obstacle course and back to the starting line faster than the opposing teams.

“Ms. Morrison, I’m too old for this,” Gordon said immediately.

“Stephenson! How did you ever get hired as a security guard...?”

“When you’re fighting criminals, technique matters more than strength...”