Chapter 8: Shake It!

Partners

“Gee, do you think we’re moving too fast with this?” Karen asked as they entered the office of LaCoe Attorneys at Law Wednesday afternoon. “I’ll back off if you think we’re rushing.”

“After this weekend and realizing that I’m medically a ward of the City, I appreciate your willingness to step up to this.” Gee pulled her to the side of the room, out of hearing of the receptionist. “How can I think you are rushing things, Karen? I’m in love with you. If I thought you were ready, I’d ask you to marry me.” Karen looked lovingly up at Gee and placed a light kiss on his lips.

“You should start working on a proposal then,” she whispered. “Until you figure that part out, though, this partnership is a quick and quiet way to handle all kinds of things—not just medical power of attorney.”

They turned back to the reception desk and were met there by a stunningly beautiful young woman. It took Gee a moment before he recognized her as the third female cousin in the Nussbaum Quartet, the beauty queen Krystal.

“Put your tongue back in your mouth, Gee,” Karen laughed. “Have you met Krystal Nussbaum? Krystal, this is my partner, Gee.”

“I’ve seen your name floating around,” Krystal said pleasantly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I heard you and your cousins sing at the fair this summer. Absolutely enchanting,” Gee said.

“Thank you. We’ll sing at Harvest, too. I’m glad you liked it,” she said.

Gretchen LaCoe emerged from her office.

“I see you’ve met my niece, Gee. It’s a family business, you know.” Gretchen smiled and shook hands with Karen and Gee.

“Is your son on staff, too?” Gee asked.

“Oh, yes. Upset that we didn’t offer him a full partnership as soon as he passed the bar. I think he expected Jack and me to simply retire and leave the practice to him.”

“He really raced through college and law school,” Karen said. “You must be very proud of him.”

“Of course. Jack has the paperwork ready, so let’s go right into the conference room.” They went into the room and found Jack at the table with stacks of papers in front of him. He rose to shake hands and then they got right down to business.

“This agreement between Karen Weisman and George Evars is to establish a legal partnership. The stack of paper is thick, so I’ll go over the basics and you can both read what you wish. Execution of these partnership papers, will place some intellectual and physical property into joint ownership. In addition, you will assume medical power of attorney for each other. Gee, this is a great advantage to you in several ways. You’ll become a signer on a bank account, for example, that is already open in Karen’s name. Without you having to provide anything other than your City ID. There will be a lot of paper-signing this afternoon but most of it is on the part of Ms. Weisman as she has the most at stake at the moment and needs to put certain safeguards in place. Is this clear?”

“Uh ... I kind of feel like I’m not contributing anything to our partnership, Karen. How did you get all this put together so quickly?”

“I started the process the day after Labor Day ... after you moved in with me. We’ve talked about this, Gee. You’d already given me insights and proposed avenues of research that I hadn’t thought of, and you did it without pay or remuneration. I wasn’t going to push it, though, until you ended up in the hospital Sunday night. Think of it as giving you a stake in the work we want to do.”

“And with ownership of the partnership stated as joint tenants with right of survivorship,” Gretchen added, “it also protects Karen from any claims that could be made by your relatives or heirs, should any be discovered, in the case of your demise. You should consider the fact that you are making an agreement based on unknown information at this time. You don’t know if there are heirs or relatives out in the wide world with whom you would want to share your work and the money you are putting aside, Gee. So far, searches for your identity have all been focused on the United States. It is possible that you have these relatives and heirs in another country—say, Canada.”

“I have considered that,” Gee said. “I can only act and react as the person I am today and not as the person I might previously have been.”

“That’s what we love about you, Gee,” Gretchen smiled.

“Well, shall we get to signing papers?” Jack said.

“Do you have time for dinner before you go to the library to read to the children?” Karen asked when they finally left the law office.

“I think so, but not Chinese. I don’t think I could hold chopsticks in my fingers after all that signing.”

“You? I had dozens more papers to sign than you did.”

“I had no idea that intellectual property rights were so complicated.”

“If it weren’t for my employment history, there wouldn’t have been quite so much. I write for hire, which means that when one of my stories is published in the newspaper, it belongs to the newspaper as the copyright holder. I’m paid a wage for that work. Where it becomes a bit grayer is who owns my research before I write a story. If I’ve done that research on company time, it belongs to the company, or at least the company could stake a claim to it. Some companies—and Alex Hunter would be all over this—would hold that I am paid a salary and therefore all my time is company time. Jack and Gretchen negotiated a new employment agreement and went over it with a fine-tooth comb. I have no idea how they managed to convince Axel, but it’s in keeping with new policies on bylines and content ownership. They determined that work I started before my employment with the Mirror, and which had never been in their office, was my sole possession. All my notes on child trafficking, for example, are in the study at home and I started that research file while I was still in high school.”

“So, we seem to be covered. What’s my first assignment, boss?”

“Feed me! Then go read to your little munchkins at the library. That shows me you are committed to the betterment of our children.”

“Our children?”

“Oh! Um ... You know what I mean.” Karen blushed. “But maybe one day.”

“Gee!”

“Dee!” he responded to the three-year-old who launched himself at Gee from several feet away. The hug gave Gee a warm feeling. He looked over Devon’s head and saw his mother coming toward him. She was smiling.

“Hello, Marian,” Gee said. “I hope you’re doing well. I do miss seeing you and Devon every day.”

“Things are improving. Thank you so much for understanding, Gee.”

“You know I want only the best for you and your family.”

“Thank you. I was wondering ... um ... I shouldn’t ask favors, but ... Could you walk Devon home tonight after story time? Like you used to? I was thinking ... I could use the time...”

“Of course I will,” Gee said happily. “Devon likes the stories I read to the older kids as much as the ones I read to the toddlers. Don’t you, Dee?”

“Stories!” he clapped.

“Thank you, Gee,” Marian whispered. “The ... uh ... stroller is in the cloakroom.”

“See you later,” Gee said as he settled into the beanbag where he read to the children. Half a dozen more children gathered around and Ms. Tomczak brought him his first batch of books.

The second reading hour was about to begin, and Devon was nodding off in Gee’s lap as the older children rushed in. There was a lot of chatter as the first- and second-graders arrived.

“Hi, Mr. Gee,” Sally Ann said as she approached.

“Hi, Sally Ann. How is school going?”

“Boring. Mrs. Zimmer is nice, but all these other kids are...” She broke off suddenly. “Daddy says I shouldn’t make disparaging remarks about others. Isn’t that a cool word? It means saying bad things.” She lowered her voice to a whisper only Gee could possibly hear. “So, I shouldn’t say the other kids are dumb.” She rolled her eyes and Gee laughed.

“No. You definitely shouldn’t say that.”

“Mrs. Zimmer is a giant!”

“That could be considered a disparaging remark, Sally Ann. Adults often look very big to children. Our perceptions change as we get bigger ourselves.”

“I think it’s cool. She’s way taller than Mr. Savage.” Gee had to stop and consider that. Wayne was perhaps an inch or two shorter than Gee, but even then, it was unusual for a woman to be that tall.

“Well, let’s get started with our reading.”

Proxies

“Opa, do you have shares of Savage Sand and Gravel?”

“Now why would you be asking about that?”

“There is a Savage back in town.”

“I’ve heard.”

“He’s trying to collect proxies for all outstanding shares he can get. I think he’s planning to retake the company. It could be important for us.”

“How so?”

“SSG holds the Savage Forest shares. They’ve abstained from every decision in the past twenty years—ever since that guy, Stewart, took control. But with the annexation, their power could threaten how the whole Forest is managed. We need to be ready to oppose or support the new Savage. Over the past few years, I acquired a few shares for the quartet and plan to give the proxy to Wayne Savage’s attorney.”

“A few shares?”

“Seven thousand one hundred and thirty-seven. We started in high school.”

Heinz Nussbaum looked at his grandson for a long time, trying to read his intent. It was obvious on the young man’s face. He intended to become The Nussbaum when Heinz was ready to pass the torch. Heinz had eight grandchildren in four families. But Cameron had created an alliance with his cousins that went far beyond singing together. He wanted to run the Family.

“And if I trust you with this?”

“Opa, I will always do what is right for the Family and the Forest.”

“Enkel, I believe you, but it is complicated. If so much as one of your seven cousins challenges you, do you know what that means?”

“I’ll have to show what a good negotiator I am,” Cameron chuckled.

“You will have to eat the nut.”

“What?”

“Do you know why I am head of the Nussbaum Family and not my cousin?” Heinz asked.

“Your cousin died.”

“He died in the challenge. The Forest chose. My grandfather said I should be the next Family head. My father, you know, was killed on D-Day. My uncle protested that I was a bastard and his son was legitimate. My cousin agreed and formally challenged me.”

“It sounds like some medieval duel. You can’t seriously tell me you killed your cousin Georg,” Cameron exclaimed.

“The challenge is to eat a nut from the rose hickory.”

“They’re lethal. Unless treated with the antidote immediately, there is enough poison in them that they will kill within an hour or two.”

“And the death is very painful. Georg died. I did not.”

“Every Family head goes through this ordeal? We’ve gone from medieval duel to medieval superstition.”

“Perhaps. I only know that when two people from a family eat the nut, only one lives. Or maybe neither. The ordeal is only undergone when someone challenges the named heir. All the Families withhold the information until the possible heirs are old enough to understand. And it’s never spoken of outside the Family. We don’t want a hormonally charged fourteen-year-old deciding to prove what a man—or woman—he is by going into the Forest and poisoning himself.”

“Opa—Grandfather—if that is what it takes to ensure our Family survival, I will eat the nut.”

“Let us hope you don’t need to.”

“Bryce Savage was a fine man. I regret that I didn’t know him more than as the grandfather of my friend, Paul. P-à-l was the way his Family spelled it. Our family heritages go back in this community for two hundred years, but each family still tends toward traditional names. Just like us,” Heinz said. He’d poured a glass of schnapps for his grandson and the two men settled into chairs in Heinz’s modest study.

“Until me,” Cameron laughed.

“It’s becoming less common in your generation, but I’d wager that you will consider German names for your children,” Heinz laughed. “But, the Seven Heroes dying in battle left seven orphans behind. Most, like Pàl and me, were accepted fully into our Families. Some, like Coretta Cavanaugh Sims, were accepted, but as separate from the main family line—sort of black sheep, or the bastard children they were. And Celia Eberhardt was not accepted by the Roths at all. That infuriated Bryce. So, he reorganized his company, Savage Sand and Gravel, and took it public. As a part of the move, he created trusts for each of orphans. Those trusts consist of one hundred thousand shares of SSG stock. The income is given to the orphan or his heirs. I didn’t find out about the trusts until I took over as head of the family. Henry Lazorack knew about them, but I don’t know if he ever told David. To my knowledge, no one has ever exercised the right to vote their shares.”

“Then we could gather the proxies for those trusts together and have some influence in the company,” Cameron said enthusiastically.

“I don’t think you should hold the proxies,” Heinz sighed. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, nor that I don’t think you would make good choices. It’s exposure I’m worried about. The shares are all held by private trusts. To expose the fact that the trusts benefit members of the Families would mean that people would start questioning what else we own and how we manage our own resources. It’s too risky.”

“What’s the alternative?” Cameron asked. “We need to take part in this.”

Heinz quietly contemplated the problem. He was seventy-five years old and had managed the Family since the morning he woke up from a nut-induced coma to find his cousin dead beside him. Then he smiled. The answer was as obvious as the Forest’s selection.

“We have a City Champion.”

Sirens

Gee clocked out on Friday at noon, splitting his fifth workday between Friday and Saturday. He was climbing the steps to Frieda’s office for his paycheck when he heard sirens—not police sirens, but the piercing sirens of a weather alert from fire stations and public facilities all over town. He opened the door to Frieda’s office and stuck his head in.

“It sounds like we have a tornado warning, Frieda. We should head for shelter.” She smiled at him. That was a first. Gee couldn’t remember her ever smiling unless it was at her grandson.

“Listen,” she said, holding up a finger. The sirens went silent and then three short blasts rang out. After the sirens had the short blasts, they all picked up the general alert sound again. “They’ll do it three times. The weather sirens followed by three short blasts.”

“Testing the system? I haven’t heard them do that before.”

“Welcome to Harvest, Gee,” Frieda said. “They’ll repeat it every fifteen minutes for the next two hours.” She handed him his pay envelope just as the sirens fell silent a second time to repeat their three short blasts. “Nathan tells me you’ve agreed to be a shaker. You won’t be back to work here for ten days. Let me remind you that when you made that agreement, you entered a binding contract to work until Harvest is over. Don’t be late for your first assignment at seven tomorrow morning.”

Gee stood with his mouth slightly open as the words sank in. ‘Shakers are on duty until the last nut falls,’ Jonathon had told him. Gee had agreed without realizing how long the hours might be. Frieda flicked her fingers at him in her normal sign of dismissal and he left the office.

As the last series of blasts from the siren died, cheers rose from the aisles of the market and people began celebrating.

It was time for Harvest.

The celebration continued outside. In the parking lot, people honked their horns in one long and three short toots. He ran across the street to put his pay in his safe deposit box and discovered a party atmosphere in the credit union.

“Gee, how are you today?” Don asked with a smile. “What do you think of the beginning of Harvest?”

“It came as a surprise. Did everyone else know in advance?” Gee asked as he spotted tellers with wreaths on their heads.

“We all knew it was coming, but no one knew when. There was a lot of speculation as to whether it would be now or next weekend or the following one. But that kind of guessing occurs every year. It’s entirely up to the foresters to declare when the nuts are ripe. Sometimes they even let slip that it will on one date and then sound the sirens a week late or a week early. The Families don’t even know the date in advance,” Don said. “It keeps the tourists off balance, so they can’t reliably schedule their time here. The second weekend of Harvest, things get really crazy as tourists show up.”

“It seems like a lot of celebration for a week of picking nuts,” Gee sighed. “I guess the best thing is to just go with the flow.”

“That’s the way to do it. The trees and nuts have been harvested for over 150 years. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested that if they were going to work that hard, there should be a party to celebrate when it ended. That extended to a party when it began. Now there is a party every night. Go with the flow, but remember you have to be on the job when and where you’re assigned. You’ve made a commitment to the Forest.”

“Thanks for the advice, Don.”

“There will be rewards, too. Shake well!”

Gee headed up Main Street toward Karen’s house wondering at the continued festive air. Workers were unfurling banners across Main Street that said, ‘Welcome to Harvest.’ Flags—a picture of the nine-leaflet compound leaf of the hickory and a cluster of nuts emblazoned on them—flew from nearly every storefront and street light. The City was transforming before his eyes. The bells had begun to ring from the Lutheran Church and were answered by the smaller churches in town. He could hear the responding peals from the Catholic church farther south.

“So, what do you think of your adopted home now?” Troy Cavanaugh asked, stepping out of the doorway of WRZF and bumping into Gee. None too gently. “Sorry about that,” he said.

“I love seeing everyone so excited,” Gee said, thinking nothing of being jostled on the crowded street. Though not close, he counted Troy among the friends he’d made in Rosebud Falls. They played basketball on Sundays. For the past two weeks he’d been telling stories of the Harvest in bygone eras.

Gee saw Karen emerge from the office of the Mirror across the street and began to pick up his pace to go meet her. He felt a hand tighten on his shoulder and turned to see Troy looking at her.

“You may think you’ve got her in the bag,” Troy growled at him. “But you’re just a convenient tool for her. You don’t have what she wants. You aren’t Family. Just remember, you’re disposable.” Gradually, the grip loosened on his shoulder and Gee stepped in front of him to confront Troy. “Hey, I hope you have a great Harvest,” Troy continued as if he’d said nothing before. “I get double duty, broadcasting from a booth next to the river and gathering deadwood for an hour or two after lunch. I thought I’d be a shaker back in my younger days but can’t do that and still be the Eye on Main.”

“Thanks, Troy.”

“No hard feelings, man. Just a moment of regret.”

“No problem, Troy.” Gee crossed the street to join Karen.

“What did he want?” she demanded when Gee caught her hand in his and turned her up Main.

“Karen ... Sweetheart...” She looked up at him and smiled. “The past is the past. We only have today.”

“You are so good for me, Gee,” she said brightening. “Come on. Everyone’s off work this afternoon. Let’s make love and then get ready for tonight.”

“Football?”

“The Forest Walk,” she said excitedly. They hurried home.

Strategy

“Did the notices go out?” Deacon asked his legal counsel.

“Before the last siren died,” Matt answered. “The Board passed approval of the seventy-two-hour shareholder notification over a year ago and it was ratified at the last annual meeting. Technically, we could have the meeting any time after two o’clock on Wednesday, but the nine a.m. Thursday time will all but guarantee no local shareholders will attend. They’ll all be too busy with Harvest. Per the same rule change, the Board of Directors holds the proxy for any unvoted share.”

“We’re home free, then. We should begin immediately with the position statement opposing the annexation and strong suggestion that all employees oppose it. Second, we adopt the Forest motion and inform the Families that we will oppose all efforts to take over the wild woods. Make sure it is worded in such a way that as the representatives of the Savage Family holdings, we invoke our sovereignty over the lands we manage. Finally, we’ll move to the Board re-election. I want the whole meeting done in thirty minutes so no one has time to mount an opposition.”

“Even if the Savage who has come to town wields the Family shares, we have him beaten,” Matt said. “I’d suggest a tender offer for all outstanding shares. We’ve been planning the takeover for years. We should hit it all at once.”

“Can we put the tender offer on the table before Board re-elections?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Let’s get this done.”

Forest Walk

“I bought these for you because I knew you’d be clueless,” Karen laughed after they’d made love again and had dinner.

“Clueless. That’s me,” Gee laughed. “I feel like I’ve been turned loose in a little cove of the ocean. As soon as I think I know my way around the cove, I find an opening and discover there is a big bay just beyond what I know. I’m sure that when I’m comfortable in the bay, I’ll discover an ocean—or something bigger.”

“Whatever you find, you’ll still be swimming,” Karen laughed. “Here is your shirt and hat.”

“You bought me clothes?”

“Sort of a uniform. The tan shirt will mark you as a shaker. And I just thought this hat would look good on you. Now, go get dressed and I’ll be out in fifteen minutes.”

Gee finished shaving and felt his face to make sure there was no stubble. He thought he might have his cheek against Karen’s tender skin again this evening. The tan shirt fit perfectly, and he set the hat—a sort of slouch style with one side of the brim pinned up against the crown—jauntily on his head. He waited in the sitting room for Karen.

Her appearance took his breath away.

She wore a pink pullover sweater with a wide neck that let it slide over one shoulder. Her full skirt extended to mid-calf and she wore ankle boots with a low heel. A wide brimmed deep pink sunhat and knit shawl completed the outfit.

“Stunning,” he breathed. “Simply stunning. I’d never have imagined you in pink.”

“Neither would I until I was assigned to hospitality,” Karen laughed. “I’m kind of fond of it though. It’s like being a different person during Harvest.”

Gee threw his denim jacket over one shoulder as Karen took his arm and they walked into the cool evening air to join the increasing throngs moving toward the Forest. Occasionally, they still heard horns tooting out the Harvest sequence in the parking lots or along Main Street, but as they neared the Forest, things got quieter. People greeted each other, joined in quiet conversation, and simply strolled through the dark peace of the Forest. Karen, like many others, carried a flashlight, but left it turned off. There were few obstacles as they followed the paths among the trees.

An increasing glow led them to a tree surrounded by lanterns. Beneath the tree a colorful canvas spread extending beyond the full canopy of the tree.

“The grandfather tree,” Gee said. “He gave me my nut.”

“He’s the center of the closing ceremonies and will be felled around the first of November,” Karen explained. “There are a few others scattered through the Forest that have been marked for timber as well. The old timers know every tree in the Forest, so they’ll head straight to work, but I’m sure Jonathon will lead you to your first tree. Your ground crew will work ahead of you to spread the catcher beneath your next tree. As soon as you move, your pickers will gather the nuts.”

“The catcher? This canvas?”

“Yes. And also, the crew responsible for stretching it ahead of your arrival and gathering it up when your pickers leave. Back in the old days, they just shook the nuts on the ground and the pickers had to hunt for them among the leaves and mulch. Someone came up with the idea of spreading canvas drop cloths under the trees, so it would be easier to see and collect the nuts. That evolved into custom-sewn canvas catchers.”

“They’re beautiful.”

“Another gradual evolution. The children started drawing on the canvases and eventually had contests to see which class could decorate the nicest catcher. They got sponsors among the businesses who buy the canvas and paints for the kids to work. Even a few professionals compete. Judging is on Memorial Day at the end of the school year.”

“The whole mystique of the Forest just increases each time I’m out here,” Gee sighed. “I feel at home out here.”

Karen hugged herself to his side. Gee placed his arm across her shoulders to keep her warm. Once they had left the pool of light cast by the lanterns around the tree and headed into the darker Forest, he paused and drew her to him for a romantic kiss. They saw many other couples engaged in the same activity.

“Statistically, there are more births in Rosebud Falls in June than any other time of year,” Karen giggled. “Something about Harvest makes people ... more amorous.”

“I empathize,” Gee whispered. Karen came into his arms again and their lips met.

“So do I.”

Shaker

Jonathon met Gee at a quarter till seven and checked his gear—gloves, hardhat, whistle, and goggles.

“The nuts are only an inch to an inch-and-a-half wide and weigh about ten grams. But a lot will come out of the tree at once. And there is an occasional loose limb. Hence the hardhat,” Jonathon explained.

“So, things will be falling on me,” Gee said. “Hope none of it is too big!”

Jonathon donned a hardhat and goggles like Gee’s and issued the rest of the equipment, a harness with a flipline, a ladder, and a long pole wrapped in foam rubber. “One of the main things is to keep your pickers from getting under the tree while you’re shaking. Seems we have at least one kid crying before ten in the morning because they got hit by too many nuts or a dead branch came down. Still, almost every time you shake, you’ll find one standing under the tree with an umbrella over her head and giggling like crazy.”

“Kids will do anything once.”

“Let’s take your equipment and find you a tree,” Jonathon laughed. “Since you are a novice shaker, I’ve got you assigned a region not far from our coordination station on this end of the Forest for today. We’ll get you started and your pickers and crew boss will arrive about eight o’clock. You should have one tree ready to pick by the time they get here. The catchers move ahead of you to spread the canvas for your next tree. There are over 30,000 trees in the Forest, so once we start, we work hard and long.”

“The nuts are already falling,” Gee commented as one hit the ground in front of him. He thought about the nut grandfather tree had given him until Jonathon drew him back to the task at hand.

“We’ve had crews out for four days gathering the ground fall,” Jonathon said. “And after the Harvest, there will be gleaners sweeping the Forest until snowfall to be sure we get the late fallers and anything that got covered by catchers. We gauge the time to hold Harvest based on the number of nuts per hour that fall naturally. If we waited for them to all fall naturally, it would take three weeks for the tree to clear and we’d have to be out picking every day. We want to get Harvest over in a week so the whole town isn’t tied up for three solid weeks and we don’t want to import labor. So, we need to shake the remaining nuts off the tree.”

“What happens if it rains?” Gee asked.

“We keep picking,” Jonathon responded. “But we do it carefully.”

Some younger trees could be shaken by hand while standing on the ground, but a full-grown tree could be a hundred or more feet tall with a three-foot diameter trunk.

“With trees the size of these, the amount of shaking necessary with a machine would damage the tree. So, we climb. We’ve made sure each tree has a path for your extension ladder. Get up high, rope yourself to the tree so you don’t fall, and then keep climbing. Reach as high as possible to shake the upper limbs with the pole. Once the top nuts start to fall, they cascade down the tree. Upper nuts shake lower ones off the branches. You should be able to reach up about seventy-five or eighty feet. Don’t beat at the limbs. Sort of stir them with the pole. You’ll be glad you have the hardhat.”

Jonathon sent Gee up the ladder and stood back. It took Gee a few minutes to get secured with his flipline and comfortable enough that he could lean back and use both hands to shake the tree with the pole. Once he got a rhythm going, the nuts started to fall. They popped and clattered against his hardhat.