Chapter 47: A Pair of Musicals

May 11, 2001, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Steve

“Steve, I have a Paul Reynolds on the phone for you,” Kimmy announced when she buzzed me on Friday morning.

“Thanks.”

She put the call through right away.

“Hi, Paul. How are things?”

“Good. You said I should call you before I went to the bank. I have a business plan and remodeling plans and we’re ready to move forward.”

“Send them to me by FedEx, and I’ll review them and send back a partnership proposal with a buyout clause, similar to what I arranged for Lou. You can compare that to what the bank offers and make your decision. I’m confident our proposal will be better.”

He laughed, “Given what I know about banks, I can’t imagine otherwise. That’s especially true given my background. Nearly twenty years later and they’ll still hold it against me.”

“It’s the Calvinist thinking behind so much of what is wrong with society,” I replied. “The reprobate can’t be saved, so there’s no point in even trying to rehabilitate them.”

“You’d probably like my brother-in-law’s church then. They have an active prison ministry and try to help ex-cons.”

“If I recall correctly, he’s Russian Orthodox. Do you attend?”

“Occasionally. My wife and kids go pretty regularly.”

“You know, I never asked you about your kids.”

“A boy and a girl. Michael is eight, and is named for his great-grandfather. Jordan is six. Her given name is Rachel, after her grandmother, but she goes by her middle name.”

“So not totally Russian then, otherwise they’d be Mikhail Pavlovich and Rahil Pavlova.”

Paul laughed, “My wife does NOT go in for that. Even her brother doesn’t go that far - his kids all have ‘Michael’ and ‘Michelle’ as their middle names, not the Russian style names”

“My boys all have Stephen as their middle name. I’m something of a Russophile. Anyway, once you have a chance to review the documents, call me and I’ll come down so we can shake hands on the deal and sign the documents.”

“Sounds great! I’ll get these documents to FedEx, so you’ll have them Monday morning. Thanks so much!”

“You’re welcome!”

We said ‘goodbye’ and I hung up, then immediately dialed Samantha to let her know I had an investment opportunity for us.

“That sounds good,” she replied. “Let me know when you have the details. I do have some news for you.”

“Oh?”

“Two things. First, Trudy Spencer will start on July 2nd.”

“Excellent!”

“Second, I’m going to call Mattie this afternoon and extend her an offer to join us as an associate quantitative analyst right after graduation.”

“That’s excellent news!”

“I figure between her UofC education and four years of mentoring from you, I can’t possibly go wrong!”

“I would agree! See you Sunday for dinner?”

“Absolutely!”

We said ‘goodbye’ and hung up, and I got back to work. Just before lunch, Stephanie called and asked me to come to her office.

“What’s up, Squirt?” I asked.

“Are you planning to do a presentation at the User Group in October?”

“I never plan those!” I chuckled. “It’s always been Cindi, Ben, or someone else insisting I do one. I’ll come to the luncheon and dinner and schmooze, but I’d much rather not make a speech. You are more the face of the company than I am at this point, and that’s a good thing!”

“OK. Megan actually asked, but she knows your reticence, so she wasn’t insisting.”

“Good. While I’m here, did Dave sign his employment agreement?”

“He had it couriered over yesterday. Everything is set. We’ll make the announcements about his return and Terry’s new role, along with Tasha taking over as General Manager of the Athena Division and Mario re-focusing on the Eastern Region. Everyone is happy.”

“That’s what I like to hear!”

“Bob bitched about you being on the interview schedules for the open positions.”

“And?”

“And I told him I was perfectly OK with it, as is the Board of Directors. You know Bob isn’t happy unless he has something to complain about!”

“I sometimes wonder why he stays, as much grief as we give him.”

“Because he won’t find better compensation, a better work environment, better benefits, or have as much control anywhere else as he actually has here. He really only sees you impeding him, not the things he’s actually accomplished!”

“I’m a pretty big impediment.”

“No shit, big brother! But as I pointed out to Bob, it’s still your company, and everyone on the executive team and in senior management trusts your gut. Heck, Dave even supported you interviewing again, and he was always the biggest obstacle for you before he left.”

“The thing is, on most issues, Dave was right to be concerned. All of the issues he raised are ones that Bob, Deborah, or Liz have raised, and most of them were resolved in the way Dave preferred. You know me - I’d push the edge of the envelope so hard that I’d risk tearing it. The rest of you are here to make sure my harebrained ideas don’t get us into trouble!”

“They aren’t harebrained, they just go against ‘standard practices’. Our job is to make sure they don’t veer into areas where the government can legitimately come after us. Nothing prevents them from coming after us illegitimately!”

“Ain’t that the truth! Anyway, back to hiring, you know I’m just exercising my veto, which I’ll only do rarely, if at all. But I do want to meet everyone we hire, no matter where they’re going to work.”

“I know,” Stephanie replied. “Oh, and he did mention Claire and Larry dating.”

“And?”

“Nothing. He did say that she was going to stop coming to your Rap Sessions.”

“Yes, because she and a few others are starting their own Rap Session. Ours was getting unwieldy. Call it a ‘church plant’ or ‘mission church’.”

Stephanie laughed, “The ‘Second Church of Steve’?”

“Something like that,” I said with a smile. “It makes sense in that the only way my subversive plan can ever work is if it spreads. I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but I’m not going to give up! Oh, I’ll share something with you, but you can’t say anything to anyone - Samantha is going to offer Mattie a job this afternoon. Mattie will be doing quantitative analysis.”

“But you think that’s bullshit!”

I chuckled, “As an investment strategy, yes, but it’s certainly a way to make a ton of money if you’re a firm like Spurgeon. Computerized trading, looking for very, very short-term opportunities fundamentally undermines the entire point of the stock market, but it’s not illegal. I wouldn’t do it, but then again I’m not Spurgeon. And they’re trading on their own account or for speculators who are fully aware of what Spurgeon is doing.”

“Have you told Samantha how you feel?”

“Of course. But, and here’s the important point - what she’s doing doesn’t hurt the long-term investor. I don’t care about the price fluctuations it causes because I don’t plan to sell. And when the time finally comes that I might sell, I can plan it. If I was a day trader or a short-term investor, well, I’d either have to ride the ‘quant’ wave or be swamped by it. But you know my take on that kind of short-term ‘investing’.”

“True. Anyway, good for Mattie! And with Claire not coming to your Rap Sessions, it eliminates one of Bob’s complaints.”

“Whatever will he do?” I asked with a smirk.

“Trust me, he’ll find something else. It’s what we pay him to do, and between the government and activists, there will always be something new! That said, we’re way ahead of the game on equality and non-discrimination. That article in Crain’s was awesome! The last week we’ve had triple the number of unsolicited inquiries by job applicants.”

“Good!”

“What are you doing for lunch?”

“No plans,” I replied.

“Let’s go to Maxim’s. You like their salads and I love their veal Parmesan.”

“I’d kill to be able to have that, but with the thick breading and the spaghetti, I’d bust my carb budget for a week! Ten minutes?”

“Sounds good.”

“Before I forget, are you coming to Matthew’s musical tonight?”

“Yes,” Stephanie replied. “Elyse got me tickets.”

“Cool. I meant to ask, how does your custody agreement work with Ed being out on bail?”

“There was nothing specific in the agreement, but I’m not letting him have his visits. He knows if he pushes the issue, he’ll lose. Once he decides how to proceed with the government, I’ll have the attorneys work it out. Have you heard anything more?”

“No. It’s all preliminary stuff. Personally, I think he cuts a deal and accepts a couple of years of minimum security. Come by when you’re ready for lunch.”

“OK.”

🎤 Matthew

“What the heck do we say now?” Maggie asked as we gathered for our second performance of Grease. “We sure can’t use ‘break a leg’!”

I laughed, “Well, there is another tradition Eduardo told me about! We could say «merde», which is French for, uhm, feces. He said in Spain they often say «mucha mierda» in addition to ‘break a leg’. Supposedly it refers to the olden days when people would come to the theater on horse-drawn carriages, and you could see how popular the show was by looking to see how much manure was in front of the theater from the horses!”

Everyone laughed.

“That gives a whole new meaning to ‘shitty performance’!” Nick declared.

Everyone laughed again.

“Nick!” Mr. Fruits called out. “We don’t use language like that!”

“Sorry, Mr. Fruits! Matt was just telling us about a tradition of saying «merde» instead of ‘break a leg’!”

“We don’t say it in French, either!” Mr. Fruits declared, but he was laughing.

“Who’s hosting the cast party on Saturday?” Chaz asked.

“Maggie is,” Josh replied. “And Mr. Fruits is ordering pizza on Sunday when we strike the sets.”

“Does anyone know if we sold out tonight?” Arby, one of the stagehands, asked.

“My family is here tonight,” I said.

“Never mind!” he laughed. “That’s like forty tickets if everyone shows up!”

He wasn’t far off, because quite a few of my dad’s friends and their kids usually came with him.

“There are still a few tickets left,” Ryan said. “About a dozen. But we usually sell that many at the door. So it might be ‘standing room only’!”

“Well, let’s see if we can not mess up like last night!” Nellie said. “Nobody should be forgetting lines during a performance!”

That was true, but fortunately, we’d covered up for them and things had worked out OK, but Mr. Fruits hadn’t been happy.

“Places, please!” Mr. Fruits called out. “Curtain is up in 5 minutes!”

Everything went well during the performance, and afterwards, my dad and everyone came back to the house.

“You managed not to break your leg this time, Foo!” Jesse teased.

“He did it last time just to show off!” Birgit teased.

“Oh, right!” I replied. “X-rays and a brace were SO much fun! I only stopped wearing it last week!”

“What’s your next play?” Ashley asked.

“Mr. Fruits hasn’t told us what we’re doing in the Fall. I was SO happy when he announced he’s moving up to the High School!”

“Aren’t you doing something over the Summer?” she asked.

“Oh, sorry, yes, whatever Limelight Theater is doing, but I won’t know until next week. But a lot depends on when the plays are, because I’m going to Cincinnati to stay with Chelsea’s family for a few weeks in July. Grandpa Adams is going to take us to some Reds games.”

“Does Dad know?” Jesse asked. “You know what he thinks about Major League Baseball!”

“Sure, but he lets us make our own decisions. Are you guys coming to the race in July? I’ll be back for it.”

“Albert and I are coming. My moms aren’t coming but both Aunt Kara and Aunt Chess will. The girls don’t care.”

“Driving around in circles is dumb!” Stephie declared.

“Maybe so,” I chuckled. “But I heard Nicholas will be there with Tom!”

“Ugh,” Stephie groaned.

“Michael, how’s your robot?” Albert asked.

“Totally cool! It can pick up an egg and move it from one table to another! Next, we’re going to try to make the controls wireless!”

“So like a model airplane?”

“Pretty much. Right now it has wires, and they get in the way.”

“What about the fight?” he asked.

Michael laughed, “A different robot! That competition is in August. I think you’ll be back from England in time to see it.”

“Let me know so I can make sure it’s on the calendar.”

“Did you get to fly with Aimee again?” Michael asked.

“She’s going to be in Chicago for Memorial Day. We’re going to fly to Sheboygan and back, plus to Champaign and back.”

“Totally cool!”

“Kids?” Mom called out. “Ice cream sundaes are ready!”

We all made a beeline for the kitchen.

May 14, 2001, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Steve

On Monday afternoon, AIM chimed and I saw that Estrella was messaging me.

Bonita83: ¡Hola!
NIKASteve: ¡Hola! How are you?
Bonita83: Great! I heard from the embassy and everything is set. I just need my acceptance letter from IIT!
NIKASteve: Very good! When will you receive that?
Bonita83: They have everything now, including the letter from your Foreign Ministry. They promised to send it by the end of June.
NIKASteve: What’s next?
Bonita83: That’s it! Well, except for finishing school in December. Then I have what amounts to six months of vacation before I come to the US. Are you going to be in Argentina before I come to the US?
NIKASteve: Right now, I don’t have any plans to travel there. Our customer doesn’t have work for us to do.
Bonita83: That’s too bad! :-(
NIKASteve: If things change, I promise to let you know. How are things going otherwise?
Bonita83: The usual. I go to school and spend time with my friends. How is your family?
NIKASteve: Everyone is healthy and happy.
Bonita83: I’ll let you get back to work!
NIKASteve: OK!
Bonita83: Looking forward to seeing you!
NIKASteve: Same here! Bye!
Bonita83: Bye!

I knew from Alejandra that Estrella was dating, but hadn’t been in an exclusive relationship because she planned to come to the US and didn’t want to mislead anyone. I felt that was a good thing, but I also wondered exactly what she expected to happen when she came to the US. Well, I was sure she wanted to have an affair, but beyond that, I wasn’t sure. I made a mental note to talk further with Alejandra so that she and I could set Estrella’s expectations properly.

About fifteen minutes before the end of the day, Liz asked me to join her in Stephanie’s office.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Shut the door, please,” Stephanie requested.

I did as she asked, then turned back to her.

“We have a problem,” Liz said.

“Now what?” I asked.

“A manager from a client in Durham called Bob to say that Lee had propositioned one of their secretaries.”

“Fuck me!” I groaned.

“Wait, Steve,” Stephanie said. “Let Liz finish.”

“It’s the firm where Margaret is assigned,” Liz said. “And the sales notes show that the meetings with the owner were always at a local restaurant, never at the office.”

“Fuck me sideways!” I groaned. “That’s not better! Now we have an employee who is potentially suborning perjury!”

“We need to do a complete investigation,” Liz said. “But I showed Bob the meeting records. We’re going to call the client and ask, but we’ll use the cover of verifying his expense account. We’ll call it a ‘random audit’ and all we need to confirm is who was at the meetings. And verify that they took place at the Bennigan’s, not in the office.”

“OK, but then what? We’d know Margaret is lying and Lee is in the clear, but what can we actually do about it?”

“I think it’s simple, actually,” Liz replied. “We ask them to put the claim in writing with dates and times and say we’re going to verify with our records and confirm with the company owner.”

“Which potentially clears Lee but still leaves us in a shitty situation.”

“Yes, it does.”

“There’s also another possibility,” Stephanie said. “That Lee DID proposition her, but it wasn’t at the office.”

“Which turns the entire thing on its head! Something VERY fishy is going on here.”

“Let me verify the dates and times of both the expense reports and the harassment claim,” Liz said.

“Hang on! If he hit on her outside the office, there’s nothing wrong with that! And even if he did, it doesn’t corroborate her story!”

“As you said, it’s a shitty situation,” Liz replied. “But our hands are tied in the sense we have to investigate it. If it happened outside the office, and not in a business context, we can simply dismiss the complaint. BUT, you have to know what happens next.”

“Margaret’s lawyer comes back and says we’re covering up. That’s the game, isn’t it? Well, assuming Lee actually is innocent, which we have to do.”

“Actually, we don’t,” Liz replied. “But I know YOU presume him to be innocent.”

“Yes, you’re right. Technically, we don’t have to presume anything, and we can terminate him without cause. But you know my take on this. Get evidence, one way or the other, if you can. Then you, Bob, and I each give Stephanie our opinions and she decides. I’m willing to go to the mat for whichever of them is telling the truth. The other one has to go. What did Bob say?”

“That if we’d followed his advice we wouldn’t have the problem.”

“That’s true, if she’s telling the truth. But if she’s not, then we’d have committed an injustice by firing someone based on a lie. Find out, please.”