Chapter 52: Will You Help Me?

May 3, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

I was back in Chicago before lunchtime, so I elected to head straight to the office, though I detoured via Potbelly to get a salad before going into the building. I greeted Lucas, went upstairs, said ‘hello’ to Kimmy, changed my shoes, and went into my office. I kissed Penny on the cheek, which caused her to smile broadly, then sat down at my desk.

“How was Ohio?”

“Still there when I left,” I replied. “Make any progress?”

“I think Reed and I finally squashed that weird bug with the full-text search. It was a serialization problem when accented characters were used. That was the last blocking bug. There are a couple dozen ‘serious’ bugs, which I think probably should have been ‘blocking’.”

“And they probably are. My triage of bugs was more on relative severity rather than absolute. I had always planned to have everything except ‘minor’ bugs fixed for our initial customers.”

“That explains it. Why do it differently from all the other projects?”

“Because it was basically Reed and me,” I replied. “It was easier to do it this way to ensure we focused on the most critical bugs. You know the tendency to look at the list and fix the easiest things first. I mentioned that to Dave and he’s reviewing bug classification standards with QA and the team leads. I expect a new set of guidelines by the end of Summer. Did you have a chance to review the spec I sent you?”

“I get to hire my own boss?”

“In your dreams, Pretty Penny!”

“Trust me,” she smirked, “my dreams have NOTHING to do with hiring my boss!”

“Behave, Penelope!”

“You are just no fun!”

“Six months later, nothing has changed!” I chuckled. “The spec?”

“I think it pretty much nails the job description. Nobody internal qualifies, do they?”

“Not unless you want the job.”

“Fuck no! I learned my lesson leading a team for six months! YOU don’t want it, why should I?”

“Good point! This will go to a recruiter. I need to spend about an hour on the business plan, then I’ll give both to Stephanie to review. We’ll be able to start looking as soon as she approves. Once we find the right person, then we’ll start looking for our replacements on the team and we’ll be back in Dave’s pool of software engineers.”

“Will you accept internal applicants for the software engineering jobs?”

“Sure, if they have the requisite experience. I’m sure some of the contract programmers on the consulting team do.”

“Steve,” Kimmy said over the intercom, “you have a fax coming in.”

“Thanks. Please bring it to me.”

“Will do!”

Five minutes later, she brought me a seven-page fax, not counting the cover sheet. I read through it quickly once, then took out a red pen and made notes. Overall, it said what I expected it to say, and other than a few minor changes, I felt it was sufficient to achieve my goal. I went to Eve’s office, asked her for a ‘burner’ phone with a non-Chicago area code, then went to the alley and called Volstead’s office. I explained the suggested changes, and he agreed to modify the document to reflect what I wanted it to say. When we finished, he said he was going to place the call to the US Attorney. I returned to Eve’s office and handed her the phone.

“Destroy this,” I said. “I know it was only used once, but I don’t want the number I called traced.”

“Got it,” she replied.

I went to Elyse’s office and fed the fax through the crosscut shredder, knowing the pieces would be collected later that afternoon by Iron Mountain and incinerated. I went back to my desk and ate my salad while I went through my email. When I finished eating, Penny and I worked together to fix bugs. We had a productive afternoon, though I left a bit early to get home so that Kara, Jessica, Suzanne, and I could celebrate Jessica’s birthday with the family and her dad, which was what she’d requested.

May 4, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

On Saturday, as I had expected, Laney and Diego showed up about ten minutes before class started with signed consent forms and copies of sports physicals. I signed them both up for the standard free week of lessons, then had Birgit and Neil take them to the appropriate locker rooms and show them how to put on their uniforms. They were back about five minutes later and I explained where they should line up.

After consultation with Will, I assigned Miyu to work with the new students and they did well for a first class. Both of them would need to work on endurance, but that was a common challenge for most new students.

“What did you think?” I asked after they came out of the locker rooms.

“It’s way more difficult than I thought it would be,” Diego said. “It all looks so easy, but my arms and legs got tired almost right away. And I got winded way quicker than I thought I would.”

“As you practice, you build up endurance,” I said. “The key is practicing at least three times a week. Most students also run, skip rope, or do some other cardio.”

“What do you do?” Laney asked.

“I run five mornings a week,” I replied.

“Will we have the same instructor every time?” Laney asked.

“No. We switch off, depending on what needs to be taught. Different instructors have different skills. At your level, any of the black belts, and some 1st Kyu brown belts, can teach. As you move up, your instructors will be 3rd Dan or higher black belts, but even there, there are unique skill sets. Miyu, for example, has won several city-wide tournaments and is probably the most experienced at sparring.”

“What’s your unique skill?” Laney asked.

Birgit, who was standing a short distance away, smirked, though Laney couldn’t see her.

“Kata,” I replied. “Those are the stylized fighting movements that Miyu demonstrated for you.”

“Can she beat you at sparring?” Diego asked.

“I don’t know, and we’ll never know. She earned her black belt after I’d suffered the concussions I told you about which prevent me from competing. I can’t risk any blows to the head. That said, she’s one of my personal students, and I would hope I’ve trained her well enough that she could defeat me.”

“Personal students?” Laney asked.

“I offer a much deeper experience,” I said, now seeing Kara smirk. “But it requires serious dedication and commitment. Come to classes this week, sign up for the black belt program and decide exactly what you want out of karate. Then, if you’re serious about it, you can speak with Miyu or Neil about exactly what it means to be a true «karateka».”

“We’ll be back on Tuesday and Thursday,” Laney said. “And next Saturday.”

“Good. We’ll see you then.”

They left, and Kara and Birgit came over to me.

“What’s your unique skill, Dad?” Birgit smirked.

“Cuddling!” I declared.

“I bet Laney would enjoy a ‘deeper’ experience!” Kara smirked.

“You two are serious troublemakers!” I declared. “We need to get home for lunch so I can be back for my afternoon session with my students.”

Kara, Suzanne, Birgit, Stephie, Ashley, and I all left the dojo and headed home.

🎤 Jesse

“I need to see if my dad has time to talk,” I said to CeCe as we lay together in bed late on Saturday morning.

“About?”

“Just something someone said to me the other day.”

“You’re still planning to nap this afternoon, right?”

“Yes, because the party after the Pascha service lasts at least until 6:00am.”

“Crazy!” CeCe declared. “I can’t imagine my mom’s Lutheran church doing anything like that.”

“Were you baptized as a baby?”

“Yes. And confirmed when I was in eighth grade. But I stopped going the Summer after eighth grade.”

“LCMS, right?” I asked.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“My godfather, Vasily, teaches Sunday School, and one of the things he teaches is comparative religion. He explained the various rites of the Christian groups, and the Missouri Synod Lutherans confirm in eighth grade, while the ELCA usually is younger, sometimes fifth grade.”

“So you learned about all the denominations?”

“The major ones, anyway, as well as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto.”

“At church?” CeCe asked, disbelieving.

“Yes, at church. The public schools sure don’t teach anything about religion!”

“True.”

“You’re welcome to come to church with me anytime you want.”

“That’s a basic requirement for anyone you might marry, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, inviting me to church...” she said mirthfully.

“Not even close!” I chuckled. “Ask me around the end of my Senior year of college!”

“I’ll have graduated by then, so you never know!”

“All we can do is see what happens,” I replied. “You’ll be coming home for the Summers, right?”

“Yes. You?”

“That’s the plan, yes. Let’s shower so I can catch my dad before he goes to teach his afternoon class.”

CeCe and I got out of bed and went to the bathroom for a quick joint shower. After our shower, we dressed and left the coach house. We hugged, and she headed home while I went into the main house. Dad was just coming back from karate as I went in.

“Do you have some time to talk, Pops?” I asked.

“Have you had lunch?”

“No.”

“Let’s get our lunches and we can eat in my study,” Dad suggested.

That sounded great, so we made our lunches, then went to Dad’s study.

“What’s up?” Dad asked.

“You know I’ve been seeing Akiko, a Japanese exchange student, right?”

“I didn’t until you asked Yuriko to help prepare a traditional Japanese dinner for Akiko’s parents.”

“I think I might have missed something important,” I said. “Yuriko said that she thinks Akiko is in love with me, and she compared it to you and Sakurako.”

“Did Akiko perform a tea ceremony for you?”

“Yes. Why?”

“The Japanese girl version of a Russian girl standing next to you in church!” Dad smirked.

I groaned, “Yuriko is right that boys sometimes are clueless!”

“So, now you agree with Birgit on that?” Dad asked.

“No!” I declared firmly. “And I’ll deny ever saying it!”

“Just surrender, Ducky,” Dad chuckled.

“That might work for YOU with Birgit, but there is just no way I’m doing that!”

“One thing I’ve learned is that cultural clues are very, very difficult for outsiders to understand. Things which just come naturally to Japanese are often opaque to «gaikokujin».”

“I don’t know that word,” I said.

“It’s the polite Japanese word for someone who is not Japanese. It means ‘foreign-country person’. The impolite term is «gaijin», which means ‘outside person’, and is pejorative the way ‘spic’ or ‘wop’ would be about someone from Mexico or Italy.”

“So what do I do?” I asked.

“Well, unless you are prepared to move to Japan, which I wouldn’t advise, or she’s prepared to move here, you acknowledge how you feel about each other, and remain close friends. That’s what happened with Sakurako and me.”

“Do you love Sakurako?”

“Yes, though you know my take on being ‘in love’ versus loving someone.”

“I do, though I’m not sure I agree with you on that. I think both are important. And I think you might as well.”

“Based on what evidence?” Dad asked.

“Liz,” I said.

Dad smiled, “You might have a point, and your sister is going to have to explain herself!”

I laughed, “I did not say that to get Birgit in trouble, but how did you know?”

“Only my wives and Birgit know how Liz and I truly feel about each other. The thing to remember is that as deeply in love as we are, we aren’t married to each other.”

“Does Julius know?”

Dad shrugged, “I’m not sure exactly what Liz has told him, but he does know I mentored her through college and law school, and hired her to be my Consigliere.”

“OK, Don Dad!” I chuckled.

“Just remember, Sonny called Don Corleone ‘Pops’ and what happened at the causeway!”

I laughed, “I’ll avoid stopping at toll booths.”

“In all seriousness, I think what you do is acknowledge to Akiko that you know how she feels, and that you care for her, but that the distance and culture divide make things difficult. Granted, you never know what the future might bring, but I think my history with Tanya shows that even when the differences are simply about politics, sometimes the chasm is too wide to cross.”

“And yet, she and General Dmitry both agree with you on a lot of things now.”

“And several people have maintained that had the Iron Curtain come down five years earlier, Tanya and I would have married. But, and I mean this, I wouldn’t trade what I have for that hypothetical, as much as Tanya and I love each other.”

“Yuriko said something else.”

“That she’s in love with me? I know. It started as a crush when she was thirteen and we met, briefly, in Japan. She lived out her fantasy of being with the ‘big, strong, American man’, but she’s also very practical, and knows that she’ll be going back to Japan. There, she’ll eventually meet the man she’ll marry, and she’ll be faithful and dutiful, but she’ll always love me. Remember what I’ve said about marriage.”

“That it’s too important to leave to being in love.”

“Exactly. Find a person who has a shared vision of the future, who completes you, and commit to loving them.”

“Can I ask why you advised against moving to Japan?”

“Because you would always be the outsider, no matter how long you were there. Your kids would be considered outsiders as well, being only half Japanese. And, if you raised them Orthodox, they would never be truly Japanese.”

“That sounds racist and xenophobic,” I said.

“To us, it certainly does. But to be Japanese is to be fully immersed in the culture and the spirituality. Whatever we think about it, it’s their country, and their culture. We think our system is superior; they think theirs is. Neither country has the right to force change on the other. And, frankly, until we solve our own problems here, we have no business trying to tell other people how to run their country! You know enough history to know how badly that’s worked out.”

“Haiti. El Salvador. Honduras. Vietnam. The Dominican Republic. Nicaragua. The list is endless.”

“And you can include Afghanistan and Iraq,” Dad said.

“Unfortunately,” I agreed. “Anyway, back to Akiko — she invited me to visit her in Hiroshima next Summer.”

“I think that trip would be very good for you. Japan is very different from Sweden, Russia, or Canada.”

“I guess I’m just concerned about what Akiko might think.”

“The only way to know is to ask her,” Dad said. “I’ve found that the Japanese, Indian, and Chinese girls are the most practical of all.”

“Do you know why?”

“They were never infected with Christianity, well, the Western kind, anyway.”

“Nice recovery, Dad!” I chuckled.

“Hindu, Buddhist, and Shinto spirituality do not do the damage that Christianity and Islam do to the psyche. Orthodox Christianity is more Eastern than Western and has an approach that is more aligned with Buddhism than Protestantism. With the exception of sexual ethics, have you found anything in Orthodox theology that truly conflicts with my worldview?”

“Only in very minor ways,” I replied. “And I agree more with you on sexual ethics than I do the Church. But to me, that’s really a minor point, because, in the end, I plan to only have one wife and no girlfriends, unlike a certain dad I know!”

“And until then?” Dad asked with a grin.

“I may be living the dream life of a star High School athlete!”

“Has there been any further fallout at school?”

“No. Coach Nelson understands our rules here at home, and doesn’t have a problem with them, though he did mention that if I were to invite HIS daughter to a naked sauna, he would have something to say about it.”

Dad laughed, “A not uncommon reaction. And CeCe?”

“She spoke to the coach of the softball team at Arizona State and the coach said it wasn’t going to be a problem. CeCe’s parents talked to the principal and basically said that if they tried to put something on her permanent record about the incident, they’d hire a lawyer that you recommended. The principal agreed not to place anything in her record or transcripts.”

“And the cheerleaders?”

“They all denied that there was a competition, so you’re safe!” I said with a grin. “How many?”

“Do you really want to know?” Dad asked.

“Humor me,” I replied with an equally big grin, having heard girls use that with Dad many times.

“Five.”

“Seriously?” I teased. “Only five out of twelve? You’re slipping!”

“Freshmen were off-limits,” Dad replied. “Though you know about the one error in judgment there. I see I’m no longer living rent-free in your head.”

I laughed, “I had you evicted and erected better security barriers! But you know what’s going to be fun?”

“What’s that?”

“Birgit living rent-free in YOUR head once she starts fooling around and insists on telling you all about it!”

“Get out of here, Ducky!” Dad ordered, but he was laughing.

“I need to get a nap, anyway, because of Pascha. Thanks for talking to my moms about being able to take the car even though I’ll be driving home after partying all night!”

“Just remember the rules.”

“The Dad limit is 0.0, which means nothing to drink six hours before I drive.”

“Correct.”

“Well, given I don’t like vodka, there isn’t much to worry about! And besides, you know Father Basil’s rules — nobody under twenty-one can drink, period. Otherwise, the old men would get every teenager drunk off their ass! Like a certain penguin was in Russia!”

“Ivan and Dmitry astounded me with how much they could drink,” Dad said. “But that won’t happen this trip because of my propranolol.”

“See you tomorrow for dinner,” I said. “I’ll probably crash as soon as I get home in the morning. I doubt I’ll go to Agape Vespers.”

“Enjoy yourself!”

I left Dad’s study, went back to the coach house, changed the sheets on the bed, closed my blackout curtains, then settled into bed for a long nap.

🎤 Matthew

“Happy eighteenth birthday!” I said to Chelsea when she came to the phone.

“Thank you! I received your card and gift! I’ll thank you properly when I see you in a month!”

“I can’t wait!” I exclaimed. “I love you!”

“I love you too!”

May 5, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Steve

On Sunday morning, after Kara, Suzanne, and I walked Jessica to work, Birgit and I cuddled for a bit, ate a quick breakfast, then headed to the dojo for what would be Rachel Kealty’s final self-defense lesson. She did a great job, and once we’d finished practicing throws and disarming attackers, Birgit headed home while I reviewed with Rachel everything else that I’d taught her.