Joel: Book Two ~ Joel and Family

Tuesday morning came after a restless night. Too much food at the party and that extra piece of chocolate cake with the boys when they had their snack had my stomach giving me fits all night. Even if it wasn’t New Year’s, I vowed to cut down on the amount of food that I consumed. I must have put on weight since the boys came into my life. At least that is what my pants were telling me.

After I got the boys off to school, I decided to take a look at their trust accounts to see whether I needed to make any adjustments to their portfolios. The trusts had been established on January 12, 1995, and I had not paid any attention to them except in a cursory manner since then. I retrieved the morning paper from the kitchen, opened to the stock quotes and circled the stocks that the accounts were invested in. To not play favorites, I had invested each account in the same five stocks.

After I booted my computer I brought up the spreadsheet that had the details of the accounts and within a few minutes I had the new value of the trusts.

I had invested their trusts rather aggressively and it seemed to be paying off. The only conservative stock in the portfolio, WAL-MART, did the poorest of the lot. Being the computer nerd that I am, most of the stocks were in the high tech area. After reviewing the results and researching the stocks on the internet I decided not to make any changes in the trusts at this time. I did resolve to pay more attention to the trusts at least once a month or whenever I received information of a negative nature concerning the individual stocks.

I called my broker to check on my portfolio since it was a bit more complex being a mixture of stocks, bonds and cash that changed more frequently than the boys’ accounts. I wanted to find out what it was worth now that I had distributed over ten million to the boys. Roger Burton had been my broker for about 16 years. He started handling my stock purchases after my parents died. He did the same for grandfather. He had instructions to reinvest any dividends back into the company that paid it and to deduct any brokerage commission from the interest paid on my bonds.

Roger was able to give me the balances within seconds of when I called him. "This is the way it breaks down Crane. Stocks: $83,322,085.73. Face value of Bonds: $5,000,000 earning interest of varying rates from 6.25% to 9.00% giving an income per year of $390,000. Cash in your brokerage account of $71,232.45."

"Thanks, Roger, if you hear any good stock tips let me know."

"Yeah, sure. With the way your stocks have performed you should be giving me the tips," Roger quipped before hanging up.

Satisfied that the boys' and my future finances were sound, I decided it was time to head off to work. As I settled down to the business of CCC I got a call from Ezra Bernstein about the status of my civil suit against Judge Clinton and Joyce Gerhig.

"Crane, these guys want to settle out of court in the worst way. You said that you didn't want money. Is that still your thinking?" Ezra said.

"I don't need the money. All I want is for them to publicly admit that they lied about me in order to get even because of their past indiscretions for which they were censured," I said.

"I think I have a workable solution, if you approve. I have already approached their attorneys with it and they both believe their clients will agree."

"What is it?"

"In a nut shell it calls for Judge Clinton to resign. With Judge Riley referring perjury charges against him he doesn't have too much choice. The next thing that they will do is to purchase a full page ad in the "Express-News" explaining their behavior and apologizing to you. You will of course have the final okay on the wording of the ad. They will also pay all of your attorney fees which are not inconsiderable. After all, I have been working on this for the last three months. The last thing they each will agree to do is to pay you a sum of $1. How does that sound to you?"

"If they agree, I don't see any reason to continue with the suit. The one condition I would put on the ad, other than my approving the language, is that it should be positioned in the first section of a weekend edition. Sunday would be best, but Saturday would also be acceptable. This would allow for the widest possible readership."

"That's a good idea. We don't want them to hide the ad back in the classified section where very few people would see it. With those suggestions I will see if I can work out the final agreement with their attorneys," Ezra said before ringing off.

The rest of the day was fairly routine and I was able to get away in time to meet the boys when they got off their school van.

Joel got off the van giggling, "I came home tonight."

"Yeah, you stinker, you really had me fooled last night," I said as I gave him a tight squeeze. JR and the others soon followed him off the van and all received their hugs before we walked up towards the house.

We had barely got started when Samson came bounding down the lane and jumped into Joel's arms causing him to drop his book bag. The boys quickly surrounded Samson petting and hugging him and in return they were getting licks from a very happy dog. At my urging Joel put Samson down and we again started to the house. Samson must have covered ten times the distance that we did with his constant circling the boys and then running up the lane then back to us. He was in constant motion showing his happiness that his boys were home.

Everyone disappeared into the bedrooms to change clothes and wash up so that Hildy would give them their afternoon snack. They could tell what it was going to be because the house was awash with the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. It didn't take long before all six of them were sitting at the kitchen drinking milk and pillaging the large plate of cookies. I did get one without my hand being mistaken for a cookie.

"Thanks, Hildy," Joel said giving her a hug after he and Chris had rinsed all of the glasses and stacked them in the dishwasher. "Those were super!"

"Dad, the school sent home a note that I was supposed to give you," Joel said as he rushed into his bedroom to retrieve the note.

"Oh, I hope he hasn't gotten in to trouble at school," I said to Hildy.

"No, I'm sure that he hasn't," Hildy replied.

"Here," Joel said handing me the paper.

I quickly skimmed it and was at once relieved. It was a notice that Corinthian Academy was going to go co-ed next year starting in the new high school class that is being added and would consider adding co-ed classes to other grades in the future depending on the demand. The freshman class would be limited to 25 girls the first year to see how that worked out before the decision to add more was made.

After Hildy read the note she looked at me and said, "I think that's a good idea. I worry that the boys don't get enough exposure to girls their own age. They need to learn how to socialize with girls even if they don't have any attraction to them now. That is all but the twins and the Gordinier girls, Linda and Cassie."

"Yeah," I said laughing. "They seem to have found quite an attraction there. I think that they may be a little too young but I don't see any harm in their current apparent infatuation with them. They really are a couple of cute little girls."

Later in the evening after I had checked all of my troop's homework, Joel came and squeezed in beside me in my lounge chair.

"What's the matter son? Do you have something you want to talk about?" I asked as I put my arm around him.

"Well ..."

"You can tell me anything or ask me anything. You know that."

"I guess so... It's just that I don't want to be a tattletale."

"Whatever it is, it's bothering you. That probably means it's something that you are not comfortable with. Is that right?"

"Yeah, but you might get mad if I told you."

"The only way I would get mad is if whatever it is would hurt you. I never want you to be hurt ever again. I love you guys too much to ever see you get hurt."

"I love you too, dad."

He sat there quietly for several minutes. I decided to let him initiate the conversation that I knew he wanted to have. After a while, he turned his head to face me and looked into my eyes with his beautiful azure eyes as if to assure himself that I meant what I had said. Satisfied, he laid his head on my chest before he began to tell me what was bothering him.

In a voice that I could barely hear he began, "One of the eighth-grade boys said he's gonna bring some marijuana to school tomorrow. Some of the other boys and him are gonna smoke it after lunch. They want me to smoke it too. I don't want to, but I don't want them to make fun of me and think I'm a baby. I don't even like the smell of smoke. My old dad used to smoke cigarettes all the time and sometimes he smoked marijuana. He always hurt me worse when he did that."

Joel began sobbing at this point. I wrapped my arms around him and held him until he quieted down.

"Son, you have a very difficult problem to solve. On the one hand, if you smoke with the other boys they won't make fun of you or call you names but you would be doing something that you don't want to do. That would probably make you feel bad. On the other hand, if you tell them that you don't want any part of smoking the pot you will be doing what you really want to do but they will probably call you a baby or other names. Neither choice is without a price.

"Let's see if there is a way to find a third solution. What if there was no marijuana? Would this solve the problem?"

"Yeah, but... but... Glenn said he was gonna bring it."

"What if a teacher found it before lunch?" I asked, filing the name Glenn away for future reference.

"How'd they find it?"

"If someone told, say, Mr. Coulter maybe he could find it and then you wouldn't have a problem would you?"

"No... but... I can't tell him. I'm not a tattletale," he said firmly looking at me.

"I know you are not. Do you think that if I just happened to call Mr. Coulter and just happened to mention that I had heard that someone was going to bring marijuana to school tomorrow that you would be tattling?"

"Well..."

"I would never tell Mr. Coulter that you told me. You just did what I hope you always do when you have a problem and that is to come to me and talk it out. Now, why don't you run along? I think I hear Hildy getting your snack ready," I told him as I kissed the top of his head.

"Thanks, dad. I love you."

"Me too, son."

I waited until the boys had finished their snacks, brushed their teeth and I had tucked them in for the night before I called Paul.

After we had exchanged pleasantries I got around to the point of the call.

"Look Paul, I have some information that an eighth-grade student by the name of Glenn is going to bring some marijuana to school tomorrow and I was wondering if you could make sure that it finds its way into the right hands."

"Oh, I'll bet I know the young man in question. There are two boys named Glenn in eighth grade but I would be willing to wager that it is Glenn Parsons. He is a bit of a bully and is on the verge of being a disciplinary problem," Paul said. "The forms that you signed, like every parent, give us the right to search the locker, backpack and person of any student in the presence of an administrator and a faculty member. I think that we can handle the problem."

"Paul, I would appreciate if my name never got mentioned in any of this. I don't want it to affect the boys."

"No, Crane, you will not be mentioned when I talk to Mr. Pierce in the morning. But thanks for the heads up. Keeping drugs out of the school is becoming more and more difficult."

After I hung up I got to thinking that it would be a good idea to have a talk with all of the boys about my feelings on drugs. It's just one of those parenting things that I'm learning as I go. "I wonder what other things that I need to do to be the good parent I want to be," I muttered out loud as I headed off to bed.

The rest of the week went by quickly. The marijuana problem had been solved by the student in question being assigned to ISS (In-School Suspension - a fancy name for isolating him so that he had no contact with other students during school hours) for the remainder of the school year and was barred from returning to the Academy for the following year.

The weekend turned out to be great. The weather could not have been more perfect. The boys and I swam and played their favorite game which mainly consisted of dunking me. We went fishing on Sunday afternoon. They were getting better at fishing except for TJ and he didn't have the patience to tend his line for more than a few minutes at a time. He was more interested in watching the other boats, the jet skiers and the water skiers. Even the sailboats caught his attention. By the end of the day, we had caught enough fish for a decent fish fry.

When we got home the boys went swimming while I was left with the task of cleaning the fish. Since Hildy left us to fend for ourselves on Sunday evening I started a fire in the barbeque pit in preparation for grilling the fish. Checking the refrigerator for something to serve with the fish, I found some ears of sweet corn still in the husk which would be great when grilled. I threw together a salad and some garlic bread that I could heat up on the grill and supper was almost ready. I'm sure that Hildy could have made a much better meal than I had put together but I laid no claim to being a gourmet cook. The boys didn't seem to object. There were no leftovers.

Monday morning arrived sooner than the boys wanted but they were soon off to school and I was off to work. I had the meeting with William Weller at ten to discuss their interest in purchasing CCC. I had mixed feelings about the meeting but was willing to listen to their proposal.

Foster came in to see me shortly after I arrived at work. He got right to the point.

"Crane, I talked to Jim Carson this weekend when I was in Austin. He would still prefer that we bought his company. I can see his point, but I don't know if that makes good business sense. I can't see us buying it and then shutting it down just to get his consultants. The only way it would make sense is if we kept the office open as the Austin branch of CCC."

"That does have some appeal," I said. "Did you discuss any amount he wanted for his company?"

"He did mention a figure but it is way out of line. We are four times as large as he is and he wants almost as much as what CCC is valued at. I'm sure that he is willing to negotiate since at the present time he has but one contract open and it only occupies three of his staff."

"Let me think about it. I have that meeting with William Weller shortly so the point may be moot. That reminds me, I need to get started. I told him I would meet him at his hotel at ten. He's staying at the Hyatt down on the Riverwalk so I'd better get a move on. I'll let you know what results from the meeting with him," I said.

The desk clerk directed me to Weller's suite on the top floor of the hotel. It seems that these guys go, first-class, all the way. Weller was a tall handsome athletic-looking man in what appeared to be his late 30's or early 40's. He ushered me through the sitting room of his suite to French doors that opened onto a balcony overlooking the Riverwalk giving a marvelous view of the waterway. It was a great place to hold a meeting.

We had just exchanged greetings and were sitting down when room service arrived with coffee and a selection of pastries. I accepted the coffee but turned down the pastries with great difficulty. However, the tightness of the waistband on my trousers reminded me that I needed to control my eating habits. I had to learn that just because the boys were able to take in large quantities of calories without putting on excess weight that did not apply to me.

"Let's get right down to business," he started. "We want to buy your consulting firm and are willing to pay top dollar for it. We have done our homework and believe that by purchasing your business instead of starting one of our own from scratch would save us at least two years of start-up costs.

"You have an established reputation and a broad client base that would take us time to build up. We believe that San Antonio and the Central Texas area have good potential for the consulting business for the foreseeable future.

"It is my understanding that you have 32 consultants working on projects at the present time. Is that correct?"

"Not exactly, we have 43 now on projects plus 6 technical assistants who prepare the mundane project reports and update project plans. We also have requests from two companies that will require that we add even more consultants. It may be as many as 12 or 15," I told him.

"Hmm, my information seems to be a little out of date. That may change things a little," he said as he consulted his Franklin Planner flipping through several pages before he continued. "This is what we propose. We will pay you $14.5 million for your business and assume any and all debts of the company. In addition we propose to retain you as a senior consultant with a guaranteed annual compensation of $100K for a period of five years. For this, we would expect you to assist in the promotion of the business and be available in the office on average five days each month."

"That seems to be a very generous offer," I said. "I do have one question. What would happen to all of the people working for CCC? I feel responsible for them. I would want to be assured that they have the option of at least one-year of employment with your firm."

"I don't think that would be a problem. One of the reasons that we are interested in CCC is that you have been able to attract some of the best and brightest talents in the South to come to work for you. We would be most anxious to retain them."

"Listen Mr. Weller, I'm not prepared to make any decision today. I will need to consult my accountant and my attorney to see what impact this would have on my tax liability and on my future financial situation. There is also my family to consider."

"I thought you were a bachelor."

"I am," I said laughing softly. "I am not married but I have five adopted sons."

"You, sir, have my deepest sympathy. I have one teenage son and he is driving me to drink."

"I will be back in touch with you by the end of the week after I have talked with my advisors to let you know whether or not I am interested in pursuing the matter any further," I said.

On the way back to the office I stopped off for an early lunch. I took the opportunity to call Gerald Cousins and Carlos Martinez on my cell phone to set up some time to talk to them about the possible sale of the business.

Foster was in my office almost before I had sat down. "Well, what did he say?"

"Their offer is very generous, but I haven't made any decision yet. I have to talk to Gerald and Carlos before I could think of making a final decision. I did tell him that I expected them to retain the current staff for at least a year if I did sell. I got Weller's assurance that they would do that. They believe our people are highly qualified and that's one of the reasons that they are interested in buying us out."

Shortly after Foster left my office Carol told me that Hildy was on the line. That was unusual. She rarely called unless it was something important. Thankfully it was only to ask if I was going to be home all evening because her girlfriend Janice's daughters were home from college and would be available to be interviewed tonight. I had nearly forgotten about asking Hildy to set something up with them. Other things had been occupying my mind.

I called Eric to see if he was still interested in talking to one of the girls about watching JR during the summer break. He said he was so I invited him to stay for supper and then we could both talk to them. I also wanted to talk to him about the possible sale of the business. Up to this point I had not spoken to anyone other than Carol and Foster about the possibility. I notified Hildy that we would be having guests for supper and then decided to head for home even though it was a little early.

Hildy was surprised when I showed up early. On the way home I had decided to tell her that I was considering the sale of the business.

"I thought that something was on your mind," she said when I told her. "I thought maybe it was Eric. What would that mean for Janice's girls this summer?"

"I don't think anything would change that arrangement. It will take a while to work out all of the details if the sale goes through. Besides, I think it is a good idea to have some extra help around here and give you a break. You need to have a vacation sometime also."

The boys were overjoyed that JR was going to stay for supper when they arrived home. They were less enthusiastic about the possibility that they might have a "babysitter" over the summer. The grumbling did not last long. Their afternoon snack took precedence.

Eric arrived just before six o'clock and was greeted by JR on the front driveway in his usual way by jumping up into Eric's arms to be carried back into the house. It always did my heart good to see the loving relationship between the two. I had asked Eric at one time how JR was coping without his mother. Eric had responded that his ex-wife had never really wanted a child and that she virtually ignored JR. He said that although JR asked about his mother once in a while he never obsessed with the fact that she was gone. I guess seeing that my boys didn't have a mother made it seem more natural to him.

Becky Sue and Mary Jane Lively arrived for their interviews right at 7:30. "My God, why do Texas parents tag their daughters with double names?" I thought. Regardless of their names, the girls were quite good looking and well mannered. Their southern accent was so thick it could be cut with a knife. I silently hoped that the boys didn't pick that up.

Eric and I talked to the girls and told them what we were interested in having them do. We tried to lay out everything we could think of so that there would be no surprises if they took the jobs. This process took about three-quarters of an hour before we were satisfied.

Becky Sue was 20 and Mary Jane had just turned 19. They had completed their Junior and Sophomore years in college respectively. Both seemed to be mature and interested in working with the boys. Of course, they had not met them to this point. Becky Sue was majoring in Secondary Education while Mary Jane was majoring in Elementary Education.

After Eric and I had finished talking to them, I asked Hildy to talk to them also. I thought that she could provide us with a female perspective. Then it was time to introduce the boys.

They had been doing their homework while we had been talking to the girls. They seemed to be a little shy at first when we introduced the girls but soon warmed up to them. It wasn't long before they were talking to them like old friends. The boys insisted on giving the Livelys the grand tour of the place.

When the tour was over, Hildy had the boys' snack set out. She had made a large bowl of fruit salad and whipped cream to top it.

Joel came up to me and whispered, "Can they have a snack with us?"

"Why don't you ask them if they would like to have some?"

He did and they accepted. In fact, we all joined in. It is a good thing that Hildy prepares enough to feed an army.

"Becky Sue," I said as they were getting ready to leave, "do you think you would be interested in helping out with my five boys?"

"Yes, I think I am," she said. "They seem to be such young gentlemen."

"They are very well behaved and for that I glad. I will need to talk to the boys and to Hildy and get their opinions. I will let you know tomorrow what our decision is. It has been very nice meeting both of you," I said shaking her hand and escorting her to the front door.

Eric had been having the same conversation with Mary Jane.

The family meeting went pretty much as I had expected it. The boys had all taken an immediate liking to both of the girls so their vote was for hiring both of them. Hildy also was enthusiastic about the way the girls came across. My vote made it unanimous for Becky Sue. Eric and JR had come to the same conclusion for Mary Jane.

"Okay, guys, it's bath time. It's past your bedtime already. Now scoot!"

"Yes, it's time for us to get home also. JR, go get your books and let's get moving. I'll never get you out of bed in the morning," Eric said.

When I went in to tuck the boys in, TJ was already sleeping. I brushed the hair off his forehead and kissed him goodnight. I even patted Samson on the head and told him goodnight. I looked forward to this ritual with the boys every night. It meant that they were safe for one more day.

I repaired to my study to take care of some paperwork that I had brought home from the office. I got to thinking about the way Eric reacted to my telling him about the possible sale of the business. I should say the way he didn't react. It struck me as rather odd at the time, but now that I had time to think about it, it was really strange. Although it had not been part of my thought process on the sale, it would make a relationship with him less strained not being employer/employee. I'll just have to see what Gerald and Carlos have to say tomorrow.