Chapter 65: Hoodies

November 5, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“How DO you manage to get yourself into those situations?” Kara teased when I told her what Mia had said.

“I didn’t DO anything,” I protested. “Mia made the joke about adoption and Nicole made the comment about being a mistress being empowering!”

“Nicole sounds like Suzanne, but with a three-year headstart!”

“Suzanne just didn’t meet me until she was seventeen, unlike Nicole who met me when she was eleven.”

“So?”

“I didn’t say anything except ‘goodbye’. Honestly, this is one of those things we talked about - friends of the kids who aren’t ‘cousins’. Rachel is kind of a gray area there, but Mia is decidedly not.”

“Not going to ask your son if you can fuck his friend?”

“No!”

“I do have to ask about Nicole.”

“There are occasional exceptions to every rule, and you know what happened there - I waived the rules because her silence in Russia allowed me to be with Natalie, which helped me become «lagom». And to be honest, my balance is a bit off again.”

“Too many girls?”

“The fact that you said that right away tells me that the answer to that is yes. I let things get out of control again.”

“Break it down, Snuggle Bear. Which one, in and of itself, was wrong?”

“I suppose I can only really point to Harmony or Cheryl, and those weren’t wrong, per se. But the number went from zero for eighteen months to eleven in ten months.”

“OK, but there were reasons why you limited yourself to Liz and Maria Cristina. And there were historical reasons why you agreed to be with Rachel, Misty, and Nicole. And you certainly can’t be thinking you shouldn’t have been with Suzanne.”

“I guess I’m not expressing myself correctly - my concern is that somehow I’ve gotten out of balance.”

“I think Ivy and Mia show that you haven’t. And you weren’t thinking this way until you messed up your blood chemistry in Buenos Aires.”

I sighed, “That really is the key. It made me wary, because I know what can happen.”

“I also think the change with Liz had a much bigger impact on your psyche than you’re letting on.”

I took a deep breath and let it out, “Probably.”

“Add in Maria Cristina changing your relationship, and I think everything makes sense. Shall we go get Jess? We have to leave for the wake almost immediately after we get back.”

There was no family dinner, one of the rare times we’d canceled, because everyone was going to the wake to support Lieutenant Nicholson’s family, the firefighters, and most importantly for me, Tom, Bethany, Nicholas, and Bobby. Nicholas was taking it pretty hard, but Stephie had spent lots of time with him and that had seemed to help.

The wake was traditional with a Roman Catholic priest leading the memorial prayer service. The casket was closed, thankfully, and we paid our respects to Lieutenant Nicholson’s wife and kids. I had a quiet word with Tom and then both Jessica and I wrote checks for the college fund and handed them to him.

We went home, had a quiet smaller family pizza dinner, then spent time together until everyone had to go to bed.

November 6, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“Ready to go, Penny?” I asked just before 9:00am on Monday morning when the TV coverage of the honorary parade for Lieutenant Nicholson finished.

“Not really, but I guess I don’t have a choice. I positively HATE funerals.”

“How many have you been to?”

“A couple, but it’s the idea, you know?”

“Yes.”

Cindi, Terry, Penny, and I left the conference room where we’d been watching and headed out to my car for the drive to Holy Name Cathedral. We were fortunate, as admission to the church was strictly limited because of the number of firefighters who would be in attendance, but Tom had made sure we would have seats. After parking in a nearby garage, we walked into the church where Bethany was waiting to make sure we could get in. We took seats in the very back of the church and waited for the Funeral Mass, which would be celebrated by Francis Cardinal George.

The Funeral Mass made me think of the others I’d attended - Stephie’s, Don Joseph’s, and fatefully, Jim McGrath’s. And it made me think of the one I missed - Jorge’s. The uniforms reminded me of Nick Evans’ funeral, and I knew the firefighters from Lieutenant Nicholson’s company would perform a very similar service for him to the one the sailors had performed for Nick.

When the service finished, we exited the church and went to stand about two blocks away along the route they’d take to get to Saint Mary Cemetery in Evergreen Park, not too far south of Midway Airport. The streets were quickly lined with firefighters, police, and civilians, and we watched as the engine from Tom’s company led the procession away from the church as hundreds of uniformed firefighters and police saluted.

When the cortege had passed, we retrieved my car from the parking garage and made our way to the cemetery. Following the interment, we had a late lunch, then headed back to the office. Penny, Terry, and Cindi left in Terry’s car to go to the meal that had been planned, and I went back to my office.

“Do you need anything?” Kimmy asked when I walked in.

I shook my head, “No. I’m OK. Penny will be out for the rest of the day as we discussed.”

“Let me know if you do.”

“Of course.”

I sat down and turned on my computer and brought up my email. I quickly dealt with the few items then brought up AIM.

Bonita84: You there?
NIKASteve: Sorry. I had a funeral to go to this morning.
Bonita84: Oh! Sorry! Someone close?
NIKASteve: A Chicago firefighter. I have friends in the department.
Bonita84: So sad! How are you?
NIKASteve: OK. How are you?”
Bonita84: Good! I had a chat with Doctora Alejandra! She’s wonderful! Thank you!
NIKASteve: Glad I could help!
Bonita84: I need to find a place which administers the ACT. Doctora A said there are places in Buenos Aires.
NIKASteve: OK. How is everything else?
Bonita84: School is the same. My sister is very jealous I found such a good lover! <3
NIKASteve: I am very happy to have been your lover!
Bonita84: Perhaps someday again.
NIKASteve: Perhaps.
Bonita84: I need to go! Chat soon!
NIKASteve: Bye!

I got about thirty minutes of coding in before AIM pinged me.

LeighR83: Hey! Are you free before the Rap Session?
NIKASteve: Miss me?
LeighR83: Yes!! How early can I be there?
NIKASteve: I’m done with breakfast by 7:00am, or you could join us for breakfast.
LeighR83: Parents might wonder if I leave before 8:00am. See you about 8:30am?
NIKASteve: Perfect! See you then!
LeighR83: Bye!
NIKASteve: Bye!

The trio of girls I chatted with online was completed about fifteen minutes later when Suzanne pinged me on AIM.

Petra1983: Miss you!
NIKASteve: Miss you, too! Looking forward to December!
Petra1983: OK to hang out with Birgit?
NIKASteve: Time with the girl gang?
Petra1983: She said just her and me.
NIKASteve: You know it’s cool with me.
Petra1983: Yes, but it’s also appropriate to check; she’s only twelve.
NIKASteve: YOU tell her!
Petra1983: LOL! I have. She wants to be ‘grown up’ right the F now!
NIKASteve: Oh, I know. My Pumpkin is not patient with nature!
Petra1983: Did you go to the funeral this morning?
NIKASteve: Yeah. Sucked, like all funerals.
Petra1983: I’ve been lucky so far.
NIKASteve: Wish I had for Nick’s, Jorge’s, and Stephie’s sakes. It’s days like today that make those hurt again
Petra1983: (hug)
NIKASteve: Thanks.
Petra1983: Time for homework! L8r!
NIKASteve: L8r!

Just before the end of the day, I placed a call to Anala.

“Skidmore, Owings & Merrill!”

“Anala Patel, please.”

“One moment.”

“Mrs. Patel,” Anala answered when she picked up the phone.

“Hi, Anala!”

“I should play the Lottery today!” she laughed. “How are you, Steve?”

“Good.”

“What do you need THIS time?”

“Actually, it’s not for me. Could we meet for lunch?”

“Sure. Tomorrow at Maxim’s? 11:30am?”

“Sounds good. We’ll catch up.”

“You don’t have to avoid me like the plague, Mr. Adams. My husband simply doesn’t approve of your family situation. He always thought you were a good man, and still does.”

“So, I’m an idiot? What else is new?”

“I would hope you weren’t quite as much an idiot as you were in the past.”

“I don’t think so, but you’ll have to judge when we catch up.”

“See you tomorrow, then.”

“Thanks.”

I replaced the handset in the cradle and spent the last half hour of the work day in my zone.

November 7, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“Is that a serious question?” I chuckled when I sat down in my chair.

“No,” Penny said, laughing. “I know you better than that. You didn’t vote for Gore, either.”

“Harry Browne. There really wasn’t an option. Maybe if Perot’s old party had run someone other than Pat Buchanan, and I do NOT mean Donald Trump, I’d have voted Reform.”

“There was some goofiness there, right?”

“Yes. John Hagelin, a disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles guru. The Federal Election Commission said Buchanan was the official Reform Candidate.”

“Wait! You said Donald Trump? The real estate guy?”

“Yeah. He had a falling out with the Republicans so he decided to do the Ross Perot thing, but it didn’t work out. And you know I couldn’t vote for Nader and the Greens! Talk about a nightmare!”

“Who wins?”

“Fuck if I know,” I chuckled. “The Electoral College is going to be close and it could come down to one or two states. We’ll know tonight. I take it you voted?”

“Yes, and I was SO tempted to write in Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck because THEY would be better, but they aren’t qualified, so I wrote in your name for President and Doctor Al for Vice President.”

“Fuck you!” I said, laughing hard. “I would have you killed!”

“You got one fucking vote! But it felt good to do it!”

“The vote?” I smirked. “Or?”

“That was more than once!” Penny exclaimed, then leaned over and kissed my cheek.

I spent most of the next four hours in my zone, then went to meet Anala for lunch. She greeted me with a hug and then we went downstairs and were seated in a booth.

“Your kids are what? Twelve and nine?”

“Yes. And your eldest would be fourteen, right?”

“Yes.”

We spent twenty minutes catching up, with not much having changed for her, but quite a bit having changed for me over the previous five years.

“I’d say you’re doing better,” she said with a soft laugh. “But you’re still you!”

“Is that good or bad?” I asked.

“Good,” Anala replied firmly. “Being balanced is important, but so is being true to yourself. So, what prompted the long-overdue call?”

“Hisataka Fujikawa.”

“My former apprentice? How do you know him?”

“I don’t, yet. One of my students is involved with him and wants my blessing for her marriage.”

“I knew he was seeing someone who also attended the Buddhist temple, but I didn’t know it was that serious!”

“Neither did I. They’re basically courting. She was something of a ‘wild child’ as a teenager and went through a full-on rebellion against her parents and everything Japanese. She messed up her life and came to me to help her put it back together.”

“How do you know her?”

“She’s the little sister of a girl I saw for a time who helped me get ready for my trip to Japan and taught me some Aikido, and is still a friend. The little sister, Miyu, also competed in karate tournaments until her rebellion. When she came to UofC, she showed up at the dojo and asked for my help. I took her on as a student under extremely strict discipline and she’s become the wonderful young woman I knew she could be.”

“Well, well, well!” Anala said lightly. “The student has become the master!”

“Literally,” I grinned. “I was awarded 6th Dan a couple of years ago.”

“Something which could have happened years earlier, had you paid attention.”

I shook my head, “No, this required a trip to Japan.”

“And what did you learn there?” Anala asked with an arched eyebrow.

“That you were right about many things!”

“Including this one! If you had managed to get out of the rut you were in, and had listened to me, many things would have gone smoother in your life.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t do ‘What if?’ because we don’t know what would have happened if anything changed. I owe you a lot, but I wasn’t quite ready to hear what you were trying to teach me.”

“But now you’re mentoring young people?”

“Yes. Miyu is just one of them. Tell me about Hisataka.”

“A fine young man, extremely polite, very spiritual, and very empathetic. He’s a very good architect and a wonderful artist, and his designs incorporate oriental features into traditional occidental designs. I’d say he’s a suitable mate for your protégé. She’s a black belt?”

“Yes. She’ll probably become an assistant instructor in the next year.”

“When you say rebellious, how bad?”

“Mostly boys, and a rejection of her parents traditional lifestyle. She discovered the error of her ways.”

“You can’t possibly have become a prude or hypocrite!” Anala protested.

“Selection and reason,” I replied. “She chose boys who would offend her parents in the maximum way and did so in a very uncultured way, including basically arranging to be caught in bed.”

“OK,” Anala nodded, “I agree with you, then.”

“Speaking of that, whatever happened with your little sister?”

“Married, divorced, and re-married. One child by her first marriage. I suppose you can guess what caused the divorce.”

I nodded, “She needed a different solution.”

“An open situation like yours might have worked, but she was too indiscriminate.”

“Anyway, sorry about that diversion. Is there anything that gives you pause?”

“Not if she’s returned to more traditional Japanese values.”

“She suggested they’d go to Hawaii for a proper Shinto wedding.”

“That answers THAT question. When will you meet him?”

“Saturday for lunch.”

“Don’t be a stranger, Steve.”

“I won’t. And I’m sorry.”

We finished our lunches, shared a hug before we parted, and I headed back to the office.

November 8, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed when I saw the electoral map on CNN on Wednesday morning.

“What, Tiger?” Jessica asked.

“Florida was changed from Gore to Bush after we went to bed, but they just moved it to ‘too close to call’!”

“Whoa! So what’s the count?”

“Oregon and Wisconsin are still too close to call, and not counting Florida, it’s Gore 250, Bush 246. If the Florida results are right, then Bush wins even if Gore gets the eighteen votes from Oregon and Wisconsin, which I expect he will.”

“So Bush won?”

“It looks that way, but the numbers in Florida are close and changing constantly, though Bush is staying ahead by a few thousand votes. Want to know the funny thing? Gore lost his home state of Tennessee, which combined with Wisconsin and Oregon would have made him President. Despite my distaste for the entire Bush family, if you don’t carry your home state, you have no business being President!”

“But Bush didn’t carry Connecticut!” Jessica protested.

“While that’s true, he was Governor of Texas. Gore was Senator from Tennessee.”

“I suppose that’s a reasonable point. And just think, Tiger, you have four years of George W. Bush to look forward to!”

“Fuck me,” I groaned.

“Would Gore be any better?”

“No, but a Bush in the White House is one of the scarier things I can think of!”

“Will there be a recount?”

“I can’t imagine there won’t be.”

“What happens if there’s a dispute?”

“The Constitution spells it out - the state certifies their Electors, then after the Electors vote, the tallies are sent to Congress. Congress determines the validity of the Presidential Electors. If they decide not to accept the votes from Florida, which they are free to do, then nobody has a majority of Electors and the vote goes to the House of Representatives, who vote for President by State, with each state having one vote. If the Representatives of a state can’t or won’t make a selection, then their vote doesn’t count. The same thing happens in the Senate, but each Senator gets a vote for Vice President. In this case, the Florida legislature is Republican, and the Republicans control a majority of state delegations in the House of Representatives, so Bush wins any way you slice it, unless the recount somehow goes for Gore.”

“Can’t he challenge it in court?”

I shook my head, “Not really. OK, let me qualify that with the fact that anybody can sue over anything; but if the Constitution is followed, the courts should say this is a political question and that they have no jurisdiction because the Constitution itself provides a remedy. There aren’t any state remedies, either, because this is a federal election. And remember, the popular vote is actually meaningless. The state legislature has the ONLY say in who the Electors are, and ONLY the Electors can vote.”

“What about the popular vote?”

“There IS no such thing! In effect, each state legislature runs what amounts to an opinion poll of the voters of their state, and accordingly appoints Electors. But those Electors are free to vote for anyone and nobody can do anything about it if they don’t follow the public opinion poll which was taken yesterday.

“The TV and newspapers do a grave disservice by showing the ‘popular vote’ total because it’s completely meaningless. When I first voted in a federal election in 1984, Illinois actually listed the Electors on the ballot with who they were pledged to. That made it VERY clear. That was called ‘confusing’ and they replaced it with just the candidate names, which is actually MORE confusing because NOBODY except the Electors can vote for President and Vice President.”

“You seem pretty sure.”

“I’m positive. Of course, that assumes that the courts follow the Constitution, which is never guaranteed. Anyway, I need to leave for work.”

We kissed, I went to find Kara and kissed her ‘goodbye’ then headed to the NIKA offices.

“Your worst nightmare!” Penny teased when she came into our office.

“Maybe. They said on WBBM radio that it’s down to about 1700 votes for Bush. And there will be a recount which will take a couple of days.”

“Who do you want to win?”

“Neither of them! The American public loses either way!”

My phone buzzed and I saw my sister was calling.

“What do you need, Squirt?” I asked.