Chapter 30

I looked at them. “Guys, it’s just a rattlesnake. It’s not a big deal.”

They all looked at me like I’d lost my mind. I stepped closer, where I could see the snake. Chuck was starting to move towards me. I told him, “Stop! You might get hurt.”

“I might get hurt? What about...” I had moved my hand close, so the snake would jump at it. When it did, I grabbed it with my other hand, just behind the head.

“Do you think you’ll want it for anything, or is it like the ones in Kansas, you just go ahead and kill them, as they’re too dangerous to leave around?” The snake was trying to flip around, the four foot long body twisting up and wrapping itself around my arm.

Dodd said with a shaky voice, “Wild ones, we just kill when we find them on campus.”

I nodded, then took the body just behind the head with my other hand and twisted. I could clearly hear it’s back break, as I broke it’s spine. I was being careful to not tear this one in half, like I’d done before by accident.

Jorge said, “I’ve only seen a couple of men able to do that before. Should we bring some snakes to our family get together, so you can demonstrate?”

“If you want to, that’s fine with me. Just clear it with Esmeralda’s mother first.”

Both of their eyes got wide. “Sophia? If she’s there, then no, we’re fine. She’s a witch, able to see your soul.”

“Sounds fun. I look forward to meeting her next weekend, in Kansas.”

“I knew Doracita was Roberto’s daughter. I forgot that Esmeralda is her mother. We will do this job for you at cost only, my cousin.”

I shook my head. “I have more than enough money to pay you a proper profit, Esteban. I’ll explain it to her if need be.”

“Better you than me, my cousin.” We’d been walking the rest of the way down to the road. I handed him the snake. “Gracias. This will make a good extra snack at our dinner tomorrow. Thank you.”

Chuck asked, “How’d you move so fast?”

“Snakes strike at about 10 feet per second. And their range to strike is only half their body length. Mike knows from his own training that some of us with proper training can move at more than 40 feet per second. It had to move two feet to strike at me, I only had to move one foot to catch it. You’ve seen me play football, you know my reaction times.”

Kennedy was alone on the golf cart when he pulled up. “I’m here to take Cal to meet the ladies, so we can go on the tour.” He looked at Jorge. “Is that a Western rattlesnake he’s holding?”

Dodd said, “Yes. It struck at Mister Lewis, but he moved faster than the snake and just ... caught it. In mid-air. I’ve seen his moves, his plays on television. They don’t really show just how fast and how good he is in real life. If he’s playing for us, we’ll be just like his high school team, effectively unbeatable.”

Faucett shook his head. “The factory doesn’t run on weekends, but their office is open for orders. I’ll put an expedite on all of your orders, Mister Lewis. Thank you for the business.”

I shook hands with Esteban and Jorge, letting them leave as well. Dodd got into his patrol car, with the other officer, while Chuck and I got onto the cart. I noticed that Dodd was writing something down. Kennedy took us back to the central hall, where sandwiches and drinks were waiting for us to eat while we walked. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around campus. Dillon and Kennedy were on the golf cart as we walked between buildings, but would get off, to tour through the buildings with us.

“Pardon me, but with your golf clubs on the back, I thought the two of you were going to leave us, or something,” Eve said after an hour.

“Oh, sorry. We keep them on there all the time. It just makes it easier in the afternoons. My cart is ... well, rather known for being around here. None of the students will bother it, or my clubs.” At her look, he said, “This is a rather closed off area, and we have our own police force as well. You saw how quickly their response was, when you were sitting in front of Dish Park. By late this afternoon, our grounds department will have two or three signs posted in that area that construction work will be occurring there and not to be alarmed.”

“That seems ... I hesitate to say proactive,” she replied.

“This is a close community. Not just our faculty, but our students as well. Almost insular, to be honest. The studies are normally so difficult for the students, plus they tend to all be incredibly intelligent, they tend to like the routines that they experience, so they’re not distracted by outside things.”

Dillon nodded. “The earthquake this past April was upsetting to many of them, even with us experiencing nearly no damage.”

There were still a few people in the athletic department, even with the football team gone. They greeted us, perhaps because the President of Stanford was with us, and showed us around. He’d shown us the pool, and was taking us through the gym. The women’s basketball team was practicing. Eve looked at them, shaking her head.

I saw that. “What’s wrong, love?”

“Just thought about our team, is all. They’ll be practicing now. I enjoyed the sport, I was pretty good at it, it was just the whole sexual crap that turned me off.”

About that time, a ball came rolling over our way. Eve picked it up, did a bit of dribbling with it, a slight smile on her face. One of the players started our way, then stopped, to watch. With a tilt of her head, she said, “You look like you’re used to working that ball. There’s an open basket, we’re just shooting around.” Eve laughed, since it was a 25 foot shot, but took it anyway. The ball sailed perfectly through the net without touching the rim. The player whistled, then called for the ball back. Another player saw it, nodding, and passed it straight to Eve. She dribbled a couple of times, then drained another one.

President Kennedy laughed a little as the ball was sent back to Eve again. “Go ahead, let’s see how you can do against Judy.”

Eve glanced my way, saw my slight nod, and then proceeded to dribble around both the girl guarding her and the other one that moved into place, making a perfect lay-up.

A whistle blew. “Griffith, Crandall, what are you doing?”

Griffith, wearing the number 14 on her jersey, said, “President Kennedy wanted to see how this young lady would do against me.”

“Oh, sorry, Mister Kennedy, I didn’t see you. Doing a campus tour today? How can I help?”

“Coach McCrea, this is our new starting quarterback for the football team, Cal Lewis. Miss Eve Patrick is one of his girlfriends, and will be attending here next semester. She played on her team in high school. I was curious to see how she could do at the college level. Apparently, rather well.”

McCrea seemed to take that as a challenge. “Miss Patrick, what position do you play?”

“Forward, on the Hutchinson Salthawks. Although I won’t play this year, because we’ll be going here in January.”

“Any good at defense?” Eve just smiled, but with a gleam in her eye, nodded. The coach held her hands out for a ball. “Crandall, let’s see you do a little one-on-one.”

The number 42 girl came over, took the ball, and started dribbling. Eve took up a position between her and the basket. “I’m Leslie Crandall. Let’s see what you’ve got.” She turned, trying to work around Eve. The next thing she knew, Eve had stolen the ball and was going the other way. “What the hell?”

Eve stopped, tossing the ball back to the coach. She hustled back into position. McCrea handed Crandall the ball again. Crandall backed up a little, dribbling, then started forward in a rush, trying to pull a spin around Eve. That didn’t work, my red-haired girl dodged, did a stutter step, and stole the ball again, heading back the other way.

“Griffith!” She ran over. “Two on one, like it’s a breakaway.”

The two Stanford players moved further back up court. I noticed that the rest of the team had stopped what they were doing and were watching Eve. Since they were practicing the breakaway, Griffith took the ball, starting down the court. With Crandall on the other side, Eve had a choice, to pull back and try to guard the basket, or to guard for the pass. Instead, she went on the attack. Griffith saw her coming, flipping the ball high to Crandall. Eve made a running leap, intercepting the pass about 3 feet in the air, and driving for the other end. Another player moved as if block her, Eve pivoted, then jumped and dunked the ball.

The rest of the Stanford team gave her a round of applause as Eve came jogging back up to us. “That was fun. I suppose your season starts before January, though, like ours does. Too bad. I’ll play next year, if it’s okay with you, Cal.”

“I told them two years. If we have to stay a little longer, get more doctorates, I doubt they’ll complain, winning the NCAA Championship in two sports.”

I could tell the basketball coach was pissed off, and so could Kennedy. Before she could say anything, Kennedy said, “Coach, if you open your mouth right now, with the attitude you’re getting ready to put forth, you may as well pack your bags and leave. Everyone is here for an education, first and foremost. Miss Patrick scored a 1590 on her SAT. Mister Lewis scored perfect on the SAT, ACT, MCAT, and LSAT. He is the best high school football player in the country ... and he’s going to come here.”

I could see several of the girls on the team looking at me in a new light when they heard that. The Coach also saw the way the wind was blowing, simply nodded, turned and pointed to her team to resume practice.

We left the building and were back outside when Kennedy said, “This is her last season here, anyway. And ... damn. Do you other girls play sports?”

“We haven’t, but we all do laps in our pool, to stay in shape,” Beth said. “It’s 80 feet long. Dora and I are actually a little faster than the rest. We can do our 8 laps in a couple of minutes, then we spend the rest of the time stretching and other exercises, like jogging in the pool.”

Kennedy stopped. “Eight laps, in an 80 foot pool. That’s ... effectively 200 meters. In two minutes.”

“Maybe a few seconds more, not much. It’s not like we’ve got a clock out there. Margie was right, having a pool is great exercise for us. I’ve dropped all of my baby fat, and Beth has filled out a bit, so maybe I’ve given my extra padding to her,” Dora chuckled.

“I ... see. Okay. Thank you, both.” We went in silence for a short distance. “Is there anything else that you need to see here, Mister Lewis? Ladies?”

“We’re good, Mister Kennedy. Thank you for your hospitality today. You have our numbers, we’ll be in touch if we have anything come up that needs answered. We’ll have our own jet, to fly out here, between now and then, if we need to visit.”

“Of course you will. Thank you again, and it’s been much more pleasurable than I thought it would be last week. Good luck.”

We went back to the hotel for dinner. We’d be getting up very early and flying down to the Los Angeles area first thing in the morning. “What’s wrong, Chuck?”

“On behalf of your security staff, we’re way too damned amused by things. You’re the best football player in the country, Miss Patrick is one of the best women’s basketball players in the country, and now Miss Watson and Miss Menendez are reporting swim times that are nearly world records.”

One of the ladies, Jenny, said, “Is it something in the water, or what? If so, we’d all like to partake. It’s one thing to see high school students physically fit. Four of them, like this? And with all of you super geniuses?”

“Welcome to good, clean, country living,” Margie said, a twinkle in her eyes. “I’m sure that when we get Marcia detoxified from living in cities, she’ll be fine, too.”

“I’ll ‘fine’ you, you old slut,” Marcia said with a smile, then leaned over and gave Margie a kiss.

Jenny and the other female guard, Angela, laughed. “That’s definitely not country living, at least not the kind I grew up with.”

“Yeah, well, I get to claim I’m from California, so that’s okay.” Everyone laughed, and it felt good to relax for a few minutes, even though the guards were still watching out for us. Marcia then said, “Um ... I’m actually almost not wanting to go to my houses down south tomorrow.”

“What’s wrong, dear?”, Margie asked.

“In all seriousness ... I don’t know. Yes, I do. It’s ... there’s a lot of memorabilia in my main house. What if it’s not empty?”

Chuck said, “If there are squatters or other people that have...”

Marcia was shaking her head. “Not empty that way. Like we’ve seen from the Wall, not empty.”

The rest of the girls all looked at me, while Jenny said, “We’ve seen that on TV, now that we know it can happen. I ... well, I don’t know if anyone has gone into a museum and tried to talk to any of the artifacts or relics there, and if they have, it’s not been made public that we’re aware of. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s not like the Messenger from Above will suddenly show up and zap everything around us with whatever kind of power he has.”

Angela chuckled. “He can zap me with any of his powers. I know you’re all a family, and are quite close, not just to each other, but to everyone, including how well you treat us. And let me tell you, we appreciate it. Some clients ... well. Anyway, that uniform he wears ... it sure doesn’t leave anything to the imagination.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Margie said. “Almost makes you wonder how many women are lusting after his body.”

“Why would they do that?”, I asked.

“Sorry, Mister Lewis, but you’re a guy, and wouldn’t get it. Don’t get me wrong, and I don’t want to make your ladies mad, but you’re pretty hot yourself. But what he has? All that unbridled sexuality, in combination with the power he has, and is obviously completely in control of it?”

Jenny nodded. “Yep. Complete and total power. I bet half the women in the world would have his baby if he asked.”

Margie just smiled, while four others slightly nodded their heads. We went back to our rooms, and practiced making babies for a while, then showered and went to sleep. We were still up early the next morning. I had taken Marcia aside and told her that I’d be careful of things. She understood.

We flew into Burbank, arriving there at 10. It took us every bit of two hours to get from there to Pasadena, pulling up in front of the house on East California Boulevard at noon. There was a moving van sitting out front, with a car in the driveway. The back door of the van was open, with blankets and boxes ready. The door of the car opened, a man wearing a sports jacket but no tie getting out. “Hello, Marcia. You’re looking well.”

“Hello, Mister Poulson. Cal, this is Leonard Poulson, the attorney that’s been handling my parent’s estate and managing my trust. Leonard, this is California Lewis, both my employer and my boyfriend.”

“That was something I didn’t quite understand, Marcia. I thought you were going to be in Redmond for a while with Microsoft, not in Kansas. At least, when I got your phone call last night, that’s where you said you wanted the items shipped.”

“Correct, Leonard. My home is now in Kansas, Hutchinson to be precise. I’m going to keep both houses, but I want to transfer the title of this one to CEDEM Financial, so that we can use it for business. It’s entirely possible we’ll need to be at CalTech, so having a place where we can stay will be a necessity,” she said.

“I see.” He ran his hand through his thinning hair. “Let’s go in, so we can discuss this inside.” That’s when he looked up and realized that there were nine of us. “Um...?”

“This is Margaret Miller, the CFO of CEDEM, and the M in the name. This is Eve, Dora, and Elizabeth, and of course, Cal is the CEO. These are our security officers.”

He frowned, then shook his head. “Please, follow me. I’ve unlocked the house. There’s been a housekeeper coming in every couple of weeks to dust, but otherwise this house has been sealed since you moved to Redmond.”

The two men in the moving van followed us in as well. Marcia walked in, looking around. “You’re right, this is just like I remember it. Leonard, basically I’m just going to take personal mementos from here, and some from the other house. Everything else can stay here; that way we can use it later.”

“That’s fine, Marcia, but as far as transferring title to another corporation, this house is still a part of your trust. I can’t just do that until you take control of the trust fund itself.” He looked at me, at the others. “I have a responsibility for you, to you, to make sure that you’re not being taken advantage of by anyone. Nothing personal, folks, but I don’t know you from Adam. Or your financial situation. For all I know, you’re here to raid Marcia’s trust fund for your own needs, and I will not allow that.”

His strong defense of Marcia made me like him. I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table, motioning for him and Margie to do the same. “Marcia, why don’t you take the girls and the movers with you, so they can start getting things here, while I explain to Mister Poulson a couple of minor details.” She nodded, coming over and giving me a kiss on the cheek, then leading everyone else upstairs.

I held my hand out over the table. “Mister Poulson, Cal Lewis. I’m glad to see that you’re protective of Marcia. She’s a very important person to me, to all of us, in both our professional and personal lives. She’s told me that her trust doesn’t come under her control until she gets to 25 years old, or gets married. Since the second isn’t going to happen until the laws get changed so that I can marry all five of these young ladies, that’s not going to happen. Which means she’s still not quite three years from gaining control of her own funds.”

He’d shaken my hand, smiling at first, but then frowning at the end. “That’s essentially correct. I was close friends with her parents, handled the lawsuit against the studio, so I know to the penny how much her trust is worth. I will not allow it to be frivolously wasted by some cult.”

Margie frowned. “I didn’t know there was a lawsuit against the studio, she hadn’t mentioned that to us. But I can’t say I’m too surprised. Either way, Mister Poulson, we may appear to be a cult, because of the number of women involved, but I can quite assure you that we’re not.” She held up her hand, before Poulson could object. “You don’t have to believe me. You can call Bill Gates, with Microsoft, Sandy Lerner, with Cisco, President Don Kennedy of Stanford, or for that matter, Doctor John Ely, head of the Stanford School of Law. We’re professionally involved with the first two, in that CEDEM owns a significant portion of both of those companies, and we just came from Stanford yesterday, where Cal and the rest of us are going to work on getting doctorates in an assortment of subjects.”

“Phrasing it another way, unless Marcia has more than a billion dollars in her trust, as far as we’re concerned, it can stay there, because we’ve already got and control much more than that. I’m our CFO, so I know how much CEDEM has and is worth. If she does have that much, then you might want to change the way it’s invested, so her earnings can be more than they’re making now.”

Poulson said, “You did say billion, with a ‘B’, correct?” Margie nodded. “Do you have some proof of that?”

“While documents could be faked ... I have my Microsoft badge in my purse.” She pulled it out, showing it to him. “Of course, the minor detail that we also have three armed security guards with us, who also have Federal authorization to carry in all 50 states might help, as well.” She glanced at Jenny, who pulled her private security badge from Wackenhut out, as well as her firearms permit.

“Also, if you’ve watched the Wide World of Sports...”

Poulson interrupted her, nodding. “THAT’S where I’ve seen you. The names sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place them. You’re the group behind the donations to the Toys for Tots program.” He breathed a sigh of relief, sitting back in his chair. “I’m sorry for the third degree this morning, but ... you have no idea how many times a young woman ends up under the control of some religious kook, especially out here. I’ve known Marcia literally all of her life, and I wasn’t going to let someone take advantage of her. I served with her Dad in Korea, I already had a connection to the movie industry before that war. I helped him get his job with the studios. I owed him.”

At my questioning look, he said, “I’d gotten knocked down by an artillery shell. Howard saw me fall backwards, stunned. There was one of their human wave attacks coming right behind the artillery barrage. They would have killed me if he hadn’t pulled me back and fought them off until I could recover and help. We both spent a little time in the MASH unit because of that. He got Vivian out of that; she was one of the nurses that helped care for us.” He had a wistful smile, thinking back.

“I’m a little confused about one thing, Mister Poulson. Marcia said that her parents died in a car crash, just a few months after John Wayne passed away. She said that her Dad and Mister Wayne were close. Why was there a lawsuit against the studio?”

“Court records are sealed. But Howie and Viv didn’t cause the accident. That’s about all I can say, but Marcia received enough money that she will be well off, and that’s without selling either this house or the one in the Hills.”

“Sorry, the Hills?”

Marcia had come back downstairs by herself. “Hollywood Hills. That’s where I grew up. So, are you still Mister Poulson, or can I go back to calling you Uncle Leonard?” At his look, she smiled, “Good, I’m glad you pulled your head out. I would have hated to have had to call your boss and tell her what you’d said to me last night.”

Poulson looked horrified. “Oh, God, don’t call her. You know what she’d do to me if she thought I was being mean to her Marcia!”

Marcia sat down with us. “I’m guessing Aunt Beverly is doing fine, then. We’ll be in town the rest of this evening. We’ll spend the night at the house in the Hills. We don’t fly out of Burbank back home until around two or three in the afternoon.”

“With you in town, she’ll kill me if I don’t tell her. Is it okay if I bring her out tonight?”

Marcia smiled. “Of course it is. I’ll be keeping that house, as a family home, anyway. I don’t suppose you happened to mention to Cal that he wasn’t the only millionaire in the group, did you?”

“That’s your business, and now that I’m ... relieved, to put it very mildly ... that you’re not following some weird religious cult, you won’t have any issues with me regarding what you do with your things.”

Marcia looked at Margie and me. “Before they were killed in the car crash, Mom and Dad had been very frugal with their money. They bought land up in Hollywood Hills, had a house built up there, but otherwise, lived simple lives. They bought this house for me to live in while I was going to CalTech, so I wouldn’t have to live in the dorms. Mom had inherited a bit of money from her parents, and Uncle Leonard had done a decent job of setting them up in funds that helped. So, between her inheritance, and what they’d saved, plus properties, they were worth about $30 million.”

“The car crash ... he’s bound by sealed court records. I’m not, so long as I only share this with people where that issue could affect my life. Since I’m going to be living at Stanford for the next two years, and having your baby at some point during that time, you’re affecting my life. One of the studio executives was driving drunk, and ran into their car, killing them both. He had one of the studio’s main stars in the car with him at the time, and they were both engaged in ... sexual activities, WHILE he was driving. Net result was, to avoid publicity, the lawsuit was settled and I got $50 million in a trust fund 5 years ago, which Uncle Leonard has doubled for me in that time.”

Poulson said, “That’s not including the value of your personal mementos. Keep in mind, I’m not referring to what’s here in this house, the pictures and trophies and such. What are you planning on doing with the items in the other house, and in storage?”

Marcia frowned. “That ... depends. Some of them are, politely, horrible. Many of them, I have a lot of personal attachment to, like the saddle I learned to ride horses on. And some of them are going to be worth quite a bit of money, either today, or in the future, to collectors.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, the hat, eye patch, and coat that John Wayne wore while filming ‘True Grit.’ The rifle that John Wayne used in ‘The Green Berets’, plus one of his berets. The camera that David Jansen carried in that movie. The uniform Kirk Douglas wore in ‘Cast a Giant Shadow’. One of Ann Margaret’s outfits that she wore doing USO tours in Vietnam. There’s a whole room full of weapons that were used in movies.”

Margie shook her head. “I know you said you’d never fired a real gun in your life before. I don’t get it, if your folks had all those guns and you were there when they made all those war movies.”

“Simple. They’re fake guns. And this is Hollywood. I could point a finger at you, and the special effects department could make the sound, use a squib to have blood spurt, and everyone would think I shot you with my finger. Dad collected them, like Mom collected memorabilia from medical movies they either worked on, or had friends work on. But he said that after the war, the only explosions and guns he’d work with were fake ones. So, even though I was around a lot of people who DID know how to shoot, I never was taught.”

Poulson commented, “I presume that’s changed a little.” He frowned a little.

Marcia laughed. “Uncle Leonard, the only one of us who’s NOT carrying a gun right now is Cal. We’re all armed, not just our guards. The five of us are also Federally licensed to carry as well.”

While we’d been talking, the other three girls came back downstairs, followed by the movers. “Ma’am, we have everything you placed onto the beds and that was on the walls packed up. We’ll carry it down and load it up. It’ll take us about half an hour. If you want, you can either wait here with us, or we can meet you at the other home in about an hour.”

“I’ll wait here with the movers,” Leonard said. “Then, when they’re done, I’ll swing by our place and pick up Beverly, bring her out to your house. That’ll give you some time to be there with your family.” He looked at all of us when he said that, the expression on his face showing that he accepted it. “I’ll also have someone deliver food out there. I bet you didn’t think about eating dinner, did you?”

“I don’t...”

I cut Marcia off. “Thank you, Leonard. We appreciate it. What we’ll do is stop by a fast food place and grab sandwiches for a light lunch. If they could deliver, at 7 pm, everything for, say, 14 people, that’d be great.” I pulled out my wallet. “Do you need a little money to help with that?”

“No, thank you. This is on me. I appreciate the thought, but...” He stood up and held out his arms. Marcia came over and gave him a hug, a real one like he was family. “I’m happy for you, Marcia. Beverly and I will be there as quickly as we can, when we’re done here.” His eyes were moist with emotion.

We left, heading for Hollywood Hills. I had Chuck stop at an “In ‘N’ Out” to get some food for us on the way. We didn’t do much talking. Marcia had taken a couple of photos with her from the house, rather than let them be packed.

Chuck followed directions and we ended up in front of what seemed like a rather normal house. The only clue that something was different was the circle driveway. There was a fountain in the circle, but it wasn’t operating, so it was rather dry. Marcia led us to the front door, using her key and unlocking it. A beeping sound from inside was quickly silenced when she went to a security panel just inside the door. But she didn’t stop there, quickly walking down the entryway to another door and stepping in there. I heard more beeps, as well as two switches being thrown.

She walked back out. “Minor details. I haven’t been in here for at least a year. I knew that Leonard would have someone go into the other house, to keep it clean, because I’d told him I might be coming back from Redmond. You can tell from the dust on things that no one has been in here. There’s a reason for that. If someone were to come in the front door, they’d see the obvious alarm panel, disarm it. There are two other hidden panels, further in the house, that have to be disarmed within a minute of entering, or there are lots of alarms going off.”

“If we’re eating here with Uncle Leonard and Aunt Beverly, then I suppose I need to get some dishes ready. The kitchen and dining room are this way.” We followed her down a hall to the right. A flight of stairs went up to our left. “Bedrooms are up there.” She flipped on the light switches. Other than the film of dust, the kitchen appliances gleamed like they were brand new. “I like that we have stainless in our home in Kansas; that’s what we had installed here, too.” She turned the water on at the sink. It gurgled for a few seconds, then slightly discolored water started flowing. It cleared up quickly.