Doc's Place

Chapter 14 | Part 2

Thursday, October 11, 1984

After stretching on the floor and freshening up, I join Lloyd in the study, where she's typing the notes from my thesis. Brush past her, sit down and put on the headphones.

"The naked Jill Price," says Lloyd.

"Bother you?"

"I'm getting used to it. You must be comfortable."

"All my adult life."

Lloyd chuckles. "It's charming, the way you're so innocent about it, Jill. You have a remarkable body even if one doesn't ignore the bruises or bullet and shrapnel wounds."

"Ignoring works for me."

"You went without a nap until almost four. That's pretty good for one week."

Smile at her, pull on the headphones and dial Doc's. When Kelly answers, I ask her for Kerry North.

"Hi Jill," says Kerry. "How're you feeling?"

"Better every day, Kerry. Got a minute?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"I'd like to run Liz and her two assistants through a practice run in one of Morty's meetings next week if possible. Doesn't he have a morning meeting on Thursday?"

"Yes, the shift managers' meeting is at nine a.m. Thursday. It's in Morty's office."

"Mind if I ask him to let us tape it and debrief him afterward? That way, Liz and her assistants can see how it's done."

"What happens if I say no? You call Peter?"

"This is a courtesy call, Kerry. You say no, I do it anyway."

"And if I fire Morty for disobeying my order? I understand he's a personal friend of yours."

"He certainly is but Peter reviews your decisions, Kerry," I say, guessing. "Consider yourself informed."

Hang up, press re-dial and ask Kelly for Morty.

"Hey kid," says Morty. "I hear you're coming in next week."

"Yes, I am, Morty. Is it still okay to do that dry run with your meeting Thursday morning at nine?"

"You're penciled in."

"Thanks, Morty. So, have slots revenue passed table games yet?"

"Not in revenue, but if you compare expenses for change aprons and dealers. . . . Hang on, Jill. Kerry's trying to get my attention. What is it, Kerry?"

Hear Kerry's voice, but not his words. Say, "I told him I'd ask for access to your meeting. Hung up and called you."

"Ah," says Morty. "Well, Kerry, I promised Peter last week that I'd give Jill access to my meeting so it's already done, unless you want to take it up with Peter."

Can't hear anything, so I ask, "What'd he say, Morty?"

"Nothing: just waved and left."

"So, when do you bring aprons' and dealers' pay to parity?" Slot change employees carry around a change apron with money inside, so management calls them `change aprons.' As slot revenues continue to rise in the face of declining table game revenues, the casino industry will consider wage parity for the employees in each department.

We talk for another twenty minutes or so about a Slot Players Club, an idea Morty has been developing. Track players' average bet per hour and then reward them accordingly with coupons for the gift shop, bars or restaurant. Tell him to kick off the project with an event on Doc's fiftieth anniversary, and Morty agrees. However, it's an idea going nowhere without executive approval.

Next, I call Liz. "Don't even tell me you hired all five finalists to assist you with your project, girl."

"Actually, I wanted to hire three, but I ended up choosing one young man from California and a woman from the US Virgin Islands. She's black. Do you think that will matter?"

"To whom?"

"She's a beauty, a party girl who has the most wonderful laugh you've ever heard."

"Why did you decide not to choose number three?"

"She's professional and presents herself well but I had a feeling she was hiding something."

"Go with your instincts. What's next?"

"Well, the two I hired come in tomorrow for an initial briefing. May I bring them over to meet you?"

"What for?"

"Don't give me `what for'. This is your project, Jill."

"I'm writing the November/December issue of Doc's Talks tomorrow. I'll meet `em when I come in on Thursday for the dry run with Morty's meeting. Will you have them ready?"

"Damn right but I'm not letting you out of meeting them before then. How about Monday?"

"Nah."

"Tuesday. Want us to pick up lunch?"

With a sigh, I say, "No, I'll have lunch ready here. What time?"

"Early. How's 11:30?"

"Okay, see you then. `Bye." Hang up, shaking my head.

Lloyd pauses in her typing. "Want me to tell Soji?"

"Would you? Tuesday at 11:30 is lunch with three guests. I just don't get why I have to meet these kids before I go in on Thursday."

As she jots a note, she asks, "Why not?"

"I'm busy."

"Not that busy," says Lloyd. "Besides, the next person you meet could change your life forever." When I simply stare at her, she adds, "Every person you meet is unique. You make observations, draw conclusions and realize how you fit with one another's experience."

Stare at her for a moment longer and say, "Hold that thought" as I reach for the phone.

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 14 | Part 2
Late Spring 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.

Alan :

Wow, Kerry North's an asshole—as friendly as a kitten when he wants something and a first-class prick when he doesn't.

Minnie :

Put your self in his shoes, Alan. The man knows only that Jill opposes his objectives, but he doesn't know her agenda, can't figure her out and can't seem to stop her. He's frustrated and pissed.

Maria :

He's also jealous. Jill lives in that beautiful house and development where he wants to live and she can do no wrong because Peter defends her.

Annie :

Engaging the enemy, Jill remembers, or at least employs, her Sun Tzu: "When doing battle, seek a quick victory." She makes contact; when Kerry attempts to resist, she states her advantage and withdraws, victorious. Kerry's attempt is that he will deny her permission to access to Morty's meeting. Jill's advantage is that she already has permission. First, she uses a surprise attack and then she hangs up on him, a power move. Finally, she maneuvers Morty to high ground. By the time Kerry thinks to check with Morty, Jill is preparing Morty to respond. Kerry, beaten twice, withdraws.

Raj :

Not only does she beat him twice, she does it naked. How cool is that?

Jules :

Raj, you just made a righteous call. It is worthy.

Raj :

Thanks, but worthy of what?

Jules :

Do not question worthiness, Raj. Know only that you achieved it, if only for a moment.

Raj :

Then I accept. Perhaps one day I will understand.

Marcus :

As I do now and then, I oppose what appears to be group consensus on this issue. Morty's meeting is a week away. Jill made the arrangements days ago. What's the point of asking Kerry for access now? Jill has achieved a quick victory, but it may be a Pyrrhic victory. It serves only to stir executive animosity and alert Kerry to an event of which he's probably not even aware. Jill seems to have awakened from her nap and suddenly decided to raise hell at work so she makes this call. Naked or not, her action seems ill motivated and ill timed to me. What say you to that, Raj?

Alice :

Good points, Marcus. Jill's hasty action could even affect Peter's objectives in some way, which would remove some of his confidence and support in her.

Raj :

As usual, Marcus raises a worthy question. I will answer by applying from Sonshi, the principles of Sun Tzu: "Therefore . . . if the enemy is at ease, be able to exhaust him; if the enemy is settled, be able to move him; appear at places where he must rush to defend, and rush to places . . . he least expects." Is this citation appropriate, Annie?

Annie :

Well chosen, Raj, but how do these principles apply to the events we're discussing?

Raj :

These principles come from Sun Tzu's discussion of weakness and strength. I imagine Jill lying in bed, awakening from her nap. She realizes that Kerry has met her, assessed her strengths and weaknesses, and begun to prepare some sort of coordinated attack. As Marcus points out, her team's visit to Morty's meeting is a week away and already arranged. However, Kerry's scheming and machinations could disrupt the meeting, which Jill deems essential to her team's success and ultimately, her project's success. With no idea of what Kerry could be planning, she decides that she must discomfit him with a quick but decisive victory. Therefore, rather than wait for Kerry to act and merely hope that his actions will be ineffectual, Jill decides to stage a preemptive attack that will assure not only that the meeting will take place but will proceed as she wants it to proceed.

Cyril :

Ha! Raj has answered you effectively on at least this one point, Marcus. We know that Kerry is a schemer who ponders his opponent's moves because he has moved into the executive ranks so quickly and because he switches from nice guy to adversary with ease. He could very well be planning to move against Jill in her absence.

Marcus :

I concede that Jill has good reasons for assuring everyone involved that this meeting—or dry run, as she calls it—takes place, Raj. However, she is still running the risk of awakening executive ire against her projects and potentially, Peter's goals, as Alice argues.

Raj :

Regarding broad and long-term effects of her quick and decisive victory, Jill wants to teach Kerry a lesson he won't forget—and succeeds. Marcus suggests that Jill's victory may be Pyrrhic, which applies only if the victory comes at devastating cost. Pyrrhus supposedly says that one more such victory would utterly undo him. However, Jill is not conducting a campaign wherein she arrays her inferior forces against Kerry's superior forces. Rather, she conducts guerilla activities comprising deceit and surprise, just as the American colonists did against the British or as the North Vietnamese did against American forces half a world away and almost 200yrs later. Such guerilla activities are often successful, as I believe that they are in this context.

In the same discussion of weakness and strength, Sun Tzu says, "To be certain to take what you attack, attack where the enemy cannot defend. To be certain of safety when defending, defend where the enemy cannot attack." I believe Jill does both with this single action.

Kerry doesn't know that Jill will attack, let alone when and where. When she does, she attacks "where he cannot defend" because he is "at ease" and "settled" in his office. Jill forces him to move, to "rush to defend," and "rush to places . . . he least expects." When Kerry does rush to defend, he finds Jill waiting on the phone behind Morty, ready to "defend where he cannot attack."

Marcus :

You argue effectively for the wisdom of confronting Kerry effectively but we do not know what effect, if any, this encounter has upon him. We won't know for some days how he reacts.

Minnie :

This is fun to watch, Marcus. Raj is patiently but persistently backing you into a corner, lopping off your arguments one by one.

Raj :

After this frustrating encounter with Jill, Kerry probably returns to his office and sits thinking for a long time about what she did and how he reacted. He will temper his plans with caution in the future because he realizes now that she is skilled in both attack and defense. As Sun Tzu says, "Therefore, against those skilled in attack, the enemy does not know where to defend; against those skilled in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack." Far from a Pyrrhic victory, Marcus, Jill achieves a victory that will cause Kerry to proceed henceforth with caution, shoring up defenses here and there at great expense in time, effort and resources because he doesn't know where or when she'll hit him again. No doubt she will hit him where and when he is weak or defenseless because that is her nature. Jill does not fight fair; she fights only to win.

Jules :

Raj has effectively answered all of your complaints, Marcus. The only gripe you have left is that we don't yet know how Kerry will respond and we'll find out that soon enough.

Annie :

You are becoming adept at wielding the wisdom of Sun Tzu, Raj. Please accept my compliments. Benny confessed that he edits his responses in Notepad before submitting them to the group. Do you do something similar?

Raj :

Here in Bengaluru, or Bangalore as you may call it, a group of us meets every day at a shop for coffee and Internet access. We discuss English, discuss world affairs and prepare our submissions together under my name. The group discusses thoroughly and edits carefully every sentence I submit now, which was not the case at first.

Lucia :

On a given day, how many participate in your group at this coffee shop?

Raj :

30 to 40 people participate daily. Anticipating your next question, we are mostly young professional people, about half men and half women, with 2 or 3 professors from a local university. We network the computers here so all can see our comments. As I said, before I submit my comments, everyone discusses them thoroughly. I share all of your compliments about my improved English, my arguments and my knowledge of Sun-tzu with the group here.

Carlo :

I've been thinking over Raj's observation that Jill beat Kerry twice while naked. We've read of her walking around naked back in our chat on chapter 2: the morning after she arrived at Le's house in Reno and the evening she first walked into her house and cleaned her pistol. Not to be rude or insensitive, but why does a woman who was raped as a young teenager walk around naked with people around her? Does that happen? I would think that such an experience would make her shy.

Ian :

Don't forget that Jill and Stephanie swam naked, or nekkid, as Stephanie called it.

Maria :

Jill also walks out naked the evening Lucy first comes over.

Lucia :

Lucy walks out naked the next morning. So what? They had sex the night before.

Maria :

Do you walk around naked after sex?

Lucia :

Sometimes I do. It depends on how comfortable I am. How about you, Mom?

Maria :

I do too, sometimes.

Amalie :

As do I, so what is the answer to Carlo's question?

Minnie :

Jill walks around naked with other women—Stephanie, Le, Lucy, and then later with Lloyd. She walks naked around Soji because she's been doing so for years, since he's her massage therapist. Stephanie, Le, Lucy and Lloyd are women and Soji has been her masseur for decades. Walking naked around these people does not indicate she may or may not be experiencing negative effects from her childhood trauma.

Amalie :

Her secretiveness, promiscuity and pattern killing of male felons do, however. We meet Jill in the story when she is 35yrs old and in chat when she is approaching 60yrs old. I have learned from Susan that Jill suffered significant discomfort regarding nudity and intimacy immediately after her rape. It took time to overcome this discomfort but she did it.

Minnie :

No doubt her martial arts training, the patience of friends like Susan, the patience of lovers and extensive massage therapy from Soji all combined to help Jill overcame her discomfort related to nudity and touch.

Carlo :

So, I may have been correct in assuming that Jill was shy about her nudity immediately after her rape, but she overcame it through martial arts training, friends and lovers, and massage therapy. I wonder if research exists on the efficacy of such treatment for childhood sexual abuse.

Minnie :

Yes, an example of effective treatment using body-awareness and massage therapy is here.

Amalie :

At the end of this part, Lloyd gives Jill some good advice but I don't think she'll heed it. Jill doesn't react at all. She just stares at Lloyd and then blows her off and makes a phone call.

Maria :

Well, what's coming up? Liz is bringing the graduate students over next Tuesday in the story. Maybe Jill will fall in love with one of them.

Lucia :

Come on, Mom. We're discussing Jill Price here. She may fall in lust maybe, but love? It's just not going to happen.