Chapter 19

At this point Ken Carlson asked Jerry if he could have the microphone for a few moments. The bandleader was startled but immediately complied. Having watched Jerry, Ken knew where to hold it so he started right in. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. First, on behalf of my wife, Kathy, and myself, I want to thank you all for this warm tribute. I would also like to make a few remarks on the evening of one of the most remarkable days of our lives.

"First, I would like to comment on the Trang sisters whom you heard about earlier. You heard about the unspeakable tortures these young women suffered. I would like speak on behalf of my men and myself. You heard Jerry Smith a few moments ago tell about a battle we were in when I was lucky enough to save his life. Well, the guy coming at him was a soldier — an enemy soldier, to be sure — but just a guy trying to do his job. Unfortunately, warfare can be distinctly hazardous to one's health — and it was to his. However, I was only doing my job that day, too."

Ken's face hardened and his eyes took on a steely glint as he continued, "With the Trangs, it was different. That wasn't war! That was plain torture, rape and murder. Not only are they recognized as crimes everywhere in the world, they are war crimes, too. Those butchers weren't soldiers; they were murderers! I will tell you now that my men and I enjoyed that one. We really did. Of course, we regretted that we were unable to arrive a few hours earlier. If we had, we might have saved more lives. As it was, we saved two: in my opinion, the two finest women in all of Vietnam.

"What we found in the square in the center of that small village turned our stomachs. We found the ruined bodies of over twenty of their schoolmates: tortured, raped and ultimately killed. The bodies were just strewn around and left wherever they died. We found their mother's body lying over their father's. My men, assisted by the villagers I hasten to add, buried the victims in the church cemetery."

Looking at the two girls standing together in the back he said, "Marie and Celeste, I think you both would have been pleased. Your parents are together in that churchyard forever. Your schoolmates were also decently buried with all of the villagers gathered around their graves praying for the repose of their souls."

Ken was grim as he continued, "However, as far as the murderers were concerned, I decided we were going to save some money. We held a summary court martial — a military tribunal, if you will — on the survivors. The villagers testified, identifying individuals with particularly savage acts and killings. Court findings were announced, the findings of the court were appealed and upheld, and sentence was carried out. You see, Marie and Celeste, we found a use for the scaffold from which they suspended and tortured you both. The murderers were executed by hanging from that frame."

Looking around the room, Ken said, "I'm sure some of you are shocked by what I just told you. It was not my intent to shock you, but it was my intention to tell you what we faced and what we did. The reaction of my troops to the hangings? It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys."

Now Ken's face softened and he smiled again at the Trang sisters. Addressing the crowd, he said, "I made a confession to my wife last night. Originally, I told her she was the first woman I had ever slept with. Yesterday, I confessed that it was not true. She was the third. You see, on the night of that terrible day, we were back in the jungle moving toward Allied lines.

"The two girls were lying on a tarp while I tried to treat their tortured bodies. That's when they recovered consciousness. That night, in spite of the open cuts crisscrossing their backs, they insisted on sleeping with me — or more accurately, on me. Moreover, they insisted that I hold them tight in spite of the excruciating pain it had to be causing them. Why? There wasn't one inch anywhere on their backs without an open whip cut on it. Nevertheless, that's what they wanted, so that's what we did."

Looking around the room, he said, "The last word on these two incredibly brave girls? We walked 150 miles through the jungle — and they walked, too ... Barefoot! When we arrived at the Allied base, every footprint they left was bloody. If you look today, you will see that the soles of their feet still carry terrible scars from that trek back, yet they never complained and never slowed down. I can't say enough about the bravery displayed by these two young women."

Now he smiled. It was one of the warmest smiles Kathy had ever seen on his face as he said, "I will add one more point. We — Americans, citizens of the United States — should be honored that these girls have chosen to join us. If we can continue to attract people like this to our shores, our future as a nation is assured!"

When the applause died down, Ken looked down and was surprised to see the girls were now standing in front of him. Marie reached for the mike and said, "Thank you, Sir Ken."

She smiled warmly, took the mike and said, "You see, my sister and I refer to Mr. Carlson as Sir Ken, and his wife as Lady Kathy. Why? Because he is so much like the knights errant we used to read about who would ride alone righting wrongs and saving damsels in distress ... both of which applied in our case.

"Why did we come to the United States? Where else would we go? Where else does there exist such unselfishness ... such concern for others? But most important, there is only one Kenneth Carlson and only one Lady Kathy. Celeste and I determined that America must be a wonderful place if it could produce people like these."

Then with eyes downcast she said simply, "So here we are." Then she turned and whispered something to Jerry whose eyes widened, but who then agreed quickly. Turning back to the crowd she said, "With your permission, my sister and I would like to sing a song in thanksgiving."

Ken stepped aside, stunned. Taking Kathy in his arms he whispered, "Hon, I never knew these girls could sing a note. I'm almost certain no one has ever heard them sing."

Kathy replied very softly, "Darling, maybe they never felt like singing before."

What followed was one of the most remarkable and beautiful duets anyone had ever heard. Not only did the girls have remarkable voices, they were essentially identical, so the effect was that of a solo with beautiful overtones. Jerry gave the band the beat and they played softly in accompaniment, America the Beautiful.

The girls sang, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain..." They sang the full three verses and no one present had ever heard the song sung with greater passion or feeling. When they finished, there was a stunned silence in the large room for a few moments, then a tremendous burst of applause and cheering. Without a word, the girls handed the mike back to Ken and disappeared.

When the noise died down, Ken just shook his head and said, "I guess the people who appreciate freedom the most are the ones who have lost it, or who have never had it."

Then he smiled and said, "This is my wife Kathy, as most of you already know. I consider myself the luckiest man alive to have her love and to have her as my wife. Earlier, I said that today was the most remarkable day of our life together. You see, late this afternoon, when we returned to our suite, Kathy dissolved into tears. She sat across my lap, held me tightly and cried her eyes out. Frankly, I didn't know what had happened. Then I realized that her whole body was trembling ... with fear!"

Ken shook his head and continued, "When she finally calmed down enough to tell me what the matter was, I had the most terrible sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. You see, I was scared, too, and it was all I could do to try to hide my fear from her."

With a wry smile, Ken said, "You may wonder what this idiot is talking about. I'm sure many of you are. Before I tell you, though, I want to set a context for you by just going back in time from this evening only to last Saturday.

"First, today: This morning, Kathy went out on a golf course for the first time in her life. In fact, it was the first time she had ever seen a real golf course. She shot a one-over-par 73. Honest, she did. In fairness, though, she had played a little golf on one of those computer golf trainers. However, as Jim Conroy will attest, she didn't even know how to hold a golf club. In spite of the fact that her first tee shot — ever — was about 200 yards. Given the way she was holding the club, Jim was amazed it even got off the tee.

"Second, Monday: Keep in mind, this is only Wednesday afternoon. At any rate on Monday afternoon Kathy created the concept of a $50-million business deal, sold the concept to the principals, and prepared and executed the relevant contracts — In an elapsed time, end to end, of fifty-five minutes!

"Third, Saturday morning: We were working at a construction site in downtown Los Angeles. Why she was working there is another story I won't bore you with. Anyway, a crew of men were at the bottom of a ten-foot-deep utility trench when signs of water appeared where there should not have been any. I got the men out of the trench and called the foreman over. He went down to look and, just then, the side of the trench gave way under the weight of sewer water. You see, a main sewer line running parallel to the trench had collapsed.

"When the trench wall gave way, the foreman's leg was snapped and his foot was trapped between two shoring timbers. Kathy comes running, takes a look at what was by then only a narrow slit no man could fit into, strips off her clothes and goes down into this trench rapidly filling with sewer water. She cuts his foot free of his boot and then pulls the foot free. Of course, the whole trench could have collapsed and buried her alive. She gets him out and only seconds later it did totally collapse.

"Is she finished? Not Kathy. She gives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — drawing sewer water out of the victim's lungs with her mouth. When he revives after such a long period of time that many of the men were convinced he was already dead, she sets his broken leg."

Ken looked around and saw Hank Wellington still standing in the corner. He said, "Yesterday, when we checked in, we met Hank Wellington, the general manager. We learned he is an ex-paratrooper and once tried to set a trooper's broken leg. He told us how, with five big strong men pulling, they could not get the bones back into alignment."

Looking around after pausing, Ken said, "Well, Kathy did it... by herself! She planted a bare foot in the victim's crotch, held his foot and just pulled. I have never seen such muscles under strain as I saw last Saturday. Not only did she pull, but at the same time she kept an eye on the alignment of the foot to the leg to be sure the bones would mesh properly."

Ken shook his head and said, "I don't know how long she maintained that incredible pressure, but I would guess at least five minutes. Finally, it moved and the bones lined up. Then we put the broken leg in a splint. Is she finished yet? Hell no! She supervises washing the sewer water off the victim, washing his face and hair herself. Keep in mind she's still naked and covered with sewer slime all this time. Then she supervises the guys who hose her off."

Then Ken grinned broadly and asked, "What do you suppose happened next? Well, she looks around and the ambulance hasn't arrived yet, so all we could do was wait. Now she starts bawling like her heart would break. While I hold her tightly in my arms she's telling me how scared and terrified she is."

Ken just shook his head and added, "You will note, please, that she decides it's time to act like a weak woman when there's absolutely nothing more for anyone to do!" He shook his head and added, "God! I love this woman!"

Ken shook his head and said, "That's a little background on my wife: a great athlete, a brilliant businesswoman and contract lawyer, as well as being incredibly strong and courageous, willing to risk her life to help others. Now, what is it that could possibly terrify her? For that matter, in light of everything I've been through, what could terrify me?"

While he had been speaking, Kathy had been standing in front of him. In spite of all the people present she had taken his right hand — his left hand was holding the mike — and took advantage of the deep cleavage in her dress to slip it inside to cup her bare breast.

"I'll tell you what it was," Ken said softly. "It was the prospect of motherhood. You see, at lunch today, we learned just a little of what it means to be a mother from probably the finest mother in the world, Hank Conroy. We heard from two of the most remarkable young people we have ever met, Samantha and Tommy Conroy. What did we learn? Well, we found out that Hank devotes 100 percent of her time, attention and love to her husband, Jim. Then she focuses 50 percent on each of their four children." Ken just shook his head and said, "Yeah, I know. It adds to 300 percent, doesn't it? How can you spend 300 percent?" Ken just shrugged and said, "We don't know, either. Why in hell do you think we're so scared?"

He shook his head and said, "I can't even list the things that Hank Conroy does for her family. Her daughter, Sam, said it best, I think, when she said her mother is the family's guiding force and its pole star. She maintains the direction while at the same time giving herself in a thousand ways to each member of the family."

Then he grinned and said, "I guess we did learn one thing about living with kids, though: Don't let them run things or get too secure. For example, Hank has occasionally advertised one or another of the kids for sale, swap or trade. Another thing I learned from Jim is that instead of buying the children's furniture, they rent it ... by the week!"

With his face becoming more serious, Ken added, "Of course, you don't want to overdo this insecurity stuff. For example, Jim told me that to make the kids feel all snugly and warm at Christmas, in December they usually rent the furniture for the whole month!" At that the audience dissolved in laughter.

"Then we learned from one of the most remarkable young women in the world how her mother is her best friend, confidante, advisor, tutor, swimming buddy ... Hank is everything Samantha could ever want her to be ... Most particularly including being available for her at any time."

Ken shook his head and said, "I could go on and on and on, but I won't. Rather, I want you to know how we addressed the problem of our fear. The short answer is we didn't. Well, if you can't address the fear, what can you do?"

With a big grin, Ken said, "Remember the wonderful Boston Irish political axiom: 'Don't get mad; get even!' Well that's what we decided to do.

"First of all, let me ask a question of all the women in the audience who saw Hank dancing. Her body is utterly perfect, right? Can you believe she has given birth to four children? She has. Can you believe that her oldest child, Samantha, is fourteen? In another year or two, they will look like twins..." Ken just shook his head and grimaced, saying, "And you know something else? In about five more years, Sam is going to look like her mother's older sister!" Then with a grin he continued, "Well, then, if the idea is to get even, how do we do it?

"Well, honestly, with Kathy and me huddled together and trembling with fear, I really don't remember whose idea it was. But it sort of works like this: You see, we learned that Jim's birthday is a national holiday at the Conroys', while each of the children's birthdays is a major celebration. Mom's birthday? Mother's day? Wedding anniversaries? They don't exist on the Conroy calendar."

Now Ken's grin broadened. "The next was Kathy's idea. She figured that the way Hank continues to look so young is she thinks she's still eighteen! Our guess is it was probably the last birthday she celebrated. So guess what? Today we are celebrating Hank Conroy's twenty-first birthday — she gave birth to Samantha when she was seven — and the Conroy's fifteenth wedding anniversary!"

Then he raised his hands to quell the applause that had started. "Wait a minute! We're not saying the dates are correct. What we are saying is that Hank Conroy sure in hell doesn't know what the correct dates are, either!"

With that, Ken motioned to where the Trangs were waiting. Each carried a beautiful cake to the table while Ken and Kathy went back to the table to join them. A magnificent birthday cake with twenty-one burning candles was placed in front of Hank and an equally beautiful anniversary cake with fifteen candles was put in front of Jim.

Hank looked up at Ken with her eyes dancing with pleasure at the surprise. After taking a deep breath, she blew out all the candles, then, joining Jim, the two blew out the ones on the anniversary cake, as well. Meantime, the band was playing Happy Birthday and everyone was singing.

When they finished, there were the usual cries of "Speech! Speech!" from the crowd.

To Ken's surprise, Hank took the mike from his hand and said, "Thank you all, very much." Then with a big grin, she said, "For that matter, we have a surprise for the Carlsons, too." With that she nodded towards the corner where Samantha and Tommy were standing with two smaller children. Sam carried her two-year-old sister while Tommy held his six-year-old brother's hand as they made their way between the tables to the dance floor in front of the Carlson table. There Sam carefully set her sister down while Tommy released his brother's hand.