Chapter 45

After a noisy and busy afternoon, the house had finally quieted down. The office staff had returned to the hotel in which they were staying until more permanent housing could be arranged. Colt and Nicole had taken over duties as bodyguards while Rock and Natalie retired to their room. Lisa was cleaning up the kitchen while Ken was watching television with Tim.

Lucy and William sat on the patio waiting for sunset. William was silent while considering the events earlier in the day. Lucy watched William think his thoughts and smoke his cigarettes. She could see that he wasn't going to resolve whatever problem was troubling him. Unable to keep quiet any longer, she asked, "What happened this afternoon?"

"My sixth sense deserted me," William answered glancing over at her to judge her reaction.

"Oh," Lucy said raising an eyebrow. He wasn't telling her anything that she hadn't already figured out. His behavior was identical to the afternoon when they had the interviews. She didn't know what to say, so she asked, "Do you want to see a doctor?"

"Daddy Ed says that the Two-Sided One considers it training," William answered.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, but I do know that a doctor won't help," William said. He took a drag off his cigarette and exhaled to the sky. Shaking his head, he said, "I have a feeling that it is going to be happening more and more frequently."

"I'm so sorry," Lucy said. She didn't understand the full implications, but knew that there was nothing that she could do to stop it. It was also obvious that William could do nothing to stop it from happening in the future.

"Don't be sorry," William said looking over at Lucy wondering why she thought it was her fault.

Smiling at her husband, Lucy asked, "How would you feel if I was going blind?"

"I'd feel pretty bad," William answered and realized that her sorry wasn't taking blame for his problem but supporting him. Touched by her concern, he reached over and took her hand. Softly, he asked, "Have I told you how much I love you?"

Batting her eyes at him, Lucy said, "Words are cheap. Take me upstairs and show me how much you love me."

Laughing, William looked up to the sky as if he had been assigned an arduous task. Theatrically, he said, "I didn't know what I was signing up for when we got married."

"That's right buster. Now take me upstairs and let me know how much you appreciate your wife."

William put out his cigarette and followed Lucy into the house. As he followed her, he thought, 'It is nice to be home.'

Outside of a non-descript two story office building, five very attractive women were standing around waiting for William and Lucy to arrive. The presence of so many attractive women gathered in one place had the predictable effect on the males entering the building. Several men had collided with animate and inanimate objects because they were walking while looking at the women rather than where they were going. Even a few women were rather taken aback by the collected beauty that was gathered there. More than one individual wondered if the new business, WRC Enterprises, was some sort of modeling agency.

Barbara watched the individuals walking into the building and sighed. Amanda, asked, "What's the matter?"

"Men," Barbara replied.

"What about them?"

"They are all staring at us as if we were chocolate cakes at a fat farm," Barbara answered.

Amanda was silent for a moment and then said, "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"No. The whole reason I went to work for William was that he was the first man who ever interviewed me without looking at my body first and then my credentials," Barbara answered.

Frowning, Amanda thought about it for a second and then asked, "Isn't that rather conceited of you? I mean, are you really that beautiful?"

Sandra answered, "It's not conceited of her. She is that beautiful. We all are, including you. You may not see the effect that you have on men, but it is definitely there."

"Men ignore me for the most part. All they see is the white cane," Amanda replied.

"I doubt that many of them ever see the white cane. You've got a body that most women would kill to have."

Amanda was silent for a moment while she considered the answer. Her family and her friends were always saying that she was a very attractive woman, but she had never had that much luck with men approaching her. She said, "Men don't seem to be attracted to me."

"You're wrong, but lucky in a way. Most decent men won't approach an attractive woman out of fear that they aren't good enough for her. I imagine that the bastards don't want to deal with the cane," Barbara said.

"Lucky?"

"Yeah, you don't have to deal with the bastards trying to look down your blouse, trying to cop feels in the elevator, or get hit with cheesy pickup lines that went out of fashion in the fifties," Sandra said.

"It sounds to me like you hate men," Amanda said.

"There are times when I do hate them," Barbara replied. Usually after getting harassed by some man in a position of power, she would turn to the arms of a woman just to get away from it. It wasn't that she really desired women, but just that she had never found a man she found acceptable.

"Sad," Sandra said.

"I grew up in a healthy town where the men understood women. I guess that was from the town's people being around the Carter Clan for so long. I didn't really have jerks drooling over me until I went off to college. It really surprised me how most of the college men treated women," Juanita said.

"You were lucky," Barbara said.

"I grew up around my tribe and things are a little different at home than in a city," Donna said. She shrugged her shoulders and added, "I was just Donna from down the road."

"The girl next door," Barbara said.

"Hello, ladies," William said from behind them. As a group, the women turned in surprise.

The first to recover was Barbara. She said, "We were waiting for you to arrive."

"You could have waited inside. You have the keys," William said.

"We thought that you would want to show us around the offices," Barbara replied.

"Oh. I've only been in here once, so I'll be just as lost you. Mary arranged for the office to be set up while we were traveling over the past month," William said.

Lucy shook her head at seeing the surprised reactions of the women. She knew they found it hard to believe that William didn't watch over the shoulders of everyone who worked for him. He would hire the best and let them work without interference. She said, "Let's go in and explore the place."

As a group, they entered the building and walked through a very simple lobby. Amanda was being helped along by Donna. Donna led just by offering her arm, allowing Amanda to use her cane to check for obstacles. As they walked, Donna described the environment so that Amanda could generate a mental model of the layout. They were an effective team.

At the far end of the first floor, forty seven steps from the entrance of the building, was a plain door with a very small sign that said WRC Enterprises. The group came to a halt and waited while William fished through his pockets to find the keys. It took a moment to unlock the door. He stepped back and said, "Here is your new workplace."

The door had opened upon a very luxurious lobby. The women entered the room in silence wondering what they would find. The lobby had comfortable looking chairs scattered around the waiting area. Each pair of chairs was bracketed by plants and was situated such that the occupants would be looking at an aquarium or a western style painting across the room. Soft music filled the air. Everything was designed to be relaxing.

Across from the door was the receptionist's desk. Donna led Amanda over to a desk that looked like something out of a science fiction movie. After examining the desk for a moment, Donna exclaimed, "There's no telephone."

Smiling, William said, "Yes there is. On the center of the desk is a user manual. Someone will be by later to train Amanda."

Amanda sat down on the chair and ran her hands over the top of the desk. What she felt didn't seem to make sense to her. She found the user's manual and picked it up. She opened it and ran her fingers over the first page. A smile came to her face and she said, "This reads like a science fiction book."

"That's odd. I believe that is where the engineers who designed it got the idea for it," William said with a smile. Actually, Mary had arranged for a student from the Druid College to spend hours interviewing blind people about what equipment would allow Amanda to perform her job with the greatest ease. The entire desk, computer programs, and telephone system had been designed and constructed by fifth year students just for her over the course of two weeks.

He watched as she reached out and touched a raised Braille display after reading a section of the manual. A smile crossed her face and she said, "You've got twelve lines. Right now, none of them are being used. Where's the headset?"

"In the right drawer of the desk," William answered.

She felt around the desk and located the proper drawer. After opening it, she reached in and found a very lightweight headset. It took a second to figure out the on-off switch. She turned it on and then hung the headset on her ear. Once it was in place, she said, "Oz, connect to line one."

The rest of the group had watched her explore her desk fascinated by her actions. When she mentioned Oz, just about all of them laughed. It was so unexpected. They were surprised when she said, "Oz, dial 555 555-1234."