Chapter 4

Tuesday, I asked to have lunch with Grandfather and Will. There I said, "I've been seeing, Heather, a voice student at Juilliard all summer. She's been offered a part in Hair and needs an agent and a good business manager-investment advisor. I'd like for us to take her as a trust client."

Grandfather looked at me, but didn't say anything for a few seconds. Before he said anything, Will said, "An entertainment trust practice area would fit well at W & R. I can see that it could be a good area if we could get the right clients."

Grandfather followed with the comments, "One of our clients at Jenkins is a prominent agent. A couple of times, he's inquired about the possibility of us taking some of his clients as Jenkins Clients. It seems quite a few entertainers have suffered from inept and dishonest business managers. I declined because I didn't want practice groups at Jenkins. I preferred only an individual high income trust client, not group accounts at Jenkins."

I'm glad Grandfather didn't dismiss my request out of hand.

Will said, "I think group accounts would fit W & R's less conservative style and we could support the group with staff knowledgeable about entertainment issues. I'd be very interested in talking with the agent. We could see if he were interested in Rob's friend."

Grandfather said, "If he didn't take her, I wouldn't be interested."

I said, "I'd like for us to take Heather, either at Jenkins or W & R."

Grandfather nodded. "This is your second request for us to take someone because of personal reasons. That's certainly not an unreasonable number. I'm not opposed to W & R offering affinity group accounts. Maybe Heather could become the first client of W & R's entertainment trust practice? I'll call and see when we can meet with the agent."

I left lunch and called Heather immediately. "I have good news. We'll take you as a client, probably as a W & R trust client, but we will take you. Hold off on signing the contract with Hair for a couple of days. Grandfather has a client, who is a well respected agent. We may have something in the works with him; I'll let you know very soon."

"I feel better that you are taking care of me. I'm so excited about the agent I can barely wait. I hope it works out. I really appreciate your willingness to help me."

"I call you as soon as I hear anything."

Wednesday, Grandfather and Will had a breakfast meeting with the agent, where they discussed a possible relationship with the agent's clients and W & R Bank. The meeting went well. The agent liked what Will offered his clients and thought that W & R was a better fit for most of his clients than Jenkins Bank. The agent agreed to meet with Heather. In a very non-threatening way, Grandfather let him know not taking her was a deal breaker.

Will thought a medical practice group would be profitable for W & R also. Grandfather supported the idea, but cautioned Will against growing too fast and not being selective enough about clients. Will knew attorneys who he thought would be good for the entertainment and medical practice areas. One of Will's strengthens was that he moved quickly. Both Will's first choices for attorneys were interested.

Jenkins Bank's had very experienced accounting and trust support staff. Immediately after we decided to take Heather as a client, Will had a Jenkins trust officers train W & R bookkeepers and assistants to be trust staff. Will developed an orderly plan for development of the two practice areas that satisfied Grandfather. Will and I worked together on the development of the area, as he thought it would be something I could do in Alabama. Thornton worked at the law firm on how they set up the legal side. Beau and I worked with Will on trust staff development plan, attended the staff training sessions, and worked with Will as he developed the marketing strategy. While the entertainment as a trust area had limited potential for Alabama or Mississippi, the medical group area did.

I called Heather and she made an appointment to see the agent. Heather was very excited to talk with the agent, who she knew was very well known and respected. He only represented Broadway trained actors and had a large number from the Actors Studio. Though he was primarily a theatrical agent, some of his clients worked in film and television. Heather and the agent met and she was thrilled to sign with him. He immediately took over negotiations for her with the Hair producer.

When Heather signed with the agent, Grandfather and Will engaged the two attorneys. Will was able to get top attorneys, as they were also appointed as Of Counsel at Jenkins and Jenkins and had the resources of the law firm to assist them, but they clearly understood they worked for Will. The relationship with Jenkins and Jenkins Law Firm had been critically important to Heather's agent and the two attorneys. Will paid his employees well and expected them to be profitable. Will demanded first rate work from W & R employees and the culture reflected Will's personality and drive.

Heather agent's negotiated a much better contract for her than the one the producer had initially offered her. The contract provided more of a guarantee that Heather would be in the road company and she received a nice premium for nudity. The contract also restricted taking and publication of any photographs of her. The producer viewed her differently after he knew who her agent was.

Heather's agent laid out a career plan, which included acting and dancing coaching. W& R laid out a financial plan including a budget for her. She was thrilled with the agent. I kept Karen's apartment for Heather, so she had a place to stay when her classes at Juilliard ended and before she went on the road with the road company of Hair. When she went on the road, she could move to the apartment in the Village.

Heather's agent recommended to many of his clients that they engage W & R to provide accounting, investment advice and to handle their legal affairs. It was easier for him to deal with W & R than different individual business managers, and the agent preferred to concentrate on representation, not bookkeeping and investing.

A few physicians were Jenkins Bank trust clients including Drs. Angell and Rosenschein, two of the most respected physicians in the medical community. Grandfather spoke with them about the medical practice area at W & R, and they referred some physicians in their practice groups. Dr. Angell headed the premiere internal medicine practice group at Presbyterian, while Dr. Rosenschein headed the most prestigious women's practice in the City. While the new physicians would be W & R clients, Drs. Angell and Rosenschein remained clients of Jenkins Bank.

W & R's medical practice area initially only accepted doctors associated with Drs. Angell and Rosenschein. The physicians' accounts were only their personal investment and personal legal accounts, not medical practice related accounts. Both medical groups had bookkeepers and a manager to deal with the practice's business accounts and third party payment issues. W & R's clients were the physicians, not their group medical practices.

Karen called and thanked me for the job. She said that Fritz had been very helpful and that she had learned a lot. She liked the long term rental housing and the car Fritz had leased for her. She said she had decided to study broadcast journalism when she went back to school in the fall.

The Thursday before I left for training with the group at Summerdale, I went to Heather's first performance in Hair. After the matinee performance, I was her escort to a small reception hosted by her agent and the new W & R entertainment attorney. The reception allowed the agent's clients to meet Grandfather, Will, and the attorney who headed W & R's entertainment practice area. Heather met several name performers and some young performers also. She was excited to be associated with the agent and her reputation was enhanced by association with him. Within his group of younger performers, it didn't hurt her reputation that she was the reason they could become clients of W & R. It wasn't lost on anyone that I was her escort. Some of the status conscious performers found it very appealing that their agent's clients were the only ones initially accepted by W & R. After the reception, Heather and I went to my apartment in the Village, where we screwed like bunnies until early in the morning. To say she was really excited after the play and reception was an understatement.

Heather was very pretty, but we didn't have the chemistry like I had with Carolyn or Dorothy, nor did I think my feelings would evolve like they had with them. I couldn't imagine that I would have brought Jules into my relationship with Carolyn or Dorothy; another indicator to me that my relationship with Heather was primarily physical. A physical relationship with a beauty like Heather wasn't bad, but I missed the intimacy that I had with Carolyn and Dorothy. Heather liked me more than I thought she would, but she liked performing also. Separating was eased because we both liked that we had the continuing, probably permanent, link through W & R.

Friday night Grandfather and I stayed at Roselawns for a Brooke orchestrated family togetherness night. She thought we should get together before I went to Summerdale. Brooke made it a nice night. Beau, Thornton, Eunice, and Carolyn ate supper with us, but didn't stay.

After an early breakfast with the family, I flew from Macarthur Airport to Tuscaloosa on Saturday. In Tuscaloosa, I briefly visited Dorothy and Freddie, and stayed overnight with Ania. While Nicole's birth had given me pause, Freddie's birth had really made me reexamine many of the things I did and the way I thought about things.

I envied Will and Fred more than Beau. Beau and I had talked a little about the way Libby had made him feel about wanting to live with her at Lauderdale and have children. Dorothy and I never talked about Freddie being my child, but from the way she looked at me when I was with Freddie, I knew she could tell that Freddie's birth had changed me. I didn't stay long with them, as I was afraid I would do something that would further complicate our lives. I had more than a little difficulty keeping my emotions in check around Dorothy and Freddie. Overcoming emotions because of rational thought was difficult. It was a conflict that I felt was a test of character and I knew my character was weak. But I struggled and tried, and that developed an even stronger bond between Dorothy and me.

Ania sensed my emotional turmoil. When I returned from seeing Dorothy and Freddie, I badly needed to screw Ania. She gave me her all, never asked or commented on Dorothy or Freddie, and seemed contented with our uneven relationship. She liked Dorothy and didn't seem to mind relieving the sexual tension I had because of Dorothy.

Sunday morning, I left for Summerdale and landed before noon. The flight down gave me time to think, but resolved nothing. I felt I was in the middle of a lot of relationship transitions and needed to get away to a mind numbing physical experience, like Army basic training.

The Sunday at Summerdale was like a mini version of an Army reception station. We had physicals, were issued gear, and got squared away in one of the barracks. We ate supper in a mess hall, where Colonel Mac gave us an orientation talk and the training outline. Mac told me that he and the medical director had decided that everyone would become medic qualified. Medic training was primarily to keep everyone busy and provided a transferable skill to civilian life through a program they had arranged with the local George C. Wallace Community College.

Colonel Mac had learned in the Army to keep trainees occupied, mostly with physical training and classes that had a clear objective. Colonel Mac was very direct and no nonsense in manner. Everyone, including Colonel Mac and the doctors, participated in the physical training. Colonel Mac was the only one not involved in medic training. While he wasn't good at academics, Colonel Mac knew how to lead and all about physical training.

We started early Monday morning with a 'run' to a rifle range. It was different than basic training. We divided into three groups: one that double timed most of the way, one that alternated between double time and marching, and one that route stepped with frequent rest stops. A trailer truck troop carrier followed and picked up the people who fell out. Pride kept most people in the group from falling out, but some in the last group couldn't make it far. We had a short marksmanship session and then some people double timed back, most route stepped in formation, and a few rode back in the trailer. I stayed with the route step in formation group.

After we returned from the range, we cleaned up and went to breakfast. After breakfast, we had a lecture on addiction, detox, drying out, staying sober and clean. No alcohol was allowed during the first phase of training. Help would be given to the people having problems, but during the first four weeks, use of alcohol or non-prescribed drugs meant immediate dismissal from the program.

Next we had martial arts meditation and exercise, followed by a little martial arts combat training. We cooled off in the pool and then swam laps until we were almost exhausted. After swimming, we had lunch and then more martial arts meditation and exercise. We had a medic first responder lecture before supper. After supper we had meditation, then an evening walk/run.

Mac kept us together, busy, and moving. I was behind everyone, but the Navy corpsmen and the older doctor, in Special Operations related techniques. It seemed to me that we had two very different training areas: the medic area and a training program with different kinds of firearms, explosives, and hand to hand combat. The second program, which was more enjoyable than the medic training, was like a CIA assassin training program. I was intrigued at how well the balance worked.

During the first week, everyone kept to themselves. However, by the end of the week, group interaction strengthened with many; and some people were helping the people with problems. I helped the man in the room next to me, who had had a severe drinking problem. Mostly I helped him when it was time to get up in the morning and when he became fatigued at night.

I was about in the upper middle of the group for physical training, as I was younger than most. I was just another participant and never interfered with Colonel Mac. The facilities and meals in the dining hall were first rate, much better than regular Army chow and the facilities were upgrades over Army training facilities. The Naval facilities seemed better than the Army's.

Most of the older former Special Ops men gained rapidly on me in physical training. I enjoyed the martial arts meditation and exercise, though I didn't enjoy getting the hell kicked and punched out of me during the hand to hand combat portion. I learned a lot about Special Operations combat. It was especially clear to me was that I didn't want to mess with some of the men, not ever. More than a few in the group were there because they had killed very often and very close up. And some I thought were probably psychopaths. Two were vicious.

I did well enough to be accepted as a member of the group, but I wasn't ever going to be even close to being a LURP or a 'drop him in and leave him behinds the lines' type. Colonel Mac, the penultimate warrior, held the group together by the force of his personality and the respect the men had for him.

After four weeks, I was excused for the weekend. When I first arrived at Summerdale, the only special request I made was leave after the fourth week. Friday evening, I visited with Dorothy, Fred and Freddie; then Dorothy updated me on business in her area. Dorothy reported that Linda Scott had completed the general contractor licensing requirements and was waiting for the license. The Gulf Shores units that Linda had worked on leased quickly. Linda and Richard worked well together and they had an ambitious schedule of projects. Dorothy thought Ania could handle support and monitoring of Linda and Richard's activities from Fairhope. Dorothy wanted Ania to take care of most of the South Alabama activities for her. After working together over the summer, Dorothy was very comfortable with Ania.

Dorothy was on schedule with property acquisitions around the University. All the major parcels had been acquired for an upscale housing development and golf course. A retirement/continuing care center was part of the development plan. She also had a shopping center under development in a different area of town. I encouraged her to take some business classes at the University.

I enjoyed a night with Ania. She was about ready to return to Fairhope, and after a month of training at Summerdale, I was really ready for a night of female attention.

Saturday, I flew to New York and talked with Grandfather. Sunday I picked up Karen and flew back to Birmingham.

We talked about our plans at Summerdale. She smiled with me as I described the difficulty I had with the exercise and physical training. I had plenty of bruises from the martial arts training, but I was in the best physical condition of my life. My injured leg and arm were strong, and while I wasn't as skilled as most at Summerdale in hand to hand combat, I was probably already more 'quiet killing' skilled than ninety-nine percent of the combat soldiers of the Army. Knowing I could handle myself boosted my personal confidence.

Karen talked a little about Beau. She said, "He never led me on or anything; but it hurt when he ended it. I thought I might be the one who changed him."

"I understand about him. Does my being close friends with Beau bother you?"

"No, that's not it. It's about what happened in New York last winter."