Chapter 22

When I woke up the four engineers were still there with six others. Mrs. MacIntee was making breakfast, and when she bent down to put a plate in front of me I impulsively kissed her cheek then said, "Thanks, you are a great cook."

"Thank you too Mr Congdon."

"I think we have known each other for a while now. We can go by first names. Mr Holtzman runs his home his way but I like to be more personal."

"My name is Rose."

I went upstairs later and woke up a sleepy little girl by tickling her foot. When she woke up enough she screamed, "Daddy," and jumped off her bed and onto me as I was hiding on the floor.

"I knew it was you."

"And I thought it was going to be the tickle monster. I think I need a better costume." We came downstairs together. I had a bit more breakfast as Corinne ate. The coffee here was always good.

Looking at the telephone device on paper I suddenly realised that this could be my encryption device. I could transmit data or garbage over the other nine tenths of a second and reserve one for voice. I was thinking of using the Toronto CBC station as a way of interacting with my voice and with a time delay John could use the same station to filter out the garbage.

I walked over to the group and said, "How much of my circuit is left?"

One of the engineers from last night said. "I am afraid there's very little."

"Will some of you gentlemen make a pair of units that will send and receive? Make it so that I can feed nine more inputs in from nine separate tape recorders. The other unit will record all ten signals."

"I am afraid that will cost a lot of money young man. Nineteen tape recorders and then the building of the circuit will be more than a young man like you can afford."

I smiled at him and said, "I'm afraid it is you that are mistaken. Design the circuit as I asked. When Mr Holtzman gets here we can discuss the actual construction."

Toronto was going through a warm spell so the snow was not as dry as in North Bay. I got Corinne onto the toilet then found her clothing. None of it was suitable for play but it would do the job then get dried out later. Ten minutes later we were outside making a snowman. Corinne rolled the balls until she couldn't any longer then I helped. We really had to struggle to get the second sphere in place. The head was still large and Corinne patted fresh snow into the areas that needed it.

We came in later wet and cold. Our yard was the only one with disturbed snow but the only one that looked inviting. Corinne wanted to dump her wet clothing but I made her pick it up so it could dry.

"If you don't do that then you are making someone else work. If we were at my house now would you want Paige to go behind you and pick up your clothes?"

"They were wet."

"And they would be wet for Paige too. I pick up after myself and my daughter has to do the same thing. When you lived with us you had jobs to do. You helped us and we helped you. Remember how we pealed the potatoes together and then made french fries?"

She nodded her head.

"They were extra special good because we made them. Now let's go downstairs and get some hot cocoa."

Mrs MacIntee had read our minds and made the drink. I gave her a kiss then Corinne did too. The old women started to sniffle but I still thought she was happy.

Before the engineers went to sleep or left, I talked to them about how to detect bugs. Some had no interest in helping but some did. We attacked it at the voice coil, at the wires that transmitted the current and at the transmitter itself. Apparently there were quite a few bug detectors on the market but it was not something the average person could purchase.

John got up later but he was still sleepy. Corinne dragged him to the front window to show him our creation. I put a mug of coffee in his hand and said, "The engineers are hesitant about fabricating the device. I want my voice to feed the unit along with nine tape outputs." I whispered, "This is our encryption device." The louder I said, "You can get ten recording units here to see how well the unit works."

"Why are they hesitant?"

"Because you hired them not me. They want to get paid for what they do."

John looked at the closest two men and said, "This young man is making both of us many millions of dollars. Build whatever he wants even if he says it has to be out of solid gold." After a pause he added, "Tell me first if it is gold though."

The men laughed. John then asked, "Did the circuit get improved?"

Another of the original four said, "The performance was significantly improved. To do this the basic idea was kept but most of the rest had to be altered."

I said, "He is saying they scrapped my circuit and built a good one instead. I think if these men continue with this even more improvements can be found. We are going to have to test the unit, though. That's where the tape recorders come in."

"You don't seem disappointed that your circuit was scraped."

"I'm a self educated twelve-year-old. I come up with ideas and partial solutions. These men are highly trained and any one could beat me at designing circuits."

Corinne, John and I sat in the kitchen. I whispered, "I transmit nine songs and my voice and you do the same thing from your end. If you go away from the house we make nine much smaller oscillators to fill in for the music and this is much smaller. I don't have to filter out your voice from the montage but just pick the right fraction of a second to work with."

"Get the engineers to make this too?"

"I can use their design and add the oscillator circuits myself. If we sell the design we just have to key the two units to the same group of frequencies and then use harmonics to remove them from the voice component."

"Is it worth much?"

"To spies and companies that want to have private communications. You and I should use them all the time."

"Well I guess we have to pursue this too. The ghostwriter has finished your 'Jaws' book. Do you want to go over it?"

"I still get tripped up on foolish things in our language. That's why I am taking grade eleven English."

"So you want me to send it off to some publishers?"

"You better. 'Star Wars' is done too but it needs to be tweaked. Will you take care of this book too?"

"Sure. MGM hasn't responded to the script though.""Perhaps if you phone Mr Sackman you can see what he thinks. Maybe we have to ship copies to some of the other studios. I made another song but I haven't got the notes down right yet. Are you awake enough to be my assistant on the piano?"

"Let me drain the old coffee out and we can give it a try."

"Before you go, did somebody get some information from the driver of the Ford pickup?"

He couldn't be apprehended and we didn't want to alert them that we were trying. Next week we can try again."

"Next week is Susan's birthday party so I won't be here."

"Ok, we will still try to find who the driver is through his plate number."

I sat at the piano and played songs for Corinne. She loved everyone even if I sang off-key on occasion. Daughters were that way sometimes. John came in and looked at the notes I had written then played them without me singing. The score had some mismatched notes that were easier to find when somebody else was playing.

The song I sang with my fake British accent. We didn't have the percussion where it was needed so I slapped the piano in its place. Corinne loved the song and John and I worked with some of the bars. We must have played the song five more times before it was tweaked enough. Corinne even liked it the last time it was played.

John said, "That was a good song. too. I am sure the parents and especially a young lady I met will love hearing it."

"That reminds me, I have to go see the Browns and tell them what is happening at home. Another industry you can get into is one that makes stainless steel tubes that are attached to the walls. People getting in and out of a wheelchair would use them and so would the old and infirm."

When we left the room and joined the engineers they all stared at us. It was enough for me to stop and ask, "What?"

One guy finally said, "Are you that kid that is writing all those songs?"

"I do write a lot but I think only one has come out so far."

"Yesterday we heard five more or that was what the commentator mentioned. He rattled off a list that had just hit the radio and a long list of others that were going to be performed soon."

"Did 'Corrina, Corrina' come out?"

"I think that was one."

I picked up Corinne and said, "Your song was on the radio Sweetie. Let's turn it on and wait for it." It was an hour and a half later but it did come on. When it did, so did all my other songs that had been performed. The DJ even made a few comments about me. Corinne heard and hugged me. After all, I was her daddy.

The engineers were more cooperative at giving me help after this and I got more details of the new circuit, including innovations. This circuit was not nearly as simple as mine but should be a lot more stable. The engineers left through the day to get some sleep and to plan how to build the circuit. In a way I regretted not getting more education. The military taught me as a technologist and my repair business taught me more, yet looking at things from an engineer's standpoint was different.

There were some problems with the machine to slice the audiotape and it would not be ready for a few days. If I wanted some I could just have some shipped up by truck.

There was now a bit of interest in our tinted glass. All of this was from American manufacturers. They were hungry and adventurous the way they should be.

Sebastian Forsyth and his group had made prototypes of the Ground Fault Interrupt and the light dimmer. They were still tinkering to get the size down. Otherwise they were very happy with their product. John was anxious to sell them the partial rights to the touch control lights. We had grossed a hundred and forty thousand for the other two and John hoped for seventy more for the new product. They had the plans for a while now and were still debating the purchase.

My recent idea of using the house wiring for both power and control would fit well into their company but there was more money at stake for this group of products.

The razors though might require an entirely new group. It better be a group that was hungry and aggressive.

The bubble wrap and the Ziploc bags were showing some activity too. For a wonder it was mainly from some Canadian companies. John was holding out for a lot for the bags because he liked them so much.

I went to the hospital alone to see the Browns. The nurses intercepted me and asked for autographs. I gave three and they seemed to be happy. It was kinda nice being a celebrity this way. The Browns were happy to see me. Apparently the nurses had questioned them about me. Paul was off his painkillers and was quite lucid. He thanked me again for helping him especially after the way he treated me. I accepted the apology and he seemed better after that.

We discussed their children. "I had two metal tubes put on the bathroom wall. Barry should be able to move independently now. I think that in the future all public buildings are going to be fitted with ramps and electric doors to assist those in Barry's position. They will even have one bathroom stall that is larger than normal and fitted with the bars. I'm an outsider and will only go so far in interfering but if you make a ramp for Barry then he could get in and out of the house on his own. He will feel better by being able to deal with the world on his own."

Paul didn't seem upset at the suggestion. So I went on with my friendly questioning. "Mr Brown, your wife told me that you work as a informal mechanic when working on cars. Have you ever designed something or radically altered an existing piece of equipment?"

"Lots of times. A part is not always available and I have to do some fancy workarounds to keep some machinery going."

"I can give you a job right now that lets you use only your brain and your hands."

"That sounds great. What do I have to do?"

"I imagine you have seen those large augers that go on the front of a large truck to throw snow far from the side of the highway?"

"Sure did, I even worked on some."

"Good, I want one auger about two feet across made up of two shorter augers and a gear box in the middle. A five to fifteen horsepower gasoline motor turns the double auger to feed snow into the centre section. A spinning disk composed of four fins ejects the snow collected straight up. A chute at the top directs the snow a hundred and eighty degrees from right to left with an exposed worm gear on the outside of a flange. The motor drives the wheels both forward and reverse. Weighted tires with chains will give it mobility. The operator walks behind the machine to control it. Viola, we have a 'snowblower'."

"That sounds pretty complicated Mr Congdon. I don't know if I can do it."

"You haven't started yet. Tell me in a few weeks if you can't do it. I think that if the motor turns a large aluminum disk much like a flywheel then another wheel with a rubber rim could ride on the wheel. The distance from the centre will give the different speeds to the wheels. The throttle would be like on a tractor with a leaver, the speeds would be governed by some indents that would hold the leaver.

"This invention is mine though and all rights go to me. I can make it myself but I have other things to do to make money as you now know. There are some other people that work for me. They could design this too but there is too much work. When this snowblower is done, I have some two cycle gardening tools to make. They are a lot less complicated but the projects may be fun.

"Mrs Brown, would you purchase your husband the supplies he needs for this work. Keep a list and all the receipts. This is very important. You might also consider doing some shopping here in Toronto while your husband works. It will give you some fresh air. Staying here for two straight weeks is not good for you either."

Both people seemed to like that idea.

Mr Berger had completed my entire shopping list for me. The charges would soon be due so I paid him for what he had done for me. The cost was over forty six thousand dollars in all. I didn't begrudge the money one iota.

The specially blown and cut glass should do as I hoped but I never got a chance to see actually it. The crucibles had been purchased and the mechanism to grow the crystals looked to be well designed. Good thing, since the engineers I hired designed it. None of them had failed the background check, although they all had some problems. The most expensive articles were the heating apparatus for the two crucibles, the vacuum pump that had to go to a very low pressure and the minerals I needed to make the actual crystals.

In this shipment were the mu-metal sheets I needed to make the recorder heads. They weren't expensive, just hard to find.

That night I camped out with Corinne. I threw some blankets over the grand piano and we slept underneath. I knew she was going to sleep with me and this way was more proper in my books. We spent a lot of time trying to convince Grampie to join us but he refused. Corinne had her hide dress ready for wear in the morning.

Rose made and served us what she claimed was a pioneer breakfast. We ate it around our pretend campfire in the large room. Because of Rose, I remembered 'Cracklin' Rose', Neil Diamond's hit. "Rose, would you be upset if I made a song about a woman with your name but she is not like you."

"I don't think so. Is it bad though?"

"A man that loves a woman named Rose but she is not a nice woman. The song doesn't mention that men are not nice though. It may take a few hours to complete it and maybe we can get you to hear it before I have to go."

"I would like that."

As usual, I either remembered the words or the music and this time I concentrated on the words. I played with Corinne and even pretended to go fishing. I found that Corinne loved to pretend and her fish were always larger than mine. She even picked pretend blueberries that were always big and sweet.

We cleaned up and went outside to make a Mrs Snowman. This time Grampie came out. I think I had to shame him a bit to do so. We came in sooner this time because of the additional help.

I said over the lunch table, "John, did you do anything with the idea for the truck to haul bulk cement?"

"I talked to Carlo. He loves the idea. His life has been turned upside down since you visited. He is like a boy again. His toys though are a lot larger and more expensive than they used to be."

"Does he have enough money to do more than the basic research?"

"I don't know. Our firm only handles his legal dealings."

"Speaking of that, I need a good corporate bean counter to go over the books and give me an idea of where I have to transfer funds to keep from being double taxed."

"Just make some arrangements for housing and I can find a few. You mentioned other accountants before. How many do you need?" John asked.

"I think I will just need one CPA now, but I will need another one specialising in corporate affairs. He or she may only be needed for a few short periods each year. The business I am purchasing should have eighty employees. When we get our new products ready the number should jump to five hundred, especially when I get the plumbing fixtures factored in. Long term numbers should be much higher."

"Sounds to me like you should hire the corporate accountant full time and give him the job of working with the payroll and other duties."

"Will you look for one for the short term and keep an eye out for one that wants to move north."

"I can do more that keep an eye out. Just get yourself settled and give me a call when you are ready. The same thing about that other help you needed."

He was referring to the security detail so I asked, "Are these men adverse to moving north? I could find alternate work for them and it would be good to have them handy if they were needed. I need managerial types but I don't want strong-arm tactics. I would like to get good managers that can step beyond themselves when the need arises. Employees to me, are like family and I don't want goons around them."