Chapter 56: «¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Maria Cristina!»

February 14, 1997, Chicago, Illinois

“I may finish that bottle of Blanton’s I have at home tonight,” I groused to Elyse as we drove home.

“Didn’t you just open it?”

“Yes. But you know how much I hate having to follow rules just because some other asshole, you know, like Dante, did something bad in the past! Samantha spends a ridiculous amount of time complying with regulations designed to prevent her from cheating her customers, which she would no more do than I would!”

“Matheson? Foulkes? Monroe?”

“Broke American money-exchange laws,” I said in a faux Russian accent.

“I don’t know that one.”

“It’s about Jack Ryan in one of the Clancy books - the Russians think he might be guilty of insider trading. He’s not, by the way.”

“So what’s your opinion of what they did?”

“Most importantly, they didn’t do a thing which hurt any Spurgeon clients. They broke money laundering and securities trading rules in their private accounts. And those security trading rules were designed to prevent market manipulation and front-running, which was something those guys didn’t do. What they did was simply trade outside the snooping eyes of the government.”

“So you’re saying what they did shouldn’t be illegal?”

“I’m just saying that they didn’t do what the securities rules were meant to prevent. Money laundering and tax evasion are a different story, and I’ll spare you the political rant about income taxes.”

“Thank Loki for small favors?” Elyse asked with a smirk.

“Something like that,” I replied with a grin. “But think about how all these regulations arise, and why we have to adopt defensive measures to keep the government happy. We have to spend time and money because other people behaved badly in the past. One day, the weight of the regulations is going to cause everything to come crashing down.”

“Bob seemed surprised when you told him he had a free hand.”

I laughed, “You are WAY smarter than that, Elyse Clarke!”

“You mean that he doesn’t REALLY have a free hand?”

“I thought you were playing along! Do YOU think he has a completely free hand?”

“I did. For once, I think you got one past me. What am I missing?”

“What’s going to control what he does?”

“Staff reaction! He didn’t have to care about that at Allstate, I guess. He did the bidding of the C-level folks and the Board of Directors.”

“Go on.”

“But here, you just told him he has to keep the STAFF happy, and if he burdens anyone, it has to be management. The opposite of what he’s used to.”

“So does he have a free hand?” I asked.

“I think the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. He does, in that you won’t veto what he does, but he’s not going to do anything which will cause a revolt amongst the staff. In the end, that’s how HIS job is going to be reviewed, isn’t it?”

I shrugged, “You’re his boss, you tell ME.”

“You know, we never discussed it because, in the past, we just instinctively knew if people were doing their jobs.”

“Which is, ultimately, Bob’s issue. And honestly, as he’s pointed out, we actually haven’t been as perfect as we’ve claimed and for which we’ve been patting ourselves on the back. Casey, Dany, Kaitlin, Jefferson, Mikela, and Maddie were all errors by management of one form or the other. Call it an error rate of between six and eight percent. Now, granted, if you can be right 92% of the time in Vegas or on Wall Street, you’ll clean up, but it does give lie to how we think about our success rate.

“Bob is also right, and Deborah has echoed him, in that we’ve been lucky. Several of those could have blown up in our faces, and Jefferson actually did. We managed to defuse it, just as we did with Mikela, and to an extent, Kaitlin. I’d say that somewhere in the back of my mind I actually recognized that we’d made mistakes and that we DO need to put some things in place to protect ourselves.”

“Did you just contradict yourself?” Elyse asked.

“Of course not!” I grinned. “There’s a difference between doing things because we learned from past mistakes and doing them because some outside person or persons say we have to, even if the thing they are trying to prevent is something we would never do. It’s the difference between charity and socialism. One is voluntary, the other is forced. Guess which one I prefer?”

“The one that doesn’t use force, which is how you apply your thinking to just about everything. You hate the idea of anyone being forced to do anything, except in the case of punishment for the transgression of doing harm to another person.”

“Pretty much. But society, and the governments it creates, are all about forcing people to do things in the way some group believes is right for everyone. If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last twenty years, it’s that there is no one thing which is right for everyone. But judgmental assholes and control freaks just can’t let ANYONE do anything of which they don’t approve. From my mom to Kent van der Meer, to Marcia’s mom, to Amelia’s parents, and a bunch of others in between.”

“Amelia?”

“A teenage girl who is stuck in a JW household and who wants out. Her mom made the mistake of knocking on our door to proselytize.”

“I bet THAT was fun!’ Elyse smirked.

“I didn’t go into detail, but simply pointed out that if they actually sat down with me they’d have their world rocked.”

“Right! ‘Sat down’! Suuuuurrrreee!”

I chuckled, “A hot mother-daughter pair? You know the thought DID cross my mind, but that wasn’t what I was getting at. Anyway, she’s ‘accidentally’ run into me on the street, and she’s shown up at the dojo twice. I think she’s looking for answers, and her parents not only don’t have ones she will accept, but they, and their church, are actively trying to prevent Amelia from finding answers. Did you know JWs object to college educations?”

“Say what?!”

“They supposedly don’t take any interest in ‘worldly pursuits’ and any education or training you get is supposed to be purely practical so you can pay your bills until Jesus returns. What it’s REALLY about is doing their best to ensure you are never exposed to critical thinking or ideas which are at odds with JW practices. Sound familiar?”

“Kara’s old church telling parents not to send their kids to sex ed classes.”

“Or Lena’s parents basically grounding her because she came to the Rap Sessions.”

“Which was so effective you got her cherry!” Elyse laughed.

“You know damned well that where there’s a will there’s a way. A kid who wants to have sex is going to have sex, and no adult on this planet can prevent it. Francesca’s mom thinks keeping her away from Jesse is going to stop it, but if Francesca wants to have sex, she’ll easily find a willing boy.”

“Is there any other kind?” Elyse asked with a smirk.

“Well, no,” I chuckled. “They just don’t always like the girl, or boy, who is interested in them.”

“Not all parents are misguided,” Elyse replied.

“The Spencers,” I replied. “And to some extent the Blocks, and surprisingly, our Russian friends. And Bart and my dad.”

“Tempered by Alice and your mom. My parents basically took the point that having grandkids trumped wanting their daughter to get married. And it’s not like I’m a single mom by any stretch of any imagination.”

“Jessica’s biological dad is a pretty decent guy nowadays.”

“Belinda straightened him out.”

“Think he’s open-minded enough to hear about Fawn and me?”

“NO!” Elyse laughed. “Not a chance! Al Barton may be many things, but he’s not open-minded about his daughter having sex! What’s up with him, anyway?”

“He’ll be back to work on February 24th based on everything he’s heard. It’s driving him nuts, but he is teaching, so he’s not completely out of medicine for the month the investigation has taken.”

“Why not sooner? It sounds like the investigation is over.”

“All the fact-finding is done, and nothing raised any flags. But the red tape has to be dealt with, including writing an official finding, presenting it to the Hospital Board for approval, then having it confirmed by the Hospital President. He’ll draft the reinstatement letter. Add in lawyers, and Al is lucky it’s only going to take a month!”

“Will this hurt Jessica’s career?”

“If she stays at UofC, she’s basically topped out in terms of advancement even without this. They still hold that incident back in ‘88 and ‘89 against her, and Al says they likely will forever.”

“She really should consider Cook County, Loyola, or one of the other big hospitals and tell the idiots at UofC to stuff it!”

“She loves the hospital and loves how close it is to the house. Not to mention the relationship of which you were already aware.”

“Speaking of relationships, Bob sounds like he’s going to object to Dave coming back.”

“Bob can object all he wants. You heard what I said about giving my word. And yes, I know Stephanie will be running things, but she’d never cross me on that.”

“There will be some people who see her as a puppet for you.”

“If you want to get technical, because I own more than 50% of the shares in NIKA, everyone, including the board, serves at my pleasure. I choose not to exercise the power in most instances, and in the future, I’ll refrain from doing so even more. But there are limits to my recusal.”

“Which is why your sister is perfect for the role. You two were mostly on the same page.”

“Mostly. We’ve had our differences over the years.”

I pulled into the alley and parked in the driveway next to the coach house. Elyse and I got out of the car, and I went to the trunk and got out a modestly sized piñata which I’d purchased earlier in the week.

“Your daughter is going to have a complete meltdown when we beat that bunny rabbit piñata with sticks,” Elyse said quietly.

“Oooh, oooh, look who knows so much!” I said, mimicking Billy Crystal’s ‘Miracle Max’.

“What?”

“If this were a Mexican piñata, then yes, you’d be right. But it’s a Cuban piñata, which means there are ribbons you pull to release the candy. Most of them are simply connected to the body, but one of them opens the little door. All the kids will dance around the piñata, holding the ribbons, but not pulling. Then when it’s time, they each pull their ribbon. Guess which one opens the door to release the candy?”

“The one Maria Cristina is holding.”

“Very good, Elyse, you win a cookie!”

“That one I know,” she said with a laugh. “‘Crapgame’ from Kelly’s Heroes.”

“Yep. Still one of my all-time favorite movies.”

“How did you find out about the differences between Cuban and Mexican piñata traditions?”

“A little bit of sleuthing starting with AltaVista.”

“That’s the thing that lets you search the internet, right?”

“Yes. But unlike, say, Lycos, which is mostly built manually, AltaVista has a program which automatically catalogues and indexes web pages. That means it’s likely to have the latest, most complete database. I found one site that discussed the differences, and I checked with Débora and she confirmed it for me. Of course, I could have just gone straight to her before searching on-line, but I didn’t even think about it until after I’d already done the research.”

“That’s right, Débora’s Cuban. And speaking of her, I think we’re going to see that part of the business really take off.”

“I agree. Security is going to become a bigger and bigger concern, as is what they’re calling ‘electronic discovery’. We’ve done that manually a number of times, and it’s going to become more and more difficult. Somebody is going to make a killing writing the necessary tools to archive and search email. We have the document location part down, because of our document search feature. But there’s more to it, because of audit trails, and so on.”

“Right. I read the proposal for features for NIKA Legal ‘98 that Cindi and Julia are circulating.”

“I’m still not sure about the naming convention,” I replied. “But I understand the idea that if Lone Star or Hastings Mill or Chickasaw, or Peach, is selling ‘Version 9’, and we’re selling ‘Version 8’, it looks as if we’re behind. It’s silly, but I know people think in odd ways. And once Chickasaw skipped from ‘Version 6’ to ‘Version 9’ without releasing a ‘7’ or an ‘8’, it was clear what they were doing. I think Cindi’s idea is reasonable, I just don’t like it.”

“She hasn’t finally decided on it, that’s the internal title for the moment, because it’s going to be released early in ‘98.”

“Oh, I know, but given what I’ve heard from Cindi and her team, I don’t think there’s a better option. I mean, we could skip to ‘Version 20’ and then what?”

Our conversation ended because we walked into the house and, as usual, I was mobbed by little girls who needed hugs and kisses from their dad. I set the piñata down, hugged and kissed each daughter in turn, then picked up the piñata, took it to the sunroom, and hooked it to a cord I’d suspended from the ceiling the previous evening. That completed, I went upstairs to change into comfortable clothes and then joined the family for dinner.

When we finished eating, Winter brought out a «Brazo Gitano», a kind of rolled sponge cake with guava filling, made from a recipe I’d obtained from Maria Cristina’s mom, something she immediately recognized after taking a bite.

“This is my mom’s recipe!”

“I figured I should ask her for a dessert option,” I replied.

“Dad?” Jesse asked.

“Yes?”

“Can I have first whack at the bunny piñata?”

“No!” Stephie protested. “You don’t beat bunnies!”

“No,” Jesse said smoothly, “you eat bunnies!”

“Jesse!” Ashley responded. “That’s mean! Don’t tease!”

“Chill, Ashes!” he teased back.

“Children...” Jessica reprimanded, resulting in a standard Jesse eye-roll, but also compliance.

We finished our dessert, then sang Happy Birthday in both English and Spanish, and Maria Cristina opened her gifts, which included sapphire earrings from my wives and me. After gifts, we went to the sunroom, and I selected ribbons for each of the kids, making sure Maria Cristina got the correct one, and then put on a CD her mom had suggested and Maria Cristina and the kids danced around the piñata for a few minutes before I had the kids pull their ribbons, starting with Jesse and ending with Ashley, before Maria Cristina pulled hers and candy rained down on them.

The kids scrambled to grab candy, though, in the end, it would all go into a large bowl to be rationed out. The last thing MY kids needed was a lot of extra refined sugar in their diet! Once the candy was gathered, the kids went to play a bit before bed, and the adults went to the great room to drink hot chocolate or coffee by the fire.

About an hour later, we put the kids to bed, and then, with the blessing of my wives, Maria Cristina and I went to the sauna. I put up the ‘Privacy Please’ sign, and we sat down in the heavy steam, which I preferred.

“Where did you get the piñata?” she asked.

“A place in Cicero which makes them. They usually make the Mexican kind which you break with sticks, but they knew what I wanted when I asked for a Cuban one. I did some research to find out about birthday celebrations. And then I confirmed it with your mom when I checked on the kind of cake we should have.”

“The earrings are beautiful! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. We wanted something to match our bracelets, and I’m glad you like them. I just wish your mom had accepted our invitation to be here.”

“We have our own traditions at home, which we’ll do tomorrow. That’s how it’s been since we moved here. Some friends will visit, we’ll have dinner together, and then we’ll watch a movie.”

“What movie?”

“Different ones, but usually something from Disney.”

“She could have joined us today and still done that tomorrow.”

“I know, but she’s not totally comfortable with our arrangements, and I suppose it’s easier to handle if she doesn’t see it herself.”

“And you?”

Maria Cristina smiled, “I’m free to make my own decisions, and I understand our arrangement. I have sex with you because I have strong feelings for you, and I like how you make me feel, both in bed and when we spend time together like this. I enjoy the time I have with Kara and Doctor Jessica, as well. My mom believes sex is only for marriage, and nothing is going to change that. But she’s also very happy that I’m going to become a doctor, and she’s grateful for the help from you and your wives, even if she doesn’t approve of you and me being together.”

“In the end, the key questions are whether or not you’re happy, and whether or not you’re achieving your goals.”

“Well, my goal is a long way off, but I’m making all A’s so far. As for being happy? Very! Part of it is a bit selfish, but not having to worry about money makes life so much easier. But mostly it’s how much all of you care for me.”

“Your mom loves you,” I replied.

“Yes, but it’s different. I’m not quite sure how to explain it. I never had a big family, and I really like having one.”