by Bart Key
Jeremy pointed out that there appeared to be some decent surf. So we changed clothes, grabbed boards and paddled out. After a couple of hours, we retired to the shade under the palapa. Jeremy walked up to the house and brought back a small cooler filled with beer and ice. We toasted to the day, shared a joint and watched the sun go down. That evening over dinner, Jeremy, in his inimitable and animated way, recounted the history of the project, told me what living in the village had been like and how he had become very attached to the boys. He told me about their mother Rosa and what a wonderful lady she was. Both of us were curious about her history and the boys lack of knowledge about their father. According to Jeremy, Rosa was very strict and made the boys study very hard for school. Both of them were quite smart and Jeremy thought Miguel might be musically talented as he was always humming or whistling one tune or another.
The next morning Jeremy showed me how to operate the various facility systems so that when I visited Wild Beach in the future I could turn everything on unaided. The home’s water was potable and was pumped from the nearby creek to a buried cement tank installed above grade from the house. Electricity was provided by one of two generators installed within a hidden and buried cement structure located behind the house. They were fueled by propane stored in large tanks located within another cement enclosure hidden from view next to the road. The new septic system was low maintenance and designed so that no effluent could escape to the beach. Jeremy showed me the various outside storage areas at the back of the house where things like surfboards and beach furniture could be stored.
For the rest of the day, we walked the beach, surfed some and just hung out. As we were preparing dinner that evening, Jeremy sprung a couple of surprises on me. One was a forty-eight bottle storage nook in the kitchen hidden behind a panel. It was already half stocked with wine. The other was a much smaller nook behind another panel for the storage of stash. It too was not empty.
At dinner, Jeremy described the various measures he had instituted to keep knowledge of Wild Beach hidden from the outside world. Paco, Miguel and Rosa were most cooperative in agreeing not to discuss Wild Beach with others. While the villagers knew that major construction of some kind had taken place up the road, very few had ever been there as it was more than two miles away, mostly uphill. The barricades now in place were kept locked when no one was there and Paco personally checked the site twice a day. When Jeremy had lived in the village, he had gone out of his way to be friendly with the villagers and had made arrangements while there to donate new text books to the school. The village was very secluded and rarely visited by outsiders except for the occasional delivery truck.
During our return flight, Jeremy fell asleep and I thought to myself how wonderful it was to have him in my life. He was accepting of everyone and never seemed to be bothered by much unless someone got totally out of line. While not exactly what you might call the leader type, Jeremy was widely respected and admired by his peers in the surfing community. He had this aura of innocence which played well for him. He was one of those guys who never had to spend much time seeking sexual companionship. He usually was the one being hustled and gleefully accepted the overtures. He loved kids and when he was around them, it was fun to watch him because he became one himself. The time he spent with Paco and Miguel quite obviously had been very special to him and it was obvious that they looked upon him as their big brother.
•
When Sur called me at the office in New York and invited me to join him over the Thanksgiving holiday at his new Wild Beach retreat, I accepted immediately. A break from the hubbub and traffic was just what I needed. In early afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving, his jet picked me up and returned to Santa Barbara where I was met by Sur and his young friend Li. The next morning the three of us boarded his plane for Mexico and less than three hours later landed on a narrow runway adjoining a Mexican town seemingly in the middle of nowhere. After retrieving Sur’s Jeep, the three of us drove over dusty roads to a small village on Pacific coast. After driving through the village, we continued up and along an improved gravel road until reaching his beach house. Li and I were dumbstruck by the retreat’s beauty and remoteness. There were no signs of civilization as far as the eye could see. Sur gave us a quick tour and, with some daylight left, we each grabbed a cold beer and walked down to the beach and sat down under his palapa. Sur lit a joint and passed it around. For once, I partook as did Li who told me later that he rarely smoked weed but being with Sur in this place, why not? As we got pleasantly high, our expectations of spending the next few days in this amazing place grew. Sur had brought along Thanksgiving turkey with all the trimmings. When it started getting dark, we returned to the house and worked together in heating things up and setting the table. When everything was ready, we sat down and proceeded to stuff ourselves with the excellent meal complemented by a wonderful California Zinfandel Sur had removed from the home’s hidden wine cabinet.
Over the next couple of days, Li and I got to know each other. I knew he was pursuing his MBA at Stanford and kind of got the impression that Sur might be helping him with his college expenses. Li was very impressed with my Wharton MBA and was full of questions about life in New York City and my experiences so far within the investment community. I described to him how fascinating it was to invest in companies listed on some of the less well-known exchanges and markets. He was all ears. I purposely avoided mentioning any specifics relative to Sur’s portfolio but Li was no dummy and no doubt surmised that its size was not insignificant. Later, Li asked me how it felt to be trusted by Sur with such an important role as managing his portfolio. I confessed to him that it scared me sometimes especially since Sur never checked on anything or questioned anything I did. He just assumed I would excel and was always forward thinking about what investment decisions made sense at a given time. I was at the point now where I could begin concentrating on building strategies to maximize Sur’s returns on investments over the longer term. Coupled with his incredible savvy in predicting long term trends and anticipating declines, I was confident we could grow his portfolio so that someday it would be huge indeed.
•
As we waited for David to arrive from New York, Sur filled me in on how he had come to hire David and how the two of them worked together in opening Sur’s New York City office. When I met David at the airport, I was shocked at how young he was, actually not all that much older than me. After we took off for Mexico and got to talking, I had a hunch we would get along famously. For one thing, David treated me as an equal. We soon learned that we had much in common particularly our love of the securities markets. And of course we both idolized Sur who was not all that much older than the two of us. What Sur had managed to accomplish at his young age was truly astonishing.
Spending my break at Wild Beach was everything I had imagined and more. It was like being by ourselves on the planet with no one else anywhere around. From the moment the three of us arrived, we were into relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. The day after Thanksgiving, Sur’s caretaker Paco and his little brother Miguel joined us. All five of us body surfed together at a spot on the property the boys knew well. Then we played some extremely competitive volleyball on the beach. All of us being alpha males, the shouting and friendly taunting was non-stop though the boys were much more subdued than the three of us. After they returned to their village, Sur passed a joint as we started preparing dinner. He broiled steaks outside while David prepared a giant salad and I set the table inside. This was the life. Over dinner, David and I got carried away discussing current market trends. Sur just listened and smiled.
Our last full day started with a run on the beach. When we reached the southern property line, the tide happened to be out which allowed us to walk around the point and extend our run for maybe another mile before turning back. And again, no signs of civilization anywhere. Early the next morning, we shut the utility systems down, locked the gates behind us and retur
ned to the States. When I got back to my apartment in early evening, I felt refreshed and ready to start hitting the books again.
•
That same year, I invited my three amigos to join me at Wild Beach over the Christmas holidays. We landed mid-day on Christmas Eve and drove to Paco’s house where we dropped off presents and foodstuffs for Rosa and the boys. Jeremy was overjoyed at seeing Paco and Miguel and they him. Once we arrived at Wild Beach, it was early evening so we grilled some burgers, took our dinners down to the palapa and ate as we watched the sun disappear behind the horizon. Jeremy couldn’t stop talking about how much Paco and Miguel had grown in the short time since he had last seen them. On Christmas morning, we arose early and ran the beach before the heat of day hit. After a heavy breakfast, we just lounged around until about ten when Paco and Miguel arrived after going to church with their mom. All six of us then hit the surf which was quite good that day. About four, the boys returned to be with their mom for the remainder of the day while the four of us feasted on the Christmas dinner we had brought with us. After it got dark, we sat down on the front porch, opened more wine, passed a joint and watched the stars come out.
For the next two days we surfed, played volleyball or soccer and just plain screwed around on the beach. Every day the boys would join us for several hours as they were still on their break from school. Paco showed Ward and Cory how to fish from the beach and the resulting catches became our dinners. Our spirits were soaring and laughter was infectious especially since Jeremy and Cory were at their raunchiest best. The boys, of course, loved that. On our flight back, everyone slept except me. I was thinking about the future and was considering ways to bring my three amigos closer into my life.
Chapter 11
Adjusting
Last year had certainly been a full one with both Li and David coming into the picture and Wild Beach becoming a dream retreat. Going forward, I was confident that my businesses would continue to flourish. The beachwear company’s sales were soaring due in part to our continuing ad campaign showing Jeremy at several Australian beaches posing in his well-worn beach apparel and sandals. Mei was nearing the final stages of designing a line of women’s beachwear which she insisted that Jeremy review and sign off on. He told me he didn’t have a clue about women’s clothing but he couldn’t tell Mei no. Her line emphasized shorts and halters a woman would wear for physical activities on the beach together with various patterned and colorful smocks and shirts that could be worn over them. When Jeremy teased her that she hadn’t included any skimpy bikinis, she howled in laughter as only she could and immediately began designing several to be added to the line. When the garments hit the marketplace, they became popular very quickly especially the bikinis which pleased Jeremy no end. Because of my beachwear company’s success-based bonus system, Mei and Randy could now afford a new home in the Ventura hills. Though Jeremy continued to insist that he expected no remuneration for his role in the venture, he was paid bonus checks too which he always sent on to his parents.
My home rental business prospered similarly with our inventory of leased beach houses growing larger and larger. As Randy also managed this company, I had some concerns he was having to spend too much time resolving lessee issues when his time could be better spent on management issues of the beachwear company. This started me to thinking that it might be time to consider selling the rental company.
Meanwhile off in New York, my investment company with David at the helm was surpassing all my expectations in terms of growth. David now had a staff of three to support him. In conformance with my strict policy of privacy protection, he was the only one in the office who knew that I was indirectly the company’s owner.
I continued to travel to New York but only about every other month now. Typically after arriving, I would take a cab to my condo and meet David at the office the next morning where he would always have breakfast waiting in his conference room. We would usually work straight through until mid-afternoon after which I would return to my condo and run the park. Later, David would come by in a cab to pick me up and we’d have dinner at some fine restaurant he recommended. Occasionally I stayed over a weekend and David would always have something special planned. Once he came up with tickets on the fifty yard line to a game between the Jets and the Broncos. With my portfolio now growing ever larger, I wondered if it might make sense to think about moving the company’s office to Europe someday in order to be closer to some of the financial markets there. When I mentioned this to David, he was all for it but I knew leaving New York would be tough on him.
My oil company was the elephant in the room and dwarfed all my other businesses in size. We were now drilling wells not only in Oklahoma but also in Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming. Mason, Josh and Ryan had proved to be very capable managers and worked well together as a team. Our company now had nearly a hundred employees and our discovery rate was the envy of the industry. With everything clicking along smoothly, I could now consider taking more of a backseat role. Though relatively young, Ryan had proved himself to be an extraordinarily talented manager. So I made him the president and CEO of the company and elevated Mason and Josh to senior vice president positions. When the four of us went to lunch to celebrate the reorganization, we reminisced about some of the ups and downs we had experienced along the way as the company had grown larger and more successful. We were at the size now we could take advantage of some opportunities. One was to create a subsidiary which would gather and transport to market oil produced from one of our larger fields and another was to create a subsidiary which would process heavy crude oil produced from another of our fields. As chairman of the board, I would still need to play a fairly active role in management but would not need to spend nearly as much time in Oklahoma City.
Soon after the reorganization, I took Jeremy, Ward and Cory to lunch at a quiet Italian restaurant we all loved. I described the measures I had instituted to reduce my time managing the oil company. This would free me up to begin a new phase of business development. I would start by selling the rental company. The timing was ideal as real estate values for Ventura beach houses were at an all-time high due to increased demand within the wealthier Los Angeles crowd for second homes on or near the beach. Selling the company also would make it possible for me to assign to each of them new jobs where we could work together more closely.
They were all ears. I began with Jeremy. I wanted him to become manager of my Ventura office which would be separate from the offices of my beachwear company. Jeremy would take over responsibility for the handling of all my travel arrangements and would be in charge of paying all my personal expenses. As the computer age seemed to be taking off, I wanted Jeremy to become computer literate and in time arrange for computerization of the office. Jeremy gave me that stunned look about how could I possibly think he could handle these tasks. However, I had no doubts but that he could. Though he would deny it, Jeremy was very bright.
Ward would become my special projects guy, my advance man, my surrogate. He could expect to travel quite a bit particularly to places where I had ongoing businesses. Cory would become my personal assistant when I traveled on business. All three of them would need to further their educations or undertake specialized training as appropriate. For the foreseeable future, Ventura would be my headquarters. The three of them were relieved at hearing that. I told them that if anyone wanted to move in a different direction, I would understand and hold no grudge. No matter what, they were my buddies for life. On the spot, all three told me they were on board.
The next day I informed Randy of my decision to sell the rental company. He was not too surprised and I think somewhat relieved as he could now devote all his time to managing our growing beachwear company. He put the word out and, within a couple of months, the rental company including all its real estate holdings was sold. By that time, the team had completed its refurbishing of all the remaining beach homes. When I told David that the net proceeds woul
d be made available to him for investment, he was ready to go.
•
After our meeting with Sur there were two more houses yet remaining to be remodeled. The three of us worked at near fever pitch trying to finish them up knowing that the company would soon be sold. All of us were pumped about our futures especially because we would soon be working more closely with Sur again. As he explained during our lunch, we were going to be his security blanket, his watchdogs and those he could trust in any circumstances. Even before we completed the last house, Ward was off to San Francisco to attend a three-month course on site security for oil and gas facilities. I was enrolled in a business accounting course at night school and Cory had started flying with Sur occasionally in order to get to know his flight crews. Randy quickly set up new offices for our new headquarters and after the closing of the rental company’s sale, we all settled in.
When Ward returned, Cory was off to a course in Los Angeles which trained individuals on the duties and responsibilities of personal assistants. When he returned, he was ecstatic about how much he had learned which included how to be security conscious in all surroundings and how to react when encountering dangerous or potentially embarrassing situations. He also learned practical things like how to make sure that proper attire and gear were always available when needed and how to react quickly and efficiently when requests were made for something. To his astonishment, he had completed the course at the top of his class. He was the perfect choice to be Sur’s personal assistant and for that matter his bodyguard too. Cory was a master at stationing himself quietly in the background and not being noticed. To him it was a little like becoming invisible in the jungle. And if anyone could spot potential trouble, it was Cory.