Robert Thompson made his way down the hallway. It was after midnight but he hadn’t been able to sleep. There had been all the excitement of the day, and he had been on his feet more than usual. His knee was acting up again. The arthritis in that knee kept him awake at night sometimes, especially when he had overworked it during the day. He had medication for the pain, but despite having been a pharmaceutical researcher for all his professional life, he hated taking pills for every little thing. Once he was certain Susan was asleep he got up to take a walk. Sometimes it helped.
He had never been to the Rock before. The children had invited them to come up, but they had always declined. He knew Susan was curious, but for himself, he hadn’t been interested, so they had never come. But Melissa had invited them special for the grand opening of the hotel they had built, and Susan wasn’t about to miss a party, so here they were.
He had to admit, he was impressed. He had spent the week being impressed. They had arrived in Florida earlier in the week in the middle of the day. Part of the plan was to pick up the children from school, and Geoff, Tori and the little ones were looking forward to that. But the rental agency was out of Lincolns and they had ended up with a Ford Mustang that didn’t have enough seat belts to pick up all the children. So they went by the office. Melissa had already told them that she would be in the office that day, and they could trade cars with her.
The office park was stylish and elegant. The secretary in the lobby was polite and recognized them from a family portrait hanging on Melissa’s office wall. She told them that Mrs. Carter was on a conference call, but she would put a note through to her PDA. Moments later the young woman’s screen chimed and she asked them to follow her. She explained that Mrs. Carter was on a videoconference, but she had asked for them to be brought to her office.
They walked down the hallway past a large room filled with electronic drafting tables. There were a half dozen young people working at the tables. They didn’t look up as Robert and Susan walked by. The secretary passed a row of office doors, each with a brass name plate. One name was Alan Carter. That door was closed. Another was John Koenig. That door was open, but the office was empty. The third office door was also open and empty. Robert didn’t recognize that name. Next was a conference room with a large table and windows looking out over a pond and the tall pine trees in the parkland outside. The secretary stopped at a closed door. The brass plate said “Melissa Carter, President”.
“The conference call should be wrapping up,” The young secretary said. “You won’t be in the pickup if you stay on this side of the room and stay quiet. There’s a sofa just to the right of the door where you can wait until she’s through.”
Robert and Susan nodded and the secretary opened the door for them.
The office was large and lined with windows on three sides, looking out over the office park. Melissa, John and a Hispanic man sat at a table on the left hand side of the room near the window. There was a video screen on the wall that held the image of four Orientals in business attire. A small tripod on the table held a camera, and Melissa was looking at the camera. There was a computer embedded in the table and Melissa held a stylus in her left hand, poised over a touch pad. She was wearing a royal blue business suit and a cream colored silk blouse. Her feet were tucked under her chair, her pumps off, but close by. Her strawberry blonde hair was swept up and held in place with a black clip. Reading glasses were perched on the end of her nose. Robert hadn’t even known she wore reading glasses. He had never seen her look so businesslike.
“I think that’s everything on our list. Do you have anything else to bring up? John? Octavio?” The two men on either side of Melissa shook their heads.
One of the men on the screen nodded. “We will have the contract drawn up and email the final version to you within six hours.”
“Can you cc our attorney? I’ll send you her email address. That could save some time and we can probably get the contract signed by the end of the week.” Melissa touched the screen with the stylus again.
“Of course. It will be done. Perhaps by the time we meet on the Rock at the end of the week, the deal will be closed. Thank you for the invitation. We are looking forward to seeing you work and meeting you in person.” The man gave a small bow.
Melissa bowed in response, her move obviously calculated to be no more or less of a bow than his. “I look forward to meeting you as well. And to working with you in the future.”
They signed off and John reached over to the camera and flipped a switch. At the same time the screen went blank. The three at the table visibly relaxed, but Melissa kept the two men’s attention.
“I’m still concerned about this time limit penalty. That million dollars comes straight out of our profit.”
“We can do it, Mel,” John said. “With the experience we have from the hotel, we are way ahead of the game.”
“We had better be. Octavio, can we structure a bonus for everyone who puts in hours on the project?”
“Certainly. Although some people don’t keep the most regular of hours, and don’t log in all of their hours.” He glanced pointedly across the table.
“Hmm, yes. Well, I know that the biggest culprits for that are my Dear Husband and my Brother-in-law,” Melissa smiled at John. “Okay. John, see if Luke down in IS can rig up a program for your PDA’s that allow you to keep track of your hours and beam them back to a database on the network.”
“Will do,” John replied, making a note on the small device in question.
“That’s it, then.” Melissa smiled and brought the meeting to a close. She gracefully slipped her feet into her pumps and stood, turning to welcome her parents.
She introduced both parents to Octavio Hernandez, a stocky Hispanic with wavy black hair and an easy smile. He was CK Industries’ Chief Financial Officer. He shook hands politely and excused himself.
“How are you feeling, dear?” Susan asked her daughter.
“Terrific,” Melissa replied. “Helena gave me a clean bill health this morning.”
“Maybe we should stay with you, John. She and Alan will be swinging from the rafters tonight,” Robert teased.
“Unfortunately, no,” Melissa said with a laugh. “Alan is already up on the Rock working on some last minute details. I won’t see him until we join him up there at the end of the week.”
Robert and Susan explained why they had come to the office, something they had never done before. They exchanged car keys with Melissa and headed for the children’s school. The week had been a hectic one, and Robert had shuttled the boys to Little League practice and Susie to dance lessons and managed to squeeze in a golf game with Tori. All had boarded an Eagle on Friday and headed for the Rock.
During the day there had been a tour of the hotel. In the evening they attended a formal cocktail party. The children stayed with the babysitter Melissa brought along during the party. After dinner there was an elaborate zero-g show in the theatre. The children returned for that and little Susie had fallen asleep in his lap while dancers dressed as butterflies and flying fish and other exotic creatures performed intricate ballets in three dimensions. Susan had helped to bed down the children in the two apartments assigned to them. They were staying with the Koenigs. Alan’s parents were staying with the Carters.
“Robert!” Someone called his name, bringing his wandering thoughts back to the present.
Alan’s father Geoff was standing at the next intersection. “What’s the matter, mate? Couldn’t sleep?” Geoff sounded much like his son, with a more pronounced accent.
“You either?” Robert asked.
“This is the middle of the day for me. How about a beer?”
“Is there anywhere to get a beer up here?”
“Well, I knew I’d be jet lagging. So I had a talk with some of the caterers. They left me a six pack in one of those VIP suites off the main theatre.”
Robert grinned. “Lead on, MacDuff.”
Geoff finished the quote as they headed down the hallway. “And damned be him that first cries, hold, enough!” They both laughed and fell into easy conversation as they made their way to the beer.
They left the lights dimmed as they settled into two easy chairs next to the window, the bottles of beer in between them. They talked about their kids and mutual grandkids, whom Robert got to see much more of than Geoff, simply because of logistics. Alan and Melissa tried to make a trip to Australia with the children every other year, and Beth and Geoff visited the States on the alternate years, but the visits were all too brief.
They were startled when lights came on in the theatre. The soft indirect lights barely lit up the huge cavern, creating beams of light amid areas that remained in shadow. Robert turned in his chair to see a woman launch herself from the platform across the wall. “Someone practicing this late at night?”
“The dancers were from all over. Maybe it’s the middle of the day for them too,” Geoff said.
A man launched himself into the air behind the woman and Robert chuckled. “Or maybe they were just looking for a time to conduct a little monkey business.”
The woman began to spin, slowing her progress into the room. The man caught up with her and they joined hands. They moved together in a gentle erotic dance.
“Like some kind of live porn movie, isn’t it?” Geoff said quietly with a laugh.
Robert watched idly. “You watch many of those, Carter?”
“I’ve watched my fair share. Most have no more plot than this,” Geoff answered.
The man and woman spinning in the cavern before them twisted, ending up in a position that would be absolutely impossible on Earth, obviously approaching climax unaware they were being observed.
“Doesn’t your wife object?”
“She generally reaps her own rewards when I’m turned on by them. She doesn’t like to watch them herself, but likes what they do to me.” Geoff replied with a laugh.
The woman writhed, pressing against the man and kissing him eagerly. He moved his way down her body, pleasuring her again. She arched her back as she came again, silently from the perspective of their observers.
“Well, they certainly do have… stamina,” Geoff observed.
The couple floated together curled around each other in a manner only possible in zero-g. They drifted into a beam of light which flashed off the woman’s wild array of strawberry blonde curls. Before, they had been in shadow. The woman moved to caress the man’s cheek and Robert startled. He knew exactly who that was.
“My God!”
“What?”
“That’s… that’s…” He pointed out the window, unable to complete the sentence.
Geoff leaned forward. “Damn! That’s Alan and Mel, isn’t it?”
Robert tried to draw a breath and couldn’t. His hand went to his throat and he gasped for breath. He tried one more time, but the world suddenly went black around him.
Geoff Carter looked over at his son’s father-in-law, stunned. Then he headed for the intercom panel and pushed the communications button. A pert young woman in the Rock’s blue uniform appeared on the screen. Without waiting for her to say anything, Geoff said, “I have a medical emergency here, miss. My friend has just passed out. And you need to call his daughter, Dr. Helena Koenig. She should be in her quarters.”
“Yes sir. I’ll have a medical team down there right away, and I’m calling Doctor Koenig now.” The screen blanked and Geoff went to kneel by Robert. He hoped he remembered some of that CPR stuff he had to learn every year while he was working for the airline.
The waiting room in the Rock’s medical center was too small. Susan wanted to pace impatiently, but there was nowhere to do that. John woke her and told her that Robert had collapsed and by the time she was dressed, his friend Tony had come by to stay with the children. Helena left before John woke her and was in with Robert now. Geoff Carter had been waiting for them and explained that the two of them had gone for a walk, drank a couple of beers in one of the VIP suites and talked and then Robert had passed out. It certainly wasn’t like Robert to pass out after a couple of drinks. And he had seemed fine just a short time ago.
Melissa and Alan arrived next.
“What happened?” she asked, looking from her mother to John. “Is Cake with him?”
John put his hand on Melissa’s shoulder. “She’s with him. All we know is that he passed out a little while ago. Geoff was with him,” John added, nodding toward Alan’s father.
When Alan and Melissa walked into the room, Geoff immediately stood and pulled his son over to one side, speaking to him softly. Alan motioned to Melissa who joined them. Susan couldn’t hear what Geoff was saying, but she could certainly watch Melissa’s reaction. Her eyes went wide and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my god! Oh my god!” she repeated over and over. Alan put his arm around her waist, trying to comfort her. Melissa burst into tears and sat on one of the molded plastic chairs.
“Melissa? What is it?” Susan asked, sitting next to her daughter.
Melissa burst into tears and wailed, “Oh, Mama, I’ve killed Daddy!”
“What?” Susan asked, confused. “Whatever do you mean dear?”
“It’s--- all--- my--- fault!” she sobbed.
Alan knelt in front of her. “Mel? Honey, of course it isn’t. Stop it, you’re scaring your mum.”
Melissa put her head on Alan’s shoulder and sobbed harder.
“Alan, what is this all about?” Susan ordered.
“Susan, Mel and I went back down to the zero gee chamber after the kids were put to bed. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else around down there. Everything was closed up,” Alan explained. Melissa continued to cry.
“What does that have to do with Robert?”
Geoff continued. “I met up with Robert while he was out walking and we decided to go down to that suite we watched the show in and have a couple of beers. While we were sitting there talking, some of the lights came on and these two people were out in the cavern making love. When we realized that it was Mel and Alan, that’s when he started having trouble breathing and passed out.”
“And--- I--- killed him!” Melissa wailed.
Susan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She was still very concerned about Robert, but she kept thinking that he had said on too many occasions that his adventurous daughter was going to be the death of him. Laughing was winning.
Helena came out of the door to the emergency medical area at that time. “He’s going to be fine,” she said, catching her mother’s eye.
Susan felt a wave of relief and she grasped Alan’s hand. They exchanged a smile.
“See, Melissa, you haven’t killed him yet,” Susan said, patting her daughter on the shoulder.
John put his arm around Helena and she leaned against him. Susan could almost see her daughter draw strength from the man she loved.
“What’s wrong with him?” Susan asked.
“It seems he’s been self medicating again,” Helena said with a sigh. “Instead of taking the best drug to maintain the arthritis pain he’s been having, he’s been taking a strong pain killer only when the pain gets too bad for him to handle. It’s been a long day and with the reception and everything, the stress, plus the pain meds, plus the two beers combined to cause muscle spasms, and when his diaphragm became effected, he passed out.”
“See,” Alan said to his wife. “It wasn’t you after all.”
Helena looked puzzled, but her husband quickly said, “I’ll tell you later.”
She nodded and continued. “He and I are going to have a serious talk about medications.”
“Well, I hope you have better luck than I’ve ever had,” Susan said. “Can he come home now?”
“Not tonight. I want him monitored by the staff here, but I’ll release him tomorrow once I’m sure the medication he’s been taking is out of his system and we can put him on something more reliable.”
Susan nodded. She felt relief wash over her. “Can I see him?” she asked.
Helena smiled. “I doubt he’ll actually settle down and sleep until you do. Go ahead.” She touched the pad by the door and it opened.
Robert spent the night drifting off to sleep only to be awakened by a beeping monitor or the sound of someone checking on him. He wasn’t surprised to be awakened again by a tugging on his arm. Next to the bed stood his eldest grandson, the tow-headed Geoff.
“Grandpa? Grandpa?”
“Hmm. What is it Geoff?”
“Just checking to see if you were alive.”
Robert smiled and snorted. “I’m still talking to you aren’t I? How did you get in here?”
“Grampa G brought me.”
It was looking at some time warped mirror. Geoff turned his face toward his other grandfather who was leaning against the wall at the foot of the bed. They had the same round face, the same blue eyes, and the same distinctive nose. The two Geoff’s smiled at each other.
“He was worried about you, mate. I thought it best if he got a chance to see you.”
“We’re going to go eat breakfast, then I’m going to take Grampa G up to the command deck to see Uncle Tony and we may even get to go EV!”
“That means ‘outside’ to these space types,” Geoff said, ruffling his grandson’s hair.
“Can you go too?” Little Geoff asked.
“Not right now, I’m afraid. You two go on and you can tell me all about it this afternoon.”
“All right. Get better, Grandpa.” Geoff leaned over and hugged Robert and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Robert patted his shoulder. “I will. I’ll be fine.”
Geoff took his grandfather’s hand and they slipped out. Robert felt better, and was ready to get up, but after his wife had finished scolding him last night, his daughter had started. He knew better than to get up without permission this morning. Helena had already threatened a whole bank of very unpleasant, very invasive, tests this morning if he didn’t behave, and he believed her. His other daughter had been conspicuously absent last night and he knew why.
When he heard the door open again he expected it to be Helena or Susan. When he opened his eyes he found Melissa standing just inside the door. “Can I come in?”
“Of course. This is grand central station, didn’t you know that? Everyone comes and goes as they please. The patient in the bed is the last to have any say in who comes in.”
Melissa smiled slightly. He sat up a little and looked at her. She actually
looked contrite! Another surprise.
”I came to apologize. I shouldn’t have … been doing what we were doing,” she
said hesitantly. “I wasn’t trying to show off or shock you. I got over that
years ago.”
He motioned her over to the bed and held out his hand. “My little Missy. I got over being shocked by you years ago. I doubt you had any intention of putting on a peep show for your old man and your father-in-law.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Good lord, no! I’m confident that you two can find your own jollies without me.” She sighed. “We had coded the doors to lock behind us and we knew everyone’s schedule. No one should have been in there. But you two came down the elevator ahead of us.”
Robert chuckled. “So you’ve done this before?”
“A few times,” Melissa admitted. “This was to be our last chance at the cavern before the hotel opened up and the restaurant would be running pretty much non stop.”
“Well, apology accepted, although I’m certain that Helena told you that this wasn’t your fault.”
“She did. But I’m not sure I really believe her.”
“Believe her. She’s telling the truth.” Robert shook his head. “Melissa, I am glad you finally found someone who could match your adventurous streak. What worried me most about you was your tendency to flit from one man to the next in search of a better thrill.”
Melissa laughed. “Well, Alan does say that life with me is never boring.”
“I’m sure. So, where are you going all dressed up?”
“That contract we were negotiating last week? It’s ready to be signed, and since we’re all here, we’re going to meet in one of the conference rooms and close the deal.”
“A pretty big one, I understand.”
“Yes, it is. John and Alan are looking forward to it.”
“And you?”
“Oh, I’ll have my eye on the next deal, and making sure this project runs smoothly like the last one did. It’s what I do best.”
“Well then, go do it, little girl.” He tugged on her and she leaned down and gave him a kiss. “I’m proud of you, Melissa.”
She looked startled. “You… are?”
“Of course. This whole thing,” Robert waved his hand in the air to encompass all of the Rock. “Is one heck of an achievement.” He pushed at her. “Now go on, don’t be late.”
She grinned at him, as delighted as if he had just handed her a million dollars. “Right. I’ll see you later.”
She slipped out of the room, looking graceful and sophisticated in her business attire. Robert lay back with a sigh. This had been one hell of a grand opening.
Maureen J. Long