Chapter 16: Impact

May 21, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“These are fantastic seats, Boss!” Terry said.

“I’m glad you approve!” I laughed.

Terry, Penny, Elyse, Kara, Jessica, Jennifer, Josie, Dave, Julia, and I were sitting in our seats at Wrigley Field, waiting for the National Anthem and then for the Reds and Cubs to take the field. It had been quite some time since Elyse and I had been to a baseball game, and the Reds were 25–9, and looked to be in complete control of their division, despite it only being late May.

“Think this is their year? Finally?” Elyse asked.

“I’m almost afraid to say so, lest we jinx it!” I said. “But they’re on their way to winning ninety games or so. Color me happy!”

“Are they home next weekend?”

“No. They’re in Montréal, then they have a make-up game with New York on Tuesday, and then they’re going to LA.”

“Rats!” she said.

It was a close game, with the Reds scoring their first run in the second inning, then the Cubs coming back with two in the bottom of the third. The Cubs’ lead didn’t last long when the Reds erupted for three runs in their half of the fourth inning. After José Rijo gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh, Charlton, Dibble, and Meyers closed it out, with Meyers gaining the save by striking out two Cubs in the ninth.

“That makes them 26–9!” Elyse said excitedly. “That puts them ten games up in the loss column on the Dodgers!”

“I’ll make sure I point that out to my dad!” I chuckled. “He’s been a Dodger fan since they were the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers!”

Elyse laughed, “He’s not THAT old. That name was from the late 1800s!”

“Yeah? And he was born in 1917. So maybe his dad, my paternal grandfather, was a fan of the Trolley Dodgers!”

“Trolley Dodgers?” Terry asked.

“Back then, names sort of came organically from ‘cranks’, as ‘fans’ were referred to. The team was the ‘Grays’, and their fans, or someone in the Press, started calling them the ‘Trolley Dodgers’. There are conflicting stories, but it seems like the most likely reason is because right around that time, Brooklyn was switching from horse-drawn to electric street cars, and that made them far more dangerous to pedestrians. Hence, people in Brooklyn, in general, were dodging trolley cars. And the name stuck.”

“That’s cool! I like that way of naming teams rather than the new way where they pick names before the team even plays.”

“Steve roots for a team which is named for flightless waterfowl, so he doesn’t have much room to talk!”

“I hope they have as good a year as the Reds are having. That could really make my year — a World Series AND a Stanley Cup!”

We filed out of the stadium and made our way to the El for the trip back to Hyde Park, though Terry and Penny got off at IIT to walk into Bridgeport.

May 22, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“What’s your analysis?” I asked.

“Well,” Greg said. “In the three hours Jeri and I had a chance to play with it, I’d say that they achieved what the advance specs said they would — an improved user interface, support for Real mode, Standard mode, and 386 Enhanced mode. It also supports 256-color VGA. And it has a new Program Manager and File Manager, which are much nicer than what was provided in 2.0.”

“We need to review the programmer documentation before we decide what to do,” Jeri said. “And it’s not here yet. But, as best we can tell, our current code runs just fine on Windows 3.0, so we can take it slowly. Also, there’s a way to run DOS-based programs neatly in a window, which will help BLS complete their transition.”

“They aren’t the main competition at this point, really. There’s a firm in Dallas, Lone Star Systems, that’s touting a full Windows version. They appear to have written some code for a law firm there and decided to start marketing it regionally. According to Cindi, their offering is at least as good as BLS, though they are behind us. But I wouldn’t expect that to be true for long.”

“But nobody that we know of is working with Microsoft SQL Server, right?” Greg said.

“We’ve had no inklings of that. If BLS or Lone Star are doing it, it’s a black project, and they aren’t talking about it to customers, potential customers, or in their marketing literature. But that won’t last forever, either. We’re still six months away from our first true beta of the new system, so there’s time for others to catch up.”

“What about the medical side?”

“The software from that firm in Madison could be a real thorn in our side. Fortunately, they’re focused on large providers right now. If Epic were to be targeted at small practices like those we serve, we’d be in trouble. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon. Jeri, once the programmer documentation arrives, let me know. I’ll talk to Dave about giving you some time to start learning the new features of Windows 3.0.

“Greg, obviously Dante’s stuff takes precedence now, but I want you to take four hours every week to work with Jeri on the SQL interface. If you need more time than that, let me know, but from what I understand, it’s in good enough shape for Zo’s team to use for development.”

“It is. And once we get past the next two months, I’ll have time. I figure that’s about how long I’ll need to dedicate most of my time to Dante’s projects.”

“Sounds good. Thanks to both of you!”

That night at karate, Sensei Jim just acknowledged that he’d talked to Stephanie and that he was pleased with my reaction. I was glad that he didn’t dwell on the matter. He said he’d talk with Stephanie when we got back, and then he might have some more words with me.

May 24, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“Just remain calm no matter what he says,” I reminded my sister.

“I know! I know!” she sighed, exasperated.

“I realize that you know, but I think you need to be reminded. Deep breaths. Think before you speak.”

“She’ll be fine, Steve,” Jennifer said.

It was just before 7:00pm on Thursday, and Jorge was due any moment for this talk with my sister. The bell rang a few seconds later. I went to the front door and opened it.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi, Steve. Trish came along.”

“No problem. My sister is waiting for you in the Indian room. Jennifer is in the great room if you want to talk to her first.”

“OK.”

“Hi, Steve,” Trish said.

“Hi! Come on in. Abbie’s in the sunroom with the kids.”

I shut the door and walked Jorge to the Indian room. Jennifer greeted him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. They exchanged a few quiet words, and then he went into the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Think he’s safe?” I asked.

Jennifer nodded, “She and I had a long talk. I guess you had one with her as well.”

“I did. Shall we sit in my study and await the carnage?”

Jennifer and I went to my study and sat down with a pot of tea that I’d prepared.

“How are things?” I asked.

“Work is good. Josie is good. And Jesse, well, he’s in a class by himself!”

“No kidding! He has so much of both our personalities. It’s been fun watching him grow up, and he still has a long way to go!”

“Have you noticed Francesca is here less and less?”

“I wondered about that. Is Carol having second thoughts?”

“Third and fourth thoughts, I think,” Jennifer laughed. “One day soon, she won’t come around. Jesse is going to be devastated.”

“And talking to Carol won’t do much good, will it?”

“No, I don’t think so. She’s never been comfortable with the relationships here. Or the freedom we give the kids. And I know she doesn’t approve of Abbie.”

“I had hoped Stan might mellow her out a bit,” I sighed. “But that doesn’t appear to be happening. Jesse has lots of friends, which will help, but he’s still going to be very upset.”

“I have noticed that he’s not talking about her quite as much,” Jennifer observed.

“All we can do is work through whatever happens,” I responded. “I know he’s happy that Amber is here pretty much every day.”

“Jesse with Penny’s daughter? Look out!”

“It’s awfully quiet next door. Think they quietly killed each other?”

“No,” Jennifer smirked. “If your sister kills Jorge, it’ll be loud and messy.”

“True! Say, what are you and Josie doing for the long weekend without Jesse?”

“Wouldn’t YOU like to know, Nosy Nate?!”

I chuckled, “I talked to Larry. He told me that he and Drew were driving up for the three-day weekend. They’re obviously welcome to use one of the guest rooms if they want rather than the sleeper sofa at your place.”

“Thanks. I guess pretty much everyone is going except Katy?”

“Yes. Lauren will be around some, I’m sure.”

“I’ll talk to her, and we can include them in some of our plans for sure.”

“Are you enjoying your new job?”

“I am. I can’t really give details, but we’re working on some new SONET gear.”

“SONET?”

“Synchronous optical networking. Basically, using light to transmit data at high speed. I can’t tell you more at this point.”

“That sounds totally cool.”

“How’s NIKA?”

“Busy. Very busy. We’re close to hiring a pair of consultants in Pittsburgh and another one in Los Angeles. Cindi and Julia are working out the details, but we have the business prospects to do it.”

“I think you made the right decision to take the reins for a few years while Stephanie matures.”

“It was hard on her,” I said, “but it was the right thing to do.”

Stephanie appeared at the door of the study.

“Jen, can you come into the Indian room for a bit?”

She got up and followed my sister. I tried to read what was going on in my sister’s face, but for once, I couldn’t discern anything. It didn’t appear that she’d been crying, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She was calm, and that was a good thing. All I could do was wait. I sat quietly, just thinking about everything that was going on in my life. Jennifer was back about ten minutes later.

“I’m going to walk your sister back to the dorms. Trish is taking Jorge home.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll talk to you when I get back,” she said.

I nodded, and she left the study. I went to find Kara and Jessica, who were in the great room with Elyse.

“What happened?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t know yet. Jennifer is taking Stephanie back to the dorms, and Trish is taking Jorge home. I’ll know more when Jen comes back.”

It was just over thirty minutes before Jennifer returned, and she beckoned me to follow her to my study.

“He’s a wreck. She basically told him what she told you — that he’s too weak for her. She didn’t come out and say it directly at first, but when I went to sit with them, she did.”

“And he didn’t take it well, did he?”

“Would you?”

“Jen, how many times have you girls taken me down several pegs? Pointed out my flaws? And then built me back up?”

She smiled, “He’s not you. You always had the strength of character to handle the criticism, even if it took some time for you to accept it and even longer to internalize it. We started on you when you were fourteen. Jorge’s never really had that kind of experience. He’s a sensitive guy who’s been kicked around like a mangy dog. And that’s both literally and figuratively.

“She hurt him, badly, when she broke up with him. Then physically hurt him. And then, tonight, she crushed him completely. I had a quick word with Trish and advised her that he shouldn’t be alone tonight. And I wasn’t talking about for sex. He’s clearly depressed, and I’m a bit worried about him. I honestly don’t think he’d do anything intentionally to hurt himself, but depressed people don’t behave rationally. I’m speaking from experience.”

I nodded, “I remember how worried we were about you when you were going through your issues. I was afraid that you’d have an accident or drink too much or use drugs harder than pot. I’m glad you got past all that, though I wish you had done something about the rape.”

“It was too late for any evidence at that point. It was my word against his. And I just didn’t want to go through the pain that it would have caused me. That’s in the past now. But back to Jorge, I’ve never seen him so cold or so empty. I know there’s nothing going on here for Memorial Day, but make sure you call him when you come home and then personally invite him to breakfast the following Saturday. And get one of the other guys to do it as well, maybe Kurt.”

“OK. I’ll do that. How’s Stephanie?”

“She’s OK. She’s contemplating just how badly she hurt him. I encouraged her to talk about that with her therapist, in addition to all the stuff about her temper. I think you telling her that she was turning into your mom really got through to her. Well, that and you sounding deadly serious about walking out of her life forever.”

“It was a bluff, but it worked. I won’t be able to pull that again with her.”

“No, you won’t. But it was the right last-ditch thing to do. I did learn something in my conversation with her the other day. I debated not telling you about it, but I decided that I should.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Just after Thanksgiving, your sister went looking for Jessica to confront her. I don’t know all the details, but hospital security kicked her out and told her not to come back, or she’d be arrested.”

“She wasn’t the only one,” I said. “Penny told me later on that she’d gone to the hospital to talk to Jessica, but Jessica refused to even see her. Penny was smart enough to leave without anyone threatening to have her arrested. She also tried to find out where Jessica’s cousin’s house was, but the only way I found that out was by calling Jessica’s mom. Penny didn’t have that contact.”

“You have no idea how worried we were about you. And about Jessica.”

“I think I do,” I said. “I’ve been there. For you, for Melanie, for Bethany, for Kara, and others. It really doesn’t surprise me that there were other things going on in the background besides the plot you all ultimately came up with to help get her back.”

“That, too, was a last-ditch effort. Had it failed, I’m not sure where things would have gone. She was slipping deeper and deeper into depression, and given her history, she could easily have drunk herself to death, either directly or by having an accident.”

“I don’t even want to think about that,” I sighed. “I’d be happy if that whole episode could just fade from my memory.”

“You’d do well to remember it because you learned so much from it. And it helped you grow and mature. And in the end, you have your wives, your children, and your friends here. People who stuck by you when you really had no right to expect them to do so.”

“I know,” I said. “Back to Jorge; do you think he’ll be OK in the long run?”

“Probably. There’s going to be some fallout. He may cut you, and your friends, out of his life, though I’m sure he’ll keep Trish as a friend. That would give you a way to communicate with him through Abbie and Trish, at least. Just be his friend. I don’t think he blames you, but given that Stephanie is your sister, that’s going to make things a bit awkward, at least in the short term.”

“And here I was hoping that the drama would go away,” I sighed.

“But you see, this isn’t the same. Yes, there is drama around you, but it’s not drama of your making. You didn’t kill Nick or contribute to his death in any way. You didn’t cause the problems between Jorge and your sister. You didn’t cause her to react violently to the things that happened to her.”

“But...”

“But nothing. Didn’t you say that we’re each responsible for how we react to what other people do? So even if you made mistakes with your sister, isn’t she still responsible for her own actions?”

“Yes.”

“Then she’s responsible for what she’s done and how she’s behaved these last nine months or so when things have gone off the rails. What happened ten years ago can’t be undone. All we can do is move forward.”

“And do you think it was wrong?”

“I can’t make a judgment about that,” Jennifer said. “Only you and Stephanie can.”

I nodded, and given it seemed we were done, I stood up. Jennifer stood, and we hugged and then went back to the great room to be with the others.

May 26, 1990, Greater Cincinnati, Ohio

“Good morning, Donna Grossi!” I said as everyone came into the large dining room.