Chapter 13: Missing in Action

August 22, 1982, Chicago, Illinois

“Are you staying tonight?” I asked Huifen as we made breakfast.

“It is Sunday,” she replied. “Did you have plans?”

“No. I assumed we’d spend time together this weekend, though I did mentally allow for you to decide not to continue seeing me because I hadn’t really settled things with Bev.”

“If you remember what I said — we’d wait and see what happened. You didn’t decide to invite Bev to move here or anything like that, and you’re actually leaning against it in your typically practical way. Not to mention you bluntly told me how you felt and what you were thinking, which is also your way. One thing is absolutely true, and that is that I’ll always know exactly where I stand with you. You won’t play games, you won’t lead me on, and you won’t hide anything from me.”

“And you’re happy?”

“Yes. My concern was that there wouldn’t be a way forward; there is. And, if I can be as blunt as you are, you’ve made up your mind about Bev. You’re just being careful to ensure your analysis is both thorough and correct. And if you were as clear and blunt with Bev as you are with me, which I strongly suspect you were, then she knows it.”

“I think so,” I said thoughtfully, realizing that what Huifen had said about Bev was likely true.

“So we continue to work our way forward and see where it leads. I have five years of school, including my Master’s, and you have two or three years before you’ll be sufficiently financially secure, at least as you see it, to make a commitment. I think we both know the potential destination, the only question is whether or not we get there.”

“What’s your take on being ‘in love’?”

“It’s not necessary for a marriage. What is necessary is a successful partnership, where both people are working towards the same goals. We both want to be successful in our fields of endeavor; we both want to have kids, eventually; we both want to have a comfortable life, which includes the money to do the things we want to do; we have similar philosophies. Those things are far more important than being ‘in love’. That’s such a Western concept and I don’t think it’s proved successful if we look at the divorce rate.”

“Now you sound like Anala!”

“She’s from India, and is a Hindu, right?”

“Yes.”

“And my family is Chinese, though I was born here, whereas I think you said Anala was born in India.”

“Yes.”

“So our perspectives are more in line with Eastern thought than Western. You don’t grow up in a Chinese household without a good dose of Eastern philosophy and wisdom. I suspect the same was true for Anala growing up in an Indian household. Anyway, going back to ‘in love’, I’m no more romantically inclined than you are. That said, at some point, if things progress in the right way, we’ll tell each other ‘I love you’, but that’s a different thing from being in love.”

“Again, you sound like Anala.”

“High praise, coming from you, as she seems to be your spiritual guide, just as the currency trader is your career guide.”

“I’d say that’s accurate. I meant to ask, when is Julianne moving in?”

“Today. She’ll be the perfect roommate!”

“And Allyson and Kristy are rooming together, and Bianca and Shelly live together here. Do you know what the rest are doing?”

“I think the same roommates as last year; at least nobody said anything different. Well, Lucy will have a new roommate, obviously.”

“What courses are you taking? Besides math?”

“Physics, Philosophy, and Ancient History. I also have a two-credit independent study in computers as applied to math.”

“How does independent study work?”

“I’m given a set of goals and I meet with an advisor once a week to go over my progress. I’m starting with SPSS, which is statistics software, because statistics is simply applied mathematics.”

“I take it you have to use a powerful computer for that?”

“Yes. A mainframe at the University of Chicago, where the software was developed.”

“We use some kind of mainframe at work to track and reconcile all the trading activity, calculate portfolio values, and generate reports. I’ve never accessed it, but the traders have screens to enter data. There are big printers which run reports overnight for the compliance and accounting people.”

We ate our breakfast, cleaned up, and then I did my laundry. Around noon, we ate lunch, then went for a walk around the neighborhood. After our walk, Huifen suggested we go to the dorm so she could unpack, and I agreed. At Loyola, I didn’t have to sign in because it was a move-in day, so we just went straight up to the room.

“Hi!” Julianne exclaimed when we walked into the room.

We all exchanged hugs, and I sat down in a chair while the girls unpacked and arranged the room.

“Are you two a couple now?” Julianne asked Huifen.

“No,” Huifen answered. “We’re dating, but no commitments.”

“Not exclusive?”

“No,” Huifen replied with a smile. “And to answer your next question, that’s up to him, at least for now.”

I wondered if it was that simple and what the limits might be. That was something I absolutely needed to discuss with Huifen because while we weren’t a couple, I was absolutely sure there were limits to what she’d tolerate. I decided I’d discuss it with her at some point before the end of the day.

“Want to get dinner together?” Julianne asked when they finished unpacking.

“Yes,” Huifen said. “Jonathan, does your new budget allow you to go out more than once a week?”

“Yes, so long as I’m careful,” I replied. “And that’s mainly because I’m investing as much as I possibly can and building my emergency reserves. Buying the computer was a huge outlay.”

“You’re getting your new car in about a week, right?” Huifen asked.

“On the 3rd of September,” I replied. “I’ve budgeted for gas, insurance, and repairs, though mostly, that will be for things like oil changes during the warranty period. And I’m also setting aside money for my next car, so I don’t have to borrow money when the time comes.”

“You’re very disciplined,” Julianne said.

“It stems from growing up with no money and not always being sure there would be food on the table or money to pay surprise bills. We managed, and we never went hungry, but there was no money for any extras. Mom made me save money from each paycheck, and that was my seed money to move to Chicago. I kept that up when I arrived, putting the maximum in a Spurgeon mutual fund. It comes out of my paycheck before I’m paid, and I started with the first check, so I’ve never missed the money. I also put a good chunk of my pay into my own investment account, as well as my emergency fund.”

“Do you plan to buy a house for cash?” Julianne asked.

“Well, if I made as much as Mr. Matheson, I probably could, but no, I’ll most likely take out a mortgage. Spurgeon offers low-interest mortgages to anyone with a securities license, and I’ll take advantage of that when the time comes.”

“Bianca said you’re applying for your license in October.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be ready to buy a house, nor even receive a promotion at work. But it does mean I can legally manage investments for friends.”

“I wish!” Julianne replied. “My parents provide my spending money, and it’s just enough to get me through each month if I go out twice a week. That is not a complaint, mind you, because my parents are paying my tuition, room and board, and books!”

“Same here,” Huifen said. “But I worked for my mom over the Summer, so that’s where I got my spending money for the year.”

“Where did you want to eat?” I asked.

“How about Ed Debevic’s?” Julianne asked.

“As long as you two don’t mind flirty waitresses, that’s fine with me,” I said.

“It’s all an act to get tips,” Julianne declared.

I knew better and wondered if Sophie might be working. She’d called a few times, but our schedules hadn’t lined up because I had been busy on the nights she’d had off.

“I’m fine with it,” Huifen added.

We left the dorm and walked to the L, and thirty minutes later were seated at Ed Debevic’s. I almost laughed when Sophie came to our table as our waitress.

“Hi, Jonathan,” Sophie said, sitting down next to me.

“Hi, Sophie,” I replied.

“You know each other?” Julianne asked.

“She was our waitress when Phoebe walked out on me because of Bev.”

“Her loss!” Sophie declared.

“I agree!” Huifen stated.

“Oops,” Sophie said. “Did I just step in it?”

“No,” Huifen replied. “We’re dating, but not a couple.”

“Drinks?” Sophie asked.

We all ordered Cokes and Sophie left to get them.

“Have you been out with her?” Huifen asked.

“We’ve hung out a couple of times,” I replied. “She’s a student at the Art Institute.”

“This is not a ‘gotcha’ question,” Huifen said, “but how many other girls did you date over the Summer?”

“I hung out with Sophie and her friend Ivy a couple of times, and I hung out with some of Bianca’s and Shelly’s friends, but that was at the house. I didn’t really go out with anyone except for Lily and Violet, and we’re just friends. Allyson was my date when I went out with Jack and Kristy last week. And you know about Bev visiting.”

“Always a straight shooter,” Huifen said.

I shrugged, “I have nothing to hide.”

Sophie brought our Cokes, and we placed our orders. She left to put the orders in without flirting at all.

“She took the hint really well,” Julianne observed. “No flirting at all. They usually even flirt with married guys.”

“It’s different because she knows Jonathan,” Huifen said. “That makes it uncomfortable. Imagine if she flirted with a married man she knew in front of his wife.”

“That would be poor form,” I said. “Pissing off the wife is a sure-fire way to ruin your chances of a good tip.”

“Or the whole thing, which is better!” Julianne tittered.

“She’s also smart to play it cool if she wants to see Jonathan again,” Huifen observed.

I was tempted to raise the topic of limits, but I was positive it was best discussed privately. We had a great meal, Sophie was polite and her usual bubbly self, but didn’t flirt at all. We had dessert, and when we paid the bill, we left a nice tip. We took the L north, with Julianne getting off at the Loyola stop and Huifen and I getting off in Rogers Park.

“Hi!” Shelly exclaimed when we walked in.

She and Bianca greeted Huifen, and the three girls got to chatting, so I excused myself and went up to the attic room to do what Bianca called ‘data entry’. About twenty minutes later, Huifen came upstairs.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

“I didn’t feel ignored,” I countered. “You three were catching up, and that was fine, so I came up to enter some more trade history and price data into my computer.”

“How is your portfolio doing?”

“I’m doing slightly better than the street, but I should be up a lot more. I made a couple of poor choices and stopped out on the losses.”

“Stopped out?”

“I placed stop orders, which are standing sell-orders, if the price of a stock drops to a certain point.”

“How much did you lose?”

“Enough to stop me from ‘beating the street’ by about twenty-five percent. Instead, I’m only about eight percent ahead of the street.”

“The ‘street’?” she asked, and I could hear the air quotes.

“Beating the average returns of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ stock averages. If you can’t do that, you have no chance to make it in the industry. Part of my problem right now is that I don’t have access to the information I need to make the best investment choices.”

“How do you get that information?”

“Mostly through contacts. My mentor can pick up the phone and call the heads of major banks, governors of the Federal Reserve, and finance ministers. And he knows all the other major traders and has analysts and researchers looking for information. That’s what I need to tap into. Don’t get me wrong — I’m happy to be ahead, and most people predicted I’d get clobbered, but I picked some real winners, like Chrysler.”

“That’s good! The girls rented Urban Cowboy and are going to pop some popcorn. Interested?”

“What’s it about?”

“A romantic drama about a guy working in the oil fields in Texas, starring John Travolta and Debra Winger.”

“Do you want to see it?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then that’s settled.”

I saved my work, removed the 5.25 inch floppy from the drive, then turned off the computer. We went downstairs, watched the movie, ate popcorn, drank lemonade, and when the movie finished, Huifen and I went up to my room. We brushed our teeth, undressed, and got into bed.

“I wanted to ask you what you expect of me,” I said as Huifen moved on top of me.

“What do you mean?”

“About who I see and what I do.”

“That’s up to you, not me.”

“That’s a true statement, but it doesn’t answer my question.”

“We’re not a couple, so it’s not my place to tell you,” Huifen said.

“I get that,” I replied. “But is there something I could do which would be, well, ‘too far’ or ‘over the line’?”

“Lie to me,” Huifen said. “Beyond that, until we’re an official couple, we each live our lives as we best see fit, working towards a possible future together, and keeping any promises we make.”

“That simple?”

“That simple. What can I do for you?”

“Anything you like!”

August 25, 1982, Chicago, Illinois

“What’s your take on Reagan deploying Marines to Lebanon,” Mr. Matheson asked on Thursday afternoon.

Normally, we weren’t ever permitted to speak to Suits in the corridors, even to say ‘hello’, but if they addressed us, then we could answer.

“I think people have been fighting over that territory since Egypt had pharaohs, and I don’t think sending around 850 Marines is going to make them stop, even with around 1400 French and Italian troops to help. I honestly don’t think the PLO is interested in peace, and I believe they’ll use this period to regroup and rearm. It also lets Arafat get outta Dodge before the Israelis get him.”

“What’s your move?”

“Defense stocks,” I replied. “Reagan vowed to rebuild the military, and wants a six-hundred ship navy.”

“War profiteering? What Eisenhower warned about?”

“Military-Industrial Complex or not, spending on defense is going up, and that makes defense stocks attractive. But it’s a short-term play, because if Reagan loses the election in two years, which is possible if the economy doesn’t recover, someone like Walter Mondale would make major cutbacks.”

“What else?”

“In times of unrest, gold is a safe haven; the risk for you is currency fluctuations if the Arab countries mess with oil supplies the way they did in 1973. OPEC has been OK so far, but who knows?”

“You’ve been paying attention to The Economist and the Journal.”

“And the Trib,” I replied.

“Keep paying attention and you might actually make it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“That’s never good enough. Losers always whine about doing their best. You have to be better than all the other guys. That’s how you make the kind of money I do. Your best might make a nice living; THE best will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

“Understood,” I replied firmly.

He turned to walk away, so I headed back down to the mailroom, wondering about how I could do better than my best. One way to look at it was that I should always be trying to improve, and never be so satisfied that I stopped looking for ways to improve or trying to find an edge that I could use.

I knew a big part of it for Mr. Matheson was his extensive Rolodex, and I was slowly making contacts, but truth be told, the only one who had real current value was my uncle. That was not to say that my friends wouldn’t eventually develop into good contacts in various fields, but the government contacts Mr. Matheson had were the key to his success. Getting access to those was going to be vital, but the only way to do that was to prove myself.

I wondered if Jeri could provide introductions. Granted, she was only sixteen, but she knew people, or at least knew people who knew people, and just one introduction could make all the difference in the world. I didn’t particularly like her world, but it was that world where I’d find the most important contacts, as well as potential clients, for when I began to manage money or portfolios. I was having my monthly dinner with her after work, and I’d broach the topic. The key was not to get sucked into her world while trying to gain advantage from it.

When the workday ended, I headed to Italian Village to meet Jeri. She’d offered to send a car to get me, but I had enough time to walk from the office, and chose to do that for the exercise. My new role had me sitting on my butt for long periods, instead of being almost constantly moving, and the last thing I wanted to do was gain weight or get out of shape.

Jeri greeted me in the lobby and the hostess seated us right away, as Jeri had arranged for one of the private tables. We ordered Cokes, and I handed her an updated portfolio valuation, which she scanned.

“These results look pretty good, though I see you took a few losses.”

I nodded, “I did. And I wanted to talk to you about that. Basically, I need to develop contacts who have knowledge about various industries. You offered to introduce me to the right people, and I’d like to take you up on that.”