Chapter 7

Weekend, Week Three

Saturday, I showed Amber how to use her new laptop computer, and let her practice on it. It was the first computer that she had ever owned. She had used the ones in school before. She learned quickly. Later in the day, I introduced her to the network that I had set up in the house. She was impressed.

Since Noy was off over the weekend, we went out to eat on Saturday night. We picked a small restaurant, a good distance from post. We had really come to value our privacy. Since Amber was very appreciative for all the things that had happened that week, she was very noisy on Saturday night.

Sunday, we went to church at the same chapel. The Chaplain smiled when he saw us. I spent the rest of Sunday puttering around the house, just adjusting it to fit me. Amber spent some time over at the Fisher with Margie and Kathy. Noy returned Sunday night.

Friday, Week Five

Things had gone fairly well for the next two weeks.

Friday afternoons were usually pretty slow in the unit. I had made it a practice to go through all the sections on Fridays to check up on everything and make sure everyone was doing well, also to hear complaints — unofficially. As this was the last full workday before the big exercise that we were part of next week, I was making doubly sure that everything was going well. It was just before noon chow that the shit hit the fan. The main computer crashed. There was pandemonium.

I made my way to the main computer room to talk to the NCOIC (Non-commissioned Officer in charge). He was ready to tear his hair out (what little he had left).

"Sergeant Major, this has been going on for nearly six months. We have had the technical people here every couple of weeks. They say it isn't the computer, and it can't be the program. It's driving us crazy. It'll take us days to get this straightened out."

"We don't have days, Sarge. That exercise starts on Monday. We need to be ready by Sunday afternoon. That gives us about 48 hours to get this straight," I told him.

"I know, but it always takes a day at least to get things back up again, and we lose all the data in the process. We'll have to reprocess everything since the last backup," he said in frustration.

"Let me have a look at this," I said. "I know a little something about computers."

"You are welcome to try, Sergeant Major, but nothing seems to help," he said in despair. I went into the main computer room and closed and locked the door, after informing him that I needed privacy.

"You really don't want to see what I'm going to do, but I'm fairly sure that I can fix this." I had told him. I sat down at the main console and started to work.

Colonel Fisher and the Operations Officer arrived 45 minutes after I had started. They had been at a meeting.

"How bad is it, Sergeant?" the Colonel asked the NCOIC.

"I think it's total, sir. The Sergeant Major is in there now doing something. He said, 'You really don't want to see this'." Just after that all the monitors at the various workstations came to life. Stick cowboys chased stick Indians across the displays. There were fireworks displays when they caught them. Everyone was excited. Soon the babble rose to a roar as they all watched the show. A short time later, I emerged from the main computer room.

"What the hell is going on, Sergeant Major?" the Colonel asked, in a perturbed voice.

"Just straightening out your main program, sir," I replied.

"How the hell could you do that. You shouldn't even be able to get into the computer. You aren't an administrator." It was clear that he was upset.

"It's not that hard, sir, when you know how, and right now I am the administrator."

"What? That's impossible!" the Colonel said.

"No, sir. Here is what happened. You had the last major update to the program installed — what - six months ago. That's when your problems started you said." I was asking the NCOIC.

"Yes, that's about right," the NCOIC said.

"Well, when 'they' wrote the update, 'they' screwed the pooch, really messed it up. That's what was causing your problems. I simply installed a new update and am getting rid of the mess. That's what all the cartoons and fireworks are for."

"That's impossible," the Colonel said, exasperated. "It takes two people working together to make changes to the program. You couldn't do that."

"Sure, I can, sir. When I wrote the program, I put in a special back door, several actually."

"You wrote the Program? You... is that where you made all that money? Computers!!"

"Yes, sir. When I retired, the only training program still available was computer programming. All the other courses were full. Nobody wanted that one. Everyone said it was way too hard. I wasn't happy but soon found that I had a real knack for it. When I retired, I started doing work for various people writing specialty software. Eventually, I formed my own company."

One of the young men came toward us. He was watching a monitor just outside and didn't see all of us.

"God, Sarge,"he said, " this is great. I've never seen these computers run so fast. The work is just pouring out." He stopped when he saw all of us. "Sorry, sirs. I didn't know you were in here."

"That's all right, Son," the Colonel said. "Does it seem to be operating well?"

"Better than usual, sir," he replied. The young man made a hasty exit.

"All right, Sergeant Major. I will accept that you wrote the program. Tell me what you did! I just don't understand," Colonel Fisher said.

"Basically, sir, all I did was reboot the system. Then I went in the back door (won't tell you how) and took over as the super administrator. I looked at the latest update and saw it was a mess. Now here I have to go back a little in time. About 15 months ago, I realized that there was a lot of leftover junk in the program from the various updates that had been made to it, just little things, but they slowed the program down. So I started playing with a new update that would get rid of all of the deadwood. I worked on it, on and off, for about nine months. It's at home on my server." Here the Colonel interrupted me.

"In your house, here on Post?" he asked, with fear in his voice.

"No, sir. It's in a vault in my house up north. No one can get in there. So I went on-line, and got into my server and down loaded the update. It was pretty much done anyway, although a program is really never finished. There are always changes to it. Anyway, I added a few lines and down loaded it onto your computer and installed it to your program. That was what all the fire works were for, getting rid of the deadwood and also the last update," I told them.

"Now, here is what has to be done today. I'm signed on as the super administrator. It will have to continue that way until the process is complete."

Here, I turned and was addressing the NCOIC.

"Call each Company. Tell them that you have an update to download. Send the update to their computer. Do not accept any data from them until the new update has been installed. Everything will be fine then," I told him.

"They are to treat it as just a normal update then?" the NCOIC asked.

"Yes, just a normal update. When everything is done, I'll come back and sign off as super administrator. The change won't work if I sign off now, because I've used a special provision in the program to accomplish this. It's something I put in several years ago."

"Jesus, Sergeant Major. I sure am glad you were here. Even listening to you, I could never have done any of that," the NCOIC said.

"And now, I need to make a phone call," I said.

"Who to?" asked the Colonel.

"To the President of my old software company to give him hell," I told him. We went up to the Colonel's office. I called my old company. He heard the name of the company over the speaker-phone when they answered.

"Sherry, this is Uncle Jim. Put William on the line."

"He's in a conference right now, Jim," she said.

"Sherry, I don't care if he's in the crapper! Get him on the phone. This IS important!" I told her.

"Yes, sir," was the only reply.

"Jim what the hell... !!" William started, a few seconds later.

I interrupted William there.

"William, the latest update to program 117," I told him, "you screwed the pooch. What the hell are your people doing?"

"What are you talking about. We haven't had any complaints about that," he said.

"Well, I am sitting ... you REALLY don't want to know where I am sitting. They have been having problems for six months. They crashed again a while ago. I fixed it. Whoever wrote that update fucked it up, and no, don't tell me who it was. I might be tempted to come down there and smack them."

"But it was one of our best programmers," William protested.

"Well get him or her off my stuff. They screwed it up. Anyway, I installed a new update here."

"But we changed the back door," William insisted.

"No, you changed the back door you knew about, not all of the back doors. Don't even look for them either, William. If you change them, I guarantee you the program won't work! Now, I have the revision on my server. I will download it to your private e-mail later today. I expect royalties on every copy, too. I'll let you know how many copies from here later," I said.

"All right, Jim. I'll take care of it," William said in resignation. He didn't sound happy at all. With that I hung up.

"You were a little rough on him," the Colonel observed.

"He had it coming. He should have checked that update closer," I said in a no-nonsense voice.

"What is this royalty thing?" the Colonel asked.

"For every copy of the update, I get a certain amount of money — not a lot but some. For every copy of the program it is incorporated in, I get a larger amount. Over the next few years, I'll probably make $100 K from it," I told him nonchalantly.

"One hundred thousand dollars," he asked in an awe struck voice, "for just a few minutes work!!"

"You forgot the nine months of planning that went into it," I said, "but yes, about $100K.

"Jesus," he replied, "I'm in the wrong business."

After the computer incident, I became very popular with the troops. It was soon known through out the Battalion that I was the one who fixed the computer problem. Many young men came seeking my advice on jobs in the computer industry and related fields. Soon I was giving classes to those with an interest in programing on Army time. It made for a very enjoyable tour for me.

Interlude at School — Mid October

Amber was sitting alone for lunch. It was still nice outside, and she had taken her lunch out to the courtyard. Her friend Lisa joined her later. She noticed that Amber was listening to something on her MP 3 player.

"What you listening to, Am?" she asked.

"Just some music," Amber replied.

"New?"

"No, old."

"Let me hear."

"No, you wouldn't like it," Amber told her.

"What has gotten into you, girl?" Lisa asked. "First you start wearing those granny clothes, and now your listening to different sounds. Let me hear." So saying, she grabbed the player. Amber tried to pull it back, but was too late. Lisa plugged her own ear pieces in and listened for a while.

"What's this redneck shit?" she asked, and started to go through the menu.

"When did you start listening to this shit?" she asked. They had been joined by several other girls so she started to enumerate the performers.

"Listen to this guys," she said,

Patsy Cline

Merle Haggard

Hank Williams

The Seldom Scene

Kitty Wells

Bill Monroe

Jimmy Martin

Flat & Scruggs

"What is it with you, Amber? Don't you want to be popular any more?" Lisa asked.

"I don't need to be popular, Lisa. I've found what I was looking for. I've found the man, yes, I mean man not boy, that I want to spend the rest of my life with. The one whose babies I want to have. He set new standards for me. He wants me to dress like a lady. I do it because it pleases him. He likes the older music. I listened to it and have come to like it also. It isn't trashy or demeaning to women like what you are listening to. It doesn't use foul language. It actually has a melody," Amber paused for a breath, then continued.

"He takes me out to restaurants to eat, not McDonald's or Pizza Hut, but real sit down restaurants He takes me dancing in nice clubs. You can actually talk over the music. We do romantic things like kiss, hold hands and walk in the park. He isn't all over me in the back seat of a car, either. I have found what I want. All of you are still looking," she finished.

"How come we never see this boyfriend of yours?" Lisa asked.

"He's an older man, and doesn't hangout around here. He has a job. We go out on the weekends. He has a very nice house. We enjoy each other and don't need anyone else," Amber replied.

"You're talking about babies. You going to get pregnant to grab him?" another girl asked.

"No, I can't get pregnant till I'm eighteen. It would create a lot of problems for him, and for my new Dad also. When I'm eighteen, it'll be legal, and I WILL get pregnant with his baby." Amber assured them.

"You got it bad, girl," Lisa returned.

"No, Lisa. I have what I want, a good man. One who makes me happy. We can build a life together. You and the others are still looking, still seeking. You may need popular. I don't," Amber finished as she picked up her things, and got ready for the next class.

End Interlude

Halloween

Friday, Week Eight

Halloween was not a big event on post. The kids still went trick or treating though. To answer the door and hand out candies, Margie dressed up as a pregnant lady with a basket ball stuck inside her dress, and a lot of makeup on. The children all thought it was funny. Joe was perplexed.

"Margie, what ever possessed you to dress up like that?" he asked. Margie just smiled as she answered.

"I had to do something, Joe. I just don't show at six weeks, and I didn't know how to tell you otherwise," she said as she broke out in tears. Joe looked even more perplexed until the light suddenly came on.

"You ... you're!!" he started.

"Pregnant!" Margie finished, gleefully. They hugged and kissed, laughed and cried together. Later Margie told Amber and Noy the news.

"Six weeks," Amber said, somewhat confused, as she started to count backwards. Suddenly she realized when that would have been.

"Oh my God. That would be ... be the night! Oh my God, that was the night Jim and I spent at your house," she finally finished.

"Yes, you sent Joe up to me because I was crying. I still don't know why I was crying, but I couldn't stop. He came up and held me, and well, one thing led to another, and here I am pregnant. Isn't it great? We've wanted a second child for a long time, but it just didn't seem to happen. Though God only knows, we've tried hard enough. Now, here I am!" Margie said. They all smiled and hugged.

Amber was really excited. She had never personally known anyone who was pregnant. Over the next few weeks, she started spending a lot of her free time with Margie. She wanted to learn everything about having a baby. She asked innumerable questions. Finally, Margie had to know why?

"Amber, why are you so interested in my baby?"

"Mom, I want a baby so bad, but I know that I can't get pregnant till after I turn eighteen, or Jim will get in all kind of trouble, Dad too. I want to know what to expect when I do get pregnant. You're the only one that I really know who is pregnant. I really need to know. Please don't be angry."

Loy Kratong, Week Ten

Noy was excited. Wednesday, the twelfth of November was Loy Kratong. It is one of the most picturesque and loveliest of the Thai festivals. She had been busy gathering materials for a week, and had started construction of the kratong on Veteran's Day.