Kelly: Chapter Three continued
Gizmo watched Jim and Jody work together a few moments and all Jim had to do was threaten to "pitch her somewhere flat." Jody applauded when he threatened, but didn't look away from the scope he was watching. He said they could put things together around what she was doing and she'd do it faster if she got some sleep first. She headed for the bathroom and was nearly sleepwalking by the time she came out of it and dropped on the old couch just outside the door. Jody grinned and put on another pot of coffee.
"I have to leave at four thirty, take Andrea's car back and drive mine to school in third gear with my right arm on top of equiment in the front seat."
"You need some sleep too."
"I'll get it. I don't have class until ten, but the equipment in my car needs to be set up before seven. I don't have to do that either. I'll drop on the floor somewhere in the student center and someone will shove a cup of coffee in my hand at ten til ten."
"You have someone called Boom coming. Leonard wouldn't tell me exactly why."
"Oh, so you can change the color and apparent shape of the van with the push of a button."
"Say what?"
"Remember, I said color and apparent shape. The color change is electrochemical, change a clear coating to an opaque color with an electrical current. We're working on the apparent shape change now. That piece you're about to build is going play a trick on eyes. Human eyes are easy. It takes a lot more work to play tricks on electronic ones. Won't do a lot when you're sitting still, but at any speed over forty... two point two six repeating miles per hour, every eye will see it as the length and height of a standard size van."
"Radar?"
"Is even easier than human eyes. Solder those three points carefully, but well. Ooh, you are so good."
"I didn't have much choice about getting good. It was do it right or do it over until I got good. Fast was work faster because Gizmo worked faster. I was the wrong man, Jody. I didn't want a football scholarship. It was one reason my grades weren't good enough to get a scholarship for pre-med. Gizmo's shop was another, but I knew I had my priorities straight. I also knew I'd never really be her shop buddy again when I finished two years at the community college. My goal was become a doctor. I, basically, wouldn't have come home except to visit until I retired."
"You had something more than just MD in mind."
"Several somethings. I hadn't actually picked one of them, but all of them dealt with problems experienced by a small percentage of the general population. People hunt for those kind of specialists in big cities near big hospitals."
"You still deserved to be slugged."
"I felt lots better afterwards. Some of what you're talking about doing isn't done, Jody."
"Wasn't done. There's a lot of that happening right now. The Nerds did some things I KNOW are new because Gizmo did new and my little brother ran into things."
"Ran into things?"
"He sees a monitor in his mind, not what's in front of him. I know he's really working hard if he doesn't notice he's being steered. I know it's new if he suddenly yells 'Yes!' and looks around in surprise because he can't remember how he got there. Want to fuck?"
"What?!"
"You are NOT open-minded. I've never had sex with a man either, but I've always considered that as merely a current statement. You are weird, Hulk. Your attitudes about sex for OTHER people are very liberal in general. You need to look at them in specific too. What are you going to do if Kelly meets an interesting MAN?"
"Uh... "
"You'll do fine, Hulk, but you needed a thump as warning. He doesn't have a lifelong cultural framework of sexual attitudes into which healthy attraction was brutally stuffed. His first loving touch was given by a male. Don't mess him up. Explain your feelings are different when he notices men than women or ignore them as silly. I recommend you explain, then ignore."
"Why are you so sure I'm going to have to deal with this... situation?"
"Because you almost said problem and Kelly noticed I'm more than just nice by a stretch. So is he, but he's just aesthetically pleasant until you look in his eyes and he smiles. When he really takes over the rest of that body, he's going to be irrisistable. I'm sure you can teach him how not to be. You're too good at it. You flat put people off."
"I do?"
"Hulk, you suddenly become 'Greek god among mortals' and OTHER people see to it nobody attempts to put grimy hands on you from then ON. It's a great defense and one Kelly can learn easily. Just don't expect him to use it nearly as much. Currently, he's working on being an open invitation, probably in hopes you'll at least notice he's not adverse to the idea in general. I was looking in his eyes when you said hello. Talk about a warm rush. I reminded myself it was your voice that got him hot about four times before my developing erection paid attention. Hulk, do something about that invitation he's trying so hard to give you before someone neither of us likes decides he doesn't care if it's not for him."
"Neither of us likes?"
"If he doesn't care it's not for him, I'm sure I wouldn't like him."
"Point definitely accepted."
"One more connection on this and one more point. Don't make him wish he was still immobile. Don't stop touching him. Your gentle touch and strong arms are the center of the change in his existence and his shelter against the wonderful, but sometimes still frightening, newness of it. My little brother brings things that worry him to me. Since Alexis is an only child, he brings the things that worry her to me too."
"They're an interesting pair."
"That's an understatement which only I can truly appreciate completely. At regular intervals, I swear oaths not to give examples, so don't ask for elucidation by such. We're a lot alike in some ways, Jim, but most guys from around here about my age are a lot like you. We worked hard at it. I'd lay better than even money over two-thirds of my graduating class are still virgins. I am."
"It's a good thing my hands know what they're doing. My mind sort of sputters to a stop every so often."
"Remind yourself Andrea is my grandmother every so often. I do that to most people and Dad has decided it's an inherited characteristic. Oh, I will take Kelly up on an invitation if he makes one to me. I'm working on getting Gizmo to make one by being an open one to her. I wouldn't have said no to Sonata, but we established our relationship in the first four minutes we talked. Basically, she decided I'm too young for her. Am I too young for you?"
"Sputter, sputter."
"Haven't you ever gotten a polite statement of interest from a man before? I have. I told him my wet dreams were still about girls, but I'd look him up after I got farther than that if I was disappointed."
"I can see it. He said?"
"Ice cream isn't disappointing, but remember cake for dessert is also nice and they're terrific together. You're getting the workout machine I built myself. The idea is shamelessly copied, but I had even less room than the compact commercial product needed. It's not meant to replace free weights on a full time basis like that one either. I like free weights."
"Lifting well is a skill."
"That's why it's a sport. I'm not a body builder. It gives me fifteen minutes of strength building workout before I leave home the four days a week I don't have time to lift. You're getting it for that characteristic and the fact Kelly can't push himself too hard on it. It adjusts the percentage of your body weight you're lifting, pushing or pulling. As he tires, the computer will reduce the percentage. He'll suddenly find himself with the resistance of a pull toy if he gets shakes, overheated or his pulse gets too fast. It yells loud if it's the latter. I set it for recommended pulse rates for people who are not active til they become VERY active for him. I just told it not bother monitoring you."
"All this is fitting in the van?"
"Well, we had a lot of space to work with after we decided against the ballroom and swimming pool. It's not really a van. It's a land yacht. Your satellite dish is getting some additions. It's a very convenient disguise for them and no one is going to get it off the van. Don't knock it off. It'll take the body of the van with it. It's a real obstacle in the middle of the van, but lower it into it if you're on a road which MIGHT have sudden underpasses truckers avoid. Making that dish reasonably aerodynamic was a chore. I looked at how Gizmo did it and KNOW how difficult it was. Stay in fancy campgrounds a lot. It's a custom RV and will be right at home among the luxury condos on wheels."
"I keep building things and reminding myself Gizmo knows I need a long bed."
"Almost the whole back is a bed when it's a bed. Kelly's seat is nice to nap in, but moves out of the way for it. Gizmo and Leonard designed it to support you two and six bouncing guests."
"Oh, that's what I was welding. It's stored?"
"It's your ceiling. It'll be more like sleeping on a futon than an innerspring. It doesn't store with sheets on it, but those and pillows store in one of the table seats. The liner comes out and makes a nice laundry bag. The whole design is incredible. Am I blabbing surprises?"
"Gizmo forgets she hasn't told me things and Leonard thinks it's hilarious I have no idea what she has me working on."
"He thinks it's hilarious you don't ask her."
"He always has."
Jody turned and looked at him a few seconds then slowly nodded. That had taken care of Fowler's last worry. Gizmo had never 'chatted' while she worked like he did. She wasn't "not talking to him."
"You were starting to not know what she was doing before you left."
"Quite some time before, but I usually figured out what something did before it was finished. It seemed like it was taking longer every time though. By the time I'd spent two years at community college and on a different schedule, I wasn't."
"I always understood you were sure you did the right thing for both of you. We all were, but you still deserved the punch Brad gave you for the way you did it."
"I liked being here with Bitsy and being her extra pair of hands. I loved her and I always will, but I wasn't going to be here. It was going to take years just to get into pre-med around working full time and more years to save the money for at least six years when I couldn't. It hurt when I realized I wasn't the right one."
"Thank you. I am, but I wouldn't have been. I don't want to marry anyone, even Bitsy. This is the part of her life I want to share most. I do know what everything we're building will do. I'm awed by her genius and couldn't do it, but I'll whoop and get to work to help as soon as she starts building what she's come up with."
"You're in her league. I'm not and I wasn't going to be around to be water boy any longer."
"Ow. Yes! Very carefully solder the piece I'm holding. If my fingers get too warm, it is."
"A heat sink is in order."
"If I could think of a way to put one on it without wiggling it at ALL, I'd put one on it."
"I'll do a quick attach, then we'll get one on it and I'll make it a solid connection."
"Sounds good. We'll hope we don't do it six or seven times, then have to start over with a new circuit. Oh, you are so GOOD."
"This is the skill that saved Kelly's life. The filaments attached to the experimental implant he had would have taken a lot of time to cut and I just wanted it done. I grabbed my soldering iron and a new tip and they were loose in about two seconds total. The physicians who had put it in had sent him home because trying to take it out had killed another patient. Gizmo said it would have 'short circuited his system' if I'd done it any other way."
"Explain filaments."
"I have no idea. The implant was to cause muscle contraction to prevent atrophy. Kelly had three hours of therapy twice a week and a half hour every day and it worked very well, but the price tag was way beyond what most could afford. They were trying to find a way to aid in the care of patients, improve their health and reduce the cost, but the contractions began to increase in severity about two months after implantation. I don't even know where the filaments go."
"That I can find out. I'll do a series of x-rays. We've got a solid connection. Our circuit is happily at home and ready to go to work."
"What does it do?"
"Notices if something is following you and really looks it over. The computer tells you if it's more than just the car behind you on the road. You'll get a buzz if it's a pickup with a couple hunting rifles in it, but only if they're in the cab or someone is holding one. You'll also get a buzz if you make a couple turns and the vehicle is still behind you. I told Fowler that a screen image would let you decide if the pickup was harmless. He was going crazy trying to figure out a way to program the computer to do it. Kelly's recovering too fast for you?"
"Do you read minds?"
"No, but Grandmother taught me to 'put myself in other people's places' real well and I know I'd be caught between excitement he is, worry it's so fast and wanting him to still need me in the same way if I was in yours."
"Right on all three counts. He's now using his hands and arms and talking."
"Oh, boy. That's so fast it worries me too. That's it. I don't need tomorrow's classes. I'll be back with a portable x-ray as soon as I unload the equipment currently stuffed in my car."
"You still need sleep."
"I'll fall on my face when my body gets adamant. I've done this enough to know I'll still be alert enough not to endanger anyone on the road until about noon. Though I may yell for someone else to take the x-ray unit back to Dr. Shand's office and drop after I hand the x-rays to you. When did you decide she should marry Leonard instead?"
"The day I left. You sure you don't read minds?"
"If I did, I wouldn't have to ask questions."
"He never asked."
"She wants a child and he wasn't the right one to give her one. Marriage means fidelity to both of them. It does to me too. Which is, of course, why I won't get married. I don't have any illusions about my ability to be faithful to one person. I could be, but I would come to resent it."
"It's about too easy for me."
"And just as wrong. It hurt when I realized I'd never share what my parents have, but I have Andrea as an example of how to lead a very full and rich life as a single person. You still haven't looked for one."
"Mom and Dad were so deeply friends and... "
"Good, you finally realized that's what you were looking for. You found it, Hulk. That's when becoming a doctor suddenly became unimportant to you. Kelly needs all you are. He always will. It doesn't really have anything to do with his physical condition, even if that is how it began. Being a doctor was the way you saw to give the most of what you are, but just most. You'd have been very good and it would have been very fulfilling, but you'd have still longed to share all of your life with someone. You'd have struggled not to become deeply attached to every patient, Jim. You'd have grieved for every one you couldn't give hope. I think all doctors do, but you'd have needed more than just your colleagues' understanding. You'd have always been lonely. You'd have just filled your life with work so you didn't have time to notice it often. I know a doctor like that."
"You do?"
"Dr. Celeste Haroldson, but she won't be much longer. A former classmate of mine is about to hit twenty-one and has plans for his birthday that include marriage. He does expect it to take awhile to convince her. She's still sure sixteen years difference in age is too much, but she agreed to go out with him on his birthday. Everyone who works in her office, at the university hospital and the clinic, where she puts in a lot of volunteer hours, is going to see to it she doesn't have ANY reason to cancel their evening out and the VERY private party he plans afterward. He has a bit of assistance he doesn't know about. Grandmother plans on telling her she can afford to pay for the rest of his education and she has another candidate for his scholarship."
"He's studying?"
"Physical therapy. Her patients need a good physical therapist and she's currently sending them to two who already have all the patients they have time for."
"That's where I've heard the name. She's a pediatric orthopedic surgeon."
"That's the one. She put him back together after he was hit by a car when he was twelve. He's been working on being the right one to share her work since then. Sharing her whole life has only been his goal four years. That's this one. The next piece will make it just about impossible to steal your van, or even impound it for illegal parking. No one's going to break into it and drive off. This will take care of it if it's towed off. Gizmo had figured out a way to stop it, but she was extremely easy to convince to let me do it this way. This unit will track where it's taken and the van will return to where it was taken from, but it will do more with the program the Nerds are writing for it. It will follow if someone takes YOU as long as you don't lose your ID bracelet. It'll track Kelly by his, but it will keep tracking him even if he does lose it."
"The implant Gizmo built."
"Yes, and I should be able to get it to track the network of fibers if that gets 'lost' too. Don't get more than ten miles from it or it will come after you. If you decide on an airplane ride, it will follow you on the ground. If you decide on an ocean crossing, it may look for a ship going the same direction. Call one of us to come get it if the trip is intentional. It will call us if you don't, probably to pay its passage. Alexis and Fowler were giggling when they wrote the program."
"I haven't really had time to get to know them."
"Fowler said about the same thing. That's it for this piece for now. I won't know if it needs more until I get those x-rays and find out if I can borrow a satellite or ten to track the filaments."
"Borrow a satellite?"
"Well, you're actually paying for it. We'll just use it for a bit more than your cellular phone."
"Thank you."
"You need to be the only bodyguard Kelly needs, Hulk. We're just doing our best to make sure you are."
Kelly watched Jim paint the van and was amazed. He had real talent and didn't seem to even realize it. He was still thinking about it when Jim carried him to the house. He waited until he'd headed back to the shop, then talked to Leonard about it.
"He's too good at too many things, Kelly. I have a collection of proof. I have poems he wrote and sketches and sculptures he did that he doesn't know I have. His mother gave me her collection before she died to add to it. He nearly struggled to be just another kid."
"Hiss guhrades were not that good."
"He'd have been furious if his teachers didn't dock him for not turning in homework everyone else needed for the practice it gave them using what they were learning. He does 'I'm only as bright as the other guy.' better than anyone else. He's really the only one who doesn't know he's doing it. Which is, of course, why no one really minds. He can keep up with you."
"Me?"
"Kelly, we've all watched you learn and worked not to giggle. You fit right in with this batch of geniuses. There's nothing wrong with average intelligence. If there was, it wouldn't be average."
"Aver age would be hiyur if it was needed for survival. G still gives me trouble when it comes in the middle of a word."
"Like I said, giggle. Kelly, you speak a bit slowly but it's a choice you made and you know it. You choose the words you use deliberately and are aggravated when the appropriate one is difficult for you to say precisely, but use it. Your vocabulary is vast. Your ability to define words from context is extremely good."
"I had a lot of time to practice."
"And used it well. All of it."
"I do not understand."
"Kelly, you understand what Fowler and Alexis did. You understand what I did. You understand everything anyone showed you and explained. Jim can, but some things aren't explained and some are unexplainable. Gizmo expects you to be back regularly to have the van checked and have changes made as your needs change. Jody is helping. They aren't explaining everything. Gizmo never did."
"Boom explains so fast, you're too odd... aw wed to follow the explanation. So they tell us what it does and we have to come back for re... guhler maintenance on the how it does it."
"My scoot has a regular maintenance schedule, but I don't know it. Gizmo tells me to bring it over on a regular basis. That's the kind of regular service you'll get too. She'll know where you are. If you're a half a continent away and she says she'll see you tomorrow, you know there's a very good reason. She called me at three AM once and said it was time to bring my scoot in. I was not fully awake when I got on it to come over. I'm very glad. I might have said wait til morning."
"What do I do about Jim?"
"Oh, that's fixed."
"What?"
"Gizmo is going to get a patent for the way those four pieces lock together. Amunson is going to be VERY happy she decided to make you ONE big bed. If you can't get him excited when you're all by yourselves in one big bed, night after night, you haven't said yes."
"I have to tell him."
"Kelly, you have to make love to him. He has to say yes to you. He's told you he wants to. He told Bitsy that too. She finally body slammed him and ripped his clothes off to prove she was ready to add it to their relationship."
"Is this literal?"
"She knocked him off a stool by the workbench and landed on him. He said he was laughing so hard he wasn't sure he was going to get it up, but he did tell her she'd convinced him."
"I want to touch him. I have not been in vited."
"He'll tell you if he wants you to stop. He'll also tell you if you're going too fast for him. You have been invited. Kelly, you changed it since he didn't know what to do about wanting to make love to you. He would be irrisistable if he wasn't... difficult to approach. He'd be a virgin if he didn't tell a FEW people he hoped they found overcoming the difficulty worthwhile. Loosen him up a bit. Get him in over his head. YOU can protect HIM and let him just protect you."
"A very mu chual... I don't like chual either and it's on a lot of words! Gizmo fixes everything well. YOU have a great staff."
"Thank you."
"You will give me a copy of your medical records."
"No."
"I'll name your wildlife center for you if you don't. Jim does not need to see them if I have. I will know when those who love you will need him among them. I will know your physician. I will have Sonata find out for me anyway. I'll tell her to ask Andrea. I'm sure she knows... everything."
"She's the only one who insists she doesn't. She likes you. She has perfect taste in people."
"So does Sonata. If you don't notice her soon, she will bash you over the head. Give me your medical records. I'd prefer to be ethical and come up with a catchy name."
"I don't want to name it."
"Why?"
"It's a pair of farms given back to the small creatures we injure because they can't get out of our way fast enough. I've hit a rabbit on the road. I don't let animals that won't live suffer. It's privately funded and I don't ask for donations outside the county."
"It's the wildlife care center in your home town."
"Exactly. Want to help me build a place for Mersia and their daughter with a nice office and surgery for a vet to use in exchange for being there when a vet is needed? Don't try veterinarian. It trips up people who are veterinarians."
"I'll work my way up to it. Do you know one who would be interested?"
"No, but I know a kid who'll be one in a few more years. I don't have any official standing so I don't have to have licenses, inspections and so forth. The county humane society brings me wild animals so no one is complaining about what I do there."
"Hand me the phone."
"The phone?"
"Yes. It is time I called Walter."
"He's not going to be ready, Kelly."
"I know, but he should hear from me that I am doing very well and why my bank account is getting slim. He trusts Jim completely, but he should know I am spending my money for this."
Walter Amunson was getting ready to leave the office when Merrie told him he had a call he wanted to take, walked in and turned on his speaker phone. She had a rather strange smile.
"Hello, this is Walter Amunson."
"This is Keller Nathan Holland the Fourth. Call me Kelly, Walter. My friends do."
"Uh... Hello, Kelly."
"Hello, Walter. I thought you should know I bought a yacht, even if it doesn't go in water. I would loan it, but we'll be using it most of the time. I am about to commit to aiding in the building of a home for those who aid the wild animals hurt by our technolo gee. G is hard to say in the middle of a word."
"Uh, yes, I imagine it might be. Kelly, I'm astounded."
"Jim stands and stares at me with his mouth open fairly often, Walter. I can hold a spoon or fork and feed myself, but I don't cut my own steak yet. I also do not walk yet, but I can move my legs. Leonard has designed a support frame to aid me in learning to stand. Buy the patent and get it produced and in hospitals. Donate one hundred in my name. Leonard is the person who cares for the wildlife and I will spend less of my money if he has more to spend. You should appreciate this. The first word I learned to say clearly was bankcard."
Kelly smiled when Walter burst into laughter. He heard his secretary laughing too. It was very nice. He was glad he'd called. Walter hadn't been ready, but he would feel more secure about everything he had done.
"Walter, it is probable I was slowly recovering. We spec ulate the implant stimulated that in some fashion, but it was not the a gent of my recovery. Jim was. If you said that to anyone in this town, they would say, 'Of course.' It is still his plan to show me America. We're doing it in a land yacht his, and now my, friends built for us. We will be leaving day after tomorrow. My attorney will aid in this and she took over part of the office of Leonard's attorney. He told me he knew protest was futile and just bowed to the inevitable. I reminded him he recommended her. Make sure Martin is ready when you decide to retire, Walter. He is my choice after you, but he needs to know much only you can teach. Don't let anyone hire him away from us. Make sure Holland makes a generous offer for the patent for the lock assembly Gizmo invented for my bed."
"For your bed?"
"It drops from above in sections and locks together. She and Leonard designed it to, quote, 'hold you two and six bouncing.' Holland wants the lock mechanism for the Balltine contract. I listened, Walter. It was all I could do."
"Hi, Walter. This is Leonard. This is also about to be a conference call. Gizmo wants in on it."
"Hi, Walter, I push Kelly around a lot. Cousin Terry just plain likes you. She's got great taste. I like daddy healthy. Hulk will keep him that way if we keep Hulk healthy. Kelly is now a hometown boy. We unilaterally annexed him. You're meeting people."
"They call me Eyes. I see to it they see what they want to see and spotlights have trouble hitting them."
"We're Nerds Incorporated. I'm Nerdette."
"I'm Nerdo and I'm still going to strangle my next door neighbor for sticking me with it one of these days. Want to chat on the internet? I know a van that writes great poetry. My big brother asks for interesting programs, but Gizmo asks for impossible."
"We had fun doing it. Boom, your turn."
"Impossible just hasn't been done yet. I think you're cute, Walter. I think those boys are adorable. I just retired. I skipped two months vacation in Europe to meet them. Like the old farmhouse I bought in my new hometown. It's got one of the nicest little labs I ever saw. The Nerds told me it was just what I wanted when the vet started building a place closer to town. Big brother said get moving. Orwell used the concept well, but Toffler doesn't write fantasy. Big brothers love those they watch over. This one is flat good at both parts."
"Thank you, Boom. I've never been more complimented."
"Course not. Takes fifty years of experience to give one like that."
"Talk, Jim."
"I told him what I want to do before, Kelly."
"You told him what we wanted to do. You knew me so well. Walter, I don't understand how he did either. These are the ones he brought me to. I have loved friends. I consider you one of them."
"Crash a holiday party at his house, Kelly. I know all the dates."
"Merrie!"
"He has several small ones instead of one big one."
"I'd love it if you both 'crashed' one, but be where you'd like to be Christmas. That's what I'd most like."
"That's my boss."
"She has me well trained, Jim. I think that group has you about the same. The appropriate emotion is to feel mutually smug about it. Every person with a really good staff knows it. I needed to know you would both be safe when anonymity became difficult."
"Discretion may be difficult with Kelly, Walter. He is GOING to get us into trouble."
"I will get us into mischief, Jim. I do know the difference. If we get into trouble, it will be because you decide something is wrong and needs fixing. My own experience tells me it will be the right thing to do if you decide to fix it. Since those others who have known you for many more years immediately started working to make sure we get back out of trouble, I have supporting opinion."
"I'd be less worried if I thought you'd ask if I want to fix something before you start helping me do it. Walter, Kelly's recovery isn't possible, but recoveries that aren't fill the medical histories and doctors' hearts with hope. You made much of it possible. He has a healthy adolescent body. It's currently underdeveloped, but not a great deal. That's amazing. Kelly said he had felt all of the movements and he learned to do them by 'making the feel.' It scares me because I do know how long it should take. Reminding myself how much more was done to keep Kelly healthy calms my nerves a bit. We don't know exactly why he had no motor control. We never will. Whatever the cause, he is finally recovering fully and it's happening fast."
"I have the muscle to move myself, Walter. You insured I do. I was a personal responsibility to you. You did not see it as a part of running Holland, even though it was associated with the position you hold. That position did not include your prayers you were doing the right thing for me. I have heard those you said as you stood beside my bed. I am your proof I am not the only one who heard. Jim gave me proof mine were also heard. We will say thank you by aiding Leonard in caring for the small creatures of woods and meadows. We will say thank you by sharing what he has created to care for people with those who need it. It will allow him to fund most of his dream of a place of caring. He deserves to do so, but his reason may be he doesn't have to name it if he pays for it."
"He's real perceptive. He's also getting tired. He speaks very softly so he's holding the receiver and I'm about to take it away from him. He's had a very long day."
"Goodnight, Kelly. I think mine's going to be."
"It should be. I'm sure of it. All right, Leonard, you can have it."
Merrie smiled at her boss and switched off the speaker on the phone. He grinned, picked up his coat and walked out of his office behind her. His grin broadened when she stopped to add a check on the patent to his calendar for the next day. She put on her coat and lifted the rose out of it's vase. She always took them home. This one she would preserve. It was a reminder of a very special day. She had a nice collection. She had a nice boss.
Copyright © 1999 Sharon L 'Spinner' Reddy
All Rights Reserved