Chapter 30

Cindy’s turn:

Tina started this volume. I get to finish it.

Christmas season. Or Chanukkah, because we have a sizable Jewish contingent now. It’s been quite a good year in a million ways. Okay, SEVERAL million ways, financially speaking. 3Sigma’s original business, engineering, is now engineering and construction, and we regularly berate ourselves because we’re bursting the seams on our SECOND building since the company started. Millions going into various accounts, and some of the happiest employees imaginable.

That’s not the only business that’s making money. 3Sigma Robotics might not be the premier robotics R&D in the country, but those people know us and talk with us regularly. We have staff and Nikki and I are at the top of the technical and strategic heap, but our real horsepower resides in a small supply of Munchkins and the bright stars they’ve attracted.

It’s become a real cachet in some circles at Auburn to be asked to participate in either of 3Sigma’s houses. We get visits from professors from several departments. We’ve used (and paid) students from many different disciplines from commercial art to engineering (naturally), and science.

It’s a curious world we live in. I just got back from a flight to Montana to do a vacation at a mountain retreat, flying a five million dollar airplane, bringing friends along. Stoney and Johanna and their son are the reason we have the airplane. The other reason for the trip is that we brought our newest couple, Mimi and Tommy, there for a honeymoon.

We got back in time to participate in the first ever bat mitzvah for one of our Munchkins, Rachel, daughter of Sim and Beck. That’s okay. Next week we’ll do a bar mitzvah, the male version, for Derek Helton, little brother of our sister Tara.

This Friday the whole bunch goes to Auburn to watch their youngest graduate ever. Yes, I got bumped out of that spot by none other than the pTerridactyl herself.

I spoke with Doctor Stebbins about it in a random encounter.

“The Board of Regents kicked a little this time,” he said. “I pointed out the success of 3Sigma Robotics, the penetration that you folks have made into the field, and that Terri was the key player. I explained it in terms of NOT conferring a degree on Bill Gates.”

“We’re a few orders of magnitude under Microsoft,” I said.

“But they’ve talked with you, correct?”

“Yessir. We’re studying a proposal...”

“You’re not yet twenty, Cindy. I can’t remember when my department has produced...”

“Don’t forget Nikki. She stands beside me.”

“I know she does. That’s frightening enough. More frightening is Terri, who’s...”

“A force of nature.”

So Terri’s graduating. She should be in middle school, but she’s accepting a baccalaureate in electrical engineering because, in her words, “They want to give me SOMETHING and I’ve had all this electrical engineering exposure.”

That’s some of my doing. Just a tiny bit, okay? I give a lot of credit away to Tina and Alan for giving her free rein with some careful direction, and I don’t want to even think of the genetics, how Alan, a particularly bright and adept engineer like the one I married, and Terri’s mom, who’s in and out of hospitals for mental issues. Somewhere in the DNA strands, crazy mixed with intelligent and came up with GENIUS. That almost similar magic happened three more times and the results ended up here, that’s nothing short of miraculous.

Yep! Degreed engineer. Doctorate in physics. And I believe in miracles. Darned tootin’! I’m one. I’m going to turn twenty next year, and by any normal timeline, the best I could hope for would be finding myself in the middle of my sophomore year in college. Considering my roots and my location at the time the miracles started happening, I’d more likely be stacking panties at WalMart, balancing my ‘career’ with requirements for a baby or two and a mostly absent baby daddy. I saw too many of those.

Miracles happened. Little redneck girl from central Alabama didn’t end up on the second shift at Walmart. No no no. Little Alabama girl has been to Los Alamos twice this year for conferences. And she flew herself.

And now she’s a rated pilot for Citation II bizjets AND a brand-new Pilatus PC-12 and she’s not the only one.

And this year has seen my real debut as a newbie ag pilot. Got three whole days under my belt.

I could see me being a pilot for a living, especially the mix I get to do – some mid-distance hauling, either my twin Cessna Songbird or that shiny Pilatus. Maybe a filler day or two at the stick of Wally’s Air Tractor. Nineteen year old Alabama girls are supposed to be driving fifteen year old, clapped-out Toyotas, not multi-million dollar aircraft.

“You’re thinking again,” Dan says.

“Yeah ... guilty.”

“Anything in particular?” He always asks. I’ve been known to give a large number of answers, some of which involve jumping right on top of him, some others that get a reply of “I only have the slightest concept of what you’re talking about.”

“Inventorying the past year, baby,” I replied.

“Been a mighty good year, baby ... Got more people than we started with...”

“More projects. Both houses,” I countered.

“New faces.”

“New couples. Tommy and Mimi just BELONG together...”

“That one makes me happy...”

“Some don’t?”

“Not saying that. Just that some make me nervous ... We have this neat little community but we exist in a messy universe that just doesn’t understand. Jerry and Terri...”

“Derek and Rachel.”

“Really? You think that one’s serious?”

“Potentially explosive. Rachel’s talked with me. Naturally I gave a synopsis to Beck, but Rachel THINKS she’s found HIM.”

“‘Him’ is thirteen ... When you found me, I had a job, could provide...”

I giggled. “How would you have liked it if I pointed to a bank account with MY name on it with a seven-figure balance?”

“Seeing as how you were living in a trailer park in a fifteen year old travel trailer, I would have been a bit shocked...”

“Don’t prevaricate. I’m talking about the reverse of the girl finding the GUY set up to support them as a couple.”

“Okay, so we assume that the ‘how do we live’ hurdle doesn’t exist, at least the pecuniary angle. They’re both thirteen.”

“I know. Now if ONE of them was thirteen...”

“You’re a horrible person,” he snickered.

“You gotta know ... Those kids look at me and Dana and they see couples, and they can do the math. Anything I say to justify me and you, Terri can say to justify her and Jerry.”

“Alan shits bricks over it,” Dan said.

“She’ll make it to fourteen, babe. Mister Charley said if they’re still a thing at fourteen and he’s still around ... Matter of fact, he’s talked with HIS son about it, if something happens.”

“Mister Charley’s pushing ninety.”

“Still getting around, though,” I said.

“So if the pTerri-dactyl gets to fourteen, she becomes Missus Jerry. What about Derek ‘n’ Rachel?”

“Rachel says that there must be some historical basis for Jews to tell young teens that they’re entering into the adult world.”

“I imagine that Beck had kittens...”

“Oh, yes ... I asked her what her options were. Moving was one of them. Pulling Rachel out of the Munchkins.”

“I’d hate to see that,” Dan said.

“I would, too. Rachel catalyzes Terri. One plus one equals five with those two – any of the Munchkins, really. I took Dana’s grandma’s approach...”

“That being?” he prodded.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire. She knows the surroundings here are a real safety net in so many ways, and that here’s the devil she knows, and out there are legions of demons just waiting for her daughter to show up.”

“Still a tough choice.”

“One of the teens in the homeschool consortium came up pregnant. Sort of sharpened Beck’s focus.”

“Happens all the time.”

“Not to girls from ‘good’ families.”

“Nope,” Dan said. “Them, too. Hormones are hormones and prevalent mores don’t pose hurdles. I think that if they stay here, Rachel’s seeing more sanity than she’d see elsewhere.”

“And Derek’s getting male role models stuffed up his nose,” I said. “Nobody here says ‘fuck ‘em and forget ‘em’ or anything like that. Even Major Kettler.”

“Who’s officially dating Tara, right?” Dan posed.

“Yep. An item. We worried for Tara. You know how those dashing young military officers are...”

He laughed. “Nobody saw THAT one coming...”

I giggled back at him. “Might’ve mentioned something to Grandma Desai. She got Shiva involved.”

“Shiva’s been entirely too successful,” Dan said. “Might have to convert.”

“Don’t do it just yet. Tara’s been the subject of prayers from the whole community.”

“Yeah, but if an elephant shows up for the wedding...”

“I don’t know that it’s at the ‘wedding’ stage, baby. They’re just getting comfortable. He’s sort of taken the male role model slot for Derek, too, so there’s a certain stability. I don’t know what they call it for Jewish folks, but he’s sort of become Derek’s godfather. Pushing him up to the bar mitzvah.”

“Which is going to have Derek announcing ‘today I am a man’ to an approving congregation...”

“And to a smiling Rachel.” I thought about a smiling thirteen-year-old a few years ago. It’s hard to condemn the feelings.