Chapter 15

On December 30, Kevin and Denise drove up to Camp Lejeune to meet their friends and their families. Tom’s, Ayame’s, and the twins’ parents, together with their children, had spent a very pleasant Christmas together and Tom’s and Ayame’s parents had hit it off, having a number of things in common. Now all the families would meet Kevin and Denise, about whom their children had spoken many times.

Tom’s parents had been happy to get to see the twins’ parents again; they had gotten together a few times in California before Stuart’s reassignment and Mitchell and Stuart enjoyed trading stories about their military experiences; of course they both upheld the traditional rivalry between Marines and Army—arguing about which service was better. And Barbara Emerson, Tom’s mother, was delighted to have a fellow engineer with whom to trade stories since Richard Carter, Ayame’s adoptive father, was an electrical engineer. And Sarah had a wonderful time catching up with her sister Ellen.

Sgt Denison had arranged a celebratory dinner and party for New Year’s Eve at the base club and the entire group assembled. Kevin and Denise had spent the earlier part of the day with their friends so the dinner would be the first time they would meet their friends’ parents. They entered the club and could immediately pick out Stuart as the twins’ father; his red hair was the giveaway.

“‘Evening, sir,” Kevin greeted him as he walked up. “I’m Kevin Coris and this is my girlfriend, Denise Roberts.”

“So pleased to finally meet you, Kevin, Denise,” Stuart answered. “My kids talk about you all the time so it’s nice to finally place the faces with the names. Let me introduce you to the others.”

Ellen was looking at Kevin. “Coris ... Coris. Kevin, there’s a foundation based in the Far East by that name. Is there any connection?”

“Oh, yes, that’s my father’s foundation,” Kevin answered. “How’d you know of it?”

“My work,” Ellen responded. “I’m the Japan representative of the U.S.-Japan Association and work with NGOs in the Far East. The Coris Foundation does a little work in Japan.”

“Oh, yes, I remember ... There was a small office in Tokyo when I lived in Japan,” Kevin responded. “I guess it’s still there.”

“It is; do you have anything to do with it? I heard that you were in Korea in the fall—was that about your parents’ foundation?”

“No, it was something else.”

Kevin went on to explain and mentioned his parents’ fate and how the foundation was currently being operated.

“So I don’t have anything to do with it currently, although its director wants me to get more involved after I graduate from college. I do keep in touch, though, and the people I know who work there have been pretty helpful to me in some important projects.”

Cynthia tossed her head. “Yeah, this kid is absolutely incredible, Aunt Ellen. Kevin, it’s safe; all these people are on our side—want to tell them more?”

“Um, Cindy? I don’t like a lot of people knowing...”

“It’s okay, Kevin,” Cynthia said. “These are all close family...”

“If Kevin is uncomfortable, Cindy...” Stuart began.

“It’s okay, sir. It’s only my natural caution. What she’s referring to is how I had the idea for the website about that Naked in School Program business that I got swept up in when I arrived in the States for my high school junior year last year. My foundation contacts helped set up the web server so it would be difficult to find.”

“He means impossible,” Tom put in. “The government, media, and bunches of security companies all tried and none could find it.”

“Yes, and it led to the collapse of the Program, too,” Roger added. “Kevin and Denise did more for exposing the Program’s problems than anyone else.”

“Um, I disagree, Roger,” Kevin argued. “Your own military-style campaign against the Program in high school and Cindy’s legal ideas did more for crippling it so it can’t work now.”

“But most of that success would have been impossible without your website,” Cynthia rejoined.

“Hey, guys, cool it,” Denise grinned as the adults were listening to the byplay, amused. “The twins love using these military metaphors, so let me go for one—so what happened was a two-pronged offense, one directed against the command structure and the other against the operational element, right?”

“Goddamn, that’s brilliant,” Stuart roared in delight. “Denise, wow, you fit right in. Can I adopt you?”

“Sure, sir, your kids feel like my siblings anyway. It’s only been a few months but I’ve come to think like them, I guess,” she answered.

“So how is that anti-Program business working?” Sarah asked. “I remember way back, almost two years ago when we were in Tokyo and the twins won their judo medals, how we found out that the Program was to start, and how anti-Program they were back then, just at the idea.”

“Well, in our Atlanta high school, Kevin and I started a Program resistance and the twins helped us model it after their own resistance. Then Tom was able to help us get an article about it in the school paper,” Denise said.

“Oh, yes ... Tom mentioned that,” Barbara commented.

Denise went on, “But the greatest argument against the Program was Cindy’s study where it showed the bad effect on student performance.”

“Roger and Tom were involved in that too, Denise,” Cynthia put in. “And Tom’s group has an article coming out that shows the damaging social effects that the Program has on society. That’s coming out in a few months.”

“Well, and damaging for the children, too—I can’t help thinking of what happened to Ayame and how Roger and Tom saved her last year,” Ellen said as Richard nodded in agreement. “I simply cannot imagine a government operation that would allow kidnapping and brainwashing of children like they were doing. Richard, tell them about the letter from the secretary of State we just got.”

“Right. First, a little background. You’ve heard about the feds’ settlement with the kids who were kidnapped by that sex ring? That the government’s paying for four years of college or equivalent, plus psych counseling for them? Good. Well, that teen brainwashing scandal that Ayame was involved with wasn’t included, and the feds were arguing that since the criminals were free-lancing and weren’t federal employees, that the government wasn’t responsible. So Ellen and I had joined a class-action suit on that issue and just recently heard that the feds were going to settle with the same offer and Ayame’s college will be paid for by the goverment.

“And damn, you know that the kidnapping incident with Ayame caused a firestorm with the Japanese government. When they found out, apparently Prince Hirokawa summoned the U.S. ambassador and officially reamed his ass over what the feds did to Ayame. A federal employee had vindictively targeted her, singling her out for that kidnapping, despite the fact that she wasn’t eligible for Program selection. We were told that the Prince was very angry and demanded that the U.S. government make proper apogees and restitution. Soon after that, Ellen and I got a letter of apology from the Prince and somewhat after that, we got an apology letter from the secretary of Education; that’s where the Office of Social Awareness was moved to. Now the letter Ellen mentioned just came. We haven’t told anyone about this yet, but the government’s restitution for Ayame is an additional four-year college stipend. Ayame can use it to go to med school.”

The whole group applauded that news.

“But it looks like the Program is just fading away—it’s defunct but people don’t know that yet. The entire idea of nudity in schools was just plain stupid,” Richard concluded.

“I agree, and I think of how the Program offices were taken over by a criminal gang—one would believe that this could only happen in fiction, but here it actually happened,” Sarah said. “And Cindy told me that you, Kevin, discovered that sex ring—just amazing!”

“Kevin got the Medal of Freedom from the president for that,” Denise offered.

“She’s being modest too,” Kevin smiled. “President Gerston gave Denise the Presidential Citizens Medal for her work, as well.”

“Well, it seems that our children are models for public service achievement,” Stuart said. “Already they’ve done more than most people do in a lifetime.” He raised his glass. “Let’s have a toast to the further success of the kids and to the complete demise of the Program.”

“Hear, hear,” was the reply.

“Say, Dad,” Cynthia said after everyone had sipped their drinks. “What about the Program at the high school here? Did you do anything about it?”

“Ha,” Stuart answered. “Our high school is on the base and it’s actually run by the DoD. So I’ll give you one guess about the Program here.”

“Nada, zip, zilch. That’s three guesses. Any of them correct?” she grinned.

“Yep. Seems the question of running the Program here never even came up ... I heard that it was never considered at all—the materials that were mailed to the school from the Program agency were recycled without even being opened and people from the regional Program office were turned away at the gate. That’s what I was told. There’s a mandatory dress code policy at the base schools, too. The policy says something about its promoting a safe, positive learning environment and keeping standards of health and decency. We know just how well the Program does that.”

“I wish our old school were like that,” Roger said. “Life would have been so much easier...”

“Don’t say that—I wouldn’t have known how wonderful Tom was if the Program hadn’t thrown us together, even though it did it indirectly,” Cynthia objected.

“There is that ... well, I guess it’s one of those clouds and silver linings things,” Roger admitted.

Gradually the conversation turned away from Program matters to talk about some of their future plans. Tom’s parents were fairly certain that they’d accept the jobs at the nearby nuclear power plant.

“What does your daughter think?” Sarah asked. “She’s in college in San Diego, right?”

“She told us to go for it,” Barbara answered. “She’s got a serious love interest there now; he’s graduating in May and is staying in the area to study law. And she’s doing very well in a journalism program.”

“They all grow up,” Ellen said. “Look at my daughter. When I sent her with you almost two years ago, Sarah, she seemed to be a little girl still. Now she’s truly a young woman. And Richard is close to when he can retire, too. He can get a pension from his company; we can move to the States, and he’s still young enough to do some private consulting—maybe helping Japanese companies work with their U.S. suppliers and markets.”

“It would be wonderful to have you closer to us, Ellen,” Sarah commented.

After dinner grew to a close, the group left the restaurant and went to the club where the New Year’s celebration would continue with entertainment and dancing into the night.

When Kevin and Denise returned to school after the holidays, instead of the Monday morning announcement of the names of the students to participate in the Program, their teacher gave a handout to everyone and told them that it described the revised Program.

Participation was now optional; students were encouraged to volunteer. If they did, their participation would count for one term of gym. The only touching of participants was to be what the person allowed. Students could be used as classroom models if they consented and no coercion by teachers was permitted.

Kevin stared at the sheet and then looked at Denise with a baffled expression.

“Huh,” he said. “What’s the point? Why are they bothering; all this does is it makes the school into a clothing-optional facility. Can something like this have any educational benefit at all?”

“Beats me,” Denise answered. “Roger and the others will be interested to hear about this, I think.”

Meanwhile, Roger and Cynthia were getting their own surprise. They were in an education course called “Modern Education Principles.” The course ran for the full academic year, fall and spring. At their first post-holiday class meeting, the same day that Kevin and Denise were learning about the way the Program had changed, their professor was describing the projects that the class would be doing for the rest of the course.

“These projects, there are six of them, all are in the category of ‘Issues in Modern Education.’ Some have to do with curriculum and some with classroom practices. Three are at middle-school level and three deal with high-school issues. The projects will require you to work in teams of five to six students and your projects will be randomly assigned. However, you may choose who you want to work with on your team. Each of these project issues concerns a current problem in contemporary education practice; you will develop a proposal and write it up in publication format and submit it to me. After I critique it, you will make a presentation of your project to the entire class, and then take it to your assigned cooperating high school or middle school and you’ll have five class sessions to implement your project. Take a few minutes now to choose your team members.”

Cynthia formed her group and in addition to Roger, two of its members were their friends who had worked on the Program report the previous year, Rhonda and Alan.

“All right, are your groups ready and none is larger then six? Okay. One member from each group, please come here and take one of the envelopes out of the box on the table. Then return to your group; when you’re back, open the envelope. The sheet shows the project you’ve selected and on the index card, please write the names of your group members and give the cards to me.”

Cynthia’s group opened the envelope and read the sheet. It read, “Issue: The Naked in School Program fails to meet its stated educational objectives. Design a curriculum for at least three classes, corresponding class objectives, and classroom procedures to better align the Program with its stated objectives. Then demonstrate how your solution would work in class sessions at Merritt High School.”