Not being fond of driving, Morgan really didn’t want to make the four hour drive each way again on Friday. Doing it on Tuesday had been rough enough. And, he realized, if he made this trip, he’d have to do it again on Monday! “Don’t you want to hang out with your friends down there this weekend?”
“No!” Adam said, sounding like the word’d just erupted out of him. “I want… I want to hang out with my family.”
Morgan was about to tease him about Kiri, but decided not to. It’ll give me a chance to drop the theory off with Satya. It wouldn’t hurt to check in with Roger as well. Not wanting to let Adam off too easy, he produced an audible sigh and said, “Okay, you’ll have your stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“When and where?”
Friday afternoon
Morgan was talking to his friend Satya Monda. Satya wasn’t happy. “Come on Morgan. You’re asking me to do you a favor, but you’re going to demand that I sign a bunch of legal crap before I can have the privilege of doing you the favor?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Morgan said, thinking that from Satya’s viewpoint, he really was asking a lot. “I’d be happy to pay you for your time—”
Satya scoffed, “I’m not going to charge an old friend to look at his theory, but—” he shook his head in frustration.
“It’s not my theory. A friend of my brother’s came up with it. My brother’s been basing some work on transmutation—”
“Oh, come on!” Satya interrupted exasperatedly. “Transmutation? He’s not transmuting lead into gold is he?”
“Um, no, but close. I’ve, um, seen evidence that he’s gotten it to work.”
“You’ve probably seen someone pull a rabbit out of a hat too, but that still isn’t science.”
Feeling irritated, Morgan stood up, “Sorry to have bothered you—”
Satya rolled his eyes and held out a hand, “Don’t get your underwear in a twist. I owe you for that time you bailed my ass out in college. Let’s see this theory.”
Morgan hesitated, “Not until you sign the NDA. Sorry.”
“Hand it over,” Satya said with a sigh.
Satya skimmed over the NDA, then signed with a flourish and held out his hand again.
Morgan gave him the printout with the theory on it and said, “I assume it’ll take a while, so—”
Satya shook his head, “It should only take a couple of minutes. All I’ve got to do’s find a major issue or two and we’ll know it’s unworkable. Have a seat.”
Twenty minutes later, Satya looked up with the glazed expression. “I was wrong. You’re going to need to leave this with me for a day or so. Maybe a week.” He narrowed his eyes, “Who’s the guy that came up with this?”
With a helpless shrug, Morgan said, “I don’t even know. A friend of my brother’s.”
Satya frowned, “Well, ask him.”
“Um, he was killed last Thursday.”
Concern all over his face, Satya stood. When Morgan stood as well, Satya clasped him in a hug, “Sorry! I didn’t know. What happened?”
“Best guess?” Morgan asked.
Satya nodded.
Morgan waved at the papers on Satya’s desk, “It probably had something to do with that.”
Satya turned to look at it. A moment later, he said musingly, “Someone thinks it works, huh?
***
Morgan was having a late lunch with Roger when his phone rang. He looked at it and saw Alan Frank—Matilda’s CEO’s—name displayed. He looked up and saw Roger staring at the name as well. With a shrug, he accepted the call, then tapped the speaker icon so Roger’d be able to hear as well. They heard Alan’s voice, “Morgan?”
“Uh-huh,” Morgan said, trying to keep his voice neutral.
“I’m sorry—” Alan said, but didn’t go any further.
After a few moments of silence, Morgan said, “You’re sorry and you’re going to make things right? Or, you’re going through your twelve steps and you called to tell me you’re sorry you’re such an asshole? Or something else?”
The silence continued for another ten seconds, then Alan said, “I’m sorry I let Terrence talk me into this. I am sorry I’m such an asshole. And I’d like to make things right.”
“You’re going to make things right for Roger and for all the employees too?”
“Well, no, they were employees. They should never have had shares in the first place.” Roger drew a breath as if he wanted to say something nasty, but Morgan waved him to silence. Alan continued, “But Norm and I, we’re realizing that Terrence was wrong about your role. You might not have helped build the company, but you created its product.”
Controlling his voice to keep it calm, Morgan said, “Some might argue that the product is the company.”
Sounding dejected, Alan said, “You’re right.”
Morgan said, “The legal advice we’ve been getting suggests that those modified contracts you got everyone to sign won’t hold up in court. Especially since you guys, to quote, ‘secured execution of the documents by deception or fraud’ and we have evidence to prove it.”
Alan didn’t say anything. Morgan had the distinct impression that somewhere along the line, either his own lawyers or Alan’s lawyers had failed to tell Alan about the evidence. They probably thought it’d cut into their billing hours, Morgan thought cynically. He said, “Alan? You still there?”
Alan cleared his throat, “Yeah. You interested in my offer?”
“What exactly is your offer?”
“You’d get a quarter share.”
“It sounds like I’m about to hear an, ‘And in return you’ll…’ kind of clause?”
“Yeah, we’ve been having some trouble with Matilda. We’ll need your help getting her working at full speed again.”
Morgan barked a little laugh, “Sorry Alan. I don’t renege on my bargains. If you want my help, you’re going to have to give everyone their shares according to the original contracts.”
Roger and Morgan sat waiting to hear what Alan would say, but eventually Morgan’s phone simply indicated it was ready to make another call. Morgan looked up at Roger, “He hung up…”
For a moment, Roger looked disappointed. Then he said, “Thanks for sticking up for the rest of us.”
Morgan said, “Can’t imagine doing it any other way.” Inside though, he couldn’t help but wondering what a quarter share would’ve amounted to.
***
Adam was driving on their way back to Asheville. Once they got onto I-40 and Adam had settled into the routine of driving the freeway, Morgan said, “Feel up to talking?”
“Sure,” Adam said, keeping his eyes focused on the road.
“Monday night, at dinner, I couldn’t help noticing the way you kept looking at Kiri.”
“How was I looking at her?” Adam asked, sounding somewhere between defensive and irritated.
“Like a young man with a crush on a girl.”
“A crush?”
“An infatuation. Thinking you’re in love when you don’t really know the girl well enough for that to be possible. Enamored of her looks, but—”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it. You sure can read a lot into a look.”
“Do I have it all wrong?”
Adam shrugged, “When I first saw her I thought she looked— different. Unusual. The dark hair and those blue eyes— you get the feeling she can see right through you; you know?”
“Yeah, her eyes’re pretty amazing.”
“But the more I’m around her…”
Morgan waited, but Adam didn’t say anything else. Finally, he said, “I still think you sound like a young man with a crush on a girl.” He waited a beat, and when Adam didn’t say anything, he continued, “And I know she’s not really related to you, so it’s legally and morally okay. I’m just wanting you to think about the fact that she’s in mourning for her dad. That— That if she came to love you too, but then you two broke up it’s really going to be rough on her. And, rough on our little family.�
� He took a deep breath, “A family that’s so small it’d be terrible if we didn’t get along. Believe me, I know.”
Morgan had been watching Adam, so he saw Adam glance over at him. Adam said, “You know, it’s not like I’m trying to fall in love with her. It’s just that…”
“Yeah. Falling in love doesn’t feel like something you’ve got any control over, I know that. I’m just saying that I think you should think about how people’s feelings could get really hurt. Including yours, and hers, and all the people you hold dear—”
“I think about it.” Adam broke in, “Believe me, I think about it.” Adam leaned forward and pointedly turned up the radio.
I guess this conversation’s over, Morgan thought.
An hour further into their drive, Morgan’s phone rang. When he pulled it out, he saw Alan Frank’s name on the display again. He accepted the call and said, “Hello?”
Alan said, “Okay. We’ll divide it five ways.”
“Not good enough Alan. We need to comply with the contract we had before you guys tried to screw everybody over.” Morgan kept his voice as calm as he could. In a soothing tone, he continued, “Everybody’ll get plenty of money. What’d you sell it for?”
Alan didn’t speak for a moment, then reluctantly said, “Five billion.”
“There, see? Over 800 million per share’s way more money than we dreamed of when we started out.”
Abruptly Alan said, “Okay.”
“Okay, what?” Morgan asked.
“Okay, we’ll split it six ways. I’ll tell the lawyers. Can you head in to Matilda and start trying to figure out what’s wrong?”
“No. I’m on my way to Asheville—”
“Come on man! They’re all over us! We need to get it working ASAP!”
“‘Come on man’ yourself.” Morgan replied pointedly. “You could’ve had it working days ago if you hadn’t been acting like such a jerk. As soon as I get to Asheville I’ll login and start trying to figure out what’s wrong.”
“But, you’ve got to be at Matilda. We’ve blocked your access. We’ll have to restore it”
“Alan, I’m the computer guy, remember? You never actually managed to cut off my access in the first place. And, no, I don’t have to be there. I’ll start working on it when I get to Asheville. That’ll be a couple of hours.”
Grudgingly, Alan said, “Okay.”
Morgan said, “also, that’ll give you time to email me a document signed by you, Norm, and Terrence. One that repudiates that revised contract in favor of the original one.”
“But those guys have already gone home!”
“Alan, I thought you were in a hurry? I’m happy to wait till Monday to start working on it if you want.”
“Come on. I’ll get them to sign something sometime this weekend, but we need you fixing Matilda now.”
Morgan snorted, “I guess you’re thinking I should just trust you?” Morgan paused for a moment to let the question sink in, then said, “Guess what; because of some recent experiences, I’m thinking I shouldn’t. I’ll start working on it when I get that repudiation, not before. Also, send me some documentation on what the problems with Matilda have been, okay?”
When Morgan put away his phone, Adam said, sounding astonished, “833 million? Is that dollars? For Matilda?”
“Yeah, but it’s far from a done deal.”
Friday evening
Since they weren’t going to get home until eight, Morgan and Adam stopped in Statesville for a burger at Hardee’s. Morgan called Lindl and suggested they order a pizza if they didn’t want to cook.
However, when Morgan and Adam got to the house, they found Kiri putting dishes in the dishwasher. Adam said, “You guys use dishes when you eat pizza?”
She shook her head, “No, some kind of problem’s developed with our debit cards. I suspect the bank decided to cancel them when they figured out Dad died.” Adam heard Morgan mutter a curse, presumably about one more unexpected problem. Kiri laughed and continued. “So, believe it or not, Lindl cooked dinner.” She put up her fingers and making little air quotes when she said “cooked.”
“He did?” Morgan asked. “He told me he wanted to learn how to cook, but I thought he needed me to teach him.”
“Hah! I don’t know if you can really call it cooking. He broke up a pound of hamburger in an oversized skillet, then, while it was browning, he added a chopped onion, two cans of beans, a can of chopped tomatoes, some garlic salt, and some chili powder.” She grinned at Adam and Morgan, “Served it with grated cheddar and called it chili.” She leaned toward them and lowered her voice, “Actually, it wasn’t bad. But don’t tell him I said so.”
Adam said, “And you’re doing the dishes?”
She shrugged and produced a knowing smile, “Occasionally you’ve got to compromise your principles.”
Morgan looked toward the stairs, “Lindl’s up in his room? I’ll tell him thanks.”
“No,” Kiri said, “he already left for his gig.”
“Gig?” Morgan said, feeling confused.
“Yeah, his band’s playing at the Delroy.”
Morgan frowned, “I didn’t know he had a band.”
“Yep,” Kiri said, closing the dishwasher and turning it on. “They play a lot of local gigs. Dad’s rule was that Lindl could only play on weekends.” She shrugged, “Dad broke that rule occasionally for special events.”
“Is the Delroy a bar?”
Kiri shrugged. “They serve drinks, but it’s more of a dance club.”
Morgan looked a little bit alarmed, “He’s only seventeen.”
“He doesn’t drink,” Kiri said, as if the matter was closed. She shifted topic, “Can you fix the issue with our debit cards? We don’t use them very much, but they’re really handy for some things. Like an Uber when I get stuck somewhere and need a ride.”
Looking distracted, Morgan said, “I’ll fix it, but I doubt we’ll be able to do anything until Monday. It might be that you guys’ll have to go in with me. If so that’ll mean we can’t fix it until after school on Tuesday.” Morgan stood silently for a moment, then said, “I think I should go watch the show. Will you guys be okay alone tonight?”
Adam nodded, thinking that he’d love to spend time alone with Kiri. However, he felt pretty surprised his dad’d think it was okay after the little talk they’d had on the drive up.
But then Kiri said, “I’d like to go to the show. Would that be okay?”
Morgan shrugged, “Sure. It’s Friday night. Just let me check my email first.”
***
As they drove to the Delroy, Adam wondered whether he and Kiri would be allowed in. He’d had the impression that it was illegal for underage people to be in a bar, but as he thought about it, he realized he’d been in plenty of restaurants that served alcohol. When they came to the entrance, the man at the door checked their ID, giving Morgan a white wrist band and giving black wrist bands to Kiri and Adam. When Adam quietly asked Kiri about it, she explained that the black wristbands indicated they were under age and couldn’t have alcohol. “It saves the people working here trouble because they don’t have to check IDs every time someone wants to order a drink.”
They moved into a vestibule and Adam realized he heard a familiar song starting. It took him a couple of beats to realize it sounded familiar because it was something he’d heard Lindl playing in his room. Now, with drums and bass guitar it sounded much fuller.
Entering the main part of the club, Adam looked toward the music. He saw a raised stage at the far end. For a moment, he didn’t even recognize Lindl. His cousin looked— totally in his element.
The Delroy was crowded. It took Adam a while to realize that most of the crowd were young women, intently focused on the stage. Lindl began to sing, something he hadn’t done while Adam was around. He’s good! Adam thought. He looked at Lindl again. His cousin stood, legs apart in a power stance, leaning into the microphone, fingers flying over his low-slung guitar. Adam realized his cou
sin wasn’t just a master guitarist, he was handsome and charismatic.
From the expressions on their faces, evidently a lot of the young women thought Lindl was pretty amazing as well.
Adam turned to look at his dad, wondering how Morgan was reacting to this.
His dad was staring off to his right, looking shattered. Adam turned to see what his dad was staring at with such dismay. It was Tilly Arvind, Kiri’s lawyer. Arvind was with a man who had his hand casually draped over her shoulders. She was laughing up at him, perhaps at something he’d said. Why would Dad care who Ms. Arvind hangs out with? Adam wondered.
He looked back at Morgan. His dad was definitely staring at the couple and there was no doubt he looked upset. Bizarre, Adam thought, but decided it was none of his business. He started working his way through the crowd after Kiri.
Two hours later, when they left for home, Adam saw his dad glancing over at Tilly Arvind again. As they got out to where it was quieter, he turned to Morgan and said, “Wasn’t that Kiri’s lawyer?”
Morgan only nodded.
Kiri evidently heard. She said, “The lawyer that got me out of jail?”
Adam said, “Yeah, Tilly Arvind.”
“Why are you guys talking about her?” Kiri asked.
“She was there at the club,” Adam said, “listening to Lindl’s band.”
“Really?” Kiri said, “I’ll go tell her thanks.” She turned back toward the door, “They’ll let me back in with my wristband. It’ll only take a second.”
Morgan said, “No.” He sounded emphatic. “Let’s go on home, I’m tired.”
“It’ll just take—” Kiri began.
“No! Let’s go.”
Kiri gave Adam a “What the hell?” kind of look. He shook his head and leaned close enough to whisper, “Tell you later.”
***
On the drive home, Morgan kept wondering why he was so upset about Tilly being at the Delroy with some other guy. We’ve only gone to lunch twice for God’s sake, he thought to himself. There’s absolutely no reason I should think she wouldn’t go out with other guys if she got the chance.
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