by Alex Schuler
He smirked, refusing to answer her question. He logged Sam out of the system and then logged back in with his credentials. He scrolled through a list of files before finding the one he’d installed last week called “Future.” It was a simple program that Lori helped him design. Lori had pressed him on what it was for, but he told her she would have to wait. He also swore her to secrecy. He initiated the program and gave the laptop back to Sam.
“What is this?” Sam stared at the screen with confusion. Leapfrog began to move forward, stopping at the exit to the main road. “Where are we going?”
“Be patient. And don’t touch anything. Or read the details on the map’s route. Just let the program run.”
“This isn’t for the next challenge, is it? We need to plan these routes in detail, Ted. Run simulations first.”
“Relax, Sam. Sometimes it’s the unplanned events that end up being the most special.”
The Prius turned onto El Camino Real, accelerated, and settled into the traffic, humming along at the posted speed limit. Ted could barely contain the excitement he felt over what was waiting at the end of the route. He felt his cheeks redden as he replayed everything he had planned for today. He glanced over at Sam, smiled, leaned over, and kissed her. She gently pushed him away.
“And how did you get a program installed on my laptop?”
“You ask too many questions.” He let loose with a nervous laugh. “It’s a surprise.”
She frowned and returned her attention to the view outside the windshield. Leapfrog began to make its way east, following Whipple Avenue toward Emerald Lake Hills.
“I have to get home to Dani, Ted.” She was visibly frustrated. “What’s this all about?”
He ignored her. He was afraid her questions might result in him accidentally spoiling his surprise. He folded his arms, smiled, and watched the view ahead. Leapfrog made a few more turns before coming to a halt. Sam’s laptop flashed the message “Course Complete.”
“We’re here,” he said, popping his door open, and turning off the engine.
The Toyota had stopped in front of a custom-built modern style home. The beige exterior was accented with brown and olive trim. A wide paver driveway led to a two-car garage. The front yard had been recently landscaped, with fresh plantings and new sod everywhere. Posted at the front edge of the property was a realtor sign with the word “Sold” dangling beneath it.
Sam joined him next to the sign and studied the property. He smiled as her jaw fell open.
“Did you buy this?” she asked.
“I closed on it earlier this week.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “Follow me.”
“But Ted, how? This neighborhood is expensive.”
He chuckled and took her by the hand. The white and tan checkered paved pathway was lined with pink, red, and white flowers. A welcome mat in a covered portico greeted them. He opened the oak-stained wooden door and motioned for her to step inside. The empty rooms echoed the thud of the door closing behind them.
“It’s at the top of my budget,” he said. “Well, it’s actually way over my budget. But I can make the monthly payments until we get our bonus checks. Then I plan to refinance. It’ll all work out fine in the end. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds risky.”
“Don’t you know me by now?”
She stepped into the middle of the living room and looked around. A staircase led to a catwalk on the second floor. The far end of the room had a polished stone fireplace. The opposite side was open to a very high-end kitchen. She excitedly began inspecting it. A long island separated it from the living area. Glass pendants dangled from the ceiling like icicles. The cabinets, counters, and walls were white, gray, and beige. Sam played with a few of the drawers and ran her hands across the stainless steel appliances. She looked back up to the catwalk.
“How big is this place?”
“It’s got four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. The master is downstairs.”
He took her by the hand and led her down the hallway to the master suite. Inside, French doors on the opposite wall looked out to the backyard.
“Is that a swimming pool?” Sam scampered across the plush carpeted floor to look outside. “Ted, this is way too much house for you.”
His heart was racing wildly. Her face was plastered to the glass panes, taking in the beautifully manicured yard. His hands trembled as he reached into his pocket and withdrew the real reason he brought her here. He walked toward Sam and stopped a few feet away.
“You’re right, Sam. It’s too much house just for one person.”
Sam turned around to find Ted down on one knee.
“What are you”—her voice faded away when she saw what was in his hand.
He flipped open a blue velvet ring box, displaying a 1.5-carat pear-shaped diamond. The gem was set in rose gold and surrounded by twenty smaller stones. He felt the world around him begin to move in slow motion. The pounding of his heart slowed, as did his breathing. Words he’d rehearsed endlessly over the past few months sat precipitously on the edge of his lips.
“Sam Lavoie,” he said, his voice shaking. “You’re as brilliant as you are beautiful. You’re as caring as you are confident. You ground me. You make me see the world through different eyes. Better eyes. And you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Nobody understands me the way you do. Nobody else ever will. I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you. Will you marry me?”
When he exhaled, he felt weeks of tension rush from his body, as if every nerve and muscle finally let itself unwind. He smiled as he held back tears of joy. Sam stood wide-eyed and motionless, staring at the sparkling ring.
“Ted”—her lower lip began to quiver— “I . . . I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect this.”
“I’m glad I surprised you.” He stood up and removed the ring from the case, resting it in his palm. “I was worried you were going to figure it out.”
“Figure it out? I’m . . . I’m shocked. How . . . how long have you been planning this?”
“Since Christmas.”
“Christmas?” She continued staring at the ring. “That big discussion we had during dinner? My mother had asked you about raising a family. You . . . you said your life was too consumed with the work you were doing. The two of you even got into that spat when you said babies scared you.”
“They do! They’re so . . . fragile. Look, Sam, that entire discussion was Catherine fishing.” He grinned as he recalled that dinner from a few months ago. “She wants what’s best for you. So do I. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It’s that simple.”
She pulled his hand closer and ran her fingers across the gold ring. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“I assumed you’d say yes.” He chuckled briefly, but his nervous laugh quickly subsided as he studied her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just that, well, getting married is a big step. I’m . . . I’m a bit shell shocked.”
“I can see that.”
She gently took the ring from him and ran her fingertip around the edge of the main stone. “It’s beautiful, Ted. I never . . . I just—”
“What is it, Sam?”
“This is just a lot to take in. There’s a lot to think about.”
“Like what?” He felt himself becoming worried and frustrated. Each time he’d rehearsed his proposal in his mind, it always ended with her saying yes and crying. “I don’t understand.”
“If we get married, then Dani and I would live here.”
“That’s generally how it works, Sam.”
“But, my mother’s out in Fremont.” She stared at the ring as she began to pace back and forth in the bedroom. “She takes care of Dani when I’m not around. You know that, Ted.”
“
Meaning what? You’ll marry me if we live near your mother?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.” She stopped pacing and stared out at the pool. “I’m just trying to process this.”
He felt his nerves subside as he realized Sam was being Sam, trying to analyze every possible input and output. A smile spread across his face as he walked over to the door and stood behind her. He leaned forward and brushed his nose against her hair, inhaling her sweet scent. He gently slid his arms around her waist and pulled her close.
“This isn’t some complicated project for you to plan in detail, Sam.” He began to sway back and forth, rocking her along with him. “You either want to marry me, or you don’t. Don’t overthink this. We can figure out your mother and daycare later. We’ll find a way to make it work. I promise.”
She looked down at the diamond engagement ring she was holding. Her eyes quickly filled with tears. She turned around and looked up at him. “You . . . you really want to marry me?”
“I do. But it takes two. Do you?” He kissed her on her lips. “Take the risk, Sam.”
She trembled in his arms, finally pulling herself away and walking to the middle of the room, cradling the ring in the palm of her hand. She spun around once, and with tears streaming down her face turned to him and said, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
32
Eighteen months later, the team found themselves in the home stretch. A whiteboard to the right of the stage in the Convene section of the Project Courier area showed the current status of the ten challenges. The first nine were complete, with only the San Francisco to Los Angeles challenge remaining. The upper corner of the board indicating the total miles tested read 548,319, with the original goal of 100,000 miles long ago crossed off in red marker. Ted and Sam were flopped in two bean bag chairs in the Crash area staring at the board across the room.
“We’ve done this test forty-two times,” he said, squirming to get a comfortable position. “How many more will we have to do?”
“As many as it takes,” she replied. “We’re so close. I know we’ll get it done by the end of the year.”
“Do you really think it’ll take six more weeks?”
“Why? Do you think it will take longer?”
“Longer?” He flung his palms against his eyes and slid his hands across his face. “Sam, I wanted this done months ago. We can’t keep dragging this out.”
“Is this because of your debt?” She waited for him to respond. He remained silent. “You never should have bought that expensive house.”
“I thought we’d be married by now.” He leaned forward, causing the blue suede fabric to creak and groan beneath him. “You’re still not ready to set a date?”
“Not until these tests are over.” She wiggled her way to the edge of her bag and lowered her voice. “Imagine if we’d set a date last year, thinking this would all be over.”
“Then we’d be married by now.”
“Ted, we both know our lives are insane because of this project. When would we have found time to plan a wedding?”
“We could have run off to Vegas for a weekend.”
“My mother never would have allowed it.”
“Exactly.” He grinned and winked at her. “I proposed to you well over a year ago.”
“I know, Ted.”
“It’s November. We can’t keep delaying this.”
“I barely have time for Dani or my mother. This job is consuming everything.”
“I’m starting to wonder if you’re having second thoughts.” He reached over and ran his thumb across Sam’s diamond engagement ring, slowly caressing it and causing it to spin gently around her finger. “Are you?”
“You know that’s not true. My mother’s become obsessed with the wedding.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed. Detailed planning must run in your family.” He chuckled briefly at his joke. “I’m just happy she’s finally happy. With me.”
“I told you she’d eventually come around. I’ve never seen her this excited. She wants to make this a big event. Why are you in a rush?”
“A rush? It’s been over eighteen months, Sam. Maybe if you’d at least move in with me—”
“No, I told you things are easier living in Fremont near my mother.”
“We can arrange for daycare. We’re going to have to at some point.”
“I’m not discussing this again. Dani is happy having her grandmother to care for her. She loves her school and her friends. We’ll move in with you after the wedding. That will be a big change. I can’t do that to her while I’m still working these crazy hours.”
He forced a smile to appear, although deep down he was very unhappy. He knew from experience not to try and come between Sam and her mother or daughter. That was a bond he would never be able to break, not that he wanted to. He looked over at the table at the back of the stage. Only one bottle was left standing. He knew they were close to completing the final challenge. He told himself he just needed to hold out a little bit longer.
“Sure thing, Sam.” He gently squeezed her hands before letting go and leaning back in his chair. “But no more excuses after the final challenge is over. We’re setting a date as soon as it ends, okay?”
She was about to respond when Ralph and Lori approached them.
“Are we interrupting?” Ralph asked Ted. “You’ve got that look on your face.”
“What look?” Ted said.
“Have you seen what’s outside?” Ralph asked, ignoring Ted’s question. “Vin strikes again.”
“And it sparked an argument between Ralph and me,” Lori added. “Pun intended.”
Ted struggled to pull himself out of the lumpy bean bag chair, finally reaching out to Ralph for assistance. He then helped Sam up, and the pair followed Ralph and Lori over to the floor-to-ceiling windows a few yards away. Ted looked outside at the parking lot. Several people were walking around, and two others zipped by on bicycles.
“What am I looking at?” Ted asked.
“All the way down at the end of the first row,” Ralph said. “What do you see?”
Ted sighed, frustrated that his conversation with Sam had been interrupted before he got an answer out of her. He also wasn’t in the mood for any guessing games. He searched the front row of cars, stopping at the last one. A sleek five-door sedan was parked at the end, the sun glistening off the bright red paint job. Ted squinted as he studied the muscular haunches over the rear wheels.
“Is that what I think it is?” Ted asked in amazement.
“The new Tesla Model S,” Ralph replied. “I haven’t seen Vin this morning, but I plan to ask him for a test ride.”
Tesla’s launch of its first in-house designed and built vehicle had been all the talk around the Project Courier team. Many doubted whether the upstart company could pull it off and produce a vehicle even remotely close to the prototype they’d displayed in early 2009. Three years later, Tesla proved the naysayers wrong when the Model S finally started trickling out of their plant in Fremont just a few months ago.
“Did he keep his Roadster?” Sam asked.
“Who knows,” Ralph replied, staring out the window. “Anyway, Lori and I started debating where self-driving tech will first kick in. I know you two have your theories. But, when I look at that sleek sedan, I just can’t picture it with a giant lidar array on the roof. I mean, look at that thing!”
Vin’s Model S was parked fairly far away, but Ted could still make out the car’s flowing lines. He chuckled as he tried to picture Leapfrog’s cumbersome set of sensors bolted to the roof.
“I see your point, Ralph,” Ted said. He looked over at Sam. “We’re going to need to find a way to make our frogs pretty.”
GSI now had three Toyotas retrofitted with autonomous hardware. After much debate, the team had settled on the simple names of Leapfrog-2 and Leapfrog-3 for the latest ad
ditions. The original Leapfrog had suffered too many engine issues once they passed two hundred thousand miles of testing.
“Aesthetics are the least of our problems,” Sam said. “We need to focus on finishing this final challenge. Then we can look into downsizing the hardware.”
“I told Ralph that taxis and trucks seem like the best place to start,” Lori said, leaning back against the window. Vin’s sleek sedan no longer interested her. “We should be able to go after that market first. Bulky hardware won’t matter with those vehicles.”
“And I told Lori that even if that’s true, at some point we need to make the hardware attractive enough to easily integrate into a car that someone would want to be seen in.” Ralph tapped the glass, pointing in the direction of Vin’s new ride. “Nobody’s going to want to own a self-driving car if it doesn’t look as sleek as that.”
“Why do they have to own it?” Sam asked, taking a position next to Lori. “Why spend all that money on a robot?”
“What?” Ralph asked, genuinely confused. “You do realize that’s the whole point of Project Courier.”
“Nobody ever said the autonomous car needs to be owned,” Sam replied. “Look at Where2.”
“The ride-sharing app?” Ralph asked. “Zimride does something similar, don’t they? I don’t see your point.”
“Where2 is currently piloting their program here in the Bay area,” Sam said. “They intend to go national and then global. Right now, they seem like a cost-effective alternative to a taxi. You launch the app, enter a destination, and someone comes and gets you and takes you where you want to go. People like that can get different classes of cars, too. But what if they could replace car ownership?”
“You mean like Zipcar?” Ted asked. His frustrations with Sam from earlier were fading away. Her passion for the autonomous car project was one of the many qualities that attracted him to her, even though the project was also delaying their marriage. “In some cities, people use Zipcar because it’s cheaper than owning a car.”
“My point exactly, Ted. Take that Tesla outside. Slap our autonomous technology on top of it. Now put it in a charging station somewhere. You open up an app, pick a route, pay for it, and the car comes and brings you to your destination. When it’s done, it either goes to the next customer or back to the charging station.”