by Don Potter
‘Once again, the scorpion story was not known to me. If I had known, I would have called you back. But you sensed the problem and came back safe and sound.
‘Whatever tomorrow brings, I want you to continue the search for angels. This is not for the profits to be earned by selling the treasures but for the peace their message can bring to the world.
‘I want you to continue my work if anything happens to me. My attorney has the details. God bless you, Joshua Parker.’
“You are going to have a great deal of money with which to continue Mr. Parker’s work,” the attorney said when Kurt appeared for dinner. The two men sat alone in the enormous dining room and talked their way through the meal.
“How familiar are you with his work?”
“I have been responsible for memorializing every thing he has done over the years. And I have been appointed the executive director of the foundation that he wants you to run, if you are willing to accept it.”
“And just exactly what does the foundation do and what is expected of me?”
“You read the letter he wrote?”
“Yes.”
“He read it to me the night before he died. Seems he had a premonition that things might go poorly. It wasn’t a bolt of lightening. It was the power of the angels.”
“Well, I’m not quite sure; it happened so fast.”
“Don’t worry. This conversation, and all others we have, will be protected under client/attorney privilege.”
“The answer to your question is yes. He plugged an angel into each end of the device and zap.”
“He was afraid that more information was needed. That will be your first task as managing director of Universal Knowledge Institute.”
“What.”
“It’s the foundation. You will continue to search for angels and the truth they offer mankind. For this you will receive a handsome six figure salary, all expenses and whatever else you need so long as you are diligent in your work.”
“And who determines if I am sufficiently diligent in my work.”
“You, Mr. Mason, you. This is a spiritual quest. And only the seeker will know if the internal flame subsides. Are you game?”
“Let me sleep on it.”
“Certainly. See you for breakfast at eight.”
Kurt was surprised and flattered by the offer. He had no idea about what was behind Parker’s passion for finding treasures. Knowing it was not the money that motivated the man was a revelation. “It might be rewarding to do this kind of work,” Kurt thought. “But is it really right for me and am I right for it?”
He unrolled a map of the world on the top of a large desk at one end of the room. The map kept rolling up, so he reached in his pocket and took out the tiny angel he found near Roswell and used it as a paperweight.
Next he drew a line from the spot where he found the first angel through what was the third dig and on to southern Africa. “Nothing new here,” he thought.
His eyes moved to the western hemisphere. The angel was resting on the map at the precise spot where he found her near Roswell. Her one hand was pointing south. Kurt measured the length of the Europe to Africa line and drew a parallel line representing the same distance. It extended nearly to the tip of South America. He calculated the spot where the third dig occurred and marked a corresponding coordinate in Panama.
“This is it,” he said as he finished connecting the lines on what was a perfect parallelogram while the words of Josh Parker rang in his mind. “He was right. The angels have shown me the way. This time maybe there will be an operating manual that goes with the find.” He laughed and picked up the phone.
“Okay, I’m in,” Kurt said to the attorney on the other end. “I’ll need some cash, a line of credit, and plane tickets. As soon as I get there, I’ll let you know what else you can help me with.”
“Where are you going?”
“Tomorrow I’m on my way to the Patagonia region of Argentina. After that it’s back north to Panama.”
“I thought you were going give me your decision in the morning?”
“Couldn’t wait. Got a date with an angel.”
SOBER
Nora finally summoned the courage to ask Elaine to be her AA sponsor. This was the most difficult thing she had done since getting sober nearly three months earlier.
She rehearsed her little speech throughout the entire six o’clock Alcoholic’s Anonymous meeting and did not hear anything that went on during the hour. Nora was so engrossed in herself she had to be nudged by the person seated next to her to join in the Serenity Prayer at the close of the meeting.
Before Elaine could leave the crowded room and head for the parking lot, Nora grabbed her arm and said, “I really need to talk with you. Can we go have a cup of coffee somewhere?”
“I’m late for a business meeting. But if you walk me to my car and we can chat on the way.”
“Well I only wanted to ask if you’d be my sponsor,” Nora blurted out. “If you don’t have time now, we can talk about it later.” She felt relieved just getting this request out from her frightened inner self.
“We can talk about it later. But I can tell you this you’ve got to be serious about this program if you want me for a sponsor. I’m not a marriage counselor, an employment agency, or a financial consultant; but I will be honored to take you through the twelve steps. On the other hand, you’ve got to be willing to take direction and be honest with yourself as well as me. If you’re able to commit to these terms, we can make it work.”
Elaine had definite rules about the way she expected things to be done, but Nora had noticed this imperious side of her before. It was one of the things that attracted her to Elaine in the first place.
“What do you want me to do? I’ll do anything to stay sober.” Nora pleaded.
“Glad to see you’re ready to get started. You have a Big Book?”
“Yes, but I haven’t done much reading. Lots of meetings, that’s been the extent of my program so far,” Nora admitted.
“Hey, doing that one day at a time takes a lot of effort, especially in the beginning,” Elaine acknowledged. “Now it’s time to move to the next level. Read the material carefully, underline, and make notes in the columns. We’ll do the first step as soon as you’ve done the reading.”
“I’ll start tonight.”
“Good. And call every morning so you get in the habit of talking to me. Here’s my number. I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow. Toodles.” Elaine closed the door to her Mercedes convertible and raced away, leaving Nora both pleased and a little overwhelmed.
Beverly Hills was not far from Santa Monica, but with normal traffic, the trip would take half-an-hour. In fact any place in the Los Angeles area that is considered not far takes half-an-hour to get there. As she swung onto Wilshire Boulevard, Elaine started to mentally organize what she planned to say to her ex-husband and current business partner, Ross. These thoughts consumed her until she turned on Camden Drive and pulled up to the valet in front of The Grill. This is not the place she would normally have chosen, but tonight is different. The food is always good but the restaurant is brightly lit and loud. They will be noticed but not heard unless Ross acts up, which he is prone to do. So he must avoid a scene and the possible gossip resulting from it.
Ross Stone was seated at a table in the bar and nearly finished with his first martini. Elaine glanced at her watch; she was ten minutes late. They exchanged greetings without touching one another. Elaine sat down, asked for an iced tea, and he ordered another drink.
“So what’s this important matter you want to discuss? Ross said as he fiddled with the stem of his martini glass.
“I want to buy you out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t afford to buy me out,” he boasted.
“The industry has changed. When you started the company, there were lots of independent business managers and agents in the entertainment field. Later, after I launched our publicity department, it was more a
service to existing clients. Now, most of our income is derived from our expanded public relations activities.”
“So?”
“The business can’t afford two big salaries...”
“You planning to take a cut?” he interjected. Sarcasm was his stock-in-trade.
“Please, Ross, I’m trying to be serious.
“I am being serious.”
“What seems to make sense is for you to take the management clients to one of the big shops where they’ll make you a partner. It’ll give you a platform from which to grow. I’ll open a PR agency under my own name, since you never wanted me to be known as Stone. My attorney has prepared a buyout payment plan to provide you with some meaningful income over the next five years. That way we’ll both be able to do the kind of work we like, and we won’t have to be together each day pretending we get along.”
“Isn’t that just ducky. You sell me on hiring you as my assistant. We have an affair. You talk me into getting divorced. We get married. You convince me to let you play PR lady. You turn into a lush. We get divorced. And now you want to take over the business and I get to go work for somebody else. Is this supposed to be a good deal for me, or have you fallen off the wagon and it’s the booze talking?”
“No, I’m still sober. But this should not be a surprise to you. It’s not like this just happened over night. Our marriage was over when you started running around with that starlet. You said everything would change when she signed a contract with us. You were right, everything did change. You stopped working, and I became a drunk. I stopped being a drunk five years ago, but you never started working again. Now she’s gone, I’m gone, and the business is about to be gone.”
“Where did you get this newly acquired flair for the melodramatic, something you acquired from AA meetings?”
She ignored his comment and said, “Look, I knew you wouldn’t like my suggestion, but it’s the only sensible way to cut the umbilical cord and start our lives over. Fresh starts can work wonders.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Elaine. But the only way you’ll ever get your hands on the business I started is over my dead body.” Ross Stone drained his second drink and defiantly marched out of the restaurant. No one seemed to noticed.
She remained calm, at least on the outside, and sipped her iced tea. Fifteen minutes pasted while Elaine rethought the situation. She snapped back to reality when her ever-present cell phone signaled an incoming call. Elaine did not recognize the number but answered the call anyway.
“It’s me, Nora. Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time, but something terrible has happened. I wanta drink.”
“Don’t do anything. My meeting is over. So let’s meet somewhere and talk about it before you do something you’ll be sorry for later.”
“Really? How soon? Where?”
“You know the coffee shop on Lincoln near the freeway?” Elaine continued without waiting for an answer, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Better make it half-an-hour.”
Elaine walked into the tired-looking restaurant and spied Nora in the back corner. As she slid into the booth where the seat cushion had been patched with gaffers tape, the sponsee greeted her by asking, “Do you come here often?”
“Are you kidding? I haven’t been in this dump since my early days of sobriety. Used to come here with the other AA people who had no place to go after meetings. It was bad enough then. Hard to believe it could have gotten worse. It was the first place that came to mind. We’re here now, so tell me why you want to drink.”
“I’m so upset. I could kill him. Scratch his eyes out. Poison him. Something. Anything. I want to hurt him like he hurt me. How could he do this? I’m sober, so why would he leave me. Doesn’t he know I stopped drinking for him?” Nora could not hold back the tears any longer. She cupped her hands, covered her eyes, and began to cry.
Elaine reached across the table and gently touched Nora’s arm. Her sponsee peaked between her masking fingers and said, “I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. Don’t hold it in. Let it go. Nothing is better than a good cry to cleanse the soul and prepare you for the next step. In your case, I’m talking about the first step in the AA program. You’ve already admitted you’re powerless over alcohol, and now you can see that your life is unmanageable too. There’s no way you can control what other people say or do.”
“Guess you’re right about that.”
“Still want to drink?”
“Not really, but I sure wanted to before I called you.”
“The important thing is you didn’t and called me instead. Want to tell me about what happened with the relationship?”
“You said you weren’t a marriage counselor.”
“What I meant was, I don’t offer my opinion about relationships, jobs, or money. I use the steps to help me deal with life on life’s terms and try to help those I sponsor to do the same. All your problems won’t be solved tonight, but this is as good a time as any to start working through them.”
Nora dried her eyes with a scratchy napkin, took a sip of water, and said, “I heard your story at a speaker’s meeting. That’s when I decided to ask you to be my sponsor. So maybe I should tell you about me and how I ended up in Alcoholics Anonymous.”
“Good idea. Let’s have a cup of coffee. That’ll get us in the proper AA mood.”
“I can’t remember when I didn’t have feelings of inadequacy. For some reason I never quite fit in and this left me with an underlying feeling of fear. I kept it to myself but when the fear became too great inside it would surface in the form of anger. Out-of-control anger.”
“Lots of alcoholics have similar backgrounds.” Elaine did not want to interrupt Nora’s story but felt she needed to encourage her to continue by letting her know she was not the first one to have such experiences.
“By the time I reached my teens I had established a pattern of exhibiting rage when things did not go my way. But I developed into a sexy young thing, so I usually got my way, at least with the boys. As a result, I stuffed my inferior feelings and played the role of being superior. Guess I was a real pain in the ass.”
“Did you try to do anything about your behavior?”
“My parents took me to shrinks and I had some tests done. Nothing changed. All I learned was how to describe my bad behavior in more clinical terms. Later I dropped out of college. I spent the next few years jumping from job to job and from relationship to relationship. My temper got me in trouble every time. Then I had a little run in with the law, but that’s another story.”
“Okay, we don’t have to cover your entire life’s history in one sitting.”
“Anyway, less than a year ago, I met a man and moved to Los Angeles as his live-in girlfriend. It wasn’t long before the situation became unbearable. I attempted suicide to show him how unhappy I was. His solution was to demand that I stop drinking. He hated to see me this way, because his former wife was an alcoholic.”
“So you went to AA?”
“I attended a few AA meetings thinking this would make him happy. Then, after hearing the stories of other people, something clicked and I began to think this may be what I was looking for. Problem was, I went to a lot of meetings and didn’t spend as much time with him as in the past.”
“This happens sometimes with relationships. Over time people usually discover that a sober life is more important than not having their loved one home every night, particularly if they’re drunk.”
“Yeah, well he must be the exception to the rule. This guy did not like me sober. He preferred me drunk but not too sloppy – just high enough to control me and do whatever he wanted. So he finally had enough and told me we were finished. He did it by phone just minutes before I called you. Can you believe that?” Nora began to tremble.
“Do you have somewhere to stay?” Elaine asked.
“Yes. I called one of the women who came into the program about the same time I did. She’ll let me stay on her couch until I can come up with some money and mov
e on.”
“Good. Try to get a good night’s sleep. If you can’t sleep, read the Big Book. And call me on my cell in the morning.” Elaine paid the bill, and then walked Nora to the nearly empty parking lot. They hugged, got in their cars, and drove off in opposite directions.
The message light was blinking when Elaine opened the door of her Westwood condo high above Wilshire Boulevard. There was one message; it was from Ross.
“Hey Babe,” he started in an overly friendly tone. She hated when he called her that, especially since they had not been close for many years.
“Sorry for being so unreceptive to the little scheme you laid on me at the restaurant,” his message continued. “You surprised me and I probably overreacted.” Ross always made his mistakes appear to be no big deal but was fast to expand on the miscues of others.
“Give me a call or let’s plan to discuss the matter tomorrow at the office.” Switching the venue was his way of taking back control of the situation.
Elaine was angry again, more angry then she was when her ex-husband stormed out of the restaurant a few hours earlier. She was not going to return his call at this hour. Whatever he wanted to say could wait until the morning; a good night’s sleep was more important.
As usual Elaine left for the office at 8:15 AM. Nora called as she was pulling into the parking garage. “Thought I’d touch base with you now so I don’t interrupt your business day,” her sponsee said.
“That’s considerate of you, but call when you have something to discuss or the urge to drink. It doesn’t matter what time it is. I check my messages regularly, so just let me know if it’s urgent or not. What’s going on with you this morning?”
“I didn’t think I would be able to sleep and picked up the Big Book. Next thing I knew it was morning and the book lay open on my chest.”