Chapter 19: Life Goes On

October 10, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"A toast to Barbara!" I proclaimed, raising my glass. "We're glad she'll still be a part of the family, even though she'll be nearly 2,000 miles away!"

"Hear, hear!" Dave and Cindi said together as a raucous cheer went up.

"I also have an announcement to make," I said. "The bank approved the financing for our new building!"

More raucous cheers went up from the NIKA staff, my housemates, and the friends who I'd invited to Barbara's going-away party. Elyse had told me the previous day that the loan had been approved, but we'd agreed to keep it secret, except from Julia, until the party.

"When do we move?" Penny asked.

"We don't close until November 2nd," I said. "And then we'll need to get it wired for our network, get our new furniture moved in, arrange to have the phones moved and new lines added, and a bunch of other stuff. I'd say probably after November 15th. Julia has a floor plan and everyone can have input, but she'll have the final say about who sits where. And no appealing her decision to me!"

"That's only because Steve already picked the office that he'll share with Penny," Julia said, laughing. "And told me that I wasn't allowed to change that."

"It's good to be king!" I chuckled.

"Does everyone get an office?" Heather asked.

"No," Julia said. "There's a large open area where we'll install cubicle-style workstations. We can go with high or low walls, depending on your input. Steve prefers it to be as open as possible, but he and I both agree that the programmers should decide if they want walls or not. Talk to Dave about the configuration, and he'll discuss it with Elyse and me."

"Who gets offices?" Tasha asked.

"There will be some sharing, but Elyse, Cindi, me, and the support team — because they need quiet — will have private offices. Dave chose to sit with his team in a cubicle. We'll reserve two of the eight offices to keep open for anyone to use who needs privacy. That leaves two further offices open at the moment."

"So I'm in an office?" Cassie asked.

"Yes. We're using the second executive-sized office for the support team. For now, you and Zeke will share, but there will be four desks in total, so we have room to expand. There's also a large conference room and two smaller meeting rooms, so everyone should be able to find someplace private if they need it.

"I have one last announcement to make. You all know that I'm pregnant and due at the beginning of February. You also know that Ray Adams is going to take over day-to-day administration of NIKA starting on January 25th, and stay until my maternity leave is over. What I want to announce is a new policy that Steve and I developed, and that the board approved. NIKA will be offering an eight-week maternity leave at half-pay, and you'll be free to use your vacation and sick time to extend that further, if you want to."

"Wow!" Barbara said. "That's amazing! And that's for everyone?"

"Well, anyone who can have a baby," I chuckled. "For dads, we'll give a week off with pay that isn't charged against their vacation or sick time. I figure if I can take the time off, everyone else ought to be able to as well. Now, enough speeches! Let's get back to the party!"

There was quite a bit of laughter as everyone returned to enjoying the food and drinks.

"You know," Tom said, walking over to where I was standing, "nobody is ever going to want to leave this company."

"You are," I said. "It's not too late to reconsider."

"If I was 28 instead of 58, I'd take you up on that. My circumstances are different."

"That'll be true for others over time," I said. "But my goal is to make this a good place to work and to care about the people who work for me. If I don't show them loyalty, why should they show me any? And vice versa. If they are loyal to me, I need to be loyal to them. I believe it's possible to run a company that way and still be profitable."

"You're doing a good thing here," he said. "Thanks for a fun two years!"

"You're welcome. And, confidentially, the Board approved paying your profit-sharing bonus in March, even though you're leaving at the end of the year."

"That's a welcome surprise!" he said.

"You've earned it. I don't know that we could have been successful with Purina and Waukesha without you."

"Thanks," he said, shaking my hand.

I walked over to where Debbie Jones was talking with Dave, Julia, and Elyse.

"They want you to stay past December?" I heard Julia ask.

"Mr. Forster mentioned it yesterday and asked me to talk to Dave about it. They're thinking two or three days a week for the entire year."

"And you're OK with that?" I asked.

"I moved about two miles from where Tom lives," she said. "So the distance is about the same both ways. My boyfriend lives in Brookfield, which is just east of Waukesha."

"A different guy from when you were working in the office? Or did he move?"

"Different guy. This one works for ROLM. He's a field service engineer for their PBX systems."

"That's one of the phone systems that we considered," I said. "We ended up going with the AT&T Merlin system because it turned out to be more affordable. Kimmy is ecstatic because it has an intercom system and a way to dial each extension. We finally outgrew those multi-button Western Electric phones. Sorry, back on Waukesha, I'd say we should absolutely agree to it."

"I agree," Julia said."

"I'll give Mr. Forster a call on Monday morning," Dave said. "That will be a nice boost to revenues that we hadn't counted on. I'll put you on Purina Mills and some other smaller projects for the other two days, and that will let Charlie focus on our friend Dante."

"He's a piece of work, from what I hear," Debbie said.

"He sure is," Dave agreed. "But we've gained a lot of very good experience trying to solve the challenges that he's thrown at us."

I wandered over to where Nick, Bethany, Karl, and Ginny were standing.

"How are you doing?" Bethany asked.

"OK, I suppose. Your advice to take the whole week off was right on target. After the emotion of the funeral, and the long drive each way, a quiet day at home with Jessica yesterday was exactly what the doctor ordered, so to speak."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that. I'm also glad to see that you are doing OK."

I nodded and moved on to talk to Doctor Barton and Belinda, whom I'd invited at Jessica's suggestion. Fawn had come along, but she was playing with my sons, Karl's sons, and Kathy's daughter. Gerry was hanging out with friends elsewhere, because he knew there wouldn't be any kids his age at my party.

"Thanks for giving Jessica the week off," I said.

"Well, it cost her a vacation week, but you're welcome. She said it was a nice service. Catholic, right?"

"Yes. Stephie wasn't any more religious than I am, but her mom is pretty devout. And Jason, Stephie's husband, agreed to have a Catholic funeral even though he's nominally Presbyterian."

"We all have our rituals," he said. "It helps. Doctors have them, too. You'll hear pretty much the exact same words from every doctor in a hospital when a patient dies. Something along the lines of the fact that the loved one was given the best possible care with every capability expended, but we were unable to save them and they died. And we almost always have the chaplain close at hand for those who want him."

"That's got to be a terrible thing to go through time and again," I said.

"Yes, but the times when I can come to someone like you and say that I saved your girlfriend more than make up for it."

"Girlfriend?" Belinda asked.

"A long story," I said. "Bethany and I were pretty serious when she had the accident."

"And Jessica stole you away from her?"

"Belinda," Doctor Barton said gently.

"It's OK, Doctor Barton," I said. "She didn't steal me. Bethany and I didn't belong together. It just took us a very long time to figure that out. We're both where we should be. As you can see, she's very happy to be with Nick."

We looked over to see Bethany hanging on Nick's arm, laughing hard at something Penny was telling her.

"She hasn't been this happy in a long, long time," I added. "And that makes me very happy."

I needed to refill my drink, but decided on a soft drink, so I excused myself and walked over to a cooler to get a Mountain Dew, and grabbed a bottle opener. A dainty hand thrust a bottle towards me and I used the opener on it, then turned to see Fawn standing close.

"Your sons are a lot of fun, especially Jesse!" she said.

"Well, as a proud dad, I have to agree. They both seem to like you and apparently they don't give you any trouble when you're babysitting."

"No, they don't," she said. "Would you come to my violin recital in three weeks? It's on Saturday afternoon."

"I'd love to. Where are you playing?"

"In the Chapel at UofC. The program starts at 2:00pm. I'm third on the program. I play a solo and then later with my string quartet."

"Do I need tickets?" I asked.

She handed me four tickets, "I have ten free ones. My parents and Gerry are using three, and I'm inviting a couple of friends."

"Jessica will probably have to work, but I'm sure that Kara and I can find another couple to come with us."

"Great! Thanks!" she said, and turned to walk back to where the kids were.

"Admiring that extremely sexy butt?" my sister whispered.

"Squirt, if there's an unattached girl more off limits than Fawn Barton, I don't know who it might be!"

"She's a total sex bomb, Big Brother. That hair? Those lips? That body? It would be like you died and went to heaven!"

"Because I WOULD die, and I'd probably end up in Hell for corrupting that sweet young girl who is the daughter of my wife's mentor!"

"Penny's right," my sister teased. "You're becoming boring in your old age!"

"Old age? I'm twenty-four! And I wouldn't call it boring, I'd call it being smart! There are some things that I just can't do. But forget Fawn, how are things with you and Jorge?"

"He's a bit aloof since he came back. Did something happen?"

"I think Stephie's death hit him really hard, maybe even harder than it hit me. At her gravesite, he took the flower from his lapel, kissed it, and dropped it into the grave on top of her coffin, with tears streaming down his face. It was a really poignant moment."

"Damn," she said. "He doesn't talk about her."

"He didn't talk much when we were there. He did talk to Jason for about fifteen minutes after the funeral when we were at Jason's parents' house. I have no idea what was said, because I wanted to give Jorge some privacy. He's mourning in his own way."

"Just like you are. Elyse said that you nearly fainted when you saw the coffin."

"I sure felt dizzy, week-kneed, and nauseated, that's for sure. But the girls were there for me. How did your presentation go?"

"Great! It's a good thing I didn't miss it because one of our team members blew off their part of the project and I had to scramble at the last minute to get it done."

"There's always one," I sighed.

"Tell me about it," she agreed.

October 13, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"Steve," Julia said, coming to my office. "We have a problem."

"Now what?" I sighed.

"Dante is threatening to sue us because he can't share files between his Macs and his PCs."

"But we never promised that we could do that!" I protested.

"I know. I'm just telling you what Zeke told me Dante said this morning."

"He hasn't called you, has he?"

"No, and if you didn't know about it, he hasn't called you either."

"Maybe he's just blustering. That would be par for the course for him."

"Zeke didn't think so. He said Dante sounded serious. I think we should call Jamie."

I nodded and picked up the phone and dialed Jamie's number. I put the call on the speaker and when Jamie's secretary answered, she put the call right through. Julia quickly explained the issue.

"He probably can't win, but he can sure make life difficult for us," Jamie said after listening to Julia. "What's your goal here?"

"To keep him as a customer," I said. "He pays his bills, we make good money from his business despite him being a pain in our asses, and we've learned a lot from the challenges he's set before us."

"Then you might have to make some kind of concession, or better, figure out how to solve the problem."

"That's just it," I said. "He gave us a problem that nobody has a reasonable solution for at this point. The only thing that shows promise is AppleShare, which could actually connect all of his machines, but which can't coexist with Novell and he needs Novell features for other things. There is some hope for the new network card that Apple released, but we still haven't been able to build a system that could bridge the two networks."

"I'd suggest you put your heads together and see what you can come up with before he follows-through on this. He'll want some major concession, and I'm not sure what you could give him that would make him happy. You might just have to walk away from the business."

"I was afraid that you'd say that," I said.

"It won't stop him from suing, but if he does decide to move forward, that's your leverage. You exercise the 'get out' clause in the contract. That might give him pause."

"Stare him down?" I said.

"If need be," Jamie replied. "If he says anything to you about it, officially, tell him to have his counsel call me and we'll take it from there."

"Thanks, Jamie. I'll let you know."

I pressed the button on the speaker to disconnect the call.

"Let's get Dave, Charlie, Terry, and Greg together later to brainstorm," Julia said. "Maybe we can find a way out of this."

"OK," I said.

Julia ended up ordering lunch for the six of us and we crowded into my office for lunch and the brainstorming session. Julia laid out the problem, and we had a lengthy discussion about options, but nobody had any good solutions, just as I'd feared. The brainstorming finally turned to everyone throwing out crazy ideas.

"I know this is going to sound completely crazy," Greg said. "But what if we have two computers, one running AppleShare and the other running Novell, and we connect them together with a LapLink cable and put LapLink in synchronize mode? That might work."

"Sure, but how would you stop someone from changing the same file? There'd be no file locking," Terry objected.

"Hey, man, one fucking problem at a time!" Greg growled.

"Greg, remember what I said," Dave said firmly, reprimanding him.

Greg rolled his eyes, "Sorry. It's an issue, but I think we can at least make it work. From what Charlie said, it's mostly that Dante wanted to be able to access files on the Novell side from his Mac."

"That's true," Charlie said. "He doesn't need to edit them, just look at them. Do you think you can make this work?"

"I think so," Greg said. "We aren't trying to load both sets of drivers, so we shouldn't have a memory management problem. Charlie, how big are the files?"

"Mostly a few hundred K, though some of the files are as big as 2 to 3 megabytes."

"Damn!" Dave declared. "Those are huge! What are they?"