Chapter 32: More Newbies

Samantha stood in front of the room with a marker in her hand. She was a little nervous, but trying to laugh it off. “OK, everyone, imagine that you are a Circle member. What kind of a situation might occur that would really worry your decision to join up?”

Dave sat at the back of the room, trying to fade away and not be a dominant force for the Circle 101 class. About thirty people were in attendance. Samantha had done a good job of going around the room and getting people to introduce themselves. The names were listed on a flipchart she’d taped to one of the walls:

Samantha Stone
Jenny Harvest
Savannah Stone
Cookie Carson
Alan Lauer
Barry Sykes
Elton Cleats
Wes Madden
Cord Jenkins
Bridget Simon
Nikky Thomas
JR
Dave Prentiss
Tatiana Volstok
Jasmine Kray
Chelsea Fox
Haley Keva
Lori Griffin
Leann Harris
Cricket
Cindy Worthington*?
Gary DeVille
Nora DeVille
Tony Harris
Carol Turner
Ike Turner
Deborah McKinley
Bob Fuller
Ginny Fuller

Alan tossed out an idea with a smirk, “That’d we’d stop making love with each other.”

Everyone laughed but nodded in agreement.

Haley said, “That we got more homogeneous.”

More and more ideas got stated. Sam kept writing abbreviated versions of what was said on flip chart after flip chart, quickly taping them to the walls. “One person tried to dominate some of the others.” “People started to fight and have dramatic disagreements with each other.” “Some of the relationships became exclusive or possessive.” “We had a couple of hermits get involved.” “We set too many rules to belong.” “New people stop trying to join with us.” “Some people decide they don’t want to be on work details.” “Some of the men revert to wanting to subjugate some of the women or not fully respect them as equals.” “We become shy about our nudity or exhibitionism.” “We get a few people who are ‘born again’ and want to reform us.”

The comments continued for a while. When there was a gap, Sam used the time to fill in a word or two on her flips.

Finally, she said, “How do we prevent any of that stuff from happening?”

The ideas flowed again. ‘If we see it, we talk about it as an issue!’ seemed to be the dominant theme. ‘Form teams to address the issue’ was another one. ‘Don’t let the issue get swept under the rug.’ ‘Raise the issue to the board.’

Dave almost had tears in his eyes. Here was the incoming class of ‘pledges’ to the Circle worrying about preserving the Circle and outlining action steps to keep things on track so that the core elements of the culture and their lifestyle would be preserved. They had the same sensitivity and zeal about the Circle that he did.

All of Ginny’s words about relaxing and trusting in the people around him came to his mind. She was right. Now, if only HE could let go of the reins a little. This was good practice. He’d do more of this.

Wednesday afternoon, Dave was scanning some of the engineering journals that had come in discussing battery technology. Since taking the job with Mark Worthington and starting EneRG, Dave had practically gotten a Ph.D. in the subject. Even when he went down to the research department and talked to Nat Turner and the other researchers, he could carry his weight and not get lost.

Terms like ‘substrate ionization catalyst’ no longer threw him for a loop. He could even make a contribution to some of the discussions. One of the teams was working on the Aluminum Ion battery. Dave got them thinking about using recycled materials and that provoked a whole discussion about recycling any of their materials and impurities. As the core of the business cranked up to churn on the Lithium Thallium batteries, Dave had started to worry about the ‘Next Big Thing’ as Steve Jobs used to call it.

Part of the contract with Apple was a rebate program with them to recycle iPhones with EneRG batteries that were turned in for destruction and reclamation.

Dave heard a few words from an unfamiliar male voice just outside his office door. The conversation was with Jenny. Seconds later, Jenny stood in his office doorway. She asked, “Got a few minutes for a short discussion with one of the manufacturing engineers?”

Dave waved his arm, “Sure. Now, I assume.”

She nodded and gestured to someone just out of sight from where he sat.

A bright looking man in Dockers and a sport shirt appeared. “Hi, I’m Lars Nilsson. I’m a first line manager on the B-shift in the plant, but ... well, what I want to talk to you about isn’t related to EneRG. If this is a bad time, I can come back or see you after work.”

Dave gestured to his open sofa. “No. Now’s a good time. Please come in and have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”

“Errr, no, but thank you. I’m kind of embarrassed to be here, but if I don’t talk to you my wife ... well, she would not be happy with me.”

“Your wife? Does she work here, too?”

“No, but she met you at the celebration party you had for all of us at The Circle. She was with three other women, and frankly they’d had a little too much to drink, but she remembers every word you said to them.”

“What’s your wife’s name?”

Lars blushed, “Angeline but she goes by Angie. She thought you might remember the conversation.”

Dave chuckled, “I do. I’m afraid I teased them a bit. They were asking questions about my lifestyle and my wives.”

“Yes, exactly,” Lars said looking serious. “She wants to know more about all of it and the Circle. She also told me she was asking not just for herself, but also for Olive, Lucy, and Elin. The four of them are thick as thieves, and their antics worry me sometimes. They’re friends outside of work.”

“I’d be glad to talk to anybody about the Circle. If they’d like to come around there on Saturday afternoon, they could join us for a casual lunch about noon, and then we could talk. You and the other spouses are also included in that invitation.”

Lars continued blushing. “I briefly met you that day, and also ... as it turned out ... THREE of your wives. I didn’t have the courage to talk to Scarlett Johansson, although we may be related. I have relatives named Johansson back in the Stockholm area.”

“Are you from there?”

“My grandfather is. My father was born in Sweden, but came to this country when he was five years old. I was born here, in Minnesota.”

Dave said, “Well, why don’t you all come about noon. When you arrive there will be a gate. Just push the intercom button five times quickly and the gate will open. Park at the top of the rise and walk between two of the homes to our core area. That’s where the party was, if you recall. You’ll find me around the bar waiting for you. We all hang out together, so there’ll be many of us there. Just ask for me if I’m not evident.”

“Oh, that’s great.”

“Will there be eight of you?” Dave asked in a friendly tone.

“I’ll have to let you know. Probably not. Lucy and Elin are not married. They’re both divorced and ... well, on the prowl some of the time. Elin does have a ... errr ... fuck buddy, she calls him.”

“Well, if they have a steady boyfriend ... or fuck buddy, he would be invited as well, if she wants to bring him. Let Jenny know the headcount so we have enough for all of us for lunch. Sandwiches.” He gestured towards where Jenny sat just outside his door.

Lars stood and prepared to leave.

Dave called him back, “One other thing. You should all know that there is some nudity and partial nudity if the weather is nice – all feminine. In that regard, I guess you might think of us as somewhat European.”

Lars was frozen in position as he absorbed that statement. “Oh, thank you for the warning. I’ll alert the others. Would we be expected to conform?”

Dave shook his head. “Not a bit. We want all of you to be comfortable so whatever any of you choose to do will be fine. There is no expectation that our guests do that, especially on their first real visit. The dress code will be very casual. You’ll find me probably wearing a bathing suit and t-shirt.”

Lars disappeared. Dave heard Jenny laughing after he was out of earshot.

Jenny stuck her head in the door. “I was listening. It sounds like the Circle is about to get six or seven new members. I remember meeting those four women. We talked about the pros and cons of the Circle, except I couldn’t think of any cons. They were enthralled with every word I said. I kind of emphasized the sexual part of it.” She giggled

On Saturday, exactly at noon, seven unfamiliar faces walked between the Winter and Connor homes. They found themselves on the far side of the patio from the bar, so worked their way around the pool. There were four women and three men. Dave waved them over to the bar and then went forward to meet them.

After a flurry of introductions, Dave assessed the new arrivals. He mentally ran through the names again: Angie, Olive, Elin, and Lucy for the women, and Lars, Stan, and Tim for the men.

All seven of the arrivals were greatly distracted by the twenty or so topless women around the pool, some sunning and some sitting in the shade of a large umbrella chatting in conversation circles or reading. The day was warm.

Cricket bounded up to the group. Dave had alerted several of his wives of the arrivals for lunch and conversation, and she was always ‘up’ for meeting new people and learning about them. Dave thought that at one point or another every one of them would find their way into one of her novels. She even confessed to using the Contacts App on her computer to keep track of everyone she met and some of the key facts about them.

Cricket, of course, was also topless and for all the good her little G-string did, she may as well have been naked. The thin material proved to the alert observer that she was clean-shaven and even had a small tattoo, courtesy of Owen Bennett, on one side of her mons. That day, she was also sporting a fairly obvious camel toe. She wore a baseball cap to help shade her eyes.

Cricket happily greeted everybody and instantly learned their names and interrelationships. Dave had also filled her in ahead of time. Dave and Cricket escorted the group to the lunch buffet that Chef Bobbie had put out with the help of one of the groups of volunteers that helped in the kitchen and food prep areas. There was gazpacho soup, two kinds of salads, and an assortment of sandwiches and breads. Some homemade cookies were also available as a dessert.

After everyone had served himself or herself, they went to a table Dave had reserved.

“Is this normal fare?” Lucy asked, gesturing to the meal as they sat.

“On the weekends, yes,” Cricket said. “Sunday night we are usually on our own for dinners, and often a Monday or Tuesday night. The rest of the time, we eat dinners here, but not lunches since during the week many in the Circle are out at work someplace.”

“You have somebody that produces these things?” Olive asked in awe.

“Chef Bobbie is one of the Circle’s few employees. She’s also a member. She oversees our nutrition on an individual basis as well. That’s why when you look around here you don’t see any obesity. You do NOT want her getting on your case about over eating or bad nutrition habits. She also manages several teams of volunteers from our Circle ranks that help with the nutrition, and prepare and serve the food.” Cricket beamed with pride.