Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (38 page)

“
Yes?” he
asked.

“
Tomorrow, you must run
with the dogs in the afternoon,” she said. “The little painter
needs you in the park.”

“
I’ll be there,” he
said.

“
Good,” she said and
disappeared.

“
Thanks, Mom,” he
whispered.

At the bottom of the steps, he stopped to
look at the house again. Nodding to himself, he ran back to the
farmhouse and his life.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday night—9:42 p.m.

“
Yo,” the voice on the
phone said.

“
Yeah? Whatchu want?” he
responded.

“
Tomorrow, just after the
start of b-ball practice, we’re gonna take care of our On-Line
problem.”

“
Gotcha.”

“
We all gonna be there,”
the voice said. “You?”

“
I’ll be
there.”

Chapter Two Hundred and
Forty-Five
In the Air

Monday morning—7:42 a.m.

“
Wasn’t the weekend fun?”
Noelle’s bright chatter made Sandy turn to look at her. Sandy gave
Noelle a probing look and the girl blushed. Rachel gurgled from her
spot on Sandy’s hip.

“
Sissy! We have to go!”
Sandy yelled down the hallway.

“
We’re riding our bikes,”
Nash said.

Nash and Teddy walked by her with their bike
helmets on. Teddy stopped to smile at Noelle.

“
Good morning,” Teddy
said.

Noelle beamed at him. Teddy glanced at
Sandy, and Sandy scowled. He nodded and jogged to catch up with
Nash.

“
What’s going on with you
and Teddy?” Sandy asked.

“
Nothing new.” Noelle
twirled back and forth.

“
Uh huh,” Sandy said.
“Sissy if you don’t hurry, we’re going to leave you here. You’ll
have to drag all your ballet crap to school yourself.”

“
I’m coming!” Sissy
hustled down the hall with a duffle bag full of her dance
gear.

“
Charlie!” Sandy yelled
from the living room.

Charlie turned the corner from the kitchen
and looked at Sandy.

“
Oh good, you’re here,”
Sandy said. “Mike’s not here to walk you to
basketball . . .”

“
So Jake’s taking me,”
Charlie said. “Yes, I remember from the last forty times you told
me.”

“
Good.” Sandy smiled and
he scowled.

“
Noelle’s right, you
know,” Charlie said. “Last weekend was great.”

“
God, not you too,” Sandy
said. “Yes, I know. Young love is in the air.”

Charlie wiggled his eyebrows and Sandy shook
her head at him. Sissy caught up with her and Sandy gave the girls
a nudge out the door. She followed Sissy and Noelle down to the
enormous SUV. Noelle helped Sissy put her stuff in the back. The
girls sat together in the back because Rachel, her diaper bag, and
her command-center car seat took up the middle seat. Sandy got into
the driver’s seat.

“
Anything you want to talk
about, Noelle?” Sandy asked as she started the car.

“
What do you mean?” Noelle
asked.

“
She wants to know if you
and Teddy did it this weekend,” Sissy said.

“
What?” Noelle looked
horrified. “Why would you think that?”

“
You’re all glowy,” Sissy
said.

Sandy turned up Sixteenth Avenue toward East
High School.

“
Oh,” Noelle said. “I’m
just really happy. I get to spend the afternoon with Teddy’s
step-mom and . . . I just feel . . .
really happy.”

“
Yeah,” Sandy said. “How’d
you get so happy?”

Sissy giggled and Noelle blushed.

“
I would never betray the
trust you place in me and in Teddy by having sex at my age.” Noelle
nodded. “We agreed and shook hands and everything.”

“
But?” Sandy
asked.

“
I hear the ‘but’ too,”
Sissy said.

“
But kissing doesn’t
count, does it?” Noelle asked.

Sissy squealed and laughed. Sandy looked at
Noelle in the rearview mirror.

“
What are you doing with
Teddy’s step-mom this afternoon?” Sandy asked.

“
We’re going to the park,”
Noelle said. “I’m going to paint her portrait. She’s very
beautiful. Have you met her?”

“
I have,” Sandy said. “And
you’re right, she is very beautiful.”

Sandy pulled up in front of East High
School.

“
Sissy, you remember what
Dr. Bumpy said, right?” Sandy asked. “You’ll be super
careful?”

“
Ivan’s picking me up at
noon,” Sissy said. “I should be gone all afternoon. Then he’s
dropping me off at home for dinner. I’ll be with Ivan until I’m
home.”

“
You have your phone?”
Sandy asked.

“
I promise. I’ll be okay,”
Sissy said. “You’ll see. Those guys are just begging to get caught.
We’ll laugh at them tonight.”

Sandy gave a worried nod. Noelle hopped out
of the car and helped Sissy carry the heavy duffle bag to the
office. Sandy called Tanesha on her iPhone and spoke to her until
Noelle came back. Noelle got into the passenger seat.

“
How’s Tanesha?” Noelle
asked.

“
Her parents are back from
Paris,” Sandy said. “I think she’s a little overwhelmed with them
and school and Jeraine, but you know Tanesha.”

“
Tanesha can do anything,”
Noelle said. “She’s wonder woman.”

Sandy gave a slight nod. She started down
the East High Esplanade and turned right on Seventeenth Avenue.

“
I wanted to talk to you
about . . .” Sandy asked.

“
What’s going on?” Noelle
asked.

“
Jake talked to Aden and
me last night after you went to bed,” Sandy said.

“
Oh?” Noelle
asked.

“
He was warned that
something might happen to you today,” Sandy said. “In the
park.”

“
I’ll be with Teddy’s
step-mom,” Noelle said.

“
You’ll be safe?” Sandy
asked.

Noelle nodded.

“
You have your phone?”
Sandy asked.

Noelle nodded.

“
I
just . . .” Sandy started. She pulled into the
parking lot of the Marlowe School. “I don’t want anything to happen
to you.”

“
I’ll be careful,” Noelle
said. “I won’t be reckless. I promise.”

Noelle grabbed her backpack and got out of
the car. Sandy watched her go inside the building before getting
Rachel from the back. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something
horrible was going to happen. Sandy shook her head at herself. Her
past was not Noelle’s present. She hoped.

Sandy cuddled her baby for a moment before
taking her into the nursery. She chatted with Anjelika and went
back out to the car. Sitting in the driver’s seat, Sandy nodded to
herself.

“
Everything is going to be
fine,” Sandy said out loud.

Anxiety shot through her gut. Sandy scowled
and started the car.

~~~~~~~~

Monday mid-day—12:05 p.m.

Jacob cleared his throat and walked to the
front of the room. The site managers had gathered everyone for a
noon meeting. In order to avoid confusion, they were waiting to
distribute lunch until Jacob had finished talking. As he walked, he
saw men and women he recognized. Some had worked for his parents.
Some he’d hired himself. Rodney touched his shoulder in a gesture
of support as Jacob passed.

“
I apologize for
disrupting your day,” Jacob said. “I called this meeting because I
have a few things to say, and we as a company need to make some
decisions. I am going to speak for a few minutes, and then we’ll
have lunch. My father, Aden, Blane, and Tres are in the back. They
will be available to answer your questions until the end of the
hour.”

He looked out at the employees in front of
him and smiled.

“
I’m sure you’re aware of
the tension that’s developed within our company,” Jacob said. “I
realized this weekend that some of the strain stems from the fact
that you don’t know why my father, Valerie, and I are selling
Lipson Construction.”

He saw heads instinctively move up and
down.

“
My mother and father
started this company,” Jacob said. “They ran it out of our
basement. As some of you remember, Val and I worked every day after
school and all summer. I can’t tell you how many nights, weekends,
birthdays, and dinners one or the other of my parents missed
because they were on a backhoe, writing up a bid all night, or just
trying to make ends meet. My father worked side carpentry jobs to
support the company the entire time I was in grade school. And then
something miraculous happened: Denver needed a new airport, and we
got the bid.”

Jacob nodded.

“
My family had a lot of
problems,” Jacob said. “And my mother died.”

Jacob’s voice caught with emotion. He could
never utter the words without feeling his heart squeeze.

“
And Lipson continued to
grow,” Jacob said. “My mother’s dying wish was that the people who
had made Lipson Construction great—her employees—could one day reap
the benefits of their hard work. It was
her
dream, what
she
wanted.”

“
That’s exactly right!”
Bambi yelled out from the back.

“
Told me that herself,”
Jerry said.

“
It’s taken a long time,”
Jacob said. “My father was plagued with people who wanted to gut
the company for its cash value. I bought most of the company from
him and have been fighting with the same men ever
since.”

Jacob swallowed hard.

“
It comes down to this:
They don’t want you to own this company,” Jacob said. “They don’t
want you to own any company.”

“
No, they do not!” DeShawn
yelled out.

“
They want the money that
selling this company to the highest bidder will bring them,” Jacob
said. “As you’ve learned in the last six months, there’s a lot more
to running a company than making money.”

There was a general rumble of people
agreeing with him.

“
We believe the company
should belong to you,” Jacob said. “And we want you to be
successful. But if I had allowed people to buy the entire company
at the very beginning, like some of the more vocal employees have
proposed, it would have failed within a year. That’s what has
happened to every single company in which employees have assumed
one hundred percent ownership right away. This company, any
company, really, is too complicated. By slowly selling shares, we
hold the responsibility and risk while you learn the
ropes.

“
People have asked me—‘Why
are you doing it, Jake?’ We’re doing this so
you
can succeed. We’re doing this so
the company my parents sacrificed so much for doesn’t fail. In
fact, the only people we’re sticking it to ourselves!”

Jacob felt a wave of anger and his heart
raced. He put his hand on his chest against the angina he still
felt when he was very angry.

“
Today, I received the
current evaluation of Lipson Construction.” Jacob nodded to Tres
and he put the chart on the overhead. “I want you to see that
the
value
of
Lipson has risen significantly. We do not intend to change your
share price. You, and your hard work, make this company successful.
You made the value rise. You deserve to purchase the company at the
original offer price.”

“
We are aware that a
number of you are unhappy with your situation,” Jacob said. “We’ve
heard that more than a few of you feel cheated. In response to your
feedback, my father and I have decided to launch a buy-back. This
is your opportunity to sell back your ownership shares for what
they are currently worth. Selling your shares will not affect your
employment, but, you will not be able to repurchase your shares at
the original price. If you choose to repurchase shares, and we
choose to offer them to you, you will pay the current market
price.”

Jacob looked at the men and women in the
room.

“
Now is your chance,”
Jacob said. “We’ll give you the rest of the hour to have lunch and
arrange to sell back your shares. Tonight at six, the Lipson
Construction owners will meet back here to make some important
decisions. For the next hour, you have the option to rid yourself
of what many of you now think is a scam, and to make a profit. If
you still own Lipson Construction stock at six this evening, and
decide you no longer wish to own it, the only way to unload your
stock will be to end your employment with the company. The terms
are non-negotiable. Thank you.”

With that, he left the room. He walked to
the parking lot and got into the passenger seat of Jill’s SUV.

“
How did it go?” Jill
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jacob
said.

“
Okay,” Jill said.
“Lunch?”

“
Lunch with my girl sounds
fabulous,” Jacob said. “I need to be back around two to take
Charlie to basketball.”

“
We have plenty of time.”
Jill smiled.

“
Smile like that and I’ll
want to go home.”