Abandoned: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 7

[JMR20190607-20190610: Backup of abandoned version of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/06/jdz-millionaire-07.html]

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(Just to warn the reader, this chapter touches on topics that some may find to be trigger topics.)

Millie sat contemplating the whole-wheat donut with the hot milk and beans on her tray, thinking over all she'd learned about Zerojewel Research, Inc., and about Sherry and JD, over the past several weeks. Checking her reflection in the window, she watched the darkened street outside.

The makeup, wig, and glasses she wore would be enough to fool most people, but JD and Sherry and many of their employees were not average people.

Not that any of those she thought would see through the disguise would frequent an upscale restaurant like this, even with the relatively healthy menu.

She'd never been comfortable with Hodge or with his approach to business or technology. They had dated for maybe a month, two years ago, when she started working for Hodge Hercules IS, but, as was usually the case with Hodge, things went south quickly. And he had moved just as quickly to take what he thought was control of the relationship, using every bit of personal information she had given him, and some he had picked up for hire, against her. At least he had not tried more than twice to seduce her.

She had her own reasons for cooperating with him, however, and so play had proceeded in the game.

She smiled a little ironically when she saw his form pass under the street lights in his completely useless disguise.

She did not watch as he come in the door in the overcoat and fake moustache, but she watched his reflection in the window out of the corner of her eye as he spotted her, and as he pretended to ignore her while he moved to sit in the booth behind her. 

"So, what have you got?"

Millie picked up the donut and focused on it, finally taking a bite. "Nothing you haven't got, really."

"The billboards?"

"Of course it's JD." Millie tested the milk, then blow on it.

"Any clues about why he and Sherry are splitting up?"

"It is not clear that they are, but, no."

"Odd." There was silence for a moment. "Is there anything in this hunt for a wife that I can use?"

"Yeah." She smiled ironically again as she heard the rustle behind her. "Turn back around, you're drawing attention."

"Pictures or anything?"

"You know how tricky it is to get company data out." She was just as glad Hodge couldn't see her smile or the irony in it.

"You expect me to wait?"

"I keep telling you impatience is your vulnerable heel."

"Ancient myths."

"Still have meaning." She debated with herself for a moment. "I think you will shortly get an invitation, and then you'll get to see all the secrets for yourself."

"What?"

"Keep your voice down. I shouldn't have told you. You're going to have to pretend to be surprised."

"Okay. When?"

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. Not sure. Money probmlems, no doubt?"

"Zero?"

"You. I'm not there to ... keep the books in balance." Why her mother didn't notice the money that Millie had been filtering into Hercules' coffers, she wasn't sure. Her own mother had a peculiar blind spot to money.

"No ... no, no problems," he hedged. "Can you give me any hints?"

"If I do, you'll completely ruin your part. Oh, but you might as well start digging through their open source code. That'll help you when the invitation comes."

"Ah. There's something I can do. Why they put the crown jewels out for anyone to steal is beyond me.

Millie bit her lip, but the word slipped out. "Clearly."

"What?"

"Never mind." She took another sip of the milk and bite of the donut.

---

Sherry stood at the darkened window of her penthouse room in the Zerojewel building, watching the street below. Shortly a furtive form left the corner gourmet restaurant, and she reached to the monitor in front of her to zoom in.

"Hodge," she spoke into the mike at her chin.

A shadow detached itself from a dark wall and followed the figure hurrying away.

Several more figures, none of them furtive, left the restaurant before she spoke into the mike again. "Millie."

"Not sure why we need to do this, but I guess I've got this one." JD's voice whispered in her earplug, and another shadow detached itself from the shadows below, following the not-furtive form of her newly hired secretary in disguise.

Shortly, more shadows separated themselves from the shadows, shadows chasing shadows. Sherry turned her monitor off and retired to the apartment bath, taking the phone with her.

"Car"

"Got it." James voice was low and clear.

Covering the phone with a towel, she removed her clothes and ran water in the tub.

She paused as she passed the mirror over the sink, regretfully examining the body that caused her so much confusion. Shortly, there was enough water, so she slipped into the tub and put her earplugs back in, relaxing in the hot water.

After an eighth of an hour, Tom's voice whispered in his ear. "Hodge has returned to his office."

"Good for him. That's probably good for tonight."

"Then I'm going after sone dinner. Out."

Shortly James's voice came in. "Millie has stopped at her brother's house, and is visiting with her nephew on the front porch."

"Likewise, good for her." Sherry thought about Millie's nephew for a moment. "Do you want to follow her more tonight, JD?"

"I feel like a stalker."

"Heh." James chuckled quietly. "Oh. That was quick. Here she comes, nephew in tow. Guess I'm following."

"Okay."

A little later, James's voice whispered in her ear again. "Super-wars Game Center. They've started playing one of those group war games. How did you know she would be meeting Hodge tonight?"

"I'm beginning to read her, just like I read you."

"You and JD are spooky sometimes."

JD's chuckle came in clearly. "Good thing we're benign."

"I used to wonder."

The three of them chuckled.

Shortly JD's voice whispered, "I'm outside, James. I'll take over from here."

"Thanks. I'm going for dinner, too. Out."

"Everyone can go for dinner, I think."

There was a quiet chorus of "Okay," and, "Out." Sherry lifted her phone from under the towel. One by the connection indicators changed from lavender to pink, and she put it back under the towel when only one remained.

A quarter hour later, JDs whispered voice came in. "So, are you getting a nice quiet tub before dinner?"

"None of your business." Sherry smiled.

She could barely hear the sigh on the other end.

"Do you wonder the same things about Millie?"

"No. I suppose I might, someday, if things work out. But it's going to take a lot to erase the memories of our little adventure in middle school. And, if it gets there, Millie's going to need to know why."

"She has her own secrets."

"That's not her nephew."

"Spooky."

Neither laughed.

"I thought you had repented."

"We both have."

"Aside from whether I can repent when I don't believe in repentance, you haven't forgotten."

"Repentance is sometimes about making it right more than stopping and forgetting. Keeping our friendship was one necessary step."

Again Sherry contemplated her body, visible underneath the water.

"Impossible to make it right according to E-P-ist beliefs."

"Repentance is about turning our thoughts and minds towards God, not about punishment or about artificial human ideals."

"But there are fundamental problems here."

"Did you schedule the visit with the specialist?"

"You have no mercy. Yeah. Had to send Millie out for an errand, but I took your advice and went in the front door, asking for the normal checkups for a woman entering her third hexadecade. I still don't think it's going to resolve anything."

"We'll see."

For several short minutes, there was silence. Sherry got out of the tub and toweled off, putting her pajamas on once she was dry.

"They've finished the game. Looks like they'll be leaving. The kids here seem to know Millie rather well."

"Of course."

"Looks like they're headed back to Millie's brother's."

"As we expected."

"Millie's going in."

"Do you think she'll spend the night with her son's family?"

"I don't think we need to know. Must say it was nice of her brother to adopt him."

---

"I hear you play a terrible game of RockFail, JD."

JD and Sherry glanced at each other.

"Was my disguise that bad? I mean, you were following me from the restaurant to my car, right? And then someone tailed me."

Sherry and JD chuckled.

"James will be disappointed that he wasn't careful enough."

"Was there someone inside the restaurant?"

"Hodge got excited, didn't he?" Sherry grinned.

Millie looked from JD to Sherry. "Okay, I guess I'm exposed. What happens now?"

"Well, maybe you could figure out a way to pressure my mom to get Hodge his invitation a little quicker." Sherry shook her head with a smile.

"So this is all according to your plans?"

"Not ours. God's."

"JD believes in God. Anyway, we get a lot farther playing things by ear than by having plans that we force to happen. And we look forward to meeting Rodney."

"Are you sure I'll let you?"

"If you'll let us." JD nodded. "We don't believe in forcing things."

"How much do you know about Rodney?"

"What's on public record. Your brother adopted him, no records of his real mother."

"Is that all?"

"We've guessed that he is your son, but if that is not so, we've guessed wrong." JD shrugged.

Sherry added, "And if you don't want us to know anything more than that he is your nephew, that's all we will know."

"If ...?" Millie looked doubtful of their sincerity.

"No conditions. JD believes in the punishments of God, and I just don't like to tempt fate. Your history is your history."

"You guys aren't real."

Sherry walked over to where Millie sat and took her hand. "I don't know how real we are, but we try to be real."

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

Backup: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 6

[JMR20190607-20190610: Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/06/jdz-millionaire-06.html]

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Three pairs of eyes watched the door of the office close behind JD's parents and little sister.

"Well, that went better than I had hoped." Sherry slid off her desk and sat down on the sofa.

"JD, you're handling your mother's opinions well, today." Millie nodded in approval.

"Well, Millie, your running interference helped a lot."

"I really didn't do much."

"But with you here, I was able to avoid getting sandwiched between Sherry and my Mom."

"Hey." Sherry made mock complaint and she and Millie exchanged amused glances.

JD looked from one to the other, enjoying their amusement for a moment. "Yeah. So, Sherry, do you have time to go over this network we just proposed?"

"Can I help?" Millie asked.

Sherry glanced out the window. "Well, I'd actually kind of like you to work up three reports of the two-meetings-in-one we just had. We'll need one for the network hardware design, another for the house party support system proposal, and another for the house party rules."

Millie blinked and thought. "Nothing's set yet, so these reports will be initial documents."

"Right." JD sighed. "Paperwork. The least fun part about computers and information systems. Sorry. Is it okay if we ask you to get a start on those while Sherry and I work out some details? We want to be ready to talk when James is."

"Sure. Maybe half an hour to get something started, then I can see where James is?" Millie stood up and collected her tablet terminal and other materials.

"Sounds good. Thanks."

Millie nodded and left.

Sherry watched the door close behind Millie. "We're going to be able to trust her, I think."

JD nodded, also watching the door. "I've had a gut feeling about her since my mom introduced us, that Mom had once again helped us in ways she was not intending." He chuckled, then sighed.

"Mixed feelings?"

"Be a lot less mixed if you'd only ... be willing to go see a specialist."

Sherry breathed deeply for few moments before moving to dig around in her desk. "I guess this house party idea isn't going to let me hide from the truth any longer." She pulled out a notebook terminal. "If I go as a guest and not just as a network engineer."

The two turned to look at each other.

"You're surprised I'm giving in so easily."

"Are you? Maybe. Good. Keep me in the loop?"

"Sure." Sherry broke eye contact and looked at the door again. "So, we need two more engineers. Millie will be one?"

"If she doesn't object. And we'll try to get Hodge to be the other."

"Hodge. So soon?" She put her notebook down on the desk.

"It's getting harder to stall my mom, and gut feelings aren't guarantees."

"Nothing's guaranteed."

"True." JD dug in his desk for another notebook terminal, then picked up one of the wall warts on his desk. "Should we do the mock-up in the office or take it to a lab?" He put the wall wart and notebook back down.

"Here is good. I wouldn't be on board with the party at all, if it didn't give us the perfect excuse to give Millie time to figure out what she really wants." Sherry went to a closet and pulled out a mostly empty equipment rack, loading it with more wall warts and network cable.

JD followed her and pulled out another rack. "That's my thinking. I'm kind of hoping it'll give us a chance to reason with Hodge, too."

"You still have hope for him?"

JD shrugged. "You know I prefer to hope for the best from people."

"I know, and I know it makes it easier to manage our employees. But Hodge is not an employee. Not any more."

"Yeah. Not any more. Getting him here will be no problem. I'll make an indirect suggestion to my Mom, who to consider for the rich-boy crew, so that the invitation isn't too obvious."

"Mmmm."

They busied themselves preparing the hardware to simulate a small network, stopping from time to time to diagram it on the whiteboard as they worked.

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

Backup: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 5

[Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/jdz-millionaire-05.html.]

Previous

Having reviewed the discussion through the idea of the house party, JD changed the subject. "Sheliah, who's your company's website provider?"

"What? Oh, we're just using something Tiny-algo provides for cheap."

"What would you say to letting our company develop a real SNS for this house party, with an eye to extending it to all your clients later?"

Sherry looked up at JD and a slow grin formed on her face. "JD and I have often talked about what a proper SNS should look like and what it would take to implement. We've set up some experimental networks, and I think we could put something together quickly that would be useful at this house party. Where's a marker? James, you want to handle the whiteboard with JD?"

James and JD moved over to the whiteboard, and both took markers and started diagramming network services.

The rest of the group looked puzzled.

Sherry explained. "Most of us are on Pigpen, right?"

Nods of agreement.

"Are you satisfied with them?"

Silence.

Mildred spoke up. "They aren't too bad."

"Unstable, permissions problems, advertising-oriented, hard to manage?"

Nods.

"We can fix a lot of that by having the users host their own news servers. Oh, call them timeline/profile servers. Distributed. So, for the purposes of this house party, say we set up a trial SNS network. Users will have full domain names with mail addresses specifically for use within the SNS."

"I'm lost," George complained.

"What's a typical domain, JD?"

JD wrote on the board:

jdz.epmatch.com.uis

"Make it a URL people can access for news," she added.

He wrote,

news://news.jdz.epmatch.com.uis

"Looks like a vanity domain," Hank commented.

"Like a vanity domain. This is where people go to see your main profile and current news feed. How about a fan club domain, JD?"

"Not that I want one, but it could look like this:"

news://fans.jdz.epmatch.com.uis

"How about an address for fans to write to?"

mail:fanclub@jdz.epmatch.com.uis

"Someone to chat with?"

chat:jdz@jdz.epmatch.com.uis

Mildred shook her head. "I don't get it."

James replied, "Well, mostly it's about making all these domain name thingies meaningful. Give them uniformity, flexibility, and meaning beyond the SNS company's business plan."

"Okay, it does look more meaningful than those long strings of goobledygook that SNS servers usually serve up." Hank shrugged. "Why doesn't everyone do this?"

"Not invented here syndrome, mostly," Sherry answered.

James took over. "The point is, these two have been spending spare moments working out how to map SNS functionality into standard network functions, and working out the basics of how to implement them distributed across the users' network itself. Sheliah, if you are interested, your company could be a guinea pig, to see how it would work."

"How much does it cost me?"

"Wise question," James answered. "What do you say, Sherry?"

"Software costs are gratis for helping us debug. Hardware, we'll probably want to split costs on, but that's actually one of the features of the approach we've been working on."

JD picked up from his desk a rounded cube of plastic with power plug prongs sticking out of it, and held it up. "Each user has his or her own home server in one of these inexpensive wall-warts. These retail for the price of an ordinary day's labor. Backup functions can be provided on-site with another." He held up a second. "And the network services provider can lease out backup services for off-site data security. Distributed SNS with backup. For the house party, we can put one, maybe two of these in each guest room, and we'll back the data up on an on-premises server."

James laughed. "What he means -- When was the last time you couldn't access Pigpen for several hours?"

Jenny said, "Last month, most of my friends were off-line for half a day."

James grinned. "This way, if you can access the general network, you can access the SNS. No depending on Pigpen or Trawler or Tiny-algo or whoever, just on the network itself. JD and Sherry will talk about infrastructure -- proxies and backup servers, domain name servers, network bandwidth and such, but the bulk of the load is distributed among the users."

JD put the wall-warts down and went back to the whiteboard. "Something else that current SNS companies get wrong." He started writing Venn diagrams with group names on the board. "A little E-P-ist centric, but ..."

Sherry continued for him. "When you start a new Pigpen account, you have no idea what a friend group is, right?"

There were some murmurs of disagreement and some murmurs of agreement.

"Anyway, it's a pain to manage all your groups."

Everyone nodded.

"We'll set up templates of default groups, to make it easier to figure out, and the groups will have addresses. JD?"

JD wrote example addresses out on the Venn diagrams,

jdz.epmatch.com.uis/friends
jdz.epmatch.com.uis/family
jdz.epmatch.com.uis/company
jdz.epmatch.com.uis/clients
jdz.epmatch.com.uis/church
jdz.epmatch.com.uis/club

"Those group addresses aren't, by default, served to the general public-facing web; only the user sees them. It's to help the user sort through what he or she interacts with and not eat up too much time. But they will be easy to make, and some, like friends and family, will be set up by default for general users. Most SNS providers give you groups, but our user interface will always ask which group or groups to sort a new friend into, instead of just dumping them all into one pool."

Millie took a picture and JD erased the first set of default friends and the Venn diagrams.

He continued, "For this house party, the default groups will be something like this."

joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/friends
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/fans
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/close-friends
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/allies
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/watch1
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/watch2
joeguest.epmatch.com.uis/donotshow

Sherry added, "So the guests can immediately start using the SNS to try to figure out who he or she wants to hang out with and set lines of communication up."

Sheliah and some of the team were nodding their heads in agreement.

"I think I can talk the others at matchmakers into this."

Mildred interrupted. "Well, I'm glad my son is getting some enthusiasm about something, but I'm afraid his enthusiasm is not about finding a wife. I can't approve of this."

"Honey, everyone in this room loves you."

"What's that supposed to mean, Karl?"

"It means, Mom," Krystal jumped off her perch. "You don't have to prove or approve anything." She sat on the arm of JD's big chair and reached around her mother's shoulders and gave her a hug. "You're winning even if you think you're losing."

"What silliness are you talking about?"

"Don't fight my big brother about this, okay, Mom? I promise you he's onto something good. You'll love it."

"But what about my grandchildren?"

"It won't be long until I can do something about that, even if he keeps dragging his feet."

"That's another thing I worry about."

Krystal kissed her mother's cheek.

"Oh, stop."

JD grinned. "Mom, I promise I won't let the tech keep me from giving the women at this house party the attention they deserve."

"They deserve. You always throw conditions into your promises that worry me."

Sheliah said, "Well, I like the idea, both from the business side and for matchmaking for your son. I think you should leave this one up to him."

Since it seemed everyone else in the room was in agreement, Mildred bit her lip. "Well, I guess, if it doesn't take all year."

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 4

[Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/jdz-millionaire-04.html.]

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"Well, I hired this team!" Mildred Alfreda Zukiger's voice approached being shrill, her face growing white and expression growing stiff.

JD nodded. "Sure, Mom. You assembled a good team. And if you are dissatisfied with the performance of anyone on the team, I'll take over their contract. But I think you had some other plan you wanted to discuss."

Mother gave son a look of distress and sat heavily on the sofa. After a short minute to recover, she explained. "Well, I thought we could do it more like a contest. We could get full resumes until a deadline, I could pick the best twenty, and you could pick the one you want from there."

"The only difference between that and what we have been doing so far is that you'd have a lot larger catalog to choose from, Mom." JD smiled slowly. "Mind you, you found Millie for us already. Perhaps if she and I had gotten a better start, ..."

He looked sideways at Millie. Millie looked up and gave him a single non-committal nod.

"Okay, maybe, under this scenario, we could go over the lists together, Mom. But it isn't one I favor."

Sherry went to the blackboard and joined Sheliah in erasing it, then started summarizing Mildred's plan on the whiteboard while Sheliah sat down.

"Well, Sister Zukiger, using that format may incur more legal obligations." Ronnie spoke up as she thumbed through search results on her table. "Contests have rules. We might need to set up a website to explain the rules and procedures. And if we aren't careful, JD might end up legally compelled to offer marriage to one of your finalists."

"Well, of course. He has to quit running away from this. I have full confidence in my judgement."

As she wrote, Sherry said, without turning around, "We are sure you would judge well, Mrs. Zukiger. But, as JD's long-time friend, I must say that you are likely to miss some things that are important to him."

"I think not."

Sherry finished writing without responding. "Does this summarize your ideas, Mrs. Zukiger?"

Mildred looked at the whiteboard for a short minute, then grudgingly admitted it did. Millie took a picture, and Sherry started erasing it.

"So, JD, what do you think?" She finished erasing and turned around. Millie joined her at the whiteboard, and Sherry handed her the marker.

"Well, as everyone knows, I really don't like all this fuss about finding me a wife."

"As your friend and business partner, I must say, you need a partner for your life, not just your business."

Millie spoke up. "Sherry, that's not fair. Under your own rules, you can't give him that kind of advice."

Sherry and Millie locked eyes for a long moment. Then Sherry slowly nodded. "You're right. Forgive me, Millie." She turned to JD. "Sorry."

JD rubbed his forehead. "Well, never mind. So we can't go there."

"No, JD, you can't go there. Sherry is not a good match for you." Mildred's expression was dark, but had traces of triumph written in them.

"Sister Zukiger, if you want your son's cooperation, ...," Sheliah stood up. "If you want any of us to cooperate further, you need to back off at least that topic."

Mildred had nothing to say to that.

Millie turned to JD. "So, if you had to have something to suggest, Joseph Daniel, what would you suggest?"

JD looked perplexed. After a short minute's thought, he said, "This all seems, well, like one of those silly old-fashioned romance novels set in days long gone, or like a piece of one of those reality show house parties."

"You would also be averse to a house party?"

"The Church runs youth and single adult conferences. They look a lot like house parties."

That got some laughter from most in the room.

"But they seem much more appropriate to the purpose, partly because the primary focus is not supposed to be on finding a mate." He thought a moment more. "I mean, yeah, my mom set me up with you, and maybe we'll revisit that, but focusing on the question of mating just screwed the whole thing up the first time around."

Millie laughed. "Maybe so. But let's say we did have a house party. Would you be willing to join it?"

JD looked around at the group, then he focused on his mother. "I could do that, depending on the activities, if there is no making promises that anyone ends up getting together. There has to be some relief from the big question, or people go crazy."

Mildred's expression become thoughtful.

JD continued, "If we advertise it as having to do with millionaires, we should invite some other rich guys -- and gals -- as well. Now he looked back at Millie, who raised her eyebrows. "Millie and Sherry are invited." He thought a moment. "Four total? No, four more woman and five more men from the rich crowd."

Millie busied herself writing on the whiteboard.

"Mom can figure out some possibilities about who to invite from her connections, but they have to be approved by the whole team, and the invitations vetted by George and Hank. And I'm going to ask Sherry and Millie to join the team for that." He paused again.

"And we put out a public call for participants from all classes. Money isn't the only balancing factor in contracts of this nature. We'll choose up to twenty men and twenty women from those who apply, in even numbers."

"Have I got it so far?" Millie examined her work.

"That looks right. Sherry, can you get a picture of that?"

"Got it. But I'm not sure I agree to it."

The door opened.

"I thought you guys were going to wait for us?"

"Hi, Dad. Hank. George?"

"I'm here, too." George walked in behind Hank.

"Hi, Dad Z, my big chair's open."

"Thanks." He sat in Sherry's big chair.

The two lawyers sat on the sofa.

"Me, too!" Krystal Karen Zukiger trailed in. "I came to cheer for Mom's side."

JD laughed as Krystal waltzed over to his desk and perched on it.

"You got the projector, Sherry? Let's go over what we've covered so far."

Sherry and Millie looked at each other, then Sherry went to her desk and got a projector out of a drawer.

"Millicent!" Krystal looked startled. "You look different! I like it!"

Millie and Sherry laughed as they set the projector up.

"Thank you. I'm in a different role today."

"Well it's cool!"

"Yeah." JD gave his little sister a hug. "Now we need James. I'll go get James."

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

Backup: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 3

[JMR20190612: Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/jdz-millionaire-03.html.]

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"What is Millicent doing here?" Mildred Alfreda Zukiger stood in front of her son's big chair in one corner of the partners' office. She turned toward her son, who was standing in front of his desk. Today, she was the business-savy socialite mother, not-quite-platinum hair coiffed in a mature style, but not too mature, nicely made-up, but not overdone, faux business suit with slacks instead of skirt, business heels, just enough natural jewelry to show she had money to back up her opinions.

JD turned and stared out the corner office windows at the roofs of the neighboring buildings. The sun had cleared the horizon, and the city was brought into sharp relief in the post-dawn light. "Ah, that. Sherry hired her as her personal secretary yesterday. Don't know if I'd call this view beautiful or not, but I guess it's impressive."

"You don't need the work ...," Mildred turned towards Millie, seated in the stenographer's chair between the two partners' desks.

JD reflected a moment on Millie's carefully crafted appearance. She had done herself over, too, auburn hair in a tight bun, severe, trim makeup, conservative business suit with knee-length skirt. She looked every inch the part of a professional secretary.

And it was not just appearance. She was in fact quite overqualified. She had left a good job for the courting.

If the arrangement were a normal hire, they'd be getting an excellent deal. But she was here for reasons other than money.

Millie broke role with a grin and a nod. "True, but I think I need the job." And then she returned to role.

Well-placed misdirection. If he wanted to learn how to manipulate people, Millie would be a good teacher.

"JD's mother furrowed her brow and tilted her head inquisitively. "So what is Sherry doing here?"

"Sherry is my business partner, and this billboard thing is not likely to leave the business unscathed. She has a right to veto any plans that could damage the business." He turned to face his mother. "Oh, and thank you for having covers put over those three billboards you put up yesterday without consulting the rest of the team. Where's Dad?"

Mildred was taken even more aback. "Your father?" She shook her head. "Oh, he wouldn't be interested."

JD got his phone out of his pocket and pulled up his father's page in the contacts. Karl Mulhaus Zukiger answered almost as soon as he pressed the contact button.

"Good morning, Dad."  He looked at the wall.

"Not much, yet. Yes she is." He looked at his mother, whose expression showed growing disbelief.

"Just having a meeting of the team in Sherry's office." He looked at Jenny, seated with the rest of the team that his mother had assembled at the portable table they had brought in for the conference, and raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, that team."

Jenny shrugged. "Go for it," she mouthed silently.

"Not really. No, wait." He nodded at Sheliah. "I guess I should be more appreciative of Sheliah's efforts. The billboard thing."

"E-P-ist Millionaire seeking wife." He looked out the window, then back at his mother. "Yeah, that's us. Didn't Mom tell you?"

Mildred's expression turned dark. "I tell him what he needs to know."

JD rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and smiled sardonically. "Haven't heard the full plan yet. " He blinked slowly. "Yeah, something about having a contest to marry me off." He started chuckling. "Uh huh, you heard that right. And she didn't seem to think I needed to know, either."

He looked over at Sherry, who seemed to be enjoying the drama from her vantage point perched on her desk. "Yeah, I sure would like you to be here, Dad." Sherry and JD exchanged a grin.

Sherry was her usual self, as much a female software geek as he was a male software geek. Comfortably round, dishwater blonde hair, ordinary features, no makeup, comfortably dressed in slacks. She was probably the one person on the planet he figured he would always be comfortable with. And the one person he would never expect his mother to be comfortable with, although that was also somewhat beside the point.

He glanced at Millie, who nodded in encouragement. "Okay, we'll wait until you get here." And he closed the connection.

"Well, are you going to invite the whole neighborhood?"

"Mom? Dad is family."

"And what about Ron?"

Ronnie looked up from her seat at the second stenographer's desk near the door, tablet terminal at the ready for notes and research.

"I wanted my personal lawyer, and the company legal staff, too, checking our plans. George couldn't make it this early on the short notice, but Ronnie is here representing company legal. Thanks, Ronnie."

"Sure."

"And George will be coming within an hour."

"Well of course I'll have my lawyer check the plans." JD's mother stopped short of sniffing.

"So our legal staff can discuss their concerns with Hank on an informed basis. Where is he, by the way?"

"I think he's busy. But ... we don't need to be taking their very valuable time just to listen to us haggle over details, do we?"

Ronnie tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. "Well, Mildred, I would agree about the use of time, but it can often help when starting a new project, especially an unusual one like this, to have some legal oversight. It will probably save time later."

JD's mother gave Ronnie an icy stare.

He reflected for a moment on his mother's unwillingness to be on the losing side of an argument, and on the significant wisdom of bringing legal in early.

"Well, since we're waiting for Dad, maybe we should wait for Hank and George, too. How about we postpone this meeting until six o'clock, and call Hank to see if he can make it?"

Sherry pulled her lips slightly to the right, before speaking with a wry grin. "We're here. Call them up, but we can go back over anything important when they get here. Let's hear what your team has done and what they have in mind."

"Surprisingly, Sherry and I are in agreement on getting started."

JD looked from Sherry to his mother, then shrugged. "Okay, Mom."

He stepped to the window again, thumbed through the directory and made connection. "Ah, Hank, good morning. Yeah, my Mom should be the one calling." He paused, listening. "Well, I have a favor I'd like to ask. Mom and Sheliah came up with a rather odd-ball scheme to have a bunch of women apply to be my wife." Another pause. "Yes, Sheliah the matchmaker. Uh huh, those billboards." He grinned and chuckled. "We are in a meeting to talk about it now."

He looked over at Sheliah and winked with the eye his mother wouldn't see. She smiled back and nodded.

"Oh, thank you. We all appreciate the sacrifice." He turned to his mother and gave her a thumbs-up. She frowned in reply.

"Yeah, we're waiting to get into the deep nitty-gritty until my dad makes it. Mmm hmm. Yeah. Thanks. Dressed for golf is fine, and give my apologies to your other client. See you in a few." And he hung up.

"Okay, he should arrive within a half-hour."

General murmurs of approval could be heard, with the noticeable exception of his mother.

"So, Sheliah, can you outline your plan? Then we can hear how my mom wants to change it." He went to one wall and pulled back a curtain, revealing a whiteboard covered with data flow diagrams and module relationship charts. "Ah. We took a picture of this, right, Sherry?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He picked up an eraser from the chalk tray.

Millie jumped up and took the eraser from his hand and started clearing the whiteboard. Sherry started to stand, but JD looked at his empty hand and took the other eraser from the tray and worked from the other end, so she sat back down.

His mother watched with an expression of disapproval, but said nothing.

Sheliah stood. "I should be doing that."

"Almost done. Thanks, Millie."

Millie nodded, put the eraser back, and sat back down as Sheliah moved to the whiteboard.

JD handed her a marker and eraser and stepped back. "I think you were saying to someone that it wasn't a contest."

"Right. I was brainstorming with Jenny and the rest of the team a couple of days ago, and Mark said he thought one at a time was a little slow. And things just kind of went from there to comparing finding you a wife to filling a job opening." She raised her hand. "Now, wait, I know you won't appreciate that."

"Got that right."

"But if you're going to be searching for a needle in a very large haystack, you could have the haystack come to you."

"If the king won't go to the haystack, the haystack should come to the king. Not one of my favorite sayings, but go on."

"Not really much. We started with the idea of a classified ad, but Jessie pointed out that we'd miss at least half of the sort of women we are looking for with that."

"I can see that."

"So we were thinking of a large ad on a business magazine site and in news aggregators that cater to the financial industry and software industries, as well as E-P-oriented academic journal sites. But we weren't thinking about billboards."

"No."

Mildred defended herself. "Of course I want to reach the E-P-ist population more than any other. Billboards in this state should help."

"That's actually reasonable, Mom."

"Thank you." There was ice in her voice.

"So," Sheliah continued, "I had something like this in mind."

She wrote on the board,

Well-off E-P-ist male CEO seeking wife.
Interested parties, send us a short personal history without name or identification, and a paragraph describing your reasons for interest at <ep.ceo@epmatchmakers.com.uis>.
We will contact you with results within 5 days.
E-P-Matchmakers is committed to protecting the privacy of all inquiries.

"Nice." Sherry voiced her approval.

JD pursed his lips and nodded agreement. "Low-key, not asking too much information, keeping it as anonymous as possible."

Millie took a picture of the board.

JD looked around at her. "Thanks, Millie."

Sheliah began erasing the board.

"Well, I think it's completely too low-key."

"Hang on, Mom. So what was the plan from there, Sheliah?"

Sheliah wrote more on the board.

1. Matchmakers review.
2. More complete information about JD, still no identification.
3. On submitter's agreement, give it to JD to review.
4. If JD agrees, reveal identities.
5. If both agree, arrange a first date.

"We'd review what we get. If it didn't pass, we'd give a polite refusal. If it did, we'd tell them a little more about you, and if they were interested, we'd pass it on to you. If you were interested, then we could tell them who you are and tell you who they are. From there, negotiation on dating could begin."

"No reason to involve JD at any ... until step 5, really. I can do the pre-scanning and initial negotiation."

"Thank you for volunteering, Mom, but I would prefer to handle that myself under this scenario."

Millie took another picture, and Sheliah thanked her.

"I want you to be happy, Joe Dear. I would not choose anyone wrong for you."

JD glanced from Sherry, who just raised her eyebrows, to Millie, who blinked slowly without revealing her thoughts, to Jenny, who also raised her eyebrows, then tilted her head. Not getting any direction, he continuing to look around the room for a moment, then focused on a corner of the ceiling.

"Well, it definitely won't happen that way, Mom."

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

Backup: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife! ch. 2

[JMR20190612: Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/jdz-millionaire-02.html.]

(Previous)

"So," Carrie commented between bites of afternoon-break pizza, "judging from your mom's putting on an appearance this morning, things did not go well with Millicent last night?" She looked nothing if not pleased. Carrie was one of the network engineers.

JD glanced over at Sherry. She was concentrating on the pizza, not offering any help. Concerning most of the women he had dated, even before his mother had decided she had to take a hand, Sherry had been quite willing to weigh in, letting him know clearly where she thought the relationship would fall apart, and what dangers there would be in trying too hard to make it work. And her analysis was always spot-on.

His mother had often complained about Sherry's interference, but now her mother's team -- his team -- often consulted with Sherry. Over the last month, even Millie had come to confide and ask for advice a few times.

Sherry had been keeping her own counsel this time, which JD had taken as tacit approval.

Carrie cleared her throat. "Sorry for interrupting your thoughts."

JD shook his head. "No problem."

Greg commented from the next table over, "Hey, some of us actually approved of Millie. But if she can't deal with a bit of cheering at the end of an opera, hey, ..." Greg was one of the sales crew.

"How is it everyone knows what happened? How many of you are doubling as spies for my mom?"

Laughter filled the lunchroom. Everyone knew JD was happy to have his friends among her spies, finding opportunities to run interference.

James leaned over. "Personally, I'm more than relieved. And I don't think I'm alone in wishing you'd tell you mother that her opinions can go down the river, and put this business in one family. Best friends make good marriages."

"If they can keep being best friends while negotiating the marriage. We agreed we didn't want to go there." JD avoided looking at Sherry.

"Neither of you think the other is ugly," Pat, their test lead, added her 2/100_sixteen hour-credits.

Sherry continued to concentrate on the pizza. There might have been a sardonic twitch the corner of her mouth. "Millie is much better looking than I am. Don't worry about last night, guys. What happened is not what you think." And she picked up another slice.

JD frowned and wrinkled his nose. "Oh, give it a rest, Sherry. You know my opinions about looks."

Now she grinned broadly and threw the slice of pizza at his cheek, where it slapped flat and stuck. He peeled it off and grinned, and took a bite. The lunch room erupted in cheers, just as the lunch room door opened and Millie stepped in, wearing jeans and a neutral color tee.

She came straight to the table where JD and Sherry sat. "Hi guys. Didn't know you'd taken to wearing makeup, JD. Sherry, I know it's kind of sudden, but could you make some time for me today?"

JD chuckled and grabbed his handkerchief to clean the cheese and tomato paste off his face. "My kind of makeup."

"It doesn't suit you." But she smiled.

Sherry joined JD's laughter. "Sure, Millie. Now good for you?"

"It's not an interruption?"

"Nah. Save us some of the pizza, guys."

Most of the eyes in the room followed them as they disappeared into the corner office.

---

About an eighth hour later, Sherry opened the door to the office and called out, "JD, your presence is required!"

JD, who was helping clean dishes in the company kitchen, responded with a "Yo! Take over James." He washed his hands in the sink, removed the apron and handed it to James, then headed to the corner office.

Millie was standing by the couch, looking pensive.

"I have to admit, I have rarely seen you in jeans -- and sans makeup. Nice."

"Thank you. Is that suit going to be salvageable? You do look more comfortable, though. Last night was a shocker."

"Probably. I'd rather be in jeans, but I don't keep any upstairs. How so?" JD sat down on a stool opposite. Sherry was sitting on the corner of the desk.

"Sherry has been disabusing me of all sorts of misunderstandings."

"My mother's ideal vision of me."

"So I see. This whole last month we've both been negotiating around our mothers' fantasies."

"True about my mother. Your mother too?"

Millie nodded and grunted an "Mmm." in reply. "Getting to know each other through the filter of our mothers' ideals."

"Sorry to upset you by being so noisy last night."

She smiled wryly and sat down on the couch. "It was not you that I was upset at. If I had known how thoroughly your mother misrepresented you, I'd have been cheering with you. I thought you and she were testing me."

She looked quizzically at JD. He shook his head.

"It was a good performance. I hope you can forgive me for that."

"No problem."

There were several moments of silence.

"I need to know some things, so I can make a decision."

"Okay, shoot."

"This is the corner office." She waved at the well-apportioned office.

"It is. My mother said it couldn't go to anyone who was not a partner. After some discussion, Sherry said she'd take primary responsibility for it."

"Not mine so much as the partners' office, which we never use except for entertaining important people."

Millie sat straight. "I'm important?"

"We think so." JD nodded.

Millie's shoulders sagged a fraction. "And there it is. I've kind of felt it every time we've gone out, but now I'm sure."

"What?"

Millie thought for a moment. "Is it your mother keeping you two from getting married?" She looked back to Sherry and then again at JD.

JD held up his hand to stop her as he looked over at Sherry, who tilted her head to the right and pressed her lips together before speaking. "No," she said.

JD put his hand down. "There are certain topics that are not allowed."

"I think I have Sherry's permission."

JD sighed. "In that case, my answer is, I can't say."

Millie looked back to Sherry, who ducked her head apologetically.

"You two are best friends from childhood."

"True."

"If I were to marry into this relationship, I'd have to accept being the tacit second wife."

"We don't have sex, you know," JD said, somewhat apologetically. "Sex is hard on a friendship."

"Sherry told me so several weeks ago, and I think I believe both of you."

"And it isn't just us in the equation." JD continued. "If we let our friendship get mixed up, it could easily destroy the business. We aren't really stable yet, and you can't push a business to grow faster and become stable, just for the convenience of the partners and board of directors."

"Third wife." Millie laughed ruefully. "I'm going to give your mother a piece of my mind."

"It's really not her fault," Sherry said quietly.

There was another short minute of silence.

JD broke it. "I guess, then, even though last night was not the argument I thought it was, we won't be seeing each other any more."

Both Sherry and JD looked a little disappointed.

"I didn't say that. And I will be very interested to watch what happens with this 'E-P-ist millionaire seeks wife' campaign."

"What? How did you know about that? Sheliah just suggested it to me this morning."

"There's already at least one billboard up on the highway." Millie grinned.

"Mom!" JD patted his pocket. "Where's my phone?" He turned and ran out of the office, with Sherry's and Millie's laughter chasing him.

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

Backup: E-P-ist Millionaire Seeking Wife!

[JMR20190610: Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/jdz-millionaire-the-campaign-idea.html.]

Table of Contents

Joseph Daniel Zukiger looked at the pimple-faced reflection in the mirror and sighed. Six months spending half of every working day with a nutritionist, a physical trainer, a personal coach, a hair stylist, a dermatologist, and an image specialist to clean up all his social bumps, and one full day back on the job had wrought havoc on all that had been accomplished.

He examined his teeth, running his tongue over the unbrushed enamel, then looked at the toothbrush hanging on the cupholder.

Of course it wasn't the emergency five hour shift he had worked that had really wrought the havoc, nor was it the all-nighter debugging after. It was the opera in the evening, in between.

He checked the time on his cellphone, sitting on it's charger on the porcelain, and shook his head. Instead of the toothbrush, he reached for the cup and filled it with water.

The opera had been quite good, but the woman he had spent the last month courting, one Millicent Alfreda Porsche, had not appreciated his vocal appreciation of the cast and chorus's work.

He hadn't been the only one standing, whistling, calling out, "Bravo! Olé! Bis! Encore!"

He looked at the mouthwash and shook his head at that, too. Some minty candy flavor Millie said she liked when she gave it to him. Cup to mouth, mouthful of plain tap water, swish it around.

She had been quite put out, not even willing to discuss how good the opera was or even whether the performance was good enough for him to cheer so vocally. Opera is apparently not a football game.

He spat into the sink.

The (very expensive) dinner after and the chauffeured trip to her apartment had been an exercise in arctic exploration. He still assumed she had been attempting to pressure him to apologize for the scene he had made, and promise not to repeat it. What else was there to assume? She would hardly respond to any of his attempts at conversation.

(Tom, who had taken chauffeur duties yesterday, was no help either. Just grinned and shook his head any time he had caught his eye in the rear-view mirror. None of the people at his company really wanted to encourage his mother's schemes.)

Something inside him had stuck. Opera was the rock concert of a bygone era, and opera in the old world was often a raucous affair, not the staid high-brow social staring contest that many in the Union of Independent States seemed to think it was. If he wanted to show his appreciation the traditional way, he was not going to let any woman tell him not to.

He repeated with another mouthful of tap water.

His knew his mother had spies in the audience, in the five-star restaurant they had gone to after, and even watching outside Millie's apartment.

Millie had pointedly not invited him inside, and he thought they had both been relieved at being able to call it an evening.

Rather than returning to his own apartment where his mother and his personal coach were waiting to analyze the entire evening, he had told Tom to bring him back to work, calling his mother from the car to tell her that he really needed to give his company and the people he worked with his attention. It had taken ten minutes to convince his mother that his business really was a higher priority than analyzing a disastrous date.

At the office, he had joined his core technical staff, diving into the bug that he had left half-fixed to go on the date. With his business partner and CTO, Sherry van der Velt, in charge, they had made significant progress while he was gone.

And they had fixed it together -- at some cost to his complexion and his suit, and, temporarily, his health. He hoped the others were faring better than he was. He had thought Sherry was looking a little haggard, too, when she headed for the elevator.

He supposed he felt some disappointment about the evening, but also sympathy for all the specialists his mother had hired -- and for the frustrated professional matchmaker, too.

Looking over at the water cooler with its tank of cooled, pure organic mineral water from an old-world alpine range, he filled the cup from the sink again and took a long drink.

Mostly he was disappointed for his mom. She had so many expectations and none of them were coming to fruition. She wanted grandchildren, and what she had was a pimply, socially awkward, single adult son with a successful business and enough profits safely invested away to retire and live comfortably for the rest of his life -- as long as the economy didn't suddenly go belly-up. And a business partner who his parents, well, his mother, detested.

His parents hadn't wanted the new house or the new car he had offered. Of course, they hadn't needed them, either. He was not one of those who had started with nothing, even though he had been independently successful.

They wanted grandkids and a pedigreed daughter-in-law. Sometimes he wasn't so sure that his mother would be averse to taking them in that order, either.

For himself, he wasn't that disappointed. One more gold-digger retired.

Hand on the faucet, he paused. Millie wasn't really a gold digger, even though money seemed to be far more important in her world than it was in his. He rinsed the cup and put it back.

He actually liked Millie, and even felt more than a little sympathy for her. Of the women Mom had tried to set him up with, he had found her the most acceptable so far.

But he was much more comfortable with letting all his personal bumps, edges, and awkwardnesses show in his personal relationships. And his opinion, not well accepted with his mother, was that any woman who would be persuaded by all the artificial changes would be a woman he would not want to spend a whole lot of time with, much less the rest of his eternities. If he ever made it to the place where Gods build worlds, he would be in the thick of the work, not trying to manage it from a safe, clean distance. And he was comfortable with his God's opinion of his opinion.

So he pealed off his suit and shirt, threw them over the back of the chair at the desk, set the alarm for 8:00 noon, and devoted a moment of appreciation to taking in the beautiful sunrise glinting off the rooftops below his window before he fell into bed. He wondered, briefly, whether Sherry had seen the sunrise too.

He was unconscious by the time he hit the mattress.

---

At an eighth-hour past noon, he walked into the office in his wrinkled suit, sans necktie, hair still moist from the six-minute shower, grinning and whistling "Let It Go". All the staff cheered. James, their office manager and chief of sales, returned his grin and said, "Welcome back, JD."

Sherry smiled broadly, if slightly blearily, and gave him a thumbs up. She also looked like she was running on less than three hours of sleep, although he thought she probably looked better than he did. 

The door opened behind him and the cheering suddenly faded. He stopped whistling and turned around, his shoulders slumping.

"Joseph, I am disappointed."

"Mom, --"

From behind her, Jenny, his personal coach, a cheerful dancer of modern dance, interrupted. "Sister Zukiger, I'm not sure this is even a setback."

More than once, he had entertained the wish that his personal coach were not already married.

"Quiet. I am taking charge now."

Something inside was rising, but he automatically suppressed it. Habit long in-grained took care of any rebellious thoughts.

From out in the hall, Sheliah, the matchmaker, said, "I think it's time for a new plan."

Without thinking, he said, "Okay, what's your plan?"

In the sudden silence, he could have heard a feather drop, if his mother had worn one of her hats that shed feathers.

But she hadn't today.

She remembered to close her mouth and turned towards the door. "Yes. What's your new plan?" Surprisingly, her voice was neither querulous nor sarcastic. A collective sigh of relief could be felt, if not heard.

"Borrow from reality TV. Do it like a contest. E-P-ist millionaire seeking wife."

Mentally, JD put palm to forehead. But his mother had turned to face him again, raising an eyebrow. It looked like she wanted him to agree.

Behind her, Sheliah was nodding, with a conspiratorial smile and a finger to her lips. Jenny gave him a wink.

"Oh, whatever." He raised his hands in the air. "I need to make sure the bug we squashed a few hours ago will remain squashed, so all the rest of my training sessions this afternoon are cancelled, too. Everybody take the rest of the day off."

His mother stood, arms akimbo, frowning.

"Okay, Mom, tomorrow morning. Shel can tell us about her plan then."

His mother thought for a moment, then nodded decisively. "Five o'clock, sharp." Then she turned and left. "Come with me, girls." Jenny and Sheliah waved cheerfully and followed her.

He retired into the server room to check the last three hours' worth of logs, and Sherry joined him.

"Maybe all this training isn't going to waste. You stood up to your mother today."

"Sort-of."

"It's a good start. Look at all the transaction roll-back logs."

"What roll-back logs?"

"That's the point."

"Uh-oh, there should be some rollback in there after three hours' worth of business."

They dug in.

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Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

---

(If you're wondering about the hours, there are sixteen hours in a day, and 256_ten minutes in an hour. But they count in hexadecimal. Clock noon is 8:00_sixteen.

Dawn usually occurs somewhere between three and quarter past five, and it's early spring, so dawn is about a quarter before five, or about 4:C0_sixteen. That does mean hours are longer there than here, and minutes shorter. The common five-hour workday starts at 6:00_sixteen and ends at B:00_sixteen.)

This little fantasy was sparked by the person recently calling himself a Mormon  millionaire, proposing to find his wife by advertising on billboards and running what is essentially a reality-show type contest. There was a conversation about it on the FaceBook LDS Beta Readers group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/475461645922698/permalink/1552836624851856/

When I first saw it, I shrugged and laughed. I felt no spark of inspiration, although several other members of the group did.

After it kept resurfacing in various feeds over the course of a day or two, the pan I don't remember putting on the back-burner in my mind boiled over, shoving several other projects out of the way, and I started a flash piece in the FB conversation, which I later copied to my Random Eikaiwa blog and cleaned up a bit:

https://joels-random-eikaiwa.blogspot.com/2019/05/e-p-ist-millionaire-seeking-wife.html

It looks like a novel is taking shape.

Copyright 2019 Joel Matthew Rees

[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.80 -- Ancestors

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/05/we-0-13-80-ancestors.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to May 2019.
]

Previous: Debriefing

Table of Contents

---

Earth Prince looks at the sun through the trees, then frowns and pulls out his hand-held terminal to check the time. "Now I've only got a half an hour before I have to head in to the shop to open up. Let's start copying."

As the four get their notepads out of their packs, Water Princess's father says, "Speaking of your shop, I need a secure connection today. Can I drop by later?"

"Sure."

Water Princess's mother suggests, "We can just kind of get an idea of what's here today in the remaining time, and we can come back again when Ceri and Morris and maybe some of the other members of the ward can come with us."

"Good idea." Earth Prince laughs. "We need to try to dispel the rumors about the odd things that happen here."

By unspoken agreement, the four of them spread out, checking a stone here and there and taking quick notes.

"Shouldn't we just all go to your shop?" Water Princess asks.

"I'm not sure I can work with your dad immediately. There'll be a bit of work opening up. But if you're willing to wait, why not?"

"While we're waiting, we can do some shopping at nearby stores."

"Good idea, Mom. I saw a divers' supply shop that looks interesting."

"Divers' supply?"

"Have to use the ordinary means when they're available, right, Dad? But just looking this time."

A snuffling sound is heard, and they all look around. At the sight of a tusked, furry head poking into the clearing, Water Princess squats down and holds out her hand and snuffles in return, saying her thanks. The members of the sounder wander into the clearing and join them, and the four Xhilrans exchange snuffles, grunts and squeals with the members of the sounder.

One older sow brings a litter with her to introduce them, and then urges Water Princess over to a specific monument.

"Dad, look at this name. It looks familiar."

Her father stands up and goes over to take a look, followed by her mom and Earth Prince. "That looks like the missing youngest son of your great-grandfather."

"Agnes and I are cousins."

"Probably so."

---

Table of Contents

Next: Beryl

---

[JMR2019: Backed up here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/05/bk-we-0-13-80-ancestors.html
Expanded from here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/04/bk-we-0-13-70-debriefing.html
Original back up here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/03/bk-we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html
]

[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.70 -- Debriefing

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/04/we-0-13-70-debriefing.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to April 2019.
]

Previous: To the Third  and Fourth Generation

Table of Contents

---

From within the forest, four wild boars watch the group of students and their teacher leave. As the group disappears around a bend, the amber gilt nuzzles the ebony barrow's neck, and he nuzzles back. After a few nuzzles and nips, they back away, grunting, then turn to the other pair, who hesitate, then approach and join in nuzzling.

Shortly, four Xhilrans stand in the shade of the forest.

Earth Prince grins. "Nuzzling is fun."

Water Princess smiles shyly, looking down at the grass. "But staying in that form would be dangerous. I'm not sure I'd be able to control my, uhm, natural instincts."

"We changed back too soon?"

"Mom!"

"Animals have different rules." She pauses. "Sorry."

"Yeah. Much as I like your mom's ideas, I do agree with you, Dŵr. No" Earth Prince chuckles, and the four join in. He continues, "Just as well it's not yet rutting season."

"I shouldn't tease, honey. But I do like your new prince."

Earth Prince clears his throat. Water Princess squeezes his hand while reaching out to give her mother a hug.

"Maybe we should go see what we can copy from the markers," Water Princess's father suggests.

Earth Prince looks at the position of the sun. "I've still got an hour."

The four head back into the woods, retracing their steps.

"Well, I think we did a good job."

"Thanks Mom. We need to thank the real boars, too, if we can find their sounder."

Earth Prince holds branches out of the way as the others pass. "Yeah. I was a bit worried about the methods, but this avoided the appearance of magic. Magic would have caused problems."

Water Princess's father holds branches in turn. "I think at least two of their group are thinking there was magic involved."

The two men stop and nod to each other, then move on.

"Professor Parry." Earth Prince's expression turns a bit pensive. "She was one of my favorite teachers when I started the upper forms. She reached out to the students who didn't fit in."

Water Princess nods. "That must be disappointing. But I don't think she's a bad person, so much as confused."

"Yeah. But I think I need to visit her."

観 -- That is correct.

"She needs some kind of support. I'll go with you."

"If you need, we can too," Water Princess's mother suggests.

"Thanks. I'm not sure a crowd's a good idea, though."

使 -- It will likely require more than one visit.

"Should I go alone the first time?"

助 -- Water Princess can help you.

"It's a date."

They break through, into the gravesite clearing.

"There's Professor Parry's dagger."  Water Princess's father walks over and picks it up. He frowns as he examines it. "Can't leave it just lying around."

助 -- We can take care of that.

He thoughtfully hands the dagger, handle first, to the messenger. The messenger accepts it, removes her pack, pulls a long cravat from it, and proceeds to wrap the dagger. Once the blade is protected, she stores it in her pack.

助 -- When necessary, the blade can be returned to any of you four.

観 -- Water Princess, what are your opinions of the work you have just done?

"If I had been more prepared, I think I'd have just asked the boars."

観 -- Do you think you could have been sufficiently prepared?

"Good question. I was just following the ideas in my heart."

使 -- Could you have done better?

Water Princess and Earth Prince look at each other. Earth Prince shakes his head slowly.

"It's always possible to do better." Water Princess purses her lips thoughtfully.

"Until the job is done. It was sufficient," Earth Prince says with a wry smile.

使 -- Earth Prince is right. 

"And follow-up is always necessary, anyway." Water Princess nods in acceptance of her own words as she speaks.

助 -- To what object, the follow-up?

Water and Earth look at each other and nod, then speak in unison -- "To confirm Agnes's decision, and to try to help Professor Parry believe that magic is not the path she seeks."

助 -- Correct. You may now proceed with the business of the day.

Earth Prince looks at the sun through the trees, then frowns and pulls out his hand-held terminal to check the time. "Now I've only got a half an hour before I have to head in to the shop to open up. Let's start copying."

As the four spread get their notepads out of their packs, Water Princess's father says, "Speaking of your shop, I need a secure connection today. Can I drop by later?"

"Sure."

Water Princess's mother suggests, "Let's all head back, over to your shop, in half an hour. We can come back again when Ceri and Morris and maybe some of the other members of the ward can come with us."

"Good idea." Earth Prince laughs. "We need to dispel the rumors about the odd things that happen here."

A snuffling sound is heard, and Water Princess looks around. At the sight of a tusked, furry head, she holds out her hand and snuffles in return. The members of the sounder wander into the clearing, and the four Xhilrans snuffle their thanks them for help given, then turn to their note taking while the boars dig in the grass and around the stones for grubs.

---

Table of Contents

Next: Beryl

---

[JMR2019: Backed up here:
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[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.60 -- To the Third and Fourth Generation

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/04/we-0-13-60-to-3rd-and-4th-generation.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to May 2019.
]

Previous: Wild Boars

Table of Contents

---

Now fully clothed, carrying the implements of their interrupted experiments, a sobered group of youths and one adult begins the hike out of the overgrown graveyard as the morning sun breaks into the clearing they are leaving behind.

"So, Nest, you saw stuff? Uhm, visions?" one of the girls asks the erstwhile sacrificial victim while pushing through the vines and undergrowth.

"Yeah, Enid. First it was the scary stuff you always see."

"Scary stuff?"

Wild boars can be very stealthy when they aren't announcing their presence. Four boars, whom we know, silently track the group.

"I guess that's all they're good at -- making scary faces and noises, flying around, talking about dying or --"

"Or?" Enid prompts.

Nesta stares at the ground. "Stupid stuff. Like rape. Except what they say doesn't make sense. Or pretending to be my ancestors."

"Pretending to be?" the adult is puzzled. "Why do you say pretending?"

"My real great grandfather came and shooed all the fake ghosts away."

"Your great grandfather is dead," one of the boys points out as he holds tree limbs back so the rest can pass more easily.

"Of course, Alwyn. But there was a ghost pretending to be him, and a bunch of others pretending to be others. But I didn't really believe it. It didn't feel right. Then when my real great grandfather came, I just knew."

"Knew him? How?" Alwyn is curious.

"I could tell. He wasn't trying to scare me." Nesta pauses and thinks. "Or get me excited. There was something different."

"So you had a vision," another girl interjects. "I'm jealous!"

The whole group stops for a moment, looking expectantly at Nesta.

Nesta shakes her head. "It's not what you think, Efa."

We can see various expressions of puzzlement in their faces.

"We've been looking for magic. My grandfather told me we have all the magic we need inside ourselves."

The adult has stopped beside her. "All?"

"So how come I can't fly?"

"Why do you want to fly, Enid?"

"So I can fly at the window when maths get's boring."

Snickers circulate.

"What good would flying out the window do?"

"Be more interesting."

Murmurs of agreement.

"How about flying in your imagination?"

Murmurs of complaint.

The adult changes the subject. "You said I shouldn't let people define me. Why did you say that?"

Nesta turns to face her. "Professor Parry, my great grandfather showed me what he did to my grandmother. He said he had convinced himself he was trying to help her, but he was lying to himself. Then he showed me how she did much the same to my father, but worse, and then my father did it to me. Then he showed me some of what my mother and your mother did to you when you were a child."

Professor gasps, almost inaudibly, mumbling something.

"He said he was sorry. Said he really thought he was trying to help, but he messed up. And he said four generations repeating the same mistakes was four too many."

"You saw everything?"

"No, but I saw that they told you that you were to blame. That you were evil, so you didn't have any right to object. That you should like it because you were bad. You're not really a bad person, Professor Parry."

Professor Parry looks down, then starts moving forward. The  rest of the group starts moving again.

"But it's too hard, being good," she complains in a low voice.

The students stop again, and Professor Parry proceeds a few more steps, then stops, holding a tree branch out of the way over her head as she  turns to face the students. "I don't think I want to be good."

Nesta and Professor Parry look into each other's eyes, each querying the other.

助 -- Maybe she is misunderstanding what good is?

"What is good?" Nesta asks.

One of the boys offers, "You've told us yourself a lot of the hard rules society makes are hard to follow because they aren't good."

"Llewellyn, did I really say that?"

"You told me I had to learn which rules were good for me, and how. And you said you were still trying to figure the rules out for yourself. That's why we came here today isn't it? We wanted to know whether magic is good or bad."

"So now we know it's not something to play with, I guess." Professor Parry turns around again and the group proceeds on their way through the thinning underbrush. "I did say that."

One of the girls adds, "We're trying to figure things out as we go along. And that means we're gonna make mistakes. It's what you say. That's what you tell us. Mistakes that don't kill aren't fatal."

"Bryn, you have no idea how hard it is to believe my own advice right now. My plan failed. And I could be disqualified from teaching, if people know what we've been doing."

Nesta shakes her head. "You didn't force any of us. Not really. And we learned something from it. I don't think it's a failure. Experiment with negative results, isn't it?"

Another boy volunteers, "And thanks to a bunch of wild boars, hey, nothing really happened today beyond a little drama practice. That's what I'm going to say it was, and it's pretty close to the truth. Right, Nest?"

Nods and murmurs of assent are exchanged as the group breaks through the trees onto a small path.

Nesta shrugs. "Yeah, Dylan, the boars were very helpful. I'm going to offer a quick prayer to whatever deity were watching out for us, in my heart. If you guys want to do that you can too. And then I'm getting back to real world."

The group pauses for a short minute or two of contemplation before heading in silent agreement down the path.

(Short minutes — roughly twenty of your seconds. Sixteen hours to the day, sixteen long minutes to the hour, sixteen short minutes to the long minute. It is a coincidence that the Xhilran day is rather close to the same length as the day of your world, comparing entropic rates.)

---

Table of Contents

Next: Debriefing

---

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[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.55 -- Wild Boars

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-55-wild-boars.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to May 2019.
]

Previous: Pink Unicorns  Or Purple?

Table of Contents

---

Entering the clearing, we begin our examinations.

You haven't been here before, so this will be somewhat new to you. There are a number of headstones and a few larger monuments spread around this clearing.

It is the family grave site of a once prominent family, now fallen from grace, the subject of stories told in whispers.

Lying in an open space between monuments, the ceremonial victim's chest rises and falls almost too slowly to notice. Now her body shivers, and she moans quietly as we approach. On examination, we find vital signs within safe ranges.

使 -- You'll keep an eye on things while we talk with this girl, won't you? Hold her hand, will you, to give her some comfort. 

An adult woman dressed in long, open vestments emphasizing as much as hiding her lack of dress beneath, slips into the clearing from the opposite side from which we entered. She comes to the victim and draws a ceremonial dagger from within the vestments. Holding it horizontally over the victim's mouth, she checks for telltale fog of exhaled breath. Finding fog on the blade, she checks the vines, adjusting two for purposes that are not obvious. Apparently satisfied, she lightly tracing the veins in one of the victim's arms with the tip of the dagger, raising it quickly to a safe  when the arm twitches.

Suddenly, there is a commotion in the undergrowth, and a boy and girl back cautiously into the clearing. Both appear barely a hexadecade in age, if that, and are dressed more or less the same as the victim.

"Easy, easy, we're not threatening anyone's babies," the girl says in an unsteady voice.

"What are you doing here? It's not time yet. And who are you talking to?"

The boy replies, "There're wild boars out there."

"Where?" The woman rises and goes over to them to check, as a commotion breaks out on the other side of the clearing and a boy and girl of similar age and dress to the first pair break into the clearing.

"Boars!"

"Run!"

"Impossible. No boars in this mountain in this season." The woman turns, just as another pair bursts excitedly into the clearing, both panting heavily.

The newest girl looks around wildly.

The boy looks at the woman, then the other pairs. "You guys, too?" he asks. "How many are there?"

Yet another pair crashes into the clearing, falling more than running through the trees. The boy stumbles to his feet, then helps the girl up.

"Whatever you do, don't fight them," she says.

From each point of the compass, tusked bovine we know enter the clearing —followed by true denizens of the forest — snorting and pawing the ground. Each of the boar is heavier than any three of the humans — Xhilrans — in the clearing.

The victim stirs, waking, mumbling. Then her voice comes clear. "We should not be here."

The woman jerks around to stare. "How can you be awake?"

助 -- Thank you for helping stabilize her. Holding her hand has helped draw the poisons from her blood. 

"I've seen dreams. We are on sacred ground, but what we do is a different kind of separate." She rises. "What we were doing. I'm getting dressed."

The woman seems about to object, but the wild boars begin hollering and squealing, rooting among the stones and grass, moving towards the children and their leader, urging them away from the spot on the ground that had been their alter towards one side of the clearing, where they had piled their clothes haphazardly, pulling back as the children reach their clothing.

Seeing the boars pull back, the youths pick up their clothes and begin dressing, shedding the ceremonial loincloths and scarves to do so. The woman lags behind.

With sudden determination, she whirls around, screeching and howling, brandishing her ceremonial dagger, attempting to surprise and scare the boars nearest her, but they only respond by standing on their hind-hoofs, snuffling and grunting, dropping again to the ground, and pressing her with more urgency.

"Give it up!" One of the boys calls.

"You're the leader!" She turns toward the ebony-furred barrow, slashing out with her ceremonial blade, only to find herself immediately bowled over and lying on the ground, the tusks of the amber furred gilt mere inches away from her nose, breath fierce and hot in her face.

Now shes squirms backwards, abandons her dagger and rolls and runs for the group of children, collapsing on the ground near them.

As the children regain their state of dress, the boars melt back into the woods.

"Don't they say these woods are haunted?"

"I've heard it's safe for people who are are not thinking impure thoughts."

"Pure thoughts. I'm busy thinking pure thoughts for the rest of the day, today."

"We should go back in a group, just in case."

The woman remains in her robes, in a heap on the ground.

"Aren't you coming?"

"No. Run away if you're scared. I'm staying."

The erstwhile victim comes over to stand by the woman. "Yr Athro, I am not staying. And I'm not going through with any more of this game we've been playing. Maybe they were hallucinations, but I've seen enough."

"Hallucinations?" the adult looks suddenly incredulous. "What did you see?"

The girl turns to the other children. "Some of you think you are stuck in an evil state, damned for things you haven't done and condemned forever for thing you have. It isn't so. There is hope for us as long as we live."

The woman howls, standing and reaching out to attack the girl, but suddenly two boars are behind her, snuffling and grunting again. Instead of attacking, she hides behind the girl.

The girl reaches out to the boars, who nuzzle her hands.

"Nothing to be afraid of, if we think pure thoughts."

"What is a pure thought?" the woman snarls. "I suppose you think you know. You are just a slut."

"That is definitely an impure thought, Yr Athro. I can't let people who did bad things to me in the past define who I am now. Nor should you."

"What makes you think —?"

The amber boar ambles over to the woman and grunts, nuzzling her leg. The woman suddenly crumbles back to the ground, reaching out and hugging the amber boar, sobbing. The ebony boar joins them, snuffling gently beside them. For a long minute or two (five or ten of your minutes) the woman remains as it were in the boars' embrace, the intensity of her sobs slowly ebbing away. Finally, she dries her tears and regains her feet, shedding her robes. One of the boys hands her clothes to her, and she proceeds to dress in a trance.

---

Table of Contents

Next: To the Third and Fourth Generation

---

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[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.50 -- Pink Unicorns Or Purple?

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-50-pink-unicorns-or-purple.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to May 2019.
]

Previous: Gwen

Table of Contents

---

Glad to see you here. We can definitely use an additional pair of eyes this morning. This is a difficult assignment, requiring the assistance of two of our charges. Water Princess's parents will be here to help, as well.

As you can see through the early morning mists, the forest here is thick, with ever-violet trees spreading their needled branches tall and closer together than is usual, the native deciduous white-bush fighting to catch what sunlight filters through with their translucent leaves of a color you would place in the ultraviolet part of your physically visible spectrum, and indigo vines draped thick from tree to bush making progress difficult off the few, irregularly traveled paths.

Are the unfamiliar colors of this world interesting? How is it, you ask, that you can register them all?

Now there's a good question.

"Not what I'd call a tourist attraction." Earth Prince's voice comes low through the trees.

"We aren't here to be tourists. We're here to research our family history." As we see them approach between the trees, avoiding the needles, Water Princess's hair glows amber in the deep gloom, catching what little light there is and re-radiating it.

"I can't imagine you'd have any ancestors there."

"As my dad sometimes says, no stone unturned." She half-giggles.

"I'm not sure that's an appropriate joke for this place. Say, where are they?"

"My parents?" Both stop and turn around.

"We're coming." Her father's voice comes through the gloom. "You two go ahead. We'll come at our own pace. No need to wait for us."

"Trying to give us time to be alone together again?" Water Princess mutters with a wry smile.

Earth Prince shakes his head, ever so slightly, and replies in a low voice. "This graveyard is definitely not a place for games, although some of my school friends would go there to make out on dares."

"Make out?"

"Heavy kissing, hands where they shouldn't, etc."

"I know what it means. Dangerous play. On dares?"

"Thrill seekers."

"What usually happens?"

"They usually come back saying it was too scary to do anything bad."

"And they want to be bad, I guess."

Both laugh quiet, wry laughs.

Her parents come into view, holding hands and smiling. "Did you wait?"

"Better to stay together, even if it's just to keep from getting lost." Earth Prince smiles, but his voice has something of an edge, and he reaches out to take Water Princess's hand.

The four proceed ahead of us, Earth Prince and Water Princess leading the way along a path that is becoming less of a path than a thinning of undergrowth, which they push out of their way to proceed.

"You'd think you believed in ghosts." Water Princess's father is still jocular.

"You disbelieve in the spirit that animates the body?" Earth Prince's voice turns sardonic.

"Touché. But, as you should know, I do not yield power to rebellious spirits who refused to be born, or any that refuse to move on from here when it is time."

"But even the scriptures advise against testing evil." Earth Prince pauses, scanning the forest ahead of them. "What did the bishop say when you asked him about coming to this particular site to record names?"

"He laughed." Water Princess's mother laughs as well, "Said it was work someone needed to be brave enough to do."

"Oh, for —"

Earth Prince drops Water Princess's hand, raising his arm in front of her to hold her back, trying to cover her eyes.

But she has already seen and pushes his hand down. "She looks younger than me," she says, quietly, sadly.

Her parents come up behind and draw quick breaths.

They have come to a clearing, and this is where our unusual business for the morning lies, in the form of another young charge of ours, on her back in the clearing in a space between monument stones, uncovered, except for a loincloth and bolero improvised from a scarf, and long strands of a yellow-green vine draped across her body to form an eight-point star on the ground around her. The vine's indigo leaves and white berries rest against her bare skin, and she shows no signs of consciousness.

"What?" Water Princess's mother quietly asks of no one in particular. "Is she alive?"

"Can't tell from here." Earth Prince turns to talk. "I did mention other rumors, didn't I? If she's there I think there will be priests of some sort around. This could get dangerous."

観 -- Priests? Eight initiates — four males, four females — one older priestess, to be exact. Dangerous, perhaps.

"Well, you guys showed up. You might actually be useful for something after all." Even in a whisper, Water Princess's voice is tinged with sarcasm.

"Br-- Dywysoges!" Her mother's voice is quiet but sharp.

"Mom, ..."

助 -- She should say what she thinks.

"Where are they?" Water Princess's father asks, quietly.

観 -- In the woods around here, preparing, as they consider it, to partake of the sacrifice.

"I wonder if they know we are here." His voice drops yet further.

観 -- You saw the vines?

"Hallucinogens." Earth Prince's voice is low, but the heat is audible. "If they are also wrapped in those, maybe they won't hear us, but they will be even less likely to behave reasonably." He motions and turns out, away from what remains of the path, and the others follow him a few paces into the thicker area, disappearing from the view from the path. We follow.

"So, I suppose, since I am here, I should become the part." Water Princess's voice now reveals resignation.

観 -- It is your choice. You may even choose to leave."

"I doubt we'll ever see that happen." Her father shakes his head soberly.

"What is our assignment, other than to rescue as many as possible?" she asks.

使 -- That's all. No force. No violence. As little intimidation as possible. As natural as possible.

"Can't let it be easy, I guess." Earth Prince expresses his dissatisfaction. "What else, pink unicorns?"

"That might not be a bad idea." Water Princess looks thoughtful.

助 -- That would not be natural. There are none of the equestrian unicorns in this area. And the bovine unicorn unicorn would not exactly be in it's natural habit here, either.

"How about wild boars?" Earth Prince suggests without thinking. "Plenty of those around here. Wait, what am I saying?"

This world of Xhilr also has animals you would recognize as horses and rhinoceroses — and tusked wild boars ... and, yes, equestrian unicorns.

"Great idea." Water Princess takes his hand and reaches out for her father's.

"Maybe I'd prefer pink unicorns. Or even purple."

"Just relax." Water Princess's mother takes his other hand and reaches for her husband's free hand. Water Princess's father shrugs and joins the circle.

使 -- We'll be in the graveyard, keeping an eye on the sacrificial victim.

"We'll call if we need help." Already, Earth Prince's clothes are changing to ebony fur streaked with purple and pink. Water Princess's clothes change to amber fur, also streaked with pink and purple. Her parents' fur is a more sedate black, with streaks of sand and teak.

As we move to the clearing, four wild boars begin snuffling through the forest undergrowth.

---

Table of Contents

Next: Wild Boars

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