Chapter 5

William focused on the computer screen as a constant stream of raw numbers scrolled past. The set of equations that he was working with had changed a lot over the past few months. He had introduced some additional factors and Lucy had provided him with a set of transforms that simplified the computations significantly. On one of the screens, plots of various economic indicators were slowly being constructed. It now took less than five minutes to compute a year of simulation time. This was barely acceptable to perform what-if kinds of studies.

Lucy stood behind William watching the plots develop. She shook her head and said, "That doesn't look right to me."

William clicked a couple of keys on a separate keyboard and a set of graphs appeared on another monitor. Comparing the developing plot with the graph, it was obvious that Lucy was correct. Shaking his head, he said, "Numerical round off errors are killing me."

"I think you're right," Lucy said with a frown. She had hoped that this run would be acceptable. She picked up the set of equations and studied them for a minute with a frown.

"I need a really good programmer to help with this," William said sounding a little frustrated. It wasn't that he couldn't handle the project; it was that he didn't have the luxury of spending the time on it. He sat back and said, "I don't want to wait until September."

"Why aren't you willing to wait until September?" Lucy asked immediately realizing that was the wrong question to ask. Before William had a chance to answer, she said, "What I really mean to ask is -- why would you have to wait until September?"

"That's when the next batch of students from the Druid College begin their internships," William said.

"Call up one of those MIT guys and see if you can't hire someone graduating now," Lucy suggested.

"I need someone I can trust," William answered with a frown.

Lucy didn't need to ask why he had to trust the person who wrote the program. The potential for misuse was tremendous. She said, "You're right. I wouldn't trust anyone who hadn't learned to live by the two rules."

"I guess we'll try to muddle through the best we can until September," William said.

Lucy stared at the equations for another minute and then said, "I'll do a sensitivity analysis on the equations. There may be a way to predict where the algorithms you are using will become unstable. Why don't you see if you can't find an alternative way to compute the results? You might try to find a predictor-corrector algorithm. The problem is that I don't know if there are any that have been developed for equations of this form."

He turned in his chair to look at Lucy and said, "I love it when you talk math to me."

Lucy smiled at William knowing that he was serious. Winking at him, she said, "Maybe if you're good tonight, I'll shout out an equation when I climax."

"I'm looking forward to it," William said with a grin. He sighed and looked over at the computer screen with the plot his program was constructing. Points were jumping all over the place. He said, "This program has become a pretty good random number generator."

Lucy laughed and said, "People will pay good money for a good random number generator."

"It's too slow," William said. She was about to say something when he rolled his eyes and said, "I haven't forgotten."

"Forgotten what?" Lucy asked. She had been about to remind him that Patrick and Linda were arriving that afternoon.

"That Patrick and Linda are coming this afternoon," William answered.

"You are going to have to stop doing that," Lucy said finding his anticipation of what she was going to say a little unnerving.

"What?" William asked.

"Answering me before I ask you something," Lucy answered.

Colt led Patrick and Linda down to the pool where William and Lucy were swimming. As was usually the case, they were swimming in the nude. With a grin, Colt gestured to the naked couple and said, "As you can see, they aren't too keen on clothes here."

Patrick and Linda shared a look. Linda stripped off her dress while Patrick started unbuttoning his shirt. Winking at Colt, she said, "Neither are we."

"You'd think I'd get to shock someone one of these days," Colt grumbled as he turned to leave. Having known Patrick before he had gone off to college, Colt had been sure that finding William and Lucy nude would shock Patrick, particularly if he was with a young lady. He hadn't quite believed William when he said that Patrick wouldn't even blink.

Patrick said, "Maybe next time."

"Right," Colt said shaking his head as he headed out to the pool room.

Waving to the young couple by the side of the pool, William shouted, "Come on in. The water will help you relax after your trip."

Patrick leaned over to Linda and said, "Like we need to relax after that trip? He's got to be kidding."

"I know what you mean," Linda said. William had arranged for a leased jet to fly them from the college to the airport in Phoenix. They had found a limousine waiting for them when they got off the jet. The entire trip had been spent in incredible comfort.

Patrick yelled back, "Give us a minute to get naked."

William said, "Don't take too long. Your parents are coming over for dinner."

"What? When?" Patrick asked feeling a sudden rush of panic at the idea of his parents catching him swimming naked.

"At six," William answered swimming over to the side of the pool. Lucy swam beside him.

"That's got to be any minute now," Patrick said glancing down at his watch. It was five minutes to six. He started to pull up his pants.

"You forgot the time difference," Lucy said with a laugh at the expression on his face.

Linda laughed and jumped in the pool. Turning over to float on her back, she said, "Come on in. The water is great."

It took Patrick a half a minute to get out of the rest of his clothes and into the pool. After rising to the surface, he swam over to where William was treading water. He said, "I really appreciate everything you did to bring us out here."

"No problem. We were looking forward to seeing you and I just couldn't see the value of having you fly on a regular airline," William said.

The group swam for about an hour pausing on occasion to chat. On one of those occasions, Patrick and William were at one end of the pool while Lucy and Linda were at the other. Patrick glanced over at Linda watching as she talked with Lucy. As much as he would have liked to bring her home with him, he knew his parents would object to him bringing home a girl. Leaning over to William, he asked, "Are you sure that you have a room for Linda?"

"Of course we have room for Linda," William answered with a smile. He asked, "Didn't you look around when you've been here? This place is huge."

"I guess I'm worried about nothing," Patrick said biting his lower lip.

"You're concerned about how your parents are going to react to you bringing home a white woman?" William asked striking to the heart of Patrick's concerns.

"Yes," Patrick said.

"Don't be worried," William said with a wink. On seeing that Patrick was reassured by William's comment, he added, "I've taken care of that."

"Really? How?"

"I told them she was an albino Indian," William answered. He laughed at the shocked look on Patrick's face before swimming off to the other end of the pool.

At the other end of the pool, Linda leaned over to Lucy and asked, "Are you sure that you have room for me?"

Laughing, Lucy said, "We've got a dozen guest suites. We'll get you set up in a guest suite where the two of you can spend a little time alone before his parents get here."

Linda glanced over at Patrick and, in a worried tone of voice, said, "He's been so worried about how his parents will react to me. Do I have to worry about that?"

Lucy shook her head and said, "I wouldn't worry if I were you."

"Good," Linda said relaxing a little.

Lucy grinned and said, "William took care of everything."

"How?" Linda asked.

Lucy said, "He told Patrick's parents that you were an albino Indian."

John Black Thorn and his wife Mary Black Thorn greeted Patrick with normal Native American reserve. John had nodded his head and clasped Patrick's shoulders as if inspecting him. Mary had given him a simple little hug. Linda had watched the exchange feeling a little let down. At her home, there would have been hugs, kisses, and little screams of excitement.

After the greeting had ended, Patrick said, "Mom and Dad, I'd like for you to meet my friend Linda."

John looked over at the young lady rather surprised to learn that he had brought a friend home with him. Not quite sure of the relationship, he said, "Nice to meet you Linda."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, sir," Linda said.

Mary gave a slightly more critical examination of the young woman than John had given her. She had never thought that Patrick would go for a woman like her, but she didn't give voice to her thoughts. Her surprise wasn't because Linda was a white woman; it was just that she had almost no breasts. All of his female friends in the past had been well developed. She said, "Hello, Linda."

"Hello, ma'am," Linda said. The rather subdued reaction was not what she had been expecting.

Seeing that Linda was a little uncomfortable, Lucy said, "I believe that the Chef is ready for us."

As the group walked off, William positioned himself between John and Mary. After winking at Lucy, he patted John on the shoulder and said, "I fear that I mislead Patrick. I told him that I had talked to you about how he was bringing an albino Indian home for you two to meet. I fear he hasn't figured out that Linda is a white woman."

Patrick looked over at William and exclaimed, "She's White?"