Chapter 48: NIKA Consulting

May-June, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

Bethany arrived on Thursday afternoon to have time to relax before she started her first Summer class the following Monday. She and I spent the afternoon moving her things to the room that she'd be sharing with Kara, while Jennifer, Josie, and Stephanie organized their rooms in the coach house. That evening, at dinner, Jennifer and Josie discussed their plans for the commitment ceremony. I thought Jorge was going to have a stroke.

"Wait, you two are marrying each other? But Jennifer is having Steve's baby? And this ceremony is going to be naked?" he said, sounding completely confused.

"First of all, it's Josie's, Steve's, and my baby," Jennifer said, and then smiled evilly, "Josie was there while we made it! She helped!"

"Uhm, uh," Jorge stammered.

"And yes. Josie and I and Steve, who is going to officiate, as well as everyone there, will be naked. Well, that's not quite true; Josie and I will both wear floral wreaths in our hair!"

"Uhm, uh," Jorge stammered again, and then recovered just enough to ask, "Who's going to be here?"

"Me, Josie, Steve, Stephanie, Bethany, and Larry, and we'll invite Kurt and Kathy, but with their wedding, they may not be able to get away."

"Leave the poor boy alone, Jenny," Josie said with a silly smile. "His brain was already short-circuiting at the thought of Stephanie naked!"

"You are a bunch of crazy gringos!" he said, shaking his head, but with a big grin on his face.

After dinner, Jennifer called Larry, Kurt, and Kathy, and invited them. She got a bit of resistance from Larry, but in the end, talked him into it. Kathy said that she and Kurt would come up for the weekend because all the planning was finished for their wedding on June 15th.

"It's all set for 5:15am on Sunday," Jennifer said after the calls.

"I wish we could do it outside, but that might cause some problems," Josie smirked. "So we'll use the sunroom. We have some things to do this week to prepare, so it's good that Jenny and I don't start work until the 17th."

"Just let me know what I need to do," I said.

Elyse arrived home on Friday, and Dave and Julia both arrived on Saturday. By mutual agreement, we spent Saturday and Sunday relaxing. I did call Karin on Sunday morning, and confirmed her plans to arrive on June 21st. She'd decided to stay until the 1st of July; ten days total, and said she was looking forward to it with a mixture of joy and sadness. I felt the same way — joy at seeing her, sadness at the looming end of something that had begun six years earlier.

Penny hung out with us on Sunday afternoon, and she and I cuddled a bit, but when she went home, she kissed me on the cheek. When I shut the door behind her, I turned and leaned against it and let out a long, deep sigh. Penny seemed to have adapted better to the end of our physical relationship than I had. That kiss on the cheek had felt like a kick in the balls, and it made me very sad. I knew I had to get past these feelings, but it was going to take some time.

On Monday morning, we ate breakfast together and promptly at 8:00am on Monday, June 3rd, 1985, NIKA Consulting opened for business.

"What's the plan of action?" Cindi asked.

"Steve and I are going to talk to Gerald Brown at 10:00am," Julia said. "Dave and Penny are going to dust off the old veterinary programs and figure out what we need to do to turn them into software for regular doctor's offices. And Cindi, because we don't really have any sales or marketing or customer service right now, is going to get phone lines ordered, purchase office supplies, order business cards, and stationery."

Bethany, who was sitting in the room observing, raised a question.

"Could that software be used by psychology practices? You know, to track patients?"

"Sure," I said. "Mostly we have to change all the animal patient stuff for people stuff. I'm sure Dave and Penny would love some input from you on that."

"Sure! I'd love to help."

"Did we get the final proof of the logo from Jeremiah Brown?" I asked Julia.

"Yep. He dropped it off last week. Jorge gave it to me when we arrived. It's totally cool. It's Napoleonic 'N' super-imposed over a Russian Onion Dome. Jeremiah and Dave came up with that right before finals."

She showed everyone the drawing, and it was impressive.

"What about computers?" Dave asked.

"Once Steve and I finish with Gerald Brown, we'll head to the computer store on Michigan Avenue and the IBM store. We're going to get one of the new Apple IIe enhanced units, plus an upgrade kit for Steve's current IIe to turn it into an enhanced model; another IBM PC, and a Mac 256K. That will give us two of each system that we plan to support."

"Pick me up on the way to the computer stores," Elyse said. "Steve and I both have to sign the checks. After that, we need to get Stephanie and head over to the bank so she can be added to the signature cards. I also think we should add Julia as well."

"I agree," I said.

"OK," Julia said, "Everyone has their marching orders! Hop to it!"

"Yes, Boss!" I chuckled.

"You set it up this way, Buster!" Julia laughed.

"That I did," I agreed. "I think we need to get some more desks for the study room as well. The computer store carries some nice units. Last point, and the one I'm sure everyone wants to know about, is paychecks. Elyse?"

Elyse smiled.

"Everyone except Penny will be paid on the 15th and last day of the month. Because she's hourly, Penny will be paid every Friday for hours she's worked. The rest of you will receive 1/24th of your annual salary, less withholding, on each payday, starting with June 15th. Any questions?"

There weren't any, and everyone got to work and Julia and I changed into dress clothes — a suit for me and a dress for her — for our meeting with Gerald Brown to work out the specifications for the estimation software that we'd agreed to develop for him. The weather was nice, so Julia and I decided to walk the ten blocks to the offices of Brown Construction. Bethany left the same time we did, heading to Loyola for the first day of her Summer class.

"This is really happening!" Julia said.

"It sure is! And if we can pull this off, I expect we'll be able to sell this software to dozens of firms. Have you worked out with Elyse how we'll price it and charge for support?"

"Not yet. She and I have discussed it, but we still have plenty of time to decide. We do have to design, write, test, and document it first!"

"Oh, I suppose!" I chuckled.

We arrived at Gerald Brown's offices and the office manager showed us right into his office. We shook hands with him and sat down. He offered us coffee, which we accepted, and then we got to work. Nearly two hours later, Julia was satisfied with the information that we'd collected, and we left the office with over ten pages of notes as well as copies of all the paper forms that Brown Construction used.

"You have inventory software, right?" Julia asked.

"Yes. It was for the delis and bakeries that Don Joseph owned. They still use it, though I don't have whatever changes Krista made over the years."

"Could you get those changes?" she asked.

"Sure. We'll call Larry and ask him to make copies. Once Krista graduated, one of Joseph Grossi's friend's grandkids took over maintaining that software, but my agreement with them means I can ask for copies."

"Cool. If you noticed, they don't really have an inventory system. When they bid a job, they simply go and count the things that they have in stock and order what they need. Did you see Mr. Brown's eyes light up when I said he could instantly know how much of each thing he had just by looking at the screen."

"I did. It sounds to me as if the time they save from that alone would pay for the computers they'll need. It would be cool if we could hook the computers together, but the hardware and software to do that would cost way too much. I've been reading about something called Novell NetWare, which sounds cool, but I don't think we can afford to spend that kind of money right now."

"We're talking small offices and one or two computers," Julia said. "I think for now we can manage without that. But we need to constantly watch for developments to see where things are going."

"That's one of the reasons for having Beth Pater on the board, as well as Doctor Dalton, the CS professor," I said.

"Everyone needs to read as much as they can about personal computers," Julia said. "You have a subscription to Byte and Creative Computing, but we need to see what else is available. I'll check the library this week."

"Cool."

"After we eat, go to the computer store and the bank, I think we'll run out of time today. Tomorrow, we'll have a staff meeting and discuss how we're going to proceed. Hopefully, Dave and Penny will have a good report about your old software."

We ate lunch and then decided to go to the bank before the computer store. Elyse called Joyce, and they drew up a corporate resolution, which I signed, and then we walked to the bank to add the girls to the signature cards for the business accounts. Once that was finished, we walked back to the house and Julia, Elyse, and I headed downtown to purchase the computers and desks that we'd discussed.

As Julia had predicted, by the time we returned home, it was close to 5:00pm. Everyone pitched in to rearrange the furniture in the study room to make room for the new desks, which would be delivered on Thursday, and set up the new computers. Dave and I upgraded my older Apple IIe to an enhanced model, which took about an hour. When we booted up the computer, we knew we'd been successful when it identified itself as an Apple //e rather than an Apple ][ on the startup screen.

Penny joined us for dinner, and with Alice's blessing, hung out with us until she had to go home at 9:00pm. Once again, she kissed me on the cheek as she left. The pang of loss was still there, but it seemed to diminish a bit each day, and I was sure that eventually it would go away.

Bethany joined me in bed that evening, as she had each night since she'd come back from Ohio.

"How was your first day of class?" I asked.

"Just the introduction and syllabus, and a short lecture. It's going to be a very interesting class!"

"I thought being with me was a graduate level sex course!" I teased.

"Oh, it is!" she agreed with a soft laugh. "But this is a sexuality class. So it's more about sexual identity and the problems that occur around it. We've experienced a few of those in our lives."

"Tell me about it! Jennifer, Kara, Melanie, Larry, me and my sister."

"Well, for that last one, your sister was never, ever confused. You were, but she sure as hell wasn't. The only thing that's a problem for her is stopping. She never wanted to, you know."

"I know. We've talked about it. It would just make our lives way too complicated unless we disappeared to Bora Bora or some other completely out of the way place where nobody knew us, nobody could find us, and we could pretend to be married."

"That's probably true. But you two will never, ever leave each other's sides. Now that she's here, you're both going to be much happier. Now, about that graduate level course?" Bethany smirked.

I pulled her to me and despite the teasing, we simply made love and fell asleep in each other's arms.

On Tuesday morning after breakfast, the NIKA team gathered in the great room for our staff meeting. Julia ran it just as efficiently as she'd run our meetings for the software development class, and everyone gave an update on what they had done on Monday.

"The phones are ordered," Cindi reported. "Ameritech will have a technician here on Friday. They'll install two, two-line phones in the study room, and one in Steve's study, which will become his office. That should be enough for now. The phones themselves can handle up to five lines, but we don't need that yet. I also got our ad set for the next edition of the Yellow Pages, which, fortunately, is being published in a little over a month. I also went to the print shop and arranged for the stationery and business cards. Those will be ready in about ten days. I also talked to Julia, and we ordered a fax machine.

"I have one new proposal to make. I want to visit each of the computer stores in the area — there are about a dozen within twenty miles, and let them know that we're in business and can do custom programming, plus set up computers, teach people how to use them, that kind of thing. It might not bring in a lot of money, but it can help get our name out there."

"That's a fantastic idea, Cindi," Julia said. "I approve. Steve?"

I nodded, "I agree. But you don't need to check things like that with me, Julia. I want you to run things. Remember the business plan — you and Elyse are peers, Dave and Cindi work for you, and Penny and I work for Dave. We can all have input, but I want you to make the final decisions. If there's something big, then we take it to the Board of Directors."

She nodded, "OK. Then Cindi, please do that. Dave, what did you guys find?"

"Steve's code is excellent, but that's not exactly a revelation. It's well documented, too. The main thing is converting it from the Apple ][ to the IBM PC, which, I hate to say it, is making huge inroads in business over the Macintosh. With 50% market share, we have to focus on DOS first, and then Macintosh. On that note, I think the Board should approve buying an Apple LaserWriter, despite the cost. We want to be able to print high-quality documents, and in the long-run, it's going to pay for itself."

"I'll speak to Elyse and Joyce and get it on the agenda for the Board meeting on the 19th," Julia said. "Do you have any estimates about how long it will take?"

"Penny?" Dave said, turning to her.

"Steve and I did stuff like this together for the last year. I think at most two weeks. Dave knows more about testing, and he thinks that would take another week. He's going to work on testing while I modify the programs. Once that's done, then we can start changing things for people instead of dogs and cats!"

"Good," Julia affirmed. "Steve and I met with Gerald Brown yesterday, and we have a lot of design notes for the new estimation software. We're going to try to tie it together with the inventory software that Steve wrote in High School, which will also have to be converted. Cindi, you'll work with us on that today while Dave and Penny focus on the doctor's office software. Let's get to work!"

Julia, Cindi, and I spread out all the notes and forms on the dining room table and began designing the software. As each hour passed, I realized just how much we owed to Scott and his software development class. It had provided us with the foundation that we needed to successfully complete this project. When we broke for lunch, everyone gathered in the sunroom to eat. Elyse had some news.

"While you had your noses to the grindstone, I set up some spreadsheets to track expenses and income. I also called Jamie and asked him to revise the contracts with the unions so that they'll be customers of NIKA instead of having Steve as a consultant. Steve, I take it you've discussed that with them already?"

"I have," I replied. "They have no concerns, so long as I'm the one doing the work. It's not bad — usually no more than a day or two a month, mostly making minor changes or adding new reports. It's a nice steady income for not a lot of work. That's something Cindi could work on, Julia — trying to sell the software to other union shops."

"Just a straight sale?" Julia asked.

"I think so. Something like $500 for the software, a small fee to install it and set up the computers, and some sort of support plan that covers updates and stuff."

"Cindi," Julia said, "That's your task when we finish the initial design of the software for Brown Construction. Work with Elyse to try to figure out the right numbers. It probably wouldn't hurt to talk to Scott about pricing our services."

After lunch, everyone went back to the tasks that they'd begun that morning. I kept an eye on the clock because I was meeting Jessica at 6:00pm for our last date before she went to Africa, but the day didn't seem to drag like class had when I was anticipating my dates with her. I wrapped up my work just after 5:00pm, got a kiss on the cheek from Penny, and went up to shower. Bethany came upstairs with me. She got into the shower with me and helped me wash.

"Last night before Jessica leaves," Bethany said suggestively. "Do you need me to change your sheets?"