Chapter 60

Jack sat in his new office unable to believe the difference that twenty four hours made in his life. His office was larger than the room he was renting. The furnishings were much more luxurious. Barbara Gray had told him that it had been the bedroom and exercise room, but they had converted it to his office. He would have been quite happy if they had left the bed in the room, but he wasn't going to tell them that.

He got up and made his way to the break room to get a soft drink. That was another thing that amazed him about this job. Everything in the break room was free. He had expected a vending machine. Opening a can of root beer, he took a seat at the table and looked around the room. It had real wood tables, not laminated particle board.

Sandra entered the room and grabbed a cup of coffee. Turning, she caught him looking around with an expression on his face that was just a little too wide eyed for her comfort. All she needed in her life was another puppy dog. She sighed at the thought of having a coworker who was going to be hitting on her.

"What's the matter?" Jack asked.

"Nothing," Sandra answered.

Gesturing to the room around him, he said, "It's all so overwhelming. I never expected to have such a nice office until I was an executive or something. Even this break room is luxurious. I was kind of expecting plastic tables."

Sitting down, Sandra decided it was time to get to know her newest coworker. She asked, "What did you think of Barbara?"

"That's some woman. I've never met anyone so focused and professional in my life," Jack answered. He had also been very intimidated by her appearance, but wasn't going to mention that.

"She's pretty," Sandra said fishing for his attitude towards women.

"You can say that again," Jack said with a nod of his head. There was no way that he was going to say that Sandra was just as pretty. The last thing he wanted was to get hit with some sort of sexual harassment charge.

"Why do you think William hired her?"

"Because she's focused and professional," Jack ventured. He didn't think that William would trust someone with his business that wasn't very good at their work. If he wanted a harem, he could afford to buy one. The fact of the matter was that Jack didn't have a very good opinion of women. He felt that most of them were gold diggers and only interested in a man's wallet. There were a lot of very attractive women who would spread their legs for someone as rich as William.

"You don't think he hired her because she's pretty?" Sandra asked watching him very closely.

Shaking his head in disgust, Jack stood and said, "I don't want to participate in any ugly office gossip. If you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work. I've got to identify some polling companies for William."

Sandra watched him leave and sighed in relief. She appreciated his reaction. At least he didn't immediately suggest that Barbara had gotten her job because of her looks. She knew that he would have thought the same of her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Donna breezed into the room and, in an excited voice, said, "Doug is coming this weekend."

"I hope William gives him a little free time to visit with you. You know how William is when he's working on something," Sandra said with a smile. She had watched William during the conference in Seattle and had been amazed.

"I know," Donna said with a grin. She wasn't going to mention that Doug was going to be spending the night at her house over the weekend. She hugged herself and said, "I just like being with him. You know what I mean?"

"Yes, I know what you mean," Sandra said even though she didn't.

"So what do you think of the new guy?"

Sandra shrugged her shoulders and said, "I kind of like him. Pity I have to leave before getting to know him."

William entered the break room looking for Sandra. Finding her, he said, "Sandra. I just wanted to see if there was anything you needed before flying out to Arizona."

"No. I've got my trusty pad of paper and pencil. That's all I need for now," Sandra replied. She was going to Arizona before everyone else to set up the new offices. In seven weeks they would be moving out there for good. Bad decisions at this time would have long term consequences.

"Great. I'll leave everything in your capable hands. I know you'll do a good job. We're going to miss you around here, but I'll see you in seven weeks," William said. He turned to leave the room to talk with Jack. It was time for him to layout the eighteen components that he wanted to have polled.

A shiver went through Sandra at his words. Surprising herself, she said, "Thank you William. I love you, too."

William froze and turned to look at Sandra. He didn't know what to say and just stared at her. Seeing his obvious confusion, Sandra pretended as if she hadn't said anything significant. With a little shooing gesture, she said, "Get to work. Jack is waiting for you."

"Uh, sure," William said. He left the room feeling confused and wondering if he had told her that he loved her. He replayed the conversation in his head and just didn't recall saying words to that effect.

Once William was gone, Donna burst out in giggles. Seeing the shocked look on Sandra's face to her reaction, Donna said, "Go look up the word clueless in the dictionary. You'll find his picture there."

"Thanks. I needed to hear that. Well, I've got to head to the airport," Sandra said standing up.

Donna stood and hugged Sandra. In a soft voice, she said, "He does love you, you know."

"Yes, I know. It's a pity that he doesn't know it," Sandra said. She sighed and thought about the long trip ahead. There would be plenty of time to think on the flight.

Jack, Lucy, and Doug sat around the living room waiting for William. Doug looked over at Jack and asked, "So William hired you to work on our project?"

"Yes," Jack answered. Over the past few days he had learned more about how society functioned than he guessed was even possible. He was halfway convinced that once he received his degree in Sociology that he should turn it in. His courses in Women's studies were 'bitch' sessions about how poorly men treated women rather than a developed theory of how the woman's movement originated, the social forces that were generated, and how the social climate changed in response to those social forces. The same had been true of most of his other courses. The upshot of the majority of his coursework was that white men were the source of all problems in society.

One of the most useless courses that he'd taken had been titled qualitative studies. The fact was that qualitative studies were not science. William's view of sociology was quantitative rather than qualitative. While examining William's equations, he could see social, political, and economic forces at play. They could make predictions based on William's work. With proper resources, they could even set up social experiments. That was real science.

"So what do you think?" Doug asked. He was curious why William had hired this guy without discussing the matter with him first. He'd seen the passion that William had for the problem, but he had never seen William this excited.

"I think I had an orgasm while looking over his work," Jack answered. He glanced over at Lucy and then said, "Pardon me."

Laughing at his obvious embarrassment, Lucy said, "No problem. It is pretty exciting stuff although I wouldn't describe it in sexual terms. I didn't realize just how much progress he had made in developing his theory."

"I'm more interested in your feelings about our idea of a crisis of followership," Doug said.

"After thinking about it, I'm kind of afraid of a rightwing radical taking over the country," Jack answered.

William entered the room and said, "I'm more concerned about the leftwing radicals."

"Leftwing?" Doug asked raising an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but think about it for a minute. It was communism that took down the Czar. Animal rights activists routinely engage in terrorist acts. I'd hardly call either group rightwing," William replied. He shook his head and said, "Utopians really scare me."

"Conservatives are the ones we have to watch out for. All of that Bible talk will return us to the days when they burned witches," Jack said.

William laughed and said, "Don't mistake conservatives with the religious right. They may have a few areas in common, but they aren't the same."

"That's ridiculous," Jack said.

"Who do you think is more likely to legalize prostitution, liberals or conservatives?"

"Liberals, of course," Jack answered.

Lucy nodded her head in agreement. She was surprised when William asked, "Why do you think that?"

"Liberals feel that prostitution is a victimless crime," Jack answered.

"Do they really? I always thought they believed that it was demeaning to women. That prostitution represented an exploitation of women and should be eliminated," William said.

"Conservatives believe that it is a sin," Doug said.

"A lot of them do believe that prostitution is a sin. A good percentage of them also view drinking as sinful. That doesn't mean that drinking is illegal. In fact, it is just the opposite. Conservatives make sure that alcohol is heavily taxed," William said with a smile.

"You're not saying... ," Jack started to say.

William sat down in his chair and said, "That's right, conservatives would use the argument that even though it is a sin, there is no way that we'll ever be able to stop it. As a result, the only thing to do is legalize it and tax the hell out of it. That's what makes a conservative different than the religious right."

"I'm not sure that I buy that argument," Lucy said with a frown. Her father was pretty conservative and she couldn't see him arguing to legalize prostitution. She knew that he'd say that if it was to become legal that they should have to be licensed and pay their taxes.

"The key thing here is not to confuse a conservative with a member of the radical right. A conservative isn't for a God fearing nation in which non-believers are prosecuted by the law. They'd rather have people go to church on Sundays on their own free will. They would appreciate not being treated like a villain because they do go to church, pray before a major event, or place a symbol of their faith in a public area. They don't want to tear down crosses that have been in place for more than fifty years because someone has suddenly found a symbol of their faith insulting.