On the Edge

by Parker Hudson

  As she thought more about her relationship with Peter, it occurred to her that she now thought only two or three times every day about Richard and about what had happened to their relationship.

  When Amy returned home from the mountains, she called Bobbie and told her all that had happened.

  “I'm so glad,” Bobbie said, her voice obviously relieved and excited. “I can't wait to hear more about your prayer time last night. And I guess we'll have ‘expanded’ strategy sessions together now, including your parents and Mr. Sullivan, huh?”

  “Yes, I think so. And you were right. I should have involved them weeks ago. It could have saved us all a lot of trouble and a lot of problems. I just had no idea my parents would be so understanding.”

  “They love you, Amy. By the way, have you told Billy, yet?”

  “No, not yet. I think we're supposed to go out this coming weekend, and I'll tell him then.”

  “Well, let me know if I can help you. And, by the way, youth group was great this morning. I'm sorry you and Susan missed it. Glenn introduced Carrie Wagner, who will be joining our church in the early fall. She seems really nice, and I think you'll enjoy knowing her.”

  28

  MONDAY, MAY 29 – Richard's first stop that morning was by the office of his young associate, Kathy Thomas, whom he found in a telephone conversation. Seeing him, she waved him in, and in less than a minute she finished and greeted him.

  “Kathy, I know a teenage girl who may be a candidate to give up her baby for adoption. Do you have anything already written up that I can give to her and her family about how it all typically works?”

  “Yes, I do, Richard,” Kathy replied, rising and walking over to her credenza. “Here's a short paper that explains it. It's called an ‘identified adoption.’ Basically, the mother, and in this state, the father, enter into a contact with a couple to place the baby with the couple within one week after the birth. Typically the couple agree to pay all of the medical expenses associated with the pregnancy and with the childbirth. The only real risk for them is that in this evolving area of the law, the courts typically give the mother the absolute right to renege on the contract after the baby is born, if she wants to. And it's usually pretty tough, in that case, for the couple to get their money back. But we've found with proper preparation, that situation almost never happens, and despite what you sometimes read in the paper, everyone associated with the adoption usually winds up happy.”

  “I've heard that you have a list of potential parent couples. Is that accurate?”

  “Absolutely. We can go through quite a list. I usually do a preliminary screening myself and then give the expectant mother summaries on five to seven couples. She and I then work through them, and usually we find one or two for her to consider seriously. If she doesn't like any of them, I bring her five more.”

  “Well, I may also have a candidate couple in mind. What about confidentiality?”

  “In some cases we act as a buffer between the parties. But frankly these days we find that both the girl and the couple often appreciate knowing each other. Once the adoption is completed, the mother has no legal recourse, and that's usually the end of the relationship. But in the beginning, it sometimes seems to make both parties feel better to meet each other.”

  “Thanks, Kathy. You've been most helpful, as always. Listen, how about giving me a couple of copies of your summary, and sometime this week I may have you meet with the girl, at least, and maybe her parents.”

  After lunch, Richard called Janet and learned that Tom Spence and Officer Higgins were both making slow, but steady, progress. The hospital had scheduled the second operation for Officer Higgins in the morning, and Janet volunteered to pray for them at 9:00 that evening. Richard told her that he would like to join her, and then she let him know that the funeral for Officer Talmadge was scheduled for the next afternoon at three. Janet told him that she understood Bob Grissom would be flying back into the city and would attend the funeral.

  Richard's next call was to Marty Tsongas. “Marty, hi. This is Richard Sullivan. Listen, if you've got an update on our deal, please let me know, but I'm really calling on another matter.”

  “The timing doesn't seem to have changed on Mr. Tomlinson's estate, Richard. But they do seem to be making progress. We may have a more definitive final date by the end of this week, and if we do, I'll call you. What else can I help you with?”

  “Somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember that you or Patrick Tomlinson mentioned in passing that he and his wife had been unable to have children and that they were trying to arrange an adoption. Was I imagining that, or am I right?”

  Marty laughed. “No, counselor, you aren't imagining things quite yet. You still probably have a few good years left. That is the case. And, in fact, Patrick and Kate are almost desperate to have children, but the doctors have told them that it's unlikely they will ever be able to do so naturally.”

  “OK. Thanks, Marty. That's great. Listen, I may have a candidate for them in a wonderful teenage girl whom our family happens to know very well. It's a difficult situation, as they all are, but her family will, I think, be supportive of her. She already had the courage to walk out of an abortion clinic just minutes before the baby was to be terminated. So for a lot of reasons, we'd like to help her.”

  “That does sound promising, Richard.”

  “I wanted to call you first, Marty, not just to be sure I was accurate, but also to seek your OK to have one of our attorneys talk either to you or to Patrick directly, given the fact that we're working on this other deal. I want to be sure that communication on the adoption is OK with you.”

  “By all means, Richard. Go ahead and call Patrick directly, and I hope you're successful.”

  “Well, it wouldn't be fair to move the Tomlinsons to the head of the list, and for some unknown reason they may not even be the right potential parents, but I at least want to put their names in the pot with the attorney here in our office who handles a lot of adoptions. So if you're talking to Patrick in the next day or two, you might tell him that Kathy Thomas from our office will probably be calling him.”

  “I'm sure he'll appreciate the call. And so do I,” Marty said, and he told Richard goodbye.

  TUESDAY, MAY 30 – That Tuesday morning, Glenn Jamison picked Tommy up a little after 7:00 and took him out for breakfast at the Twenty-four Hour Cafe, not far from Northpark High. Tommy had never been to breakfast one-on-one with a nonfamily adult, and he was very happy to be there with all of the businessmen and businesswomen having their “power breakfasts.”

  For Glenn's part, a large part of his ministry was relationship building so that the teenagers at Morningside Church had an adult alternative who was feeding them the Word of God, as a balance to all of the other things which they were being fed by the media, their friends, and others.

  All during breakfast, Glenn asked Tommy a lot of questions, trying to get to know him better. Finally, when the food on their plates had almost disappeared, Glenn asked, “How about God? Is God a part of your life, Tommy?”

  “I don't know, Glenn,” answered Tommy. “But He sure has become a part of my dad's life lately. Dad has been reading the Bible and praying and trying to help Susan and me understand about God ever since he went to that prayer breakfast.”

  “Tommy, that's great. Do you know how lucky you are to have a father like that?”

  “Yeah, I guess so. And the amazing thing is that he really has changed. But as for me, I don't know. I mean I'm just fourteen years old, and I guess I've got a lot of time to think about God and stuff like that. I mean, I like your church and the youth group, and I like talking with Dad about God, so I guess, yes, He's in my life; but I don't really think about it too much.”

  “I understand, Tommy. Again, you're just blessed to have a father and a church where you can at least hear about your heavenly Father. So many kids today don't have a chance to hear that. But let me tell you, from my experience you're right at the age wh
ere your life is going to start filling up with something. Hopefully it will be God, and His will for you. But it could just as easily—in fact, more easily—be drugs, sex, pornography, rock music, alcohol, violence—I mean, it's just terrible what's out there. And most kids these days seem to wind up being influenced by some or all of them. It's true for people at any age, but particularly at your age, that each one of us is kind of like a glass, and we can fill ourselves up with one thing or the other. And I just pray, and I urge you, that fourteen is not too early to be thinking about what you're filling yourself with. Is it going to be God, or is it going to be something else, and particularly something else that can hurt you or maybe even destroy you? I know this is kind of serious for a Tuesday morning breakfast, but all I ask is that you think about it.”

  “Yeah. OK. Sure.” Thinking about his experiences with the videos and the older boys, Tommy was surprised to realize that Glenn had described him exactly. His glass was, in fact, filling up with something which was not good. “Yeah, I'll think about it. And thanks a lot for breakfast.”

  “Hey, I enjoyed it. We'll do it again soon, and I hope I'll see you on Sunday morning.”

  “Me, too.”

  * * *

  “Janet, could you join Bob Grissom and me for lunch today?” Bill Shaw asked her Tuesday morning. “He's coming back to go to the funeral for the police officer, and he said he wanted to talk with a few of us about ‘911 Live.”’

  “That's fine, Bill. Can Connie Wright and Phil Tenneyson come too? Phil has shared Tom and Connie's views, and with Tom in the hospital, I think it would be good for Phil to be there.”

  “Well, I hadn't planned on this being a big meeting. If we invite them, we should probably have sandwiches in the conference room.”

  “That's fine with me, Bill. Their group really began this discussion, and I certainly don't want them to be cut out of any later talks. You said you would be fair-handed, so I think you need to invite them.”

  “OK, OK. I'll invite them. Unless I call you back, I'll see you in the conference room at noon. What kind of sandwich would you like?”

  Bob Grissom still had two Band-aids on his forehead where the flying glass cut him on Friday night. He and Bill were already seated in the conference room at noon when Janet entered. Bob greeted her pleasantly, and soon Connie Wright and Phil Tenneyson joined them. Five styrofoam-covered sandwich plates were on the table, and soft drinks were lined up on the credenza. After everyone began eating, Bob started speaking. “Obviously it was a great tragedy, what happened here on Friday night. Bill and I were right in the middle of it, and of course it's terrible about Officer Talmadge, whose funeral I'm attending this afternoon. By the way, our network is donating a thousand dollars to the memorial education fund for his children, and a thousand to the police department retirement fund. And I understand that Tom Spence and the other officer are at least holding their own at the hospital. Bill, do you know whether there are any leads on catching those guys?”

  “I called the chief investigator on the case this morning. He said that with our video they could positively identify the driver. And they found the stolen white sedan late the next morning, abandoned. But so far there has been no trace of the man himself.”

  Bob nodded. “Well, hopefully they'll catch him, along with his friends who pulled the triggers. I'll never forget his face as long as I live. Anyway, let's talk about the new show.

  “Mark Pugh and I met yesterday with the entire production staff in New York, along with the head of network programming. They all watched the tape of the complete show, and I have to say that they, as well as we, were very impressed.

  “Except for what happened to us, which was obviously an anomaly anyway, because we wouldn't be there when the real show is airing, they think that the test run proved the concept is not only valid, but exciting and workable.”

  Janet looked at Connie and Phil, who had put down their sandwiches and were listening with obvious disbelief.

  “We've talked to our technical people, and they can insert a thirty-second delay, which will allow us to black-out either a part of the screen, or the entire screen, if something really awful happens right in front of the camera. But, for example, we never saw those machine gun shots actually hitting the officers, because the minicam was focused on the car when they were firing. We've also decided to implement a policy that if, like what happened to us, the camera or any other part of our production becomes the focus of what is happening, we'll cut away so that we do not affect the action by our presence.

  “When you think about it, with no visual on the police officers and none of the close-ups of what was happening to us, it was really a pretty tame show.” Bob smiled and looked around the table.

  Connie spoke. “Mr. Grissom, we sat and watched at least three hoodlums kill one officer and badly wound another, plus our colleague, Tom Spence, live and in color. How can you possibly say it was ‘tame,’ and propose that we broadcast it into living rooms all across the nation? Can't you see that a steady diet of murder and violence from this show, plus the copycats and variations that will inevitably spring up, will have an effect on all of us? On our whole society?”

  “Look…Connie, isn't it? Our job is to show our viewers what's really happening, if they want to see it. It's not my job to think about what might happen in our society at some time in the future.”

  The debate began and went on for about thirty minutes. Janet said little in the beginning, letting Connie and Phil carry the argument. But Bob and Bill continued to put them down and to act as if a live television show broadcast coast to coast to tens of millions of people was no more important than a single handbill posted on a fence. It was all “free speech” and was separate from any consequences on society, which were other people's responsibility to monitor and to mold. As Janet listened to the debate, she couldn't help thinking of the strong women she had recently met. Besides Connie, there were Anne Meredith, Sandy Spence, Florence Higgins, and even Amy Bryant. She said a silent prayer, asking God to give her just a portion of the courage and resolve she had seen in these women.

  Finally, when it was apparent that neither side would change the mind of the other, Janet did something neither Bill Shaw nor Bob Grissom expected: She took a stand. “Bill, I know you pay my salary, with help from Bob. And I want to work here for a long time and do a good job for this station and this network. But what you have been saying today is, in my opinion, a crock of garbage. What we saw Friday night should not be in our viewers’ homes, live and without editing. I don't know exactly where it says so, but it must be that we have a responsibility about what we show. We can't just shrug it off by saying ‘it's what's happening.’ I hope your decision is not set in stone and that you will reconsider it or modify the program some more…something. And if you don't want to think about ‘society,’ just focus on Mrs. Talmadge and her children in a little while at the funeral. And think about all the other innocent people who will die if our society becomes totally numb to the reality of violence and death.” With that, she stood up, nodded at both of them, and left the room.

  WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 – “So…I'm so glad we're finally able to meet for lunch,” Michael Andrews said, extending his hand to Richard and smiling. “Here, please pull up a chair and sit down. I usually just try to have an informal lunch in my office when I'm getting to know people, and I'm sorry my schedule has been so crazy for the past couple of weeks. But I'm delighted that you're here now.”

  “Thank you very much,” Richard replied. “I'm also glad we have the opportunity to get to share some time together.”

  “Is that order OK?” Michael's secretary asked, preparing to leave the two men alone.

  “Yes, it looks just right. Tuna salad on toasted rye bread,” Richard said. “Always my favorite.” She smiled and left, closing Michael's office door behind her.

  There then followed a very pleasant, relaxed lunch, during which Richard told Michael about his personal history and how that history
had changed, starting only a few weeks before at the prayer breakfast. “I can't thank you and your church enough for sponsoring the prayer breakfast,” Richard said. “It's really hard to describe to you what a difference God has already made, not only in my life, but in the lives of our family members and friends. My wife, Janet, asked Christ to come into her life early Saturday morning, when we were dealing with the tragedy. And I think there are already some subtle differences in our children, just as the Bible promises, and just as you have indicated in the sermons we've heard here. By the way, we're really enjoying Morningside Church. That young man who runs your youth group has been a tremendous blessing to our children, and we'd like to find out more details on how to join the church.”

  Michael sat back in his chair, smiled, and said, “We give God all the praise for changing lives like yours so totally. I thank Him that we can be just a small part of what He does, and I have to tell you that it has really rekindled my own spirit to see all the effects of the prayer breakfast. Lord willing, we'll do another one, either in the fall or next spring.”

  “Well, I hope I can help when it happens. If nothing more than driving someone's car to his garage, I'd like to help other men find what I've found.”

  Michael laughed. “Don't worry. All you have to say is ‘I want to help’ around here, and you'll have lots of folks beating a path to your door. But one of the things we've consciously sought as the church has grown is to spread out all the responsibilities among various lay leaders and to change the roles every year. The last thing we want is for any small group to be perceived as running this church. Because we firmly believe that only God runs this church.”