“Oh yeah, I wanted to look good for your party, Laura!” Jason responded with a smile.
Mrs. Friesen came up to say hello. She took his jacket and hung it up in the closet. Then she and Laura brought Jason into the living room where the other guests were seated. “Hey, everyone,” Laura announced. “I want you to meet my boy friend, Jason Hunter.” Jason was then brought around to meet each guest individually.
“This is my Aunt Matilda and Uncle Ralph Friesen,” Laura began while Jason shook their hands. “Uncle Ralph is Dad’s younger brother and like Dad, is an investment banker. Aunt Matilda is an attorney who specializes in corporate law.” As they continued making the rounds of the other eight guests, Jason was introduced to Dorothy Friesen’s sister and her husband, Janice and John Renaldo, who were both executives in large retail corporations, Dorothy’s younger brother, David, a systems analyst for a prestigious local computer company, several cousins, Elaine, Robert, and Vincent, who were college students, and two of the Friesen’s closest friends, Barbara and Richard Comstock. Barbara was a financial analyst and Richard was a stockbroker. Like Jason’s mother had predicted, everyone was wearing expensive, new casual clothing.
Laura then had Jason sit down in a love seat. She brought him a glass of punch and offered him a tray of hors d’oeuvres to sample. Everyone made small talk for another twenty minutes until they were called into the dining room for dinner. Mrs. Friesen had set things up for a formal dinner, complete with place cards, and her finest dinnerware. The seating assignments had the couples seated apart to create more interesting table conversations, and so the group could mingle more at the table. Jason found himself seated in the center of the table between Ralph Friesen and Barbara Comstock. Seated across from him was Janice Renaldo and Laura’s cousin Robert. Laura was next to Robert.
“I hope you don’t mind the seating arrangement,” Dorothy Friesen told Jason. “I told Laura that she had to share you with the other guests tonight!”
“Yes, we really are looking forward to talking with you, Jason,” Barbara said with a smile. “Dorothy has told us about some of your recent adventures and accomplishments. We would like to find out more about them!”
Soon everyone had found their place and gotten seated. There were several glasses and an array of silverware at each place setting. One set of glasses contained ice water, and the adults were served white wine, while Jason, Laura, Vincent, Robert and Elaine were served sparkling apple cider. For the party, Dorothy had hired two servers to help with the dinner. The two servers brought out a cart with a large tureen of shrimp bisque soup. The servers began ladling bowls of the soup and bringing them to everyone at the table.
After everyone had eaten a few spoonfuls of the soup, Barbara began the conversation by asking Jason, “The last time we were here, we understand you were involved in an exciting rescue of another teenager in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I did see a little of the coverage on the news, but would like to know more about how you were able to find and rescue the boy.”
Jason smiled a slightly sheepish grin, then replied, “Yes, I am sorry I had to miss that party, but the police follow-up took a lot more time than I had expected. The young teen, Jonathan Kowalski, is a fabulous musician, who had been fighting a very bad home situation for quite some time. His parents had divorced, mainly due to his mother becoming addicted to methamphetamines, and his father had moved to the east coast. Jonathan tried to get his mother to go into rehabilitation to kick her habit, but she kept resisting. As the months progressed, she became more irresponsible, and to continue feeding her habit, began hanging out with drug dealers. Eventually his mother hooked up with a particularly mean and abusive drug dealer named Scott Brewster. Jonathan was totally scared and uncertain what about what he should do. If he called the authorities to do something about his home situation, he would have been put into foster care, and lost the rest of his home life. So he tried to hide what was going on from everyone and try to make due the best he could.”
Jason took some time to go through the rest of the story of how he became aware of Jonathan’s situation when Jonathan was invited to audition for Daniel’s band. “We started to work with Jonathan to fight back against his abusive home life, and see if he could get the child support money he was due from his father. Unfortunately, that had to go through his mother, who would spend most of it on her habit. Ultimately Scott Brewster saw Jonathan as a real threat, and decided to solve the problem of Jonathan by kidnapping him, taking him to his hidden away meth lab in the Santa Cruz mountains, and turning Jonathan into a drug addict.”
“Couldn’t you call in the police at this point?” Ralph Friesen asked. “Those are all serious crimes you are describing.”
“I did talk to them after we discovered that Jonathan had gone missing. But for them to act and send in a SWAT team, they had to have an actual location of where it was likely Jonathan was being held. Although we were pretty certain that Jonathan had been taken against his will, we had no actual proof, and his mother had been conveniently been given a rock of meth to smoke at the time, so her recollection was hazy at best.”
“Then how were you able to locate him?” Robert asked.
“I had two trump cards to play,” Jason replied. “My friend, Daniel, who helped me figure out approximately where Jonathan had been taken, and a little cross medallion with a tracking device in it that I had given Jonathan. When I began to discover the severity of the situation he was in, I told him to always wear the cross as a good luck charm. But in order to find him, we had to get within a mile or two of where he was being held. That’s when we decided to search for him by helicopter.” Jason then described the events of Jonathan’s rescue and how they took him to a private clinic to recover, since he had already been forcibly injected with meth a couple of times.
“That is quite an amazing story,” Janice Renaldo commented after Jason had finished. “But how were you able to put together the operation so quickly. And the cost! Isn’t it quite expensive to rent a helicopter, even for just an afternoon?”
“That’s where my Whatever Foundation came in,” Jason explained. “It was established just for situations like Jonathan’s. We were able to rescue Jonathan, get his mother into rehabilitation, take care of his medical needs, and over the next couple of months totally rebuild their lives. Now Jonathan is happily living in his completely remodeled home with his drug free mother, and back in contact with his father. He is free to pursue his dream of becoming a professional musician, and is playing in my friend Daniel’s band. After hearing him perform, I can tell you that he is one great reed player! Stories like this make me feel very happy inside. So while I am sorry I missed an opportunity to meet you back on that fateful day of Jonathan’s rescue, I am proud that I could help Jonathan turn his life around.”
“I absolutely love the part of the story when Daniel created the diversion by tossing a flare into that meth dealer’s lab,” Ralph Friesen said shaking his head in approval. “Good riddance! And I really like how you were able to accomplish all of this without breaking up Jonathan’s family and forcing him into foster care. That was very thoughtful of you Jason.”
“I believe that the cure should never be worse than the disease,” Jason continued. “Keeping Jonathan and his mother apart from each other and breaking up their family would not have solved either of their problems. It was very touching how loyal he was to his mother, even when she was being totally irresponsible! At the same time, Jonathan needed our help and protection, and his mother needed to end her dependency on drugs.”
The servers had removed the soup dishes and were now serving plates of Waldorf salad. Robert said to Jason, “Tell us more about yourself. When you are not out rescuing people, what do you like to do? What are some of your personal interests?”
“Right now I would have to say that my most impressive achievement I have accomplished on my own, without the help of a foundation, is becoming a member of the varsity basketball team at Merriam High. The team
has gotten to be very good and we are headed to the district playoffs. I have gotten to know quite a diverse set of people on the team.”
“Yes, I have heard about your team, Jason,” Vincent said, entering the conversation. “Don’t you have one of the best prospective college recruits, Chauncey Jackson, on your team? And I am so glad to hear about another basketball enthusiast. This swim oriented family needs some sports diversity!”
“Playing basketball is a very important part of my life,” Jason replied. “Whether I am playing one-on-one in my driveway or in a game with a team, it’s one of the things in my life that keeps me going! Chauncey Jackson has been a life-long friend. We met in kindergarten, and have stayed in touch ever since. Chauncey has taught me a lot about playing competitive sports, and you are right, Vincent, he is one awesome player!”
“Well, I hope we get a chance to have a game sometime,” Vincent said enthusiastically. “I find that playing hoops is a great way to unwind and keep fit at the same time.”
“I totally agree,” Jason continued. “Often when Daniel and I are trying to problem solve, we will take a break to play some one-on-one. It clears our head, and after about a half hour, we find that we can focus on the problem again with renewed energy.”
“Tell us more about your Whatever Foundation, Jason,” Barbara Comstock said, changing the subject. “How did a teenager end up running a charitable foundation?”
“It all was because of the foresight of my great grandfather, Winfield Hunter,” Jason began. He then told the story of how his great grandfather had set the everything up many years before Jason was even born. “He had blind faith in our family bloodline, so he entrusted everything to his great grandson, who happened to be me!”
“From what you have described, your foundation sounds like a very worthy cause,” Barbara replied. “How does one make a donation to your foundation?”
“Actually, we haven’t been seeking additional funding. The foundation was very well set up with a one hundred million dollar endowment.”
When Jason said that amount, the others at the table recoiled a little in surprise. “That is an impressive figure for a new foundation,” Ralph Friesen stated. “How did you manage to get that kind of income?”
Jason then explained that when he received the gift of the diamonds and discovered their original source, he felt that they were tainted. “I didn’t feel that they should have been used for any personal gain on my part. I felt that the income from their sale should be put toward helping other teenagers who had been victims of crime, or who deserved help for similar reasons. I knew what it was like to be a crime victim. It is the worst feeling in the world. I had a good support group of family and friends to help me recover. But there are a lot of other victims who don’t, and I wanted to use this resource to help them. Teenagers like Jonathan.”
“So you placed this huge fortune you had just received into your foundation?” Ralph followed up. “How did you manage to invest the income?”
“I was very fortunate that my great grandfather was smart enough to realize that I would need assistance in that regard. Part of his gift was providing me with an expert board of advisors to assist in setting up whatever I planned to do with the diamonds. The advisors were all on pre-paid retainers for a year. Their advice was excellent, and the foundation continues to use their services.” Jason then mentioned some of the names.
“That is a very good list of people advising you, Jason,” Janice Renaldo commented. “But I am even more impressed that you gave all the money away!”
“I attribute a good portion of that decision to the advice of my best friend, Daniel Holmes. He had me look back on my life and think about what were the most important things about it. I had just returned to being my normal self after the horrible experience of being kidnapped. What I really wanted in life was to stay with the community of friends and family I had and return to the normal fun life I had before. Being with these people, like Laura and Daniel was what made me happy. The last thing I wanted to do was go off and live in some stuffy hundred room mansion and plan social events!”
Everyone at the table laughed heartily at that comment.
“Jason, that description is just perfect!” Ralph Friesen said with a huge smile on his face. “You have no idea of how many people like that I have to deal with in my business!”
Janice turned to Laura and said, “Your Jason really has a good head on his shoulders! Not only is he charming and good looking, but he is wise way beyond his years. I am so happy for you, Laura!”
“The more I get to know him, the more I realize how special he is,” Laura replied, blushing a little.
The servers then arrived with the entrees, thick slices of roasted prime rib, served with miniature Yorkshire puddings, steamed new potatoes, and dilled carrots. They also passed out small cups of creamed horseradish sauce and au jus from the roast. Things quieted down at the table for while, while everyone enjoyed their plates of food. The servers also replenished everyone’s drinks, and poured glasses of cabernet sauvignon wine for the adults who wanted it.
Donald Friesen, Laura’s father, raised his glass to propose a toast. “I would like to thank all of you for coming tonight. It is always a pleasure to see all of you. Won’t you join me in a toast to family and friends, and especially to Laura’s boy friend Jason, who has brought so much happiness not only to my daughter, but to so many others in our community! And I propose a second toast, to my wife, Dorothy, for this wonderful dinner we are enjoying!”
“Here, here!” the others at the table responded as they clinked glasses.
Gradually the table conversation picked up again. There was discussion of business trends, and Laura’s cousins reported on how they were doing with their college classes. Dorothy and Janice Renaldo discussed fashion trends for a while. Then Barbara Comstock asked Jason if he was working on any new cases.
Jason took a few minutes to tell how he and his friends Richard and Daniel had discovered young Jian-heng Chen taped up and locked in that closet in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jason then described how brave the orphaned eight-year-old was to come to America and how his sisters had been taken into some sort of slavery. “Jian-heng’s goal in life right now is to find his sisters and rescue them from those men who took them away. At least he is safe now, and staying with the Lius. If Daniel and I can help him, we will. But it is very difficult with no concrete leads to go on.”
The servers were clearing off the dishes from the table, and served coffee and hot tea to anyone who wanted some. Then they brought out the dessert, which was slices of baked Alaska. “This is my favorite dessert,” Donald Friesen remarked as he took large bites of the ice cream and meringue.
After the dinner, the party broke up into several groups. The men went into Donald Friesen’s bar to have after dinner drinks and discuss business. Dorothy and the other ladies settled into the living room to talk the latest gossip. Laura, Elaine, Jason, Robert, and Vincent went into the family room. Jason sat with Laura on a comfortable couch while the other settled into easy chairs.
Elaine began talking about her college life. This year she was a freshman attending the University of California at Berkeley. “I’m thinking about majoring in economics,” she began, “but still haven’t totally made up my mind.”
“I think the way to go these days is something with green attached to it,” Vincent replied. He was completing environmental studies at the University of California Santa Cruz campus. “I think a lot of the new growth sectors are going to have alternate energy systems associated with them in some way.”
“You are right on with that assessment,” Robert said. Robert was taking pre-law courses at Stanford University. “Everything is pointing in that direction, and there is already a lot of public support here in California.”
“Have you made any future plans yet, Jason?” Vincent asked.
“Nothing concrete at this stage,” Jason answered. “Right now I am just trying to get through high
school. I haven’t given much thought to college yet.”
“It seems like you already have one or two careers going, with your foundation, and the detective work you have been doing,” Robert continued. “You must have an exciting life!”
“I must admit, I have had some very exciting times, but I must tell you that with those incredible highs have come gut wrenching lows. This whole incredible wave I have been riding started with the most devastating thing that could ever happen to a young kid — being a kidnapping victim!”
“Well you have responded extremely well to that adversity,” Vincent interjected. “Rarely have I ever met anyone so accomplished and comfortable with their life at such a young age!”
“When did you and Jason meet, Laura?” Elaine asked.
“We first started connecting with each other in eighth grade,” Laura replied. “We would meet at school mixers and dances with some of our other mutual friends, and discovered that we enjoyed each other’s company.”
“I must admit I was attracted to Laura from the very start,” Jason added. “Being a middle school boy, I didn’t want to make a big deal about it or say much about it. But over the past several years, that attraction grew and grew until all of a sudden I realized that I was in love with her! Of course that boy magnet Olympic-sized swimming pool in her back yard didn’t hurt either!”
Laura looked coyly at Jason and replied, “Do you mean to tell me that you were attracted to me because of my swimming pool?”
“No, although it didn’t hurt that it was there,” Jason continued. “Actually I think I needed the pool to cool me down when I would see you lying there in your bathing suit!”
After the laughter died down, Elaine said, “You two make a great couple! I am so happy for the two of you and so happy I had a chance to meet you tonight, Jason. You are one cool, dude! Laura, take good care of him. He’s definitely a keeper! Now, unfortunately I must make my way back to Berkeley. The lure of economics and Professor Tilson’s term paper due this Friday are calling me back!”
Days of Destiny Page 8