Chapter 17: Cycling

The next morning, I am just about to sit down and eat my cereal when I see Dahlia get off her bike and lean it against our woodshop. She is excited enough that she makes it to the door before I do. As soon as I open the door, she jumps into my arms and plants a deep, long kiss on me. When we part, I ask, “What is this?”

“You are the one that said we should meet here school mornings and agreed to neck with the girl that gets here first.”

I start leading her to the dining room so I can have my breakfast. I chastise, “That was a tentative plan we may do in the future. Besides, how is it fair if nobody told Carol?”

“I phoned her. She is on her way.”

“Let me guess. You phoned her when you were already on your way out the door.”

Knowing I caught her, she looks at me sheepishly, and says, “So?”

“How is that fair to Carol? She wasn’t ready, and she lives twice as far as you. I think you should take a seat and watch me eat my breakfast.”

The surprising thing is I do not get halfway finished my bowl of cereal, and Carol is knocking at my door. I send Dahlia to answer the door, so I have a chance to wolf down my food in peace.

When Carol comes into the dining room, I greet her with a kiss before we all take our seats. I tell the girls, “Today wasn’t a good day to start riding together. I will not be able to ride home with you. I’m leaving school early.”

Carol asks, “What for?”

“I have a conference call with my lawyers and Motorola.”

Dahlia inquires, “You are into phones now too?”

I laugh, “Not quite. Have you heard me talking on the phone with Steve Jobs about something we are working on called NeXT Web?”

Dahlia admits, “I have seen the name in our files.”

Carol asks, “What is it?”

“You know how you can get your computer to phone another computer, so you can hook the computers together. You also know that you can conference a telephone call so that people from multiple telephone numbers can all talk at the same time. This kind of combines the two and amplifies it. Basically, we aim to make a network so that every computer on the planet can network at the same time. It is kind of like a worldwide web of computers and networks.”

Dahlia says, “I do not see the need. Isn’t that just a waste of money? What does this have to do with Motorola? They deal with mobile phones, not landlines.”

“Motorola will be building our modems, you know, the thing used so one computer can phone another. Only it will not be through the phone lines. They can’t transfer data fast enough, and I do not know how to fix that. We are going to use the same cable you use for your cable TV. As for there not being a need, this will continue to grow beyond your greatest imagination. Eventually, you will not need to leave your home to go shopping. If you missed your favourite show because you didn’t get home in time, no problem. Your computer will download it, and you can watch it any time, even years later. There will be smart fridges. If you use up all the milk, your fridge will let the grocery store know, and they will send you some more. Libraries will become a thing of the past because you will have access to every book ever written. There is no way I can even begin to explain all the things made possible by this one invention.”

Carol jokes, “I guess ‘Back to the Future’ didn’t have it all right.”

I add, “No, hoverboards are way too big and never become popular.” The girls laugh at that. I continue, “The best part is, Motorola thinks that only major corporations, governments and militaries will want this tech. They will not be willing to spend much money on it, so instead of outright buying a license, they will agree to give me some money for each one sold. Eventually, there will be at least one in every household in North America and most of the houses in the rest of the world. I should be able to talk them into $5 a modem. In 30 years, that will amount to tens of billions of dollars. Our families can have anything they ever dreamed of.”

I am a bit confused at Dahlia’s reaction. Her face is grim, and when she speaks, I can hardly hear her. She is so mousey, as she says, “With money like that, you will not need us anymore. You could have any girl you want.”

I look at her in disappointment, stating, “Dahlia, I already have the girls of my dreams. You two are helping me build a better world. The two of you did the paperwork to file the patents needed for this deal. I was going to give you .01% of all the money earned from every patent you help me with, but that wouldn’t be fair to Carol. She will be working just as hard, but will only touch a few patents. I can’t pay you hundreds of millions and her only thousands.”

After that, I leave the girls, so I can finish getting ready for school. The ride there is uneventful. I am starting to get dirty looks from the guys there. When I first started going to school here, people considered Dahlia and Carol to be homely. Now that they have some money for clothes and Carol was given some guidance, by any standard, they are among the best-looking girls in school. The guys do not like the fact that they both hang off me.

My phone conference goes well, but not as good as I hoped. The guys from Motorola talk me down to $4 a modem, but they do agree that it applies to all future modems based on my tech. Once that call is done, I make a call to Steve Jobs. I am trying to plant an idea in his mind that we should team up and buy a controlling interest in Apple. They need the operating system he is working on.

In my past life, Microsoft did two things that really helped their company grow. The first was giving new computers free operating systems, and the other was to keep their operating system geared towards gaming. Macs were better at everything else, but since there were so many more games for Windows, people gravitated towards the inferior operating system. I wanted a separate marketing team to target the gaming community aspect of NeXT Web, which would tear a large portion of the gaming clientele away from Mr. Gates.

Steve isn’t as easy to lead as I had hoped. At least I get him to agree to let me talk with various gaming companies so they can develop multiplayer games. Without dropping Steve’s name, I doubt I would be able to talk to anybody significant. As it is, only Dynamix, EA and FASA that give me the time of day. I am still pleased since Dynamix will soon produce Aces of the Deep and FASA has already started their MechWarrior series. In my past life, these were my favourite games. Unfortunately, Dynamix decides they aren’t interested.

I am still excited to see what a multiplayer MechWarrior will be like. I remember, back in 1992, my buddy had a multi-screen computer with a joystick, thruster controls and rudder pads off an F-16. It was the first realistic control system I’d seen put out by Thrustmaster. My buddy and I would spend every free moment playing MechWarrior. It felt like we were actually inside the mech. I can’t wait to be playing like that again, only this time I will be playing against other people instead of a stupid program.

That Friday at lunch, Dahlia brings up a problem, “Trent, I can’t keep up at work anymore. If you want me to be your secretary, I will have to stop cooking and cleaning.”

“We are growing a lot faster than I expected. I had intended for you to eventually drop the maid services. Considering, I didn’t intend to hire you until summer, and you are swamped already, maybe we should hire somebody to give you a hand. Things are only going to get worse.”

Carol asks, “Who would we hire?”

When she asks that, I can clearly see Kim and Moira perk up and almost stop their conversation.

“I was planning on asking one of our friends here. Judging by Kim and Moira paying more attention to our conversation than their own, I am guessing they are both interested.”

Kim says, “The way you always talk about work makes us a third wheel. Besides, I could use the cash.”

Moira nods her head in agreement. Addressing Moira, I say, “How would you like to take over the maid duties and help Dahlia when needed?” As I am talking, you can see the hope drain out of Kim’s face, and she starts to slouch, hanging her head.

Moira confesses, “I’m not that good of a cook.”

“I’m not going to lie. When I offer you a job, I expect it to be a long-term commitment. Next year, take cooking as one of your electives. For now, one of Dahlia’s jobs will be to teach you.”

Kim is now just toying with her food, wondering how she got to be the outsider. I address the issue, “Kim, when you make assumptions, you make an ass out of you and me.”

“If you hire her to help Dahlia, then what do I do?”

“Have faith in me. Do you think I would do something to make you the outsider and kick you out of our group of friends?”

“I’m not good with my hands like Carol. I wouldn’t make a good secretary like Dahlia. Being a maid is about all I could do to contribute.”

“So much for having faith in me. I have a job for you. At first, you may not think you are suited, but trust me. You are.”

“What is it?”

“I need somebody to head up security. I should have hired you a while ago. Now you will need to play catchup to learn what you need and get everything done on time.”

She laughs loud enough that everybody in the cafeteria looks at us.

“Look at how small I am. I would never make a good security officer.”

“Table tennis may be the national sport of China, but Wing Chun is the unofficial sport, especially in Guangdong, where you are from.”

“It isn’t quite a martial art. We don’t learn it to fight. We only learn it to stay in shape.”

“That is what you think. It teaches you muscle memory. You just need to learn how to use it. You already know all of the throws we learnt in Judo. You just never realized it.”

Dahlia interjects, “Look at how small she is. She can’t be your security.”

“Ask Kim, and she will tell you that she knows at least one revered Kung Fu Master that is a woman smaller than she is. Ip Man, arguably China’s greatest war hero, studied Wing Chun, a martial art designed by women for women. It is also the only martial art Bruce Lee studied.”

Bewildered, Kim says, “OK, let’s say I could handle myself the way you claim I can. You don’t need security yet.”

“What I need is to start training somebody, or I will have nobody when I do need them. Besides, there is a lot more to security than knowing how to defend one’s self. You will need to do some research and figure out what kind of safe we need. You need to start ragging on Dahlia make sure she secures all the files before she goes home. You need to learn building security, compound security, how to be a bodyguard, tactics and a host of other things.”

“That still isn’t working for you. That is training so that one day in the distant future, I can work for you. By then, you will have all moved on, and I will be left all alone.”

“First off, any good company has paid training. You will set up office in my dining room and study for six hours a week. Saturdays, I will be training you. Two nights a week, you will attend Karate with me. You can attend more if you want and will be paid for it. Next year, you will take Judo as an elective, as well as one other physical class. On top of all of that, I will have a workout routine for you. By graduation, you should be educated enough to do your job. As the company grows, you will have to hire other security. For school classes, I will only pay you half time but list it as an award, so you don’t get taxed on it. The same goes for any of you girls. If you take courses that benefit your job, then I will pay half-time for time in class. That includes cooking classes for Moira.”

“I still don’t feel right. It isn’t like you need security yet.”

“Dahlia, the deal I was negotiating on Monday, tell her how much it was for.”

“You claimed that over 30 years, you would make tens of billions.”

“That is right. I have also made deals with NeXT that have already put my first million in the bank. We need somebody to do some research and figure out how to make our office safer. There is no way I can get you trained to do that in time, but I don’t have time to deal with a contractor either. Until you are trained up, you will have to act as a go-between. They will set it up, but you will supervise, and once you are properly trained, you will head security.”

“OK, OK, I will do it.”

“Carol, please tell them what I require of all my employees.”

“He expects us to bring him our report cards and test scores. If they are not good enough, we have to put in overtime, which consists of sitting at his place, studying. We aren’t allowed to spend more than half of our paycheque on our families. At least half has to go towards buying stuff for ourselves or to savings.”

“I have one new requirement. I require everybody to be in good shape. Every Saturday, we are going for a long-distance bike ride before we start work. This Saturday, we are going to head into town and buy competition road bikes that you are to ride to and from school every day, and this summer, the entire company will enter the Tour de Victoria race as a team.”

Moira criticizes, “That isn’t fair. I am not capable of keeping up with any of you.”

“You will be the trailing rider. They have the easiest time because the other people break the wind in front of them, and there is an effect called drafting. Without getting too technical, you are aerodynamically linked to the bike in front of you. In short, you rob energy from the person cycling in front of you. To make it fair, everybody else takes turns as the lead bike, and I carry all the supplies. All next week, after school, you will need to practise drafting with Kim. If you ask nicely, I think Carol and Dahlia will help you with it too. Carol is good, but Dahlia is the best person I know when it comes to drafting.”

That night Moira convinced her Mom to give us a ride to Performance Bikes. She has a big family, so they are the only family in our group to have a vehicle big enough to carry us all.

The next morning, I am the last person they pick up. Moira is the one that knocks on my door, and we greet each other with our usual hug. She gets in the back of the van, leaving me the front, then introduces me to her Mom, Ms. Papadakis.

Ms. P looks like she was a heartbreaker when she was younger, but has put on some weight. She has a classic Greek face with a strong nose.

I say, “I hope you don’t mind me calling you Ms. P. I am a typical lazy teen and shorten the names of all my friends like that.”