Doc's Place

Chapter 12 | Part 6

Monday, October 8, 1984

Watch the big mountain cat stretch, stand and leap from rock to rock until she has disappeared on her way home. We wait until the big cat crosses the canyon'she is truly gone. We run to the fresh kill and begin eating great bloody gobbets of flesh.

The pain of my first waking moves is a shock. After that, I can deal with it because I know it's there.

My morning physical therapy is short but painful and exhausting. By the time I finish, I'm dripping with sweat. After a massage, a shower, a nap and breakfast with Soji's help, I sit in a big chair with my feet on a hassock. He tucks a loaded Colt M1911A1 beside me as I reach for the phone.

The first person I call is Dick in purchasing because he comes in early. He doesn't even ask about me. Tell him that the quotes are on my desk. He promises to call three printers, obtain quotes and then sign with B. Draper and Sons for the printing. He'll call me this afternoon once he has made the calls awarding the contracts. He also thanks me for the tip on yesterday's game, telling me he won a hundred bucks.

While I'm jotting notes from the call with Dick, the phone rings. "Jill, I'm surprised you're answering the phone three days after being shot twice."

"Good morning, Peter." He must have left word with Doc's switchboard to alert him as soon as I called.

"How are you doing?"

"I started physical therapy this morning, and I have a nurse, so I'll work from home."

"Hmm."

"Anything else, Peter? I have work to do."

"The schedule?"

"Stands."

"Our agreements?"

"Likewise."

"What do you want from me?"

"Please tell any three Doc's executives how much it pleases you that I will be working from home during my recovery."

"Nicely done by the way. Get well quickly, Jill."

"Good-bye, Peter."

Getting tired holding the phone to my ear with one hand, but I can't change hands because that aggravates my right shoulder. Goddamn, it sucks being injured. Decide I need a headset, but I can't just run out and get one and I can't send Soji. How about a girl Friday? I call Margaret and tell her the idea.

"Sui and I are way ahead of you, boss," she says. "We figured the criteria beyond the usual reliability and so on were to keep confidences, take good notes and maybe even move in with you for a while. We've found three candidates who can start right away."

"I . . . I don't know what to say. Thank you, Margaret."

"When do you want to begin interviewing them? Right now?"

"No, begin at noon, one after the other."

"On their way, Jill. By the way, Sui says to hire her as a Pere employee. If she works out, we can transfer her here when she's finished with you."

Call Louise but she's on the phone, so I leave a message that I'll call later. After I hang up, I'm trembling with exhaustion and my wounds are throbbing. Four phone calls and I need rest. Soji helps me out of the chair and back to bed where he soothes my body with a gentle massage that puts me to sleep within minutes.

Rise with the thermals, finding a comfortable and stable air mass to stretch my wings. Once I'm comfortable, I circle slowly, watching the familiar scene below. I know every rabbit run and mouse path. This is my home.

My wounds still hurt when I awaken but I'm no longer exhausted. In fact, I feel pretty good, discounting the pain. To the bathroom, then back to the chair to eat. I'm just finishing when the doorbell rings a couple minutes before noon.

The first is a perky young blonde I dismiss after two minutes. The second is a woman in her fifties but she talks too much. The last applicant is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant who is calm and self-assured. She can begin now and move in so I hire her. Her name is Lloyd and she is a widow with two grandchildren in Carson City. Explain that her principal duty is to help me maximize the use of my time as I recover.

When Lloyd and Soji meet, they bow, which Lloyd seems to handle without a second thought. Soji explains in his soft voice that he will cook and nurse me. He may interfere when Lloyd does something near me. He also tells her not to answer the door or the phone. Finally, he asks her to do shopping, laundry and things like dust and vacuum. Lloyd says she understands and agrees.

Tell her to take a Buick and buy several styles of headsets, some dual telephone jacks, extra cable and a couple telephones with a receptacle for a headset. Also pick up some of her clothes from home and move into an empty guestroom. She takes a list of groceries and other items from Soji as well.

When she leaves, I check my messages. Received calls from Louise, Liz and Dick in Purchasing. Call Dick first.

"Where you been, kid? Haven't seen you around all day today."

"Staying as mobile as possible, Dick. How we doin'?"

"Okay, I let out three agreements. B. Draper and Sons will do the printing. Ron gets the graphic design and the Aces do the photo work."

"I know it's your job but you do it well. Thank you, Dick."

"Yeah, yeah," he says. "Now listen, Jill. Every vendor in town is beginning to call trying to take you or me to lunch."

"To me, they're just a waste of time."

"That's exactly what they are. You direct all those calls and queries to me, Jill."

"Gladly." Hang up with Dick and call Liz.

"Jesus Christ, Price," she says. "Is it open season on bitches?"

"Liz, how is it going with the grad students?"

"I've run into a roadblock with one of the tenured professors in the graduate business school, Sue Lippis."

"A roadblock?"

"Lippis sent a response to me with copies addressed personally to Phil and Peter. She says . . . oh, here it is, and I quote: `this project represents a major change initiative for a Nevada casino, with implications leading to unforeseen consequences. Respectfully, Ferro should not undertake such a massive shift in direction from within by placing responsibility with a mid-level management staff member. Ferro should proceed only after a thorough analysis with ongoing consultation from an organization at least as complex as Doc's Place.' Do we need to kick this upstairs, Jill?"

"Hold on while I give this a few seconds' thought, Liz."

A tenured professor wants to jump from academia to a casino chief executive position and make some bank before she retires. The thing is, Sue Lippis would be correct if Ferro intended to continue running Doc's as an autonomous business unit. However, Peter and I know that Ferro intends to sell Doc's Place to the highest bidder in eighteen months. All I have to do here is keep the project small and manageable.

"No, the opposite," I tell Liz. "Kick it to Dick in Purchasing."

"Shouldn't you step in here, Jill?"

"No, this is a fart in a breeze. You handle it, Liz. Ask Dick to contact the dean and tell him three things. Got a pencil?"

"Go."

"First, Doc's will complete this project in first quarter 1985. Second, the budget for the University's assistance on this quick little project is approved and final. Third, sign up today or tomorrow morning Dick will begin contacting other business schools. Got it?"

"Got it," she says.

"Money talks, bullshit walks, Liz."

"Yeah, baby," she says and hangs up.

Finally, I call Louise.

"Hi Jill," she says. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad, Louise. Started physical therapy this morning and I have a nurse, so I can work from home. Now, would you like me to provide you with status on my two projects?"

"Yes I would."

Tell her that purchasing has let out contracts for photography, page layout and printing. Photography work will begin immediately. The graduate business school is cooperating on a framework for the intervention for executives. "We are on schedule," I say in summary.

"Wonderful," she says. "That's impressive, Jill." I also think it's impressive that you are working from home so soon after a traumatic attack. What do you want me to do?"

"The dean of the graduate business school should receive a high-level call thanking him personally for making the process go smoothly at their end."

"Hmm, okay. Anything else?"

Just call Peter and ask him to do it. "Nope." Make nice, hang up and lay my head back, panting. Sweat freely as I close my eyes and let the waves of pain wash over me. Assume the drugs are out of my system now. Good choice—pain over unconsciousness.

Soji, ever watchful, is quickly at my side, unrolling a pad on the floor. He helps me to lie on my stomach, lifts my shirt and pulls off my pants, going to work on me. He cleverly works me over until I no longer care about anything and then covers me with a down comforter.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Doc's Place Chat
© 2008, Michel Grover.
Chapter 12 | Part 6
Winter Early 2009

Lucia :

Mic has posted in the left frame paragraphs from Doc's Place, one of his copyrighted stories. I'm moderating chat here in the right frame. I post every day, but I don't post everything. I have formed a secondary group from which I may also post comments.

Doug :

The Pere executives who are in the network know the truth. Right? Lizzie won't tell us if Jill and Amalie are having sex but Sara or Donna might.

Sara :

No comment

Donna :

A, Amalie has flatly denied it. B, they haven't even met. C, you guys are gossiping morons. D, if I talk with you, I'll probably lose IQ points in the process, so piss off.

Carlo :

Ooh, I like her. Mind if I flirt with your wife, Carlos?

Ian :

Me too. Love chatting her up over a couple ales in the local pub.

Minnie :

You heard her. She won't talk to you idiots.

Jules :

Oh, we're already having a conversation. All we have to do is change the subject, like, "Enough about me. Let's talk about you, my dear."

Minnie :

That's how you talk to women? No wonder you never get laid.

Carlos :

Besides, she already told you to piss off. You do not want her noticing you, believe me.

Doug :

What if we ask nicely, Donna? Pretty please with sugar on it, tell us about Amalie and Jill having sex.

Minnie :

They're not going to stop, Lucia.

Lucia :

Sorry, I was busy and missed all that. Change the topic, people. We have plenty to discuss.

Peter seems worried about Jill's ability to deliver on their agreement. Lloyd seems close to Soji in temperament and age; perhaps they'll bond. Jill may not have read the intentions and criticisms of Sue Lippis correctly and she may not have handled the woman in the best way. Pick your topic or come up with one of your own.

Benny :

Jill retains control of her projects during her recovery by timing and prioritizing her calls and by manipulating influential others to intercede on her behalf. She calls Dick in purchasing because he starts early, which triggers Peter's call so she asks him to tell three execs that he's pleased she's working from home. She follows up with both Dick and Liz while manipulating them into nullifying the Sue Lippis gambit. While on the phone with Louise to report, she manipulates her into cutting off a possible end run by Sue Lippis. That's not bad for a woman who received two gunshot wounds 72 hours ago.

Jules :

Damn it, how do you express yourself so well, Benny? You must have edited that twice before posting it.

Benny :

Type it in Notepad until I have it the way I want it and then I post it.

Jules :

That's a good idea, Benny. I'll try it. By the way, do you think Amalie and Jill are having sex?

Benny :

Evidence is inconclusive either way so I have no opinion.

Ian :

What does your gut say?

Benny :

My gut informs my opinion, Ian, as do experience and cognition.

Doug :

I thought your gut feelings are like a sixth sense, and so are deeper than your opinions.

Benny :

They are. Gut feelings and sixth sense are euphemisms for intuition, which is a form of experience. We base our opinions on experience.

Raj :

Perhaps intuition is gaining knowledge without thought or . . . inference.

Benny :

That's correct, Raj. My gut does not inform me and neither does my experience or my cognition; therefore, I have no opinion. Please accept my compliments on improving your English, by the way.

Raj :

Thank you, Benny. I practice all day and every day, hoping that I can improve.

Alan :

So, you really have no idea whether Amalie and Jill are having sex or not?

Benny :

Without more evidence, how can we know?

Ian :

Don't you hope they have?

Benny :

No, I don't hope either way, although I've read that anticipation is always sweeter than the event, unless the event never happens and then it's just frustrating, like the idea of romantic or courtly love.

Maria :

I hope you're still anticipating your first event, Benny. You're too young for such things.

Ian :

He already told us that he's a virgin, Maria.

Benny :

Oh yeah, Maria, I'm still a virgin. I did see my 18-yr-old cousin naked a couple months ago by accident. I'll never forget it because she is fine. I've been thinking about it ever since—at least, now and then, anyway.

Jules :

That's normal. What about all the evidence we presented, Benny? Doesn't that suggest that they are having sex?

Benny :

You presented conjecture, not evidence. It doesn't even rise to the test of circumstantial evidence, so your speculation does not even justify an investigation, let alone an indictment.

Annie :

Why are you guys discussing this in legal terms? Do you think Jill broke a law?

Jules :

A federal official could claim that Jill, an adult, traveled to a foreign country to have sex with a minor.

Benny :

Such a claim has no merit for two reasons, Jules. First, Amalie is two years over the age of consent in her own country. Second, if Jill did travel to the French Polynesians to have consensual sex with Amalie, then she has committed no crime according to federal law because Amalie is a year over the age of consent according to that same federal law.

Doug :

How do you know, Benny? Did you research it because you were worried that Jill might have broken the law?

Benny :

No, Doug. I searched on age of consent just now and found the result near the top of the list in less than a second.

Annie :

Jill, when was the last time you traveled to the French Polynesians?

Jill :

Traveled there last spring, as I've done every year for over 20yrs with 2 dozen adults. We spend a couple weeks on a private island. For the record, if someone did leave, everyone would know it within a few minutes because the island is small but no one does leave. After 2wks, everyone flies to Papeete and a couple hours later, home.

Annie :

Have you ever met Amalie?

Jill :

Nope

Jules :

Do you walk around naked on that small, private island?

Jill :

Everyone does. We have a lot of sex too, but that's not the best part.

Doug :

What is?

Cyril :

What about staff, like cooks, waiters, maids and so on?

Jill :

It's a primitive island with a few catch basins for fresh water and groves of fruit trees. An atoll with plenty of fish surrounds the island. Everyone pitches in to help prepare communal meals. If you don't work, you don't eat and you don't get an invitation back, so everyone works.

Alan :

Even with no staff, with all that help, you'd have plenty of down time to relax. Does everyone get along?

Jill :

Over the years, we've eased out the lazy malcontents so the group has been stable for quite a while. Even so, every year, a few people leave the group so we bring in fresh blood.

Jules :

I've spent time in the South Pacific and Bermudas. They have a name for the feeling of relaxed, energetic laziness that settles over you if you're there for more than a few days. It's called island time. You forget to check your watch or even wear it. Instead, you respond to physical urges like hunger or sleepiness instead of scheduling anything. I imagine after a few days and especially after a couple weeks, it's hard to return to civilized society and pick up the rhythm of daily life again.

Jill :

The thing about going every year is, Jules, that you tend to keep that island attitude for longer each year because it takes longer to slough it off and as spring approaches, you start putting it on again. After a few years, you carry it around like an attitude most of the year.

Alan :

I've had that feeling after a week or two in the Virgin Islands. Someone at work, all freaked out over some crisis or other walks into a meeting and starts ranting about priorities and schedules, you just look at them and you slowly ask, "What?"

Jill :

After saying that, I always glance around the room. Invariably, I see someone smile and get a far-off look in the eyes, as if they know exactly how I feel.

Carlo :

Sorry to interrupt but right now, Jill, you seem almost normal, conversing about a feeling that many people have had. I know I have felt that feeling of island time. How can you seem so normal right now and yet be who you are: a serial, homicidal sociopath who can't get through a year without killing several men?

Jill :

It's a process, Carlo, and I have become used to it over my life. I pay careful attention to the people around me for verbal and non-verbal cues so I know if what I say seems appropriate. That way, I can make an educated guess about what to say next.

We discussed instinct earlier. My instinct always informs me in almost any situation, especially dangerous or stressful situations, but never in social situations. I understand that most people in social settings don't care whether their words are appropriate or not. I cannot imagine being able to do that let alone doing it. Have I answered your question?

Carlo :

Yes, thank you. I cannot imagine having to process all that just to carry on what seems to be a normal conversation. How do you do it?

Benny :

One way Jill does it is to ask. Notice her question at the end of her answer. Another is to say nothing and hope that her silence is appropriate.

Jill :

Benny's right on both counts. I remember as a little girl the first time I heard a friend of my father's quote Abraham Lincoln, "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt." Everyone smiled but no one commented. I still think it was profound.

Amalie :

How old were you, Jill?

Jill :

Amalie :

Why do you think they smiled?

Jill :

No idea, but later I asked Susan. She said everyone probably thought it was good advice but that those who needed it most would ignore.

Amalie :

Susan is wise.

Jill :

I often ask her about what is appropriate.

Amalie :

Why?

Jill :

She knows I'm serious and tries to answer me.

Amalie :

You respect and love her.

Susan :

Learn to respect her limits, Amalie. When she wishes, she'll keep going.

Jill :

Take it easy, Amalie. We're just chatting here.

Amalie :

Perhaps she'll join us.

Jill :

She won't.

Lucia :

Actually, you're wrong about your best friend, Jill. Susan and I have been exchanging comments for a while now. She has not wanted to join in but she has helped me moderate. She is willing to join the secondary group to answer an occasional question if we don't ask too many. Susan?

Susan :

Learn to respect her limits, Amalie. When she wishes, she'll keep going.

Jill :

What are you doing?

Susan :

I'm joining in. Deal with it.

Amalie :

Please talk to me.

Susan :

I'm here. Turn around.

Maria :

Is Susan with Amalie?

Lucia :

Yes, they're on the island.

Maria :

Thank God, the poor girl is completely confused.

Carlo :

Who owns that island?

Lizzie :

Ume

Jill :

Is this your doing, Lizzie?

Lizzie :

Yep

Marcus :

If everyone is finished discussing these topics of immediate concern, I'd like to return to our discussion of the future. Avani, why does the global human population grow so slowly? Earth has plenty of resources and room in the future, assuming no natural disasters occur.

Avani :

The rapid disappearance of 98% of the human population ends industrialization, Marcus. This may not be a natural disaster but it certainly has consequences. Data indicate that the sudden disappearance of industrialization brings on an ice age that drives glaciers further south than human history has ever recorded. This keeps the population below 100 million for nearly a thousand years. As earth gradually warms and the ice recedes, the population slowly grows.

As a side note, at any time, 10% of the population lives underground. This number climbs slowly toward 15% as the centuries pass and human technology improves. Society builds more and better subsurface facilities. A thousand years into the future, more than 22 million people live beneath earth's surface at any time.

Les :

How do humans build subsurface facilities? They don't have the manufacturing facilities to build the machines that can accomplish such marvels, so how do they do it?

Avani :

As I explained at the outset, I signed an NDA regarding technology, Les. Ask me about social, psychological, artistic or other development but please don't ask me about technology because I cannot discuss it.

Les :

Well, that's convenient. Building subsurface facilities assumes recycling almost everything, including breathable air. It also assumes heavy mining and related machinery, which makes it the most improbable development of all the future developments you've mentioned and you can't discuss it because you're under an NDA. How do we know you're not just fabricating all this future of humanity data and analysis?

Raj :

Les, we forgive you for questioning her words because you have not met Avani. Please consider your words carefully before continuing because this woman is one of the most honorable women anyone could hope to meet in a lifetime. Surely you have checked her executive profile on-line, haven't you?

Les :

The listings show that Avani is a capable and competent executive. So am I, Raj. However as the CFO of a major company, I often encounter people who pass themselves off as solid executives and every once in a while, one of them turns out to be a swindler.

Alice :

The way you're carrying on, Les, you sound like a woman. Despite all the credibility that Avani has with this group, you sound as if you're hiding something. Perhaps you're a swindler yourself.

Avani :

Now, we have no reason to attack Les personally just because he's challenging my statements and me. Thank you for offering, Alice, but I can defend my self.

Les, do you have anything else to add before I respond?

Les :

You imply that human tribes of the future will seek to move millions of people underground and underwater, where they will build numerous library research facilities. Their progeny will then live in those facilities for weeks before moving back to the surface. Subsurface excavation and construction on such an enormous scale is an immense undertaking for a global population of 6 billion souls and probably impossible for a population that is 1-2% of that number.

I've been reading this theory of humanity's future during recent sessions and now I'll say what most people think. 98% of humanity is not going to disappear in a few decades. That's going from 6 billion plus to tens of millions. This so-called analysis of the future is ridiculous and you know it.

Another ridiculous idea is a so-called female neural network that enables women to communicate and access all human knowledge with little or no effort. How can anyone possibly believe that a few women secretly discovered, developed and deployed such technology in little more than two decades? Such an idea is preposterous.

Most ridiculous of all is the idea that a handful of women amassed more than a trillion dollars in little more than 40 years. Individual women in history have made a few remarkable achievements, of course. However, no group of women in history has ever worked steadily for decades toward a goal and accomplished that goal. Women have never worked together for any length time because they are too unstable, hateful and jealous of one another to cooperate. Put a few million dollars in front of a group of women and they'll sell their daughters, one another and themselves to get it.

Avani :

Have you anything else to add?

Les :

That's it for the moment. I doubt that you, Benny or anyone else has access to such vast information stores as you describe, but address that when you answer my network question.

Avani :

First, accept my gratitude for raising these questions. I'm sure several people reading this story and the associated chat have similar questions. I'll separate the issues you've raised and deal with them one at a time.

Subterranean excavation is unnecessary, Les. Vast spaces with unlimited, naturally recycled fresh air and water have existed, unchanged, for millions of years all over the planet. Humanity has never been motivated to seek out these spaces, which require only sufficient energy to provide light and heat, and they become habitable for humans. Here, deep within the earth, humans are safe from surface hazards such as weather extremes and predators. People raise crops, flocks, herds and even fish. Over the centuries, clever men and women discover simple and effective, albeit slow, methods to carve out permanent facilities in the rock. Without revealing the technology behind these methods, I'll simply say that, over time, water can work wondrous patterns in rock, especially with a nudge in the desired direction now and then.

As for 98% of humanity rapidly disappearing, Les, this has happened in human pre-history. A quick Internet search reveals a popular theory among scientists. Around 70 millennia ago, the Toba super volcano erupted in Indonesia, about the same time that human population coalesced to 2 to 15 thousand individuals. The evidence for this is the lack of genetic diversity among the billions of humans. A small group of chimps has greater genetic diversity than the entire human population today. Humanity's near extinction is a theme that appears frequently in popular books, magazines, movies and television programming. If almost all of life from the Pre-Cambrian Explosion, almost all of the dinosaurs and almost all of the American bison can disappear suddenly, why cannot almost all of humanity disappear just as suddenly? The answer is that it can, and you know it, Les.

As to a female neural network and a woman worth a trillion dollars, I concede, Les. The notion that women develop technology to re-shape the future of humanity is ridiculous. The idea that Pere privately controls assets exceeding a trillion dollars and aggressively pursues a social agenda is absurd. Don't even bother looking it up, even though it's a public record, but Aliversal made small, no-interest or low-interest loans in excess of 4 billion dollars exclusively to women last year alone. Ignore JP Performance, privately owned and doing business since 1966, because its value barely exceeds a billion dollars. How about privately owned Midori Bank? Don't worry about it because it only controls hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. How is it that no one asks why the privately owned corporations under the Pere umbrella have never lost a single dollar on any deal in 30yrs of doing business? How is that mathematically possible? Is it because they have inside information on every deal in the world? It's probably a coincidence, so don't sweat it, Les.

Now, let's take this neural network for a spin and see what she'll do. Les, you graduated with your MBA in 1983 from the same university in Salt Lake City where Jill received her master's degree a year later. Records show that you showed up 2yrs earlier, enrolled and paid cash for your tuition, fees and books. Your transcript states that you received your bachelor's degree in business from a 4yr college in southern California the spring before you enrolled in the MBA program. This is where the problems begin, Les. Even though your transcript looks official, no records exist to prove that you attended that college in southern California. Your high school transcript is troubling as well, because no record of your attending that school exists either. In fact, Les, the person you have claimed to be since 1976 is actually a boy who died in 1963. You simply stole his identity in 1976 when you finished a prison term in California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi for two counts of involuntary manslaughter. You negotiated an early release with authorities by cooperating in the arrest and conviction of multiple felons from your old neighborhood in Bellflower. DNA, birth certificate and prison records reveal your identity but I will not publish it here because doing so would endanger your life and the lives of your family. It's a good thing you have provided a comfortable nest egg for you and your wife because now is probably a great time to retire. Do you have a response, Les?