Chapter 5: Construction Starts

The Circle 101 class had gone on without Dave, Nikky, and JR as they ran around the country establishing four manufacturing sites and arranging for rapid construction of the facilities. Before the end of their trip construction had already started in Phoenix and Portland. The sites in St. Paul and Wheeling would start the following week. The St. Paul site required demolition of some existing buildings, but advance work had already secured the permits.

The Circle 101 third class had discussed Egalitarianism, Win-Win, and Confrontation as practiced in the Circle, and the attendant implications and how it played out with the members.

In such an environment, where both men and women were on an equal playing field, they were constantly on guard against taking one another for granted. Moreover, no topic was off the slate for questions from another Circle member. One never had to mince words or hold back but civility reigned.

Women shouldn’t assume that men would make the first move with them if they wanted to get together. Men shouldn’t assume that their opinions and requests prevail.

Those discussions led to a discussion of what Stephen Covey called ‘Win-Win’ situations. In such a case, each party might not get everything they want, but they get enough so they feel they are walking away from the negotiations feeling good about the situation and that they got value for whatever effort or resources they were putting forward.

The discussion on Confrontation reminded everyone that if they had an issue with someone else, they needed to tactfully address that issue with the person before it festered, grew, and spread discontent in some way. No one was supposed to sulk or feel put upon. No one could hide from their friends if they thought something was wrong or off-kilter. They needed to confess their feelings and what they hoped would change in the situation.

Alice and Dale taught the session and gave examples throughout. Some of what they presented was based on slides and material that Dave had assembled.

One of the examples of a win-win regarding the Circle involved Alec and Taylor. Alec wanted Taylor as his exclusive love interest; Taylor wanted membership in the Circle with all rights and privileges, clearly a non-monogamous position. Ultimately, Alec joined the Circle and had Taylor as his close love interest, but also the love and affection of fifty other women. Taylor got her membership, and pledged to pay extra attention to Alec, but not on an exclusive basis. Alec had to move the farthest by loosening up, but in the end, he felt he got a great deal just as Taylor did.

The discussion of Egalitarianism included how Circle members behaved outside the gates of the Circle. Both Ty and Derek spoke in the class about how they were promoting the concept in their companies: Ty at the Bank of America, and Derek at Florida Power and Light; Nancy Mason had become the first female vice president in the history of the company.

Alice also talked about Confrontation by talking about how she had shocked Dave about her wish to deepen her relationship with Owen as her sister officially married the man. She talked about how they had worked out the huge dislocation that her husband felt until there was comfort and support for the way things turned out. She used the example to illustrate how she’d ‘sandbagged’ him without laying a foundation for what she really wanted to say.

Several in the class pointed out how the term confrontation suggested a battle, and hence unhappiness. After some debate about terminology, the class went off to think about better and more harmonious terminology.

The two-hour class ended on time and the students mostly scattered to the wind, many returning to campus where they lived and had classes towards their degree.

Cookie had been pining away for Dave for a few days, but found she was drawn to Dale. After class she went and talked to him.

“Dale, if I understood correctly, given the egalitarian nature of the Circle, I can ask you on a date without being judged as overly forward, a slut, or as a stalker.”

Dale smiled at the pretty co-ed. “Exactly.”

“So, if I would like to make love with you all I’d need to do is ask?”

“Correct.”

“I’m asking,” Cookie said, smiling broadly and hoping for the best.

“I am flattered, and very interested. I’ve been hoping to find an opportunity to ... errr ... befriend you.” Dale smiled broadly and obviously welcomed the approach.

Cookie laughed, “You can say ‘Fuck me’; I won’t be insulted or annoyed.”

Dale said, “I didn’t want to be that crass about it. I do have to check-in at home. Why don’t you come and meet my wife, Susan, if you haven’t already? I think you two will like each other.”

“Does she ... you know ... like other women? I’m not an expert on any of that, but in the spirit of the Circle, I’m trying.”

Dale laughed as they started walking across the patio towards the Harnett home. “Yes, she likes other women a lot. If you’re willing and don’t mind, she’d love to join us. You’ll get two for the price of one.”

Cookie grinned and took hold of his arm, pulling it to her barely clad chest, “Oh, goody.”

Dale led Cookie into his home, through the kitchen and into the living room. Susan was reading and looked up with a smile. Dale made introductions.

Susan rose, “I’ve seen you with Dave, one of the young college men, and the younger crowd, what are you doing here?” Her voice sounded light and friendly.

Cookie said, “I kind of had some lusty ideas about your husband, but I’ve been led by him to think that the two of you are an even better deal ... that is, if you’re interested?”

Susan smiled, “Me? Interested? In a sexual encounter with a gorgeous college girl? Surely, you have to be kidding by asking me that question.” She stood up and moved towards Cookie.

Susan captured Cookie’s head gently between her two hands and steered her so the two of them could kiss in what turned out to be a soulful and long kiss that left the two women panting. Dale stood beside the two women also panting after watching their sapphic kiss.

Cookie panted, “Wow! That was ... stupendous.”

Towards the end of the second kiss, Susan took one of Cookie’s hands and placed it on her available breast. As they separated Susan said, “I love all aspects of sex. Please don’t miss any places or hold back.”

Cookie nodded, “Me, too.” She turned to Dale and said, “That goes for you, too. Anything goes.”

Dale grinned, “I think we’d be more comfortable up in our bedroom.” He led the two women up the staircase and into the bedroom, taking time to lock the bedroom door lest a child interfere with their privacy.

One day in mid-October, a bright orange construction fence wrapped around part of the core hallway to some homes and through part of the core that made up the original Circle. Internally, various dust barriers were erected in the hallways that encircled the entire core, both inside and out. The construction-warning fence also extended between some of the homes all the way to Circle Drive in two locations where warning cones indicated the start of the construction zone.

The same day the fencing went up, the shrubbery around five of the homes was dug up with a backhoe and replanted along Circle Drive where it wouldn’t be disturbed by the construction. There were hopes of reusing some of the plants by the relocated homes.

A few days later the land north of the circle of home was graded and made ready for new concrete pads. The pads were poured by a caravan of cement trucks at the start of the following week.

In late-October, Mike and Clarisse vacated their home and moved into a long singlewide mobile home that had been rented with five others and temporarily installed on the rise between the circle of homes and Perimeter Drive. A few days later, Dale and Susan moved into another one, Sean and Kat followed them, and then Aaron and Shelby, and lastly Roy and Elise. Furnishings in all the homes went into storage.

The house movers showed up the week before Halloween early on Monday morning. They carefully jacked up Mike and Clarisse’s home as they put steel beams beneath it, got it seated on a special wheeled frame atop a special flatbed truck trailer, moved it about two hundred feet to the north, and then lowered the house onto its new location. The relocation and anchoring of the house took all week.

While that was going on, Mike got the idea to do a series of adult films through his Circle X Productions based on a trailer park while he had five trailers all in a row and he was surrounded by all his favorite porn actors and actresses. The temporary homes were relatively close together, so with the right camera angles he could make parts of a film look as though whatever sex was taking place was in a larger trailer park. He was enthusiastically supported in his endeavor, amid a lot of laughs and many ideas about what to film to make his point.

The relocated members of the Circle were publicly praised and thanked by others in the group who would eventually benefit from the Expanded Circle.

While the major renovations to the original Circle of homes was going on, Townhouse 3 also got started along airport road. This also provided more mess, noise, and disruption six days a week. In this case, the residents of the first two townhouses were those mainly affected.

The Circle felt different because of the construction. It was enlarging to accommodate more and more members that wanted to live in close proximity to each other. That was the good part. The construction debris, noise, trucks, and dislocations of many of what seemed to be the charter members took a toll on everyone.

As Halloween neared, Julie again organized a luxury tour bus to shuttle Circle members and close friends from the Circle in Sarasota, up the Interstate 75 and then to the large acreage that made up Mark Worthington’s The Meadows – his country estate outside the city. Every one of the sixty seats on the bus was subscribed for by the end of the first day Julie announced that seats were available. A second smaller bus that held twenty also filled. Julie called Elsa Worthington and told her that about eighty Circle members and friends would be there for the Halloween party.