Restoration

by J. F. Krause

  Of course, the teachers are the ultimate guardians of the children who are orphans. If an adoptive parent appears neglectful or too absent, teachers or counselors talk with them and get to the bottom of the problem. If the guardian is too busy, the teaching staff can arrange to lighten their work-loads. If the guardian is having second thoughts about being a substitute parent, the school works to rectify things for the child. The guardian isn’t shamed or judged, but the child is relocated. That has happened a few times. It happened with Anna and Chanelle. In that case, Anna instigated the move and it was agreed to by all, including Chanelle, that she would be rehoused with Kevin and me as sort of substitute guardians. Rehousing the orphans has been a lot more common than most people realize. It was just done quietly. Some of the rehousing came about because the children themselves requested it. All of the children through age14 have guardians, and most of the 15 and 16 year olds also have guardians assigned to them. If a 15 or 16 year old prefers, they can live in a dorm, but they all have either an assigned guardian or a mentor. Some mentors check in on several teenagers who live in the dorm. In addition to that, most of the older teens, the ones who were 17 and up decided to live in the fraternity and sorority houses near campus. There were assigned mentors there, too, but they were very nominal, mainly to make sure no one was allowed to wither away.

  Lydia was nominally Anna’s mentor and Marco was Zach’s. Todd originally lived with Anna, his sister but he also requested that I be his mentor. That’s why he’s now in the basement of Calloway house, and that makes Kevin and me his semi-official guardians.

  The Calloway basement, by the way, is pretty a cool place to live. There’s a big game room where Todd and Chanelle have their drums. There are a three bedrooms with their own attached bathrooms. There’s a piano in its own practice room, and a separate powder room. That’s also where the laundry room is. And there is an elevator that we have seldom used, but I think the kids play in it from time to time. Finally, there is a small kitchen, eating area, and media room. Calloway was designed, as I understand it, for longer term visitors to the University. It’s actually a small residential hotel.

  Kids are expected to study as part of the lower level education system until they finish the high school curriculum. In the old days this would usually take them until they were about 18. But now, because of the longer days, and the longer school year, kids are easily able to finish by the age of 16 or even younger despite a more rigorous curriculum. Beginning in September, they will be able to go to a vocational school or college while they wait to go to their Gap Year at about 16 and a half. Due to the education she’s getting starting as a baby, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dinah were able to finish the rather demanding high school curriculum by the time she’s 13 or 14. After all, she will have had a longer school day, as well as a longer school week if need be to accommodate the guardians. Her school is also available all year long. A child could literally be in school from 7 AM to 7:30 PM seven days a week, 12 months a year. Of course, that would trigger the aforementioned discussion between the school counselors and the guardian about whether having a ward is working out. I drop our kids off after we have breakfast at the food court, usually at about 7:30 AM, and Kevin shows up to volunteer about 2:30 PM. I join them at 5 PM and we go home to eat or stop by the food court again. The docents are usually at work with the kids all afternoon teaching everything from different instruments for the school’s band and orchestra to sewing, cooking, gardening, sports, ISL, art, science, language, self-defense, and, yes, gun safety. Jerry, for instance, has already completed units on ISL, sewing, science, and gun safety. He’ll come back to them again later, but for now, he’s passed the curriculum and moved on. He will continue working on his band instrument and taekwondo for as long as he likes since there is no top level. He studies Mandarin during the early part of the school day and can get additional practice in it during the afternoon if his chooses. Somehow, he manages to squeeze in some extra practice most days. Courses are taught in both Spanish and English in the dual immersion program.

  Kevin serves as the playground nurse for two and half hours every day, but when he’s not bandaging kids, he supervises piano practice or helps out with taekwondo, and intramural basketball. He’d rather volunteer at the school than work at the small hospital where his real job is. At least that’s what he says. I know he loves being a nurse, so he must really love working at the school. We never take advantage of the longer school week, but we know it’s there if we were to need it.

  The Scandinavians were right on the mark about sex education being part of the cure for teenage promiscuity. I suspect that nothing puts kids off sexual experimentation better than having a teacher talk about it and then having to take a test on it. Something is helping keep the teen pregnancies a bay.

  Like I said, we need the babies, but we need them in loving homes. So far that seems to be what is happening with our adults who are getting pregnant right and left. I don’t know how well we’ll stand up to so many newborns, but I’m hoping Irma is right and we’ll have lots of retired people redeploy from teaching classes for adults, to working with kids or substituting for their parents. Irma’s in her early forties and she’s not the oldest. A woman in the electrician group is forty-eight! She’ll be forty-nine when the baby is born. Dr. Mary is really monitoring her since this will actually be her first child. I’m guessing that working in a heavily male field had something to do with it. She actually didn’t know who the father was so there are three men, all in their fifties, who have stepped up to the plate to be responsible fathers. Lucky kid. She, of course was one of our accidental pregnancies who, nonetheless, couldn’t be happier with the result of her ‘therapy’ sessions.

  The Alberta fire is still going strong. A few years ago, Yellowstone had a fire that burned for weeks. I’m told that forests need to burn every now and again. I’m hoping we get back to some sort of equilibrium regarding forest fires because this is nerve wracking. And now there is a prairie fire in Kansas. It isn’t big and it appears to be burning itself out, but we just aren’t used to things like this. I’m finding myself dreading all the tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and everything else mother nature can throw our way.

  August 28

  I had to attend my first Coalition meeting with George present last week. He hasn’t changed except he’s read up on his Robert’s Rules. He doesn’t understand them, and he’s a little slow, but he knows more than he used to. Technically, he shouldn’t be part of the Coalition meetings since Panhandle is part of the North American group and they already have their representatives, but Panhandle argued that until they can participate in the election of the North American representatives, something that will be scheduled for every couple of years after the Speakers have their next regular get-together in a couple of weeks.

  When Panhandle was admitted, it was decided that it wouldn’t be fair that their voice wasn’t heard. I’m sure that, already, the Coalition representatives are regretting letting George sit in on their meetings. I don’t have any sympathy for them. We meet once a week for a few hours, and I report what is happening as reported to me by the communities. There are few Coalition-wide votes taken since the Representatives are here primarily for discussion purposes only. The Community Speakers don’t want to give any power to their representatives so this body isn’t allowed to make many decisions. They discuss what they would like to do, they try to reach a consensus on a subject, and then we move on. When I get a sense of the will of the body, I am supposed to report that back to the Speakers and ask for their voluntary cooperation. It’s very cumbersome, but I’m okay with that. In an emergency, and only an extreme one at that, the Representatives can actually make a decision for the good of the Coalition. And every once in a while, I make a recommendation without having had a discussion of the Representatives to give me a sense of the will of the body. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s how we do it. Usually, during discussions that I have to fa
cilitate, someone will ask me what I think, and sometimes I tell them. I’ve noticed that immediately after I do that the discussion changes. It seems to get more focused. Again, I don’t know if that’s a good thing either, but it’s the way things are. Another thing, it appears that I don’t have a term of office. Evidently, that was overlooked when my position was set up. I’m the Executive Director until I quit or they fire me. I don’t have any actual power, I just have influence. I once heard a lecture on the two types of influential people. One type has influence and the other type is influential. The type that has influence, for example, knows the mayor and plays bridge with her every Friday evening. The type that is influential doesn’t really know the mayor, and doesn’t know how to play bridge, but this person knows how to get people to picket the mayor’s house every Friday night. I don’t know which of the two types of influencers I am. Maybe I’m both!

  During the last meeting, George didn’t like what someone said so he demanded I call them out of order. When I declined, he challenged the chair. The other reps sided with me so that should have been the end of it, but then he attacked me for being the king of the Coalition. I called that out of order since he was insulting a member of the body, me. He challenged me again, and I won the challenge vote again. So I was trying to move on when he tried to disrupt again and I stated I’d have him removed if he persisted. We barely avoided having to drag him out of the conference room. Now that he actually represents someone, Panhandle, George is an even bigger nuisance than before.

  A meeting that should have lasted two hours lasted over four.

  September 4

  Our schools were expected to start a new school year today, and they did, but the teachers decided to back date the school year to July 1. It doesn’t matter, really, when all the kids more or less work at their own pace. So, Jerry is now a sixth grader, but his teachers say he’s already mostly finished with the sixth grade curriculum. He’s 11 and will turn 12 at the end of January. Jerry’s birthday was a few days after The Sickness, and we missed it. It was about two weeks after we moved to SLO that Charlie told me about it. Both boys are very smart and responsible, but while Jerry’s defining characteristic is practicality, Charlie’s is sensitivity. He doesn’t walk around crying or anything like that, he’s just very attuned to people’s moods. He knew we were all frantic and that Jerry didn’t want to bother us, but the moment he sensed things were calming down a bit, he quietly brought it to Kevin’s and my attention. We immediately had a little family and friends party, and none too soon since the next day I was shot, and things got hectic all over again. Charlie’s birthday was the next month so we did something for him, too. Jerry’s favorite cake is carrot, Charlie’s is lemon, Chanelle’s is chocolate, Chad’s is anything with frosting, and Dinah’s is all over her face.

  At first, we took all the kids to the Episcopal Church on Sunday, and Chanelle to the Buddhist service on Sunday afternoon. Todd went to the Jewish service on Friday evening with Cynthia. On Sunday evening, after dinner, Kevin and I fell into the habit of going to the Zoroastrian fire temple that has been erected on one of the hills not far from campus. That’s where Dr. Rouhani, my surgeon, usually went to worship, and we enjoyed talking with him.

  Now, we have evolved a pattern for Sunday. We all go to the Episcopal Church where we have coffee or tea with the other parishioners. Then we have lunch at home and all of us walk to the garden on campus where the Buddhists gather for their relatively short service. Chanelle stays to talk with one of the older worshipers. Chanelle is studying to become a Tibetan Buddhist. Meanwhile, the rest of us go home and play a board game, or read together, or play shuffle board, foosball, ping pong, or pool in the basement. (Like I said, the basement is big.) During this time Chanelle rejoins the family. Later, we walk to one of the small restaurants that are popping up in town to have an early dinner before we walk up the little hill to the small fire temple where Dr. Rouhani talks to a growing group of people about Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. Then, we go home and spend a few minutes, each alone with our own thoughts. After that, Kevin and I put Dinah to bed, followed by Chad, then Charlie, and finally Chanelle and Jerry. One night I say goodnight to Chanelle, and Kevin says good night to Jerry, and then we reverse it. It amounts to about twenty minutes for each child. We started this because, all of them, except for Dinah, used to have problems going to sleep and often woke up with nightmares. We still have monitors in each of their rooms in case they need comfort during the night. We do the bedtime thing every night. I’ve come to regard Sunday as my favorite day of the week, and I have no problem feeling Episcopalian while simultaneously feeling Zoroastrian and Buddhist. Of course, I don’t really know what any of these groups actually believe; I just enjoy the atmosphere. Besides, there’s nothing I want to watch on TV.

  September 11

  We usually have our Representatives meeting on Thursday since most of the local communities have their own local leadership meetings on Friday. It’s something we started in SLO before the Coalition was formed and most of the communities just followed suit. The Representatives have their meeting on Thursday so they can report via conference call with their home communities before or during the local Friday meetings. I used to sit in on the SLO local meeting since I live here, but I was too distracting so I now just chill in my office. None of these meetings last long, or at least they didn’t until George showed up again. After the local SLO meeting I like to have lunch with Lydia, and whoever shows up from SLO. Often, it’s a big group.

  So on Thursday, at the Representatives’ meeting, George was all full of himself and ready to be his usual nuisance. We’d just agreed to the agenda and the Australian Representative had just asked to borrow a team of airplane mechanics because the Australian crew of mechanics was getting overwhelmed by their service schedule. This made sense since much of their travel is over long distances and the use of trains, buses, trucks, and automobiles makes less sense there when traveling between communities involves greater distances than it does in most places. The Australians know this is a problem almost unique to them and have sent a fairly large contingent of personnel to Oklahoma City where we are currently training large engine and equipment mechanics for jets, prop planes, train engines, and some of the naval ships. It’s going to take a while, maybe several years before they have enough mechanics who are skilled enough to meet all their needs.

  Without being recognized to speak after the Australian made her request, George rose to his feet to complain. “The Australian representative’s request is misplaced. If she wants assistance from Oklahoma City, she should address them with her request. This body doesn’t tell local communities what to do.”

  I knew what was coming. Had he asked to be recognized and then asked a question about jurisdiction, he would have been fine, but he barged in and made a statement that wasn’t true.

  “The Representative from Panhandle is out of order. Please wait for recognition and then you may ask questions if you believe there is clarification needed.”

  “Screw that! Listen Caldwell, I’m sick of your pompous royalty act. We have rules or we don’t. Oklahoma City doesn’t have to do what this useless group of foreigners and traitors tells them to do.”

  I was gaveling him the whole time, and he just ignored me so I nodded to Jovantha who serves as the, previously totally unneeded, sergeant-at-arms. George saw this and immediately changed course. “Ok, I see you have your trained Amazon slave all cocked and ready. I’ll sit down.”

  That was a relief. Jovantha is definitely trained, and at six feet even of honed athleticism, she was certainly cocked and ready. But Jovantha is no one’s slave and she dislikes George at least as much as I do and has the scar to prove it. She’d have duck-walked George out of the room before he knew where he was going. I gently used ISL to indicate that it was under control. George saw that, too, but didn’t understand what I just said. He actually braced himself.

  “I’m going to take your comments as a demand
for information. First, don’t use profanity or pejorative remarks in these meetings. Second, don’t speak out of turn. Third, while the Representative from Australia mentioned Oklahoma City, her request for volunteers is through the Coalition and will be passed on as we do all requests for volunteers. Finally, the training facility being referenced is actually on the Tinker Air Force base site and is under the control of the Joint Coalition Military Command, and this body, as a whole, has authority over that body, and the instructors and the trainees at that training center come from all over the Coalition. Any further outbursts from you will result in your immediate removal. Your comments to me and to your fellow representatives were offensive. I believe you owe all of us here, including Sergeant-at-arms Jovantha Barnes an apology. Your statement about her was misogynistic, racist, and personally insulting. As a point of personal privilege, I am giving you one minute to make your apology to those you offended. If you fail to comply, I will ask the body to immediately eject you from this meeting.”

  I was furious because of his comments generally but particularly because of what he’d said about Jovantha. He could see he had crossed a line. One of his bigger problems is that he doesn’t have good impulse control. A little bit of filtering would have saved him from this particular self-inflicted injury.

  George knew I’d eject him from the room so, after what was a painfully long moment of absolute silence, he started to speak. Then he noticed my finger pointing at him telling him to stand. “I, uh, uh, apologize for, uh my language just now. I’m sorry I said you are all traitors. Uh, uh, and I’m sorry for what I said to, uh, about, uh Miss Barnes.”