Chapter 25: I’m here to talk if you need me

June 28, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

On Wednesday I headed to Maxim’s for lunch with Mattie. I’d decided it was better not to have Kara join us, and she’d agreed, so I’d be talking to Mattie alone. I had some misgivings, but I couldn’t directly articulate them, and it would be easier to start with a conversation with Mattie alone. We met just outside the restaurant on Madison, and after introductions, we went downstairs and were seated in a booth.

“I was surprised when Kara got in touch and what she wanted was even more surprising.”

“And she said you had a friend who was, well, I’m not sure if ‘willing’ or ‘interested’ is the right word.”

“You sound concerned.”

“Something bugs me about this whole thing.”

“Kara’s fantasy? Me? My friend? A possible threesome?”

“Yes,” I replied with a wry smile. “Something just doesn’t feel right.”

“Shouldn’t you be talking to Kara about this?”

“I made a promise to Kara,” I replied.

“Which you won’t go back on,” Mattie said. “But then you need advice from someone besides me.”

“I’m just seeking information right now. Tell me about your friend Paige.”

“She’s what Claire calls a ‘Steve type’ - long blonde hair, blue eyes, athletic build, double-A, long, muscular legs.”

“Nice,” I said with a smile, “but not what I meant.”

“That was the teaser, like for a movie,” Mattie said with a smirk.

The waitress came to take our orders.

“Go on,” I said after the waitress had brought our drinks.

“Paige is my cousin, and her family were missionaries in Africa and just came back at the end of May. She’s really smart and was homeschooled by her parents, but they were in a place where there were very few other Westerners.”

“You’re not filling me with confidence here,” I replied.

“She’s nothing like Becka was, if that’s what you mean. They aren’t fanatical.”

“You’ll excuse me if I’m skeptical about that. How long were they in Africa?”

“About six years. Her dad is an English teacher and her mom is a nurse.”

“What country?”

“Kenya.”

“How close are you to her? Or, maybe, the better question is - how well do you know her.”

“We were pretty close until they left, and we wrote back and forth while she was away. Her parents are going back, but she’s staying with us so she can go to Loyola.”

“What major?”

“Nursing.”

“How do we get from Kenya to your conversation with Kara?”

“Four years ago I wrote her about my ‘initiation’.”

“That was dangerous!” I exclaimed.

Mattie laughed, “We wrote in code, so nobody else could have read it.”

“Code?”

“Paige’s idea. Before they left in ‘94, she talked to the dad of a friend who taught her how to use a columnar transposition substitution cipher. That’s how we wrote anything secret. But neither her parents or mine opened our letters, so it didn’t really matter.”

“Hang on!” I objected. “A twelve-year-old and a fifteen-year-old used cryptography to communicate?”

“Sure! And we even changed the key in every message.”

I started laughing, “Just wow! How did you pick a key?”

“It was always a combination of the two longest words in the plaintext part of the message, removing any repeated characters. It was easier for me, because I used a computer; she had to do hers by hand.”

I shook my head in awe, “That’s pretty amazing. It wouldn’t stand up to brute force decryption, but you did everything right, though the key selection could have been stronger. A double transposition would have been better, and if you regularly changed the key, even state-level brute force decryption would be difficult, though not impossible, with sufficient computer resources.”

“We weren’t worried about the CIA, just our parents! Anyway, when she came home, we talked about lots of stuff, including that. She asked if I knew a good guy for her. Kara called literally the next day.”

“I got the impression from Kara you wanted to participate, and I know you’re seeing Patrick, and that you guys are fairly serious.”

“We are, but if Paige wanted the full ‘initiation’, we could work out an equitable trade because Patrick REALLY wants to fuck Becka!”

I chuckled, “Interesting.”

“There’s also the issue of us being cousins, which would give me serious pause if Paige actually wanted to lose her virginity the way I did. That said, I could make the deal with Patrick if you wanted to be with me and Becka!”

“Set that aside for the moment,” I grinned. “What happens if I say ‘no’ to Paige?”

“There is a secondary option, but let’s be honest here - nobody, and I mean NOBODY has been as good as you. Period. End of discussion. If she’s going to have an ‘Expert Deflowering’ then you should be the expert doing the deflowering.”

“Eighteen, never dated, and wants to lose her virginity in front of a woman she’s met once? I’m a bit skeptical.”

“Oh, right! Becka having you and Abbie jointly deflower her, and you and Becka doing me, including double penetration AND pegging, and it’s weird that Paige would be OK with Kara watching?”

“They are totally different things,” I replied.

“What’s wrong?” Mattie asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “That’s the issue.”

“Can I take a stab at what it might be?”

“Sure. You’ve been to enough Rap Sessions to know me pretty well.”

“Biblically, too!” she teased. “I think the problem is you violated your own rule.”

As soon as she’d said those words, it was as if scales fell from my eyes, or the fog lifted, and I saw clearly what I’d been unable to see before.

“Committing irrevocably to sex, in advance, without even knowing who the person might be. I am an idiot!”

Mattie shook her head, “No, you aren’t. You were trying to please Kara.”

“And in doing so violated one of my most important rules.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied tentatively. “I need to talk to Kara, obviously. And to Paige once I talk to Kara.”

“From your tone, it sounds as if the answer is going to be ‘no’.”

“Give me a few days, please.”

“Sure.”

“Have you thought about where you’re going to work when you graduate next June?”

“Wherever someone will hire me!” she laughed.

“Talk to Samantha Spurgeon,” I said. “She’s always looking for really smart people, especially women.”

“My degree will be in statistics, not finance.”

“Statistics and algorithms are increasingly important in trading. You fit the profile of the kind of person she’s looking for. Have a word with her at the Fourth of July party.”

“I will.”

The waitress brought our lunches and when we finished eating, we parted with a hug and I went back to the office for a programming session with Kassidy and Iris.

That evening, after karate, and after we put the kids to bed, Kara, Jessica, and I sat together in the ‘Indian’ room.

“I broke my own rule,” I said without any preamble.

“Which one?” Jessica asked.

“The one about not being able to commit to sex irrevocably in advance.”

“Your promise to me?” Kara asked.

“Yes. Mattie could tell I was hesitant and as we talked, she identified the source of my discomfort.”

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Kara said, sounding disappointed.

“I know it’s not my fantasy,” Jessica said carefully, “but I wonder if the only way this will work is if it happens organically.”

“How would that work?” I asked. “It’s not like I can ask a girl if she wants to lose her virginity with an audience! That’s why Kara went prospecting, which led to me basically committing, in advance, to have sex with what amounts to a random girl.”

“You mean one who you didn’t pick?” Kara asked.

“I don’t think I EVER picked them,” I chuckled. “Both of you picked me, and that’s generally been true since I was fourteen. It goes back to what we were saying in the conversation with Suzanne about the effect we call the ‘vibe’. That’s probably what gave me pause here.”

“But wasn’t Mattie brought to you?”

“Yes, and I met her and THEN decided. This was backwards.”

“Ah!” Kara exclaimed in realization. “You committed before you even met Paige. That means instead of deciding to do it, you’re deciding NOT to do it, and you don’t think you can, because you already said you would.”

“That about sums it up,” I replied. “Can we let this go for the summer and see what happens in the Fall?”

“Yes,” Kara replied. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Honey,” I said. “We’re in uncharted territory and we’re mapping a way through it.”

“May I suggest re-exploring some well-known territory?” Jessica asked sexily.

“Yes!” Kara and I both exclaimed and pounced on her.

June 30, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

When I got home from hockey practice on Friday morning, I went to the main house to start making lunch for my friends. Winter helped, which made things go quicker.

“Who all is going to be here today?” Winter asked.

“Mikey and Nicole from hockey, and Kelly, Robby, Joe, Sally, Missy, and Cynthia from my class at school, and Nicholas and Rachel.”

“What are you guys doing after you eat?”

“Well, if I was my dad...” I smirked.

Winter laughed, “I don’t think your friends are like your dad’s friends from when he was fourteen!”

“Mom One, Aunt Melanie, and Aunt Bethany? No way!”

“So what ARE you going to do?”

“Play pool and foosball. Then we’re going to see Chicken Run, and have dinner at Bacino’s.”

The doorbell rang and I went to answer it. It was Mikey and Nicole, and I saw Natalie in the car in the street. She honked and I waved, and then my friends and I went inside. Ten minutes later everyone had arrived and we sat down to eat lunch.

“Has anybody talked to Heather?” Nicole asked.

“I called her,” Missy said. “Her mom won’t let her hang out with us, but we can at her house. Well, the girls can, but none of the boys.”

“Oh give me a break!” Robby said. “How dumb is that?”

“As dumb as Francesca’s mom,” I sighed.

“But all Paul and Heather had done was kiss!” Missy protested. “And it’s not like he was actually expecting that!”

“Heather’s mom freaked out when the news started using that word about the president,” Cynthia said. “My dad laughed, though I’m pretty sure that if I told him I was going to do that he wouldn’t laugh!”

“Hmm,” Robby said with a smirk.

“I don’t THINK so!” Cynthia exclaimed, but she was smirking, not upset.

“Maybe we should stay away from that topic,” I said.

“Nobody here is going to freak out,” Missy said. “And none of us are dumb enough to tell our parents about someone making a dumb joke.”

“She’s right,” Sally said. “None of us will tell our parents.”

“Jesse tells his moms everything, doesn’t he?” Cynthia asked.

“I do, but they’re totally cool,” I replied. “And so is my dad.”

“Your dad wouldn’t care if we actually did stuff like that!” Joe said.

“Well, he would if he was concerned about your parents,” I said. “He wants to avoid stuff like what happened with Heather because all that does is make people notice our family is so different.”

“You mean because you have two moms?” Robby asked.

“Yes, but also because he has two wives and girlfriends.”

“I think I need to talk to your dad!” Robby replied.

“That would mean finding more than one girl who would do it with you, and you haven’t even found one!” Missy teased.

“We’re fourteen!” Kelly protested. “It’s not like we’re in college or even High School!”

“You won’t do it until you’re in college?” Missy asked.

“I don’t know,” Kelly said, looking down and blushing. “I, uhm, don’t think I’m ready for that.”

“Me either,” Missy replied. “But I’m not sure I need to be like twenty, or married, like Heather’s mom thinks.”

“Is THAT the problem?” Nicole asked.

“I think so,” Missy replied. “Heather said her mom lectured her about not giving it up to anyone except her husband on her wedding night.”

“That should be HER decision, not her mom’s!” Nicole protested. “Nobody can decide for someone else!”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “But as Dad says, parents think they can control that when there is no way they can, no matter what they think.”

“So your dad is OK with it?” Cynthia asked. “Even for your sisters?”

“Dad would never be a hypocrite and say the rules were different for girls than they were for boys.”

We finished our lunch, then went to the basement to play pool and foosball for about an hour, then we left the house. We walked to the L, rode downtown, then walked to the theater at Water Tower Place. The movie was hilarious and we all enjoyed it. When it was done, we walked all the way to Wacker Drive to eat at Bacino’s.

“Opinions?” Stephanie asked Deborah, Liz, and me when we disconnected from the call.

“Do you believe it, Steve?” Deborah asked.

“It’s possible,” I replied. “Aisyah and I have had conversations about Islam. The thing is, she’s never been pushy, rude, or done anything that would give offense.”

“You think it’s trumped up?” Liz asked.

“I think there’s a good very good chance that’s the case,” I replied.

“A ‘he said/she said’ argument is not going to go well,” Stephanie observed. “Do we want to take this to Bob?”

“That would make it official, wouldn’t it?” Liz asked. “And even if there is nothing found, something would have to be written up.”

“That is the LAST thing I want,” I replied.

“Barbara has a formal complaint from the customer,” Deborah said. “I’m not sure how to avoid it.”

“I think I need to call the customer and see if I can defuse this,” Stephanie said. “Steve, you have a really good relationship with Aisyah. I want you to call her and ask her what happened, but do it carefully. I don’t want her upset if there is nothing to this.”

“And I don’t want her upset, period,” I replied. “Let me call her. Liz, we’ll head to dinner once I make the call and let Stephanie know the outcome.”

“OK,” Liz replied.

I left Stephanie’s office and went back to mine. It was after 5:00pm, so Penny had left for the day, which allowed me privacy. I looked up Aisyah’s mobile number in the company directory and dialed.

“Aisyah speaking,” she said to answer.

“Hi, it’s Steve.”

“Steve?! To what do I owe the honor?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something that happened yesterday at Sepulveda Medical Associates.”

“I fixed a network problem caused by one of the billing clerks who moved some cables. Everything was working when I left and they didn’t call in a trouble ticket.”

“Who did you talk to?”

“Just the billing clerk and the office manager. The office manager signed off on the work. The report is in the system.”

I double-clicked an icon, tapped a few keys, and read the report which fixed the blame for the problem on the billing clerk creating a loop between two hubs.

“I’m looking at it. What was said?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“I’m just curious if anything at all was said.”

“No.”

“Have you had any issues with anyone there?”

“Why?”

“Humor me, please.”

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

“You know me well enough to know that nobody will get in undeserved trouble, and that mercy outweighs judgment. What happened?”

“I really would rather not say.”

“Aisyah, please tell me what happened.”

She was quiet for a moment, then spoke quietly.

“The billing clerk, Jan Ayan, found out I was a Muslim and started giving me tracts when I went on service calls.”

“What kind of tracts?”

“Those little booklets.”

“Jack Chick tracts?” I groaned.

“I think so. I just throw them away.”

“A trashcan is too good a place for those things. One question - did you tell the office manager that the billing clerk brought down the network?”

“Yes.”

“OK. That’s all I needed. Sorry to disturb you.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I’ll call you back, but it’ll probably be next week.”

“I’m not in trouble, am I?”

“No. You are absolutely not in any trouble! You are doing great work! Now, please have a good weekend.”

“You, too.”

We said ‘goodbye’ and hung up and I went back to my sister’s office where Liz and Deborah were waiting with her.

“I know what happened,” I declared when I walked in.

“You’re simply taking Aisyah’s word?” Stephanie asked.

“She fixed a problem created by Jan, the billing clerk, and reported that to the office manager. According to Aisyah, at some point in the past, the billing clerk found out that Aisyah is a Muslim, and started giving her Jack Chick tracts. Do the math.”

“Retaliation because Aisyah reported that the billing clerk made the error?” Liz asked. “Do you really believe that?”

“It fits the fact pattern,” I replied. “In order to stay out of trouble, the billing clerk claimed Aisyah proselytized offensively. I know Aisyah well enough, and have spoken with her about Islam, and I am positive she would never do the things Barbara said the office manager from Sepulveda reported. In fact, Aisyah said she didn’t have any interaction beyond the technical issues when she visited, but Jan constantly gave her Jack Chick tracts.”

“Did she save any of them?” Deborah asked.

“She said she tossed them in the trash immediately, which soiled whatever trash was already in the can. Those things are vile.”

“If she had reported that before, this would be much easier,” Deborah declared.

“I can’t believe she’d lie to me,” I said. “If we can find out that Jan does have religious tracts, that would be a pretty strong indication that Aisyah is telling the truth.”

“Doesn’t that tip our hand?” Liz asked.

“What if I have Doctor Al call the medical director there?” Stephanie asked. “And pose that question, doctor to doctor?”

“I like that idea,” I replied. “Al just needs to get the answer to that single question.”

“Then I’ll talk to Doctor Al,” Stephanie said. “Thank you all for staying past 5:00pm.”

Liz and I said ‘good night’ to Deborah and Stephanie and left the office.

“Where should we go for dinner?” I asked.

“How about pizza?” Liz asked. “Bacino’s is walking distance.”