Winter Journeys

Chapter 12

Confronting the Higher-ups

(Author's Note: I had some fun with the name of the bookstore accountant. "Cipher" means to calculate, but it can also mean a "Zero", somebody that is not worth anything.

I don't want anything in this story to be interpreted as detrimental to Boston, a city I love. For plot purposes I needed a big city where somebody might fall through the cracks, and I chose Boston because of the college connection)

"Almost finished the last page," Harvey announced from the laptop.

"Cool," Joan replied dully.

"I wish you'd show more enthusiasm," complained Luke. "After all, Harvey and I are writing the this bookstore program to save your butt."

"I would not put it so inelegantly," objected Harvey.

"No?"

"In England we would say 'her bum'."

"Get off my ass, you two," grumbled Joan. "The point is, I'm feeling doubly guilty. This bookstore program should be my work, not yours."

"You don't need to look at it that way," said Luke, more serious. "This was your idea; we're just doing the illustrations."

"Besides, I enjoyed this project," reassured Harvey. "It gives me the excuse to be flashy with the graphics. The 10D program is supposed to just sit in background, the less obtrusive the better."

"But you'll have to present the idea," Luke told his sister, "and that means getting familiar with what we've done. We should--"

RRRING

"Excuse me, that's my cell," said Joan. Taking it from her purse, she answered: "Hello?"

"Girardi? This is Polk."

"Grace!" shouted Joan; she saw Luke's head jerk up at the name. "Grace, it's wonderful to hear your voice after all this time. Do you want to talk to Luke?"

"That's his decision. I'm calling about news you need to know about. Last night, Bonnie gave birth to her baby, two months early -- I'm not gonna say 'had'."

"Not gonna say what?"

"Never mind. Your cousins agreed to raise the kid so Bonnie can get her life back together, so basically you have a new cousin."

It was weird, that a girl younger than herself had already become a parent. But no, Joan was NOT going to get jealous of an unwed mother. She tried to sound bland. "Is it a boy or girl? What's its name?"

"Um, Adam. You can guess the sex from--"

"ADAM. And it was born last night? Nine months ago, Bonnie and Adam--"

"No, Girardi, don't even go there. Bonnie's not fudging dates; all the medical people I've talked to said it's definitely a preemie. Bonnie named the kid for Adam because he was loyal enough to give her shelter, not because they were lovers once. What's the Robert Frost quote? 'Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in'. If I can trust that she's telling the truth, you should be able to, because I don't trust anybody."

Joan thought Grace was protesting too much; that Grace had been very impressed by the miracle of birth, even when the mother was Bonnie. "OK, it'll take getting used to. I'll tell L-, um, everybody the news."

She switched off the phone and gave Luke the bare bones of the news. Since Harvey was there, she left out the business between Bonnie and Adam, which Luke would know perfectly well.

Luke naturally had his own interest in the matter. "So how is Grace doing?"

"She didn't say. Sounded rather interested in the baby."

Harvey laughed, "When a girl friend is in that mood, best stay away from her for awhile. Might want one of her own." But a look at Luke's face seemed enough to tell him that Luke and Grace were no laughing matter, and he instantly changed the subject. "Why doubly guilty, Joan?"

"Huh?"

"You said you were feeling double guilty, and I reassured you about using our ideas. So what else are you guilty about?"

"A guy named Ali Musa. He's been in jail for nearly a week, and here I am worried about my career, like a yuppie."

While Luke explained to Harvey about Ali Musa, Joan thought back about her efforts this week--

Ali Musa did not have an American lawyer. Aside from the expense, the people within his Muslim neighborhood preferred to live according to Shariah, the traditional Muslim code. The American legal system had appointed him a representative. His Muslim friends (who became much less aloof once convinced that Joan was on Ali's side) gave her the lawyer's name and address.

The anteroom for the lawyer's office was less impressive than the one for Redding and Associates, and the receptionist much less friendly. Only after repeated assurance that she could help on a case was Joan let in.

"You say you have information on the Musa case?" asked the lawyer.

"Yeah. I know he's innocent."

"You know he's innocent. Great. If you could transfer that knowledge into the minds of the judge and jury, that would solve everything. Unfortunately, trials don't work that way. Listen to me, Miss Girardi. They may appoint me to represent a poor client, but they don't pay me much. Time is money, and you're taking up both by being here. So what can you do to help?"

"I'm willing to work on the case for free. And I've had AP Law."

"AP Law? Is that the high school version of Law 101?"

"Um, yeah." Both 'high school' and 'Law 101' sounded like insults.

"Well, here's something you probably don't learn in AP Law, Miss Girardi. It's called plea bargaining. In this case, Mr. Musa agrees to surrender his visa and leave the country, and the State drops the charges. Much simpler than trying to combat a terrorist charge against a Muslim when we're at war in Iraq."

"But he must have had a reason for coming to America."

"Maybe. All I can say is, he probably didn't come to sit in a jail cell. Tick-tock, Miss Girardi. Do you have anything to add to the case?"

"Not if you don't care about guilt and innocence," fumed Joan, storming out.

That was Tuesday. Thursday she had visited the police, trying to find out what the evidence was against Musa. She thought that she knew her way around police departments, having visited her father at work in both Arcadia and earlier towns. But on those occasions she had been tolerated as the kid of a high-ranking officer in the department. Here, nobody would give her the time of day. Besides, she knew from AP Law that the decision about pursuing the case lay with the Prosecuting Attorney, not the police. And why would the prosecutor talk to a girl who wanted to make trouble for his case?

"I can understand why you're upset, if you care about the case," Harvey consoled her after hearing Luke's account. "But as for guilt, there's plenty to go around. A defender that doesn't care. A general climate of suspicion against Muslims. Years of conflict on both sides that led to the suspicion. You have no reason to feel guilty, Joan."

She did, but she could not explain to Harvey, though Luke probably understood. She thought she understood ripples now. God had told her to study AP Law, then threw somebody in her path who needed legal help. Obviously she was intended to help him, but she had failed to do so. And in two days, she would be leaving Boston for home and be unable to help at all. Those two days would have to be devoted to salvaging her own job at the bookstore.

At the time of her appointment, the receptionist ushered Joan and Luke into a conference room. Joan introduced Luke as "my assistant", which seemed to impress the others. The others were Mr. Logan, who seemed friendly enough, and a Mr. Seifer, who looked skeptical.

"So here's my idea for redoing the bookstore," Joan began. Luke started up the program on the screen. Based on her sketch of the store's layout, and her ideas for remodelling, Harvey had come up with an illusion of walking through a three-dimensional structure. Joan could tell that the execs were impressed by that right off. "Mr. Logan said that you have to beat or join the Internet. Well, this is a compromise, remodelling it to look more attractive to the Internet generation. We'll call it the Book Site. Each section of the bookstore will be labeled with a logo or icon symbolizing its subject. For example, a picture of Einstein at the entrance to the science shelfs." Luke's favorite idea.

"So far," objected Seifer, "you're giving the customers stuff they could get on their computer, without having to drive or walk to the store. So why should they come?"

"Because we'll offer amenities they can't get on the Internet. For each section the visitor will have the option of signing up for an interest group, whose site will be maintained by your company. They can talk to each other, and they can learn of new releases from the company itself. Each section will have a summary of the subject and the major books of the subject -- maybe two summaries, one an introduction and the other in-depth. If the visitor prefers talking to a live human, the employee will be required to know at least the introduction for each section in the store. We'll make sure that the major books mentioned in the in-depth summary are immediately available in the store. For others, we will order -- and since we're in the bookstore business, we should be able to locate books at least as efficiently as the Internet competitors."

"But you're talking about remodelling, and training the staff, and the overhead of new web sites," said Seifer. "What's it going to cost?"

"Cost?" repeated Joan, flustered. "Um, I don't know."

"You're making a proposal without a cost-benefit analysis?"

"Wait," said Logan. "I asked Miss Girardi for IDEAS, not a professional proposal."

"Talk is cheap. Money costs, well, money."

Mr. Logan looked displeased. "Well, you're the accountant. YOU figure the costs. Then we'll see. Thank you, Miss Girardi, for an interesting presentation."

Interesting. Joan was trying to save her store, and all he could say was that it was interesting. Of course, he had promised earlier to be frank about the situation.

Harvey came to see them off at Logan Airport. Naturally most of his attention was on Luke. "Hope you've seen what you wanted of the University, Luke. To improve your chances of getting in, I'd suggest working on some physics project for the next couple of months. If it's impressive enough, I know some professors who will fight to get you admitted."

"Thanks, Harvey."

Luke looks pleased. He got what he wanted from the trip. But Ali Musa is still in jail, and my bookstore is in Limbo, and I even screwed up as a chaperone. A fine adult I'm turning out to be.