Chapter 1: Back to Reality, Part I

December 30, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

"I'm sorely disappointed in you girls!" Stephanie giggled when Jessica, Kara, and I stepped off the bus in the makeshift Terminal 4 at O'Hare. "He can still walk! And Big Brother, THEY can still walk!"

Jessica laughed, "I'd say that you were jealous, but he's your brother, so you really can't be, can you?"

"No, I can't!" Stephanie said, the corner of her lip turned up, which revealed nothing to Jessica but conveyed a clear message to Kara and me.

"I take it the house is in one piece?" I asked, taking our bags from next to the bus and putting them on a cart.

"Nobody was arrested, and we didn't need the Fire Department, so yeah, I guess so!"

We wheeled the cart out to the short-term parking lot and Stephanie and I loaded the bags in the hatch of her Nova. Jessica and Kara got into the back seat, and as they had in Stockholm, held hands. I got into the front seat with Stephanie.

"Do you see how it is?" I asked.

"Get used to it, Big Brother," Stephanie laughed. "The girls have always been in charge!"

She backed out of the parking spot, and we made our way to the exit, where I handed her the $2.00 to cover the parking fee. She pulled out onto I-190 and headed for the city.

"How was Sweden, girls?" Stephanie asked as she merged into traffic.

"Great!" Jessica said. "I really enjoyed it. It was nice and peaceful, beautiful, and Steve's friends are wonderful."

"I loved it!" Kara said. "He'd promised to take me there a long time ago, and I'm glad we went. The hotel was awesome, the country was absolutely gorgeous, and as Jessica said, Steve's friends were wonderful."

"And the sex?" Stephanie asked with a smirk and a wink that only I could see.

"He performed adequately and fulfilled his husbandly duties," Jessica said deadpan.

Kara and Stephanie both laughed, and I just smiled and shook my head. I knew better than to try to verbally tangle with these three, because together, they'd find a way to twist every single word that I said into some odd meaning that would insult my manhood. Of course, my silence didn't help.

"Cat got your tongue, Tiger?" Jessica purred. "He sure didn't last night!"

"Leave it to my brother to talk too much when he should be screwing!" Stephanie giggled.

"Oh, he was tongue-tied alright," Kara giggled. "But it was OUR tongues!"

Stephanie laughed hard. "I guess he lived up to his reputation, then?"

"I have nothing to compare to, but I'd say so!" Jessica laughed.

"I don't either, but I agree!" Kara added.

Stephanie suggestively licked her lips and winked at me again. She DID have something to compare it to and had always told me that the other guys came up short by comparison.

"Squirt, who do the Bears play next weekend?" I asked.

"The Giants. New York beat San Francisco yesterday. And New England beat the Jets. Best guess is Bears against the Dolphins in the Super Bowl."

"Good," I declared. "We can exact our revenge for that stupid Monday Night loss to Miami!"

"Oh, I almost forgot, your tickets for the Penguins game on Wednesday afternoon are on your desk. And the girls made a minor change in room assignments while you were gone."

"Oh?" I said.

"Sofia is moving in with Bethany now that Kara will be sleeping with you. They wanted to give Elyse her private room back."

"I asked them to, Tiger," Jessica said. "I strongly prefer you go to Elyse in her room, rather than bring her to our bed. That's doubly true because Kara will be moving into the Master bedroom."

I nodded, "That makes sense. Elyse will need a place for a crib in less than eighteen months."

"There'll be plenty of room when Dave and Julia move out, and when George and Charlie graduate. By Summer, we'll have empty rooms in the house," Kara said.

I nodded, "I figured that Stephanie would move over so that Jennifer and Josie could give Jesse his own room once he's out of the crib. That would leave us a room to use as a nursery. By the time any of our kids need their own rooms, Bethany will have graduated for sure, and Sofia will be in medical school. At some point, she'll want to get a place of her own, I'm sure, as will Squirt."

"You aren't getting rid of me THAT easily, Big Brother!" Stephanie laughed.

"That's years down the road," I said. "But I do think you should move over once Dave and Julia move out and give Jen and Josie their privacy."

"That makes sense. Oh, one other thing, Tatyana called with her flight information. She's flying in on Friday and she'll fly back to Boston on Wednesday. I promised her that you would pick her up. She'll sleep in the guest room where Jessica's been sleeping. Jorge will arrive on Saturday and he'll be here until the dorms at IIT open on the following Friday."

"Have Elyse and Bethany come back from Ohio?" I asked.

"Today. Elyse asked me to plan a New Year's Eve party. I have everything set. Julia bought the booze for me. You were running low on some stuff, so I had her pick it up. I left a detailed accounting of what I spent so you can reimburse me."

"Will do!"

"When does school start, Jessica?" Stephanie asked.

"Monday, unfortunately. I'm going back to Indianapolis on Sunday. I start a surgical Clerkship on Monday morning, but I don't know what service I'm assigned to. I'll call to ask when we get home, because the letter is likely sitting in my mailbox at my apartment."

"Ah, one more thing, Big Brother. Doctor Barton called and said that he's rented an apartment because they can't close on the house until February 1st. He left a phone number."

"Anything ELSE?" I chuckled.

"The world did not stop to wait for you while you were screwing yourselves silly in Sweden! I think Julia has a bunch of stuff for you, too."

"Tomorrow," I sighed, as the weight of the world began to force itself into my consciousness. "Today is our last vacation day. I want to get home, get something to eat, take a sauna, and then just relax."

We arrived at the house, and when Stephanie pulled into the driveway, Jennifer and Josie came out to greet us. Everyone exchanged hugs, and Josie helped Stephanie and me carry the bags into the house and up to my room, while Kara and Jessica went to the guest room to bring Jessica's things upstairs.

"I'll move my things in here tomorrow morning while you're working," Kara said. "And I'll start some laundry while you're making lunch."

"There's plenty of room in the walk-in closet," I said. "And there are two sets of drawers built into your end, so you and Jess can share. If there isn't enough room, let me know and we'll figure out a solution."

We went downstairs, and I stuck my head in the NIKA office and said hello, then went to my office/study to greet the programming team. Penny jumped up and gave me a huge hug, and Dany and Tom just waved, then turned back to their workstations. I went to the kitchen to make soup and sandwiches. Jessica called to check which service she would be assigned to, and from the smile I saw spread on her face, I was sure it was trauma. She hung up and confirmed it.

"Trauma!" she gushed. "Of course, that means being on call and wearing a pager, but it'll so be worth it!"

"Congratulations. I guess that helps with your future plans?"

"It does. It's not strictly necessary, but I'll have a total of four emergency medicine Clerkships and that's huge. Between that, my grades, and any strings Doctor Barton can pull at the University here, I should be a lock to be an Intern with him!"

I pulled her into a hug, and Kara joined us to make it a three-way hug. We all kissed, and then sat down to eat. When we finished eating, we went for a short walk, and then the three of us went down to the basement to use the sauna. I put up the 'Privacy Please' sign and, for the first time, sat naked in the sauna with my two wives, one on either side of me.

"Why the privacy sign?" Jessica asked.

"Because I just want some time with the two of you. The real world is going to intrude tomorrow morning, and I just want to grab this last bit of peace and quiet before it does."

"Being naked in here is really liberating," Jessica said. "The steam is really relaxing, too."

"We can use the whirlpool, too," Kara said. "I think the three of us can squeeze in together!"

"That sounds like fun!" Jessica agreed.

About twenty minutes later, I adjusted the sauna controls, then filled the tub with warm water. The three of us got in, with the girls turned so that they were half-lying on my chest. I turned on the water jets and all three of us let out long sighs as the water flowed around us.

"Damn," Jessica said. "I really COULD get used to this. I think I have to come here more often than you guys come to Indy. But with my schedule, who knows? If I'm on weekend on call, I won't be able to drive up."

"We'll work it out, Babe. Kara and I will do whatever we need to do to accommodate."

"I love you both so much!" she sighed.

I made eye contact with Kara. "We love you, too!" we both said.

When we finally left the sauna, we put on our robes and went up to our room. We crowded into the shower, which was easily large enough for the three of us, and after we dried off, we climbed into bed for a nap. I set the alarm for ninety minutes later and with it being close to 11:00pm in Stockholm, I had no trouble falling asleep.

When we woke up, I called Stephie to see how she was doing. She was feeling very weak and was often sick to her stomach. I offered to visit, but she turned me down flat, saying that she didn't feel up for it. She did remind me about coming to Georgia for the race at Talladega, and I promised that I'd be there.

The rest of the evening was quiet. After our nap, we ate dinner, which Sofia had prepared, and spent some time talking to Dave, Julia, Sofia, Stephanie, Jennifer, and Josie about our honeymoon. Thankfully, Dave and Julia avoided talking about work — there would be plenty of time in the morning when I had to acknowledge the real world once again.

Elyse and Bethany arrived home just before 9:00pm and joined us to talk. My wives and I didn't stay up too late, and turned in around 9:30pm. We chose to simply go to sleep, content to be in each other's arms.

December 31, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

I had a quiet breakfast with my wives before work. Kara and Jessica were going to spend the day moving Kara's things to our room, and then they'd help Sofia move in with Bethany. When I finished breakfast, I kissed them both and went to my computer and started writing journal entries about the wedding and honeymoon. Penny, Dany, and Tom arrived just before 8:00am, and I knew it was time to get to work. I saved everything and locked the disk back in the drawer just as Julia came in and asked if I'd meet with her to catch up. I agreed and got up to follow her. She'd made a pot of tea, which we took to the Indian room where Dave and Elyse joined us.

"Lots of good news — everything with Purina is on-track and Cindi and Mario have signed several new customers," Julia said. "And even more important, our support revenue has increased. Elyse?"

"Based on what we're receiving from the law firms and the construction firms, plus the union shops, we're ahead of plan. I have some revised financials here, which we'll present to the Board when we meet with them in two weeks. If everything goes according to this plan, we can start paying Dave, Julia, and Cindi more realistic salaries no later than April. Cindi has a fairly big deal in the works that would mean some serious money."

Julia took over, saying, "Waukesha County, in Wisconsin, which is west of Milwaukee, bought some Prime computers. They're looking to hire an outside company to help them design and build a bunch of applications with Prime Information and something called 'Blacksmith' which looks like a screen designer and report generator add-on for Prime Information. It's something that we'd assign Tom and one other person to, full time, for at least a year, if not two. And the billable rate would be at least one-and-a-half times our cost for Tom and the second person."

"Holy smokes!" I said. "So we'd hire someone and still have a built-in profit of something like $50,000 a year for a couple of years? Just from that contract?"

"Yes," Julia said. "And Cindi thinks we have the inside track. She met with a guy named John Forster who's responsible for the new implementation and from everything he's said, it's our deal to lose. Cindi, you, Dave, and I have to make a presentation there in two weeks. The contract will be awarded in March and we'd start June 2nd."

"Damn! So what does that mean for Purina?" I said.

"Tom is at a point where we can hire a more junior person to take over making changes and fixing bugs. We owe them the production delivery on March 3rd, which means the timing is perfect. Tom keeps working on that until he goes to Waukesha, assuming we get the deal. Dave wants to put you on the project with Tom to start with, while we bring someone else onboard. A lot of the initial work is design, so it's better to have Dave and you work with me on that while Tom does prototyping. Once the coding starts in earnest, then we'll move another coder in to work with Tom, and Dave will supervise."

"Can we handle two people working remotely like that?" I asked.

"Tom is a known commodity and we trust him, so, yes, we can. He'd be our senior person on site and Dave would go up once a week to do project status meetings."

"Cindi needs a raise," I said.

Elyse laughed, and handed me a sheet of paper, "Here's our new proposed commission schedule. Neither Cindi nor Mario get raises, but we pay them a percentage of each deal that they bring in. I talked to them in broad terms and they're very happy with that. Just from the deal with Waukesha, Cindi would get a very nice income bump."

"What about stuff in the past?" I asked.

"Down at the bottom, I proposed a one-time bonus for each of them. It's not as much as they would have received under the commission structure, but we can't really afford to give them more because it wasn't factored in to the costs."

"No objections here. You two should present this to the Board when we meet."

"Thanks. Now for the more difficult issue. Dave?"

"I'll be blunt, because that's what you like, Steve," he said seriously. "Dany isn't working out."

I recoiled a bit and cocked my head. I trusted Dave's judgment, but I certainly hadn't seen any signs of a problem with her. I wondered if something had happened while I was gone.

"That's unexpected," I observed neutrally. "What's up?"

"Her code is buggy, and she's sloppy. The number of bugs reported in modules she works on is more than triple what you and Penny have combined, and you both work much faster than she does. All those bugs you spent time fixing? Most of those were hers. Part of the problem is that she doesn't test things thoroughly before she submits them to me."

Chapter 2 »