Chapter 4

Tuesday, January 16, 2029...

Northbound traffic on Highway 5 was iffy. It could be heavy stop and go, but usually there was only light stop and go traffic early in the morning, so Jason and I left my house at seven thirty to ensure he would get me to the Reese Title Insurance Company by ten for my appointment. We got lucky and missed most of the normal stop and go traffic or perhaps the traffic was lighter today than what I remembered as typical. We arrived at nine. Since I had plenty of time, we located a donut shop; I treated myself to an apple fritter and a cup of coffee and Jason had a pecan roll and coffee.

At a quarter to ten, we returned to the Reese Title Insurance Company. Jason Jason and I decided he should go in with me and wait in the reception area until I finished my business. When I checked with the receptionist, she had us take a seat and called my Title Insurance Officer to let him know I was here. Jan was with him when he came to the reception area. She introduced me to Elbert Patterson.

Jan said, “I’m going to leave you in Elbert’s good hands now, Carl. He will guide you through the documents you need to sign and answer your questions.”

I wasn’t surprised for she had let me know that once she introduced me to my Title Insurance Officer, she would be returning to her office. I felt like I was being abandoned, but I knew there was nothing further for her to do. It didn’t make sense for her to just sit around doing nothing. I recalled our real estate agent leaving Ruth and I during closing when we bought our home many years ago.

Jan also told me, the house keys would be available for pick up once the transfer of ownership was registered with the county. She said she would pick them up and drop them off at my house in San Diego.

“Carl, I normally take my clients out to celebrate closing on their new property and I give them the keys to their new property at that time. Would you care to have dinner with me tomorrow evening?

“That sounds good to me, Jan.”

“All right, do you have a favorite restaurant?”

“I normally go to The Cook’s Place when I go out to celebrate.”

“I’ve heard of it, but I haven’t been there yet. I will pick you up at six.”

After Jan left to return to her office, Elbert led me to a conference room and a large stack of papers. It took two hours to read through, initial, and sign the stack of papers and hand over my cashers check. I actually skim read the papers for it would have taken me over a day to read them in detail, which I had done before the closing.

*****

While we were on the way home, I called Karen. I told her I was going to clear out Ruth’s sewing room as I didn’t sew. I told her that I no longer needed Ruth’s sewing machine, patterns, shears and other ancillary items, and a couple of bolts of material. I asked if she or one of her daughters would be interested in some or all of what I was going to dispose of. Karen said she or Tami would be interested and I let her know when we should arrive.

When I finished the call, Jason said he would help me pack rather than just sit around in case I wanted to go somewhere. During the remainder of the drive home, Jason and I discussed a system for packing the house.

Our system consisted of us moving everything in a room toward the wall that was furthest from the door. Then we would set up a folding table near the doorway with boxes, newsprint packing paper, and packing tape on the table.

Once we were set up, I would start in the corner of the room furthest from the door. I would select an item and ask myself if I wanted to keep it.

If the answer was yes, Jason would pack it in a box for transfer to the new house; or for large items, Jason, or the two of us, would move the item straight to the garage. When a box was full, Jason would seal it with tape and move it to the garage. Actually, Jason used my hand truck to move several boxes at once.

If the answer was no and it was trash, it would go into a thirty-gallon trash bag; and when it was full, Jason would move it to the side of the house. The breakable items for Goodwill would go into cardboard boxes and the rest into thirty-gallon trash bags. When a box or bag was full, Jason would move it to the corner of the room that was near the door. I would continue picking up items and deciding how each was to be dispositioned until I had addressed everything in the room.

When we finished with the room’s contents, we would leave the Goodwill donation boxes and bags in the room and would move to the next room. When all of the rooms had been processed, I would rent a truck and we would move everything I was keeping to the new house. Once we unloaded and dropped off the truck, the final step in the plan was for me to call Goodwill and arrange for them to pick up my donation and to call a rubbish removal service to dispose of the stack of trash. At least that was what we planned to start doing when we got home.

Vic had suggested that I keep a log of everything I was donating to Goodwill for tax purposes. That was a good idea, but doing that for everything I was going to donate would be a major time consuming effort. I decided the effort was not worth the time necessary to log each item and its value. I had better things to do with that time.

Tami, Karen, and Steve were waiting for us when we got home, and that was when our plan went off track. I showed Karen and Tami Ruth’s sewing room. Their faces lit up as if they had struck gold. I confirmed that I didn’t need anything in the room, and they put Steve to work carrying everything out to their cars. Jason and I helped him.

We finished clearing out Ruth’s sewing room by four o’clock. It was too late for us to start sorting and packing my things, so I told Jason to go home. We would begin packing tomorrow. I started getting cleaned up for dinner for Jan would be picking me up at six.

*****

Jan arrived at my place at five-thirty and the first thing she did was present me with the keys to my new home and a bottle of Ancient Age, my favorite bourbon. It surprised me that she knew what I liked to drink, but then I remember telling her about how I came to buy my lottery ticket.

The Cook’s Place was busy that evening, as usual. Bea wasn’t there, but there was a new young lady who had just started last week; I later learned Bea’s coworker had married and moved out of the area. The new young lady’s name tag indicated her first name was Kerry. She was very different from Bea in appearance, but just as attractive. She was a voluptuous redhead and close to five foot eight in her stiletto heels. I estimated her age at about twenty-two years old, but I’m poor at guessing a woman’s age. Regardless, I enjoyed watching her exceptional physical attributes as she led us to our table. She was what some people referred to as full and firmly packed. I considered her to be trim with everything in the right place, but younger than Bea, thus way too young for me.

After giving us our menus and telling us about the daily specials, she left us to decide on what we wanted for dinner. While we were doing that, the bus boy appeared to see if we wanted water with our meal and to remove the extra place settings. A few minutes later, our waitress, Nancy, appeared to take our drink order and then left. I remembered her from my prior visits and knew we would receive excellent service.

Jan said, “I like the atmosphere here, Carl. Is it always like this?”

“Pretty much so, Jan. Ruth and I came here to celebrate special occasions for over ten years mainly for the food and atmosphere; we also received excellent service. I’ve eaten lunch here a number of times since I lost Ruth and the atmosphere seemed to be a bit more business-like at lunch, but the food and service remained outstanding.”

Nancy took good care of us while Jan and I chatted about a number of topics. Our conversation seemed to center mostly on what type of business I was starting that would require an office building as large as the one her boyfriend was helping me buy.

We enjoyed an exceptional dinner and Jan dropped me off at home just before nine o’clock.

Wednesday, January 17, 2029...

Today, Jason and I started packing my stuff for the move to my new home. Like most people, I had a problem with what to keep and what to dispose of, and how to dispose of what I wasn’t keeping. For me, if I didn’t want an item, there was the trash and Goodwill. A garage sale would be more effort and time than I wanted to expend for the small return I would receive. Jason and I used the system we agreed upon yesterday.

It took four days to go through all of the rooms and pack everything for the move. Jason and I picked up the truck I rented from U-Haul on Monday. When we returned to the house, Steve was waiting to help Jason and I move everything to the new house. We loaded the truck and Jason drove us to my new home. Jason had written the room the box had come from on the box, so we moved the boxes to the corresponding rooms in my new house and the furniture into the Guest House. Jason and I would sort everything out later.

After we returned the truck, I called Goodwill to arrange for them to pick up my donation and then called a trash removal service to arrange for them to remove the trash. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get appointments on the same day. With that done, Jason and I returned to my new house and began the task of unpacking the boxes and arranging the furniture in the Guest House.

Wednesday, January 24, 2029

On the way to Barney’s office, Jason and I stopped to pick up Steve and Karen.

Jason had us at Barney’s office about ten minutes before we were to meet with him to conduct the pre-closing inspection of the office building. Barney was ready for us. The first thing he did was hand me a copy of the report, and then said the inspector’s report indicated no significant problems. However, there were numerous cosmetic problems. I told Barney that we could address those during our inspection. When we were ready to leave, I had Jason join us for the inspection. I figured an extra set of eyes might be useful. Thank goodness Barney had a large van, so seating five wasn’t a problem; of course, Jason could have followed Barney if there had been a problem.

When we arrived at the office building, the first thing we did was a walk-around inspection of the exterior. There was nothing noticeable other than a minor ding in the roll up door at the rear of the building.

Once we were in the building we started the inspection on the ground floor. As we stepped into the reception area, there was a built-in area for a receptionist to our right, a door to our left, and an elevator in front of us. The building power was supposedly still on, but the circuit breakers were turned off. So Barney, carrying a flashlight, excused himself and went back to the electrical room to turn on all the circuit breakers. He returned a few minutes later.

We checked out the reception area and then went through the door into the main portion of the ground floor. Barney had turned the ground floor light switches on for us. The ground floor had a number of offices along the exterior walls, but other than that, the area had been stripped. There wasn’t even a waste basket, chair, desk, or white board remaining on the floor or in the offices. Apparently the owner had sold all of the office furniture and equipment to a liquidator and they had stripped out everything that could be sold. As the inspector’s report indicated, there was a great deal of wear and tear and numerous small dings in the walls. Karen had a note pad and was jotting down any observation that we made that would require action on our part. The upper floors were probably in the same condition.

We weren’t too surprised by what we found on the ground floor for we had noticed the condition of the building when we first looked at it. The inspector had checked the electrical outlets, lighting, and plumbing. He knew more about things like this than I did, so I accepted his report’s findings.

The two upper floors did not have a receptionist counter. So once we exited the elevator, there were no interior walls. We continued our inspection of the second floor and then inspected the third floor. They were in the same condition as the ground floor. We had found nothing significant that we felt required repair.

There was one thing that Karen mentioned to me during our inspection and I agreed with her. Karen noted that there were more office cubicles than the drawings reflected and the interior walls on the drawings were missing.

So I told Barney, the building was acceptable as-is; even though the drawings provided to us were out of date. I told Barney we would need to get back into the build to update the floor plan and confirm the measurements on the drawings were accurate. Barney said he would pass that along to the seller’s agent. Barney asked when we would like to return, and I told him tomorrow and Friday would be okay with us.

When we got back to Barney’s office, he called the agent and passed on what I told him. The agent said it would be okay for us to return to the building tomorrow, Friday, or both days.

Thursday, January 25, 2029

Barney had made arrangements for the title company to courier the contract for buying the office building to me when it was ready for review. It arrived this morning and I set it aside to give to Vic during our meeting later today.

*****

The meeting between Steve, Karen, Bill, Mary, Vic, and me had been in progress for almost an hour, when I said, “Well, that takes care of the old business. Do we have any new business?”

Mary responded, “I finished the initial planning stage of the research and writing group, and I’m ready to start the next phase which will require me to have legal advice. Vic, I want to hire a full-time lawyer, so who would be a good choice for my new business?”

“Mary, there are a couple of good attorneys around who specialize in Corporate Law. The one I would recommend is Gina Amherst. She passed the bar exam about four years ago and has been doing a good job for SG&B’s law office. She has a pleasant personality and would be a good fit for our group. I also believe she might be interested in a change of employers. I will give you her contact information later today.”

I asked, “What do you mean by a good fit for our group, Vic, and why would she be interested in leaving her current employer?”

“Gina’s father is a highly respected and very experienced defamation defense lawyer. She assisted her father in preparing cases for trial before she entered law school, and she is known to be sympathetic toward people that the media defames. The partners of The Law Office of SG&B are known male chauvinists. They have kept her in a junior position for the last two years, while allowing her fellow junior male attorneys to advance faster than her.”

Mary said, “Thank you, Vic. I’ll call her tomorrow; maybe she and I can have lunch this week, or next.”

Friday, January 26, 2029...

A very frustrated Gina Amherst is sitting at her desk incorporating the eighth set of changes into a legal brief that one of her company’s senior partners needs this coming Monday. She is mumbling certain very unladylike comments about his ancestry for he keeps flip-flopping on whether to include certain legal precedents. This is the second time she has had to remove this particular precedent from the brief, when her phone rings.

“Good morning, Miss Amherst; I am Missus Mary Nobel and yesterday I was talking with Victor Charles about locating a Corporate Lawyer for my new business. He suggested I contact you, and meet with you over a long lunch, or dinner, so we can discuss my company’s needs and whether you might be interested in working for my company.”

“I am not certain I’m interested in leaving my current firm at this time, Missus Nobel. However, it wouldn’t hurt for me to consider the position you are trying to fill. I will be very busy next week, so lunch breaks will be very short for me, and I will probably have to work late at nights. Would you be available this weekend?”

“Yes. Would lunch tomorrow fit your schedule, and please call me Mary?”

“Tomorrow is good for me, and I go by Gina.”

After exchanging contact information and agreeing to meet for lunch at The Cooks Place at 11:30, they say their goodbyes.

*****

Vic called me late in the afternoon to let me know there was no problem with the contract. I passed that good news on to Barney, who relayed it to the seller’s agent. Now the only thing left to do was the closing.

Saturday, January 27, 2029

Prior to phoning Gina, Mary had checked her LinkedIn biography. So while waiting in the reception area for her table to become available, she recognized Gina when she came through the front door. Standing, she went to meet Gina and introduce herself.

“Hello, Gina, I’m Mary. They tell me that our table will be ready for us in just a few minutes.”

“That’s fine, Mary. I’m free for the afternoon, so there is no rush.”

As they settled in their chairs and prepared to chat, the hostess called Mary’s name. They followed her to their table, and once they were seated, they were given menus. A minute later, their waitress appeared to take their drink orders. While that was happening, the busboy appeared to remove the extra place settings from the table and then brought them each a glass of water. Once the waitress returned with their drinks and took their orders, Mary removed a folder and pen from her briefcase and placed them in front of her.

“Gina, before I can go into the details of my company with you, I need for you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.” She then slid a sheet of paper and pen across to Gina. A surprised Gina read and signed the agreement. After checking the agreement has been signed, Mary signed it as the company representative witnessing Gina’s signature.

“Thank you, Gina. Certain aspects of my company are private, but you will need to know some of that information. To start with, there is, or perhaps I should say there will be, an association between my company, the Simmons Investment and Management Company, which we call SIMC, and three internet newspapers. One of the newspapers, The Rattler, is new and still being organized; the other two are still in the planning stage.

“Carl Simmons is the owner of SIMC, and if you do not recognize his name, he is the winner of September’s one point four billion dollar Powerball Lottery. In addition to being a very nice person, he places a very high value on his personal privacy. He feels that during the past five months, the media invaded his personal privacy and made what they learned about him public knowledge. Their stalking him and their revelation of his personal information made him very angry. Carl decided that someone should do something about how the media invades an average person’s privacy. The legal action taken by the victims of the media’s invasion of their privacy has not changed the media’s actions. So Carl came up with an idea of something that might be effective in deterring the media from invading people’s privacy. My company will be supporting his idea, but I’ll let him explain the details of his idea to you.”

Gina interrupted with, “If Carl has actually found a way to keep the media from invading a person’s privacy, I want to be a part of his effort.”

“That is part of the reason why I am aiding him. To continue, what my company will produce is newspaper articles suitable for publishing by an online newspaper. The articles will contain information about the newspapers, owners, staff, and others associated with the newspapers that invade the personal privacy of people, especially the average man-on-the-street type of people.”

“The impression I get, Mary, is the newspapers you sell the articles to will use the articles for revenge. Is there any validity to my impression?”

“One could come to that conclusion very easily, Gina”. I opened my folder, withdrew a page, and passed it to Gina saying, “This is a draft of The Rattler’s Mission Statement. “I think it will answer your question.”