Chapter 11

Once we were all back in the Suburban, I said, “Well, that was fun. Instructive, too. Name dropping doesn’t always work when money is involved.”

I felt the light tap on the back of my head. “Not everything is a business deal, Cal. This is one of the top ten high schools in the entire country. Carrie’s fortunate that you don’t have an issue spending money where family is concerned,” Beth said.

“Not hardly. Speaking of spending money for family, I’ve been a little busy. I’ve picked up a few things from various places. I thought we might do the birthday party for both you and Eve on Sunday in Palm Springs, after the tournament.”

“Holy crap, you remembered!” Dora exclaimed.

“I freely admit that I didn’t know Toby’s or Carrie’s birthdays until a little bit ago, but there’s no way that I could forget the three of yours.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Marcia said. “Now, when’s mine?”

“Same day as Toby’s. Just to make the coincidence complete, since Jennifer and Margie share the same birthday as each other, also.”

“Very good. It’s not that big of a coincidence, though. Probability theory says that with twenty-three random people, you have better than even odds that you have two people sharing a birthday in that group. It’s better than ninety percent once you get fifty or more together. There’s only three hundred sixty-six possible days, counting the leap years. Where things would get really weird would be if anyone had the exact same birthday and birth year, too,” Marcia said.

“Agreed. Now, where am I going next?”

“Since it’s still early enough, there’s a place we want to check out,” Marcia said. “Turn left out of here, and then we’ll go straight through this intersection.”

It was late in the afternoon, and there was definitely more traffic. The road made a slight jog to the right, changing names as it did so after we crossed El Camino Real.

“I could see needing a navigator to drive around here. Go three or four blocks and the road names change twice.”

The road crossed a surprisingly smooth railroad track, then went residential even more than it had been, with a thirty mile an hour speed limit.

“You’ll turn left on Middlefield, then right on Marsh, the second big intersection. You’ll stay on that for a bit.”

“Okay.” I was getting the hang of the big vehicle, even with traffic. There was another set of railroad tracks, then the road became divided. As we went up onto the bridge over the one-oh-one, I said, “I presume we’re not going into the park and then into the bay, right?”

“No, silly. Turn left onto Haven, then follow it around. Then we’ll see how smart you really are.”

There were a lot of businesses in this area, and I was going a bit slower now, as traffic had picked up considerably in this industrial area. Once Haven Road turned right, I smiled inside.

“Wow, that’s neat, there’s a place that sells violins! I knew you all wanted to be musical.” I turned on my turn signal, which confused a few people in other cars, and made Dora and Beth in the second row fume a little, I waited until there was a break and whipped left, into a different parking lot. “Darn, I can’t see a way of getting into the music store lot, so we’ll just have to look at these fancy sports cars, instead.”

“You just improved your odds of living through the weekend,” Marcia said.

“Yeah, but if we get one or two of these, will I live through the night?”

The back doors flew open, with Dora and Beth both running for the cars parked outside. I looked at Marcia. “Do you want one, too?” I asked.

“Of course. Do I look stupid?”

“You’re with me, so I’ll go with, no. I’m just concerned about you having an accident in one of them,” I said. “They’re so small.”

“They’re race cars, Cal. Of course they’re small. Come on, let’s get out there, before the piranha’s smell blood in the water.”

Sayel had already gotten out, while our armed guard waited inside. Once we were out, he got out and took a position by the Suburban.

I was actually surprised that even though the girls were looking the cars over, no one from inside came out to greet them, or us. That was actually fine with me, because it let us look the inventory over for several minutes.

“I need to sit in one, Cal, to make sure I fit,” Beth said.

“I’ve never had a problem fitting in you, love,” I said back, with a smile.

“You did want to live through the weekend, right?” Marcia glared.

“Of course. I’m actually rather surprised that no one has come out yet. Beth, remember how three guys came out to see us just for pulling onto the Ford lot?”

“Want me to go stir things up, Cal?”

“Not yet, Marcia. I’ll give them a couple of minutes.” I looked into the building. Two salesmen were sitting in their offices, not even bothering to watch the lot. There was a sales manager sitting in the corner that had seen us pull in. He was watching his sales staff simply sitting there, and I could tell he was getting angry at them. A younger man came up from the back. He wasn’t dressed as nicely as the other two, but the manager pointed out to the lot. The young man nodded, then hurried to the door.

“Hi, folks, I apologize for someone not greeting you earlier. I think the guys thought you’d already been helped.” He looked at Sayel and held out his hand. “I’m Dale, and you are?”

“Not the man buying cars.” He nodded at me.

“Hello, Dale. I’m Cal. I see that this gold one is a convertible. We’ll need keys for it. Also that red convertible as well, so we can check the interior out for the young lady that’s not here. Dora, you like that blue coupe?”

“Si, mi amor.”

“Good. Marcia, that one has a roll-bar, with a roof that comes off instead of being a regular convertible. These are all new Porsche 911s, right?”

“Uh, yes, Sir. We’re the largest Porsche dealer on the west coast.”

“I’ve got one, I wish we’d had room to bring it back with us on this trip. Sayel, remind me to bring the car back next trip to India.”

“Yes, Master. Since we’re at a Porsche dealership, I presume you’re talking about the 1963 718 W-RS, and not the 1958 Rolls Silver Cloud. Although the mechanic will be heartbroken.”

“He can work with Risaldar Marwah on the tanks. I’d rather see something that makes sense for out there, anyway, like a Subaru or some other car that can handle the terrain. Dale, why don’t you go grab some keys and get your manager out of his tower and out here, too. Thanks.”

At my dismissal, he ran off. With no one around that didn’t know our secret, I asked, “What color do you like, Marcia?”

“It says on the sticker, ‘Grand Prix White.’ I like that. Hannah is happy with her Rover that we brought over, Jennifer thinks these are cute, but not practical, due to her golf clubs. She’s not sure what she wants. Helen wants a big Rover like Hannah has, and Margie wants a 928S, not a 911. She likes their ‘Mahogany Metallic’ for the outside if they have it. Even if she, and I quote, ‘has to have a crowbar to get my belly behind the wheel’, end quote.”

“That’s why I was wondering about you, since you’re not that far behind Margie.”

“It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make, Cal,” she said, with an impish grin.

The manager came out, with Dale right behind him. He came over to me. “Afternoon. Dale says that you’re the man wanting to buy some cars. I’m Bill Herman, the new car manager.” He held out his hand.

“I’m Cal Lewis, and depending upon where in the world I am, you can either call me His Highness or His Majesty, but that’s too damn long of a story to get into, and isn’t relevant to why we’re here. Dale, I hope you brought some keys.”

“Yes, Sir, I did. Allow me to unlock the cars.” He went over to where the girls were standing by the cars they wanted to check out.

“Bill, I didn’t see one out here. I also need a 928S, preferably in ‘Mahogany Metallic’, for another young lady, and I’d like to see that 930 you have on your showroom floor. I realize that when you look at me, you’ve got to be going, in your mind, who is this kid?”

I’d paused, to make a point, when he started laughing.

“No, I know who you are. As soon as you said your name, I recognized you from your picture. I can’t legally sell the cars to you, because you’re not eighteen, but you can pay for them. I think you’re going to make Dale’s day, week, and probably his whole month. He doesn’t know who you are, because he’s not a Cardinal fan. And if I may say so, I have two ‘experienced’ salesmen inside that are going to be looking for work, because they committed the biggest sin in the car business. They prejudged you, without even walking out here.” He held up his hand. “It’s not the first time, either, so it’s nothing you did.”

He could tell from my expression that I was bothered a little by what he’d said. “Sir, this is the car business. You can either get off your butt and treat anyone and everyone that walks onto your lot like they could walk in with cash money and buy half your inventory, or you have no business selling cars in the first place.”

His comment made me laugh a little. I replied, “It’s in a satchel under the driver’s seat. I probably do have enough cash on hand that I could buy all your inventory. And the dealership itself, for that matter. Don’t forget my last night’s poker winnings are in that bag.”

Marcia frowned, saying, “At some point we’re really going to have to break you of that habit.”

Herman carefully nodded. “While I personally don’t suffer from that issue, we do see people here that have wealth. They tend to flaunt it a bit ... more, typically.” Then he grinned. “Of course, there’s not that many sixteen year old billionaires, are there? I hope you’re as good at this level as you were in high school. Las Vegas didn’t think so even as late as last week.”

He looked over to where Beth had managed to get the top down on the gold 911. “Dale, if they want to take any of them for a spin, just slap a plate in the windshield and let them go. Ladies, that way is all trailer parks, so if you go the other way on the Bayfront, that’d be great. The first stoplight is Chilco Road, the second is Willow Road or one fourteen. If you’d turn around there and come back, I’d prefer that you not cross the bay bridge. I’m going inside to show the 928S and 930.”

Dale actually now looked a little unsure of himself. “Uh, Bill? By themselves?”

“Yeah. There’s a stack of dealer plates in the drawer to the left of my chair. Go on, it’ll be okay.”

Dale looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but took off running.

“Poor kid. He’s flustered now. He’d crap himself if he really noticed your guard by the Suburban. A man standing guard, wearing a vest that says he’s armed security, and carrying an M-16 in a combat sling tells me that, since we’re not getting robbed, that you’re, and you’ll pardon the expression, deadly serious.”

Herman led Sayel and me into the building, while Dale ran back out with plates to go in the windshields of each of the cars. The noise from their engines starting was in the background as we walked onto the showroom floor.

“We don’t have the 928S in the ‘Mahogany Metallic’, that’s a 944 color. We do have it in ‘Nutmeg Brown Metallic’. There simply aren’t any of those in the country right now. Same with the 930. I have this one in the ‘Garnet Red Metallic’, which at least is close, but this is the only one west of the Mississippi.”

I saw one of the two salesmen that had been ignoring us perk up when he realized that Herman was treating us seriously. He got up from his comfortable chair and swaggered over. “Bill, how can I help you with these folks?”

“Why don’t you get these folks something to drink? Sir, I’ll be right back,” he said to me. I could see him head for the manager’s office.

“We’ll need seven bottles of water, please. Thank you,” I said. I then ignored the man and walked over to the 930. I opened the door to it and got inside. I was annoyed with myself, because as much as I’d said I didn’t care about vehicles, I also realized that I’d been bitten by the bug in India.

Sayel saw my face and quietly chuckled, saying, “My former Master ended up with that desire a little as well. Probably not as fast as your 718, but at least this one is already street legal for here.”

I saw that Herman was on the phone, talking and nodding. I hopped out of the 930 and went over to the 928S. I opened the doors and got in. This was a very nice car inside. The only thing wrong with it that I could see was that it had an automatic transmission.

The salesman came back with the waters, and tried to strike up a conversation with Sayel. I almost laughed when Sayel simply said, “Thank you for bringing the water. We’re being taken care of.”

He turned to me, and started to say something to me. Sayel then began speaking in rapid-fire Hindi to me, to which I replied in the same language I agreed, the salesman was being an ass, but it wasn’t worth killing him over.

Herman came back out of the office. “Did you get them their water?”

“Of course, Bill.”

“Good. These are all Dale’s customers, so just go sit back down.” He turned to me. “Sir, do you want to take either of these out for a test drive?”

I got out of the 928S. “I can fit in it, fine. The lady in question is shorter than I am, but also a few months pregnant. I think the automatic transmission will work fine for her.” There was some noise from outside, as all three of the girls pulled up at the same time. I could tell from the grins on their faces what their answers were to my unasked question.

Dale carefully escorted the three of them into the building. Beth’s hair looked nicely windblown, and Dora’s did as well, from having her windows down. They ran into the restroom to straighten their hair and came back out a couple of minutes later, while I continued just watching. Marcia had kept the roof on her car. I asked a simple question.

“Eve?”

“She likes the red one,” Marcia said quietly, where only I could hear.

I motioned for Bill to step closer. “Go ahead and have Dale get the VINs and miles from all three that they drove, plus the red 911 convertible as well. And of course, both of these.”

The other two girls came back from the restroom and each gave me a kiss. Beth leaned in, whispering, “It may sound funny, but even though we can fly, that was a lot of fun. I know why you don’t mind the three of us choosing convertibles, and we all agree that until the others get changed, they need safe cars.”

“Wasn’t too obvious, was I?”

“No more than usual.” She pulled back from me when another car pulled up front.

The two salesmen that had been sitting at their desks suddenly stood up, like they were both busy. Dale had just finished writing the information down from the four that were outside, and was sitting in the 930, getting the information he needed.

Bill walked over to the door. “Good evening, Mister Carlsen.”

“Hello, Bill. Thought I’d stop by here this evening on my way home from the Subaru store and see how things were going. Looks like you’re a bit busy.”

“We’re probably going to have a late night. I’m glad you stopped in, I’d like you to meet our newest customer. Cal, this is Arthur Carlsen, owner of the Carlsen Auto Group. He owns four stores here in the Bay Area. Mister Carlsen, this is Cal Lewis, the starting quarterback this fall for the Stanford Cardinal football team.”

I held out my hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mister Carlsen. You don’t happen to own a Land Rover store, do you? We brought over a Land Rover One Ten that’s only a year old, it belongs to one of my girlfriends. She’ll need maintenance on it, and another of my ladies wants one like it.”

He blinked. “Um, no. Land Rover doesn’t import to the United States right now. You’d have to buy one overseas and import it here. Is there anything else, though?”

“Beth, would you make a note? When we send the cargo plane to India, see if we can either get a Land Rover one ten from the Indian Army, or just have them buy one for Helen. As for something else, we need something practical, for carrying a couple of children and golf clubs. I don’t know that Jennifer wants anything big like our Suburbans.”

“Actually, I own the Toyota store as well. Has she seen the Toyota vans? They’re our version of the Chrysler van.”

I shrugged. “I doubt it. You said you own the Subaru store, right? Dora, do you like your Brat?”

“Si, mi amor. I think they make a station wagon that has the four wheel drive like my little Brat.”

“Everything else we own is four wheel drive. Mister Carlsen, how expensive are the Subaru wagons?”

He looked confused. “The largest ones, the GL, with four wheel drive, are about nine thousand each.”

“Good. We’ll just take three of them for now, then. Bill, I realize that it’s getting close to your closing time, and I have no need to keep you and Dale here late tonight. We’re flying down to Palm Springs in the morning, to finish watching the Bob Hope Classic. We won’t be back until Sunday evening, and I think four of us have classes Monday. There’s what, four Porsche 911s with MSRP of thirty-five thousand each, the 928S at fifty-two grand, and the 930 is one ten. Add in three of those Subaru wagons, that’s three twenty-nine. Got a pen, Bill?”

He nodded.

“You’re right, I’m not old enough to buy them. However, they’re all going to be titled under our business. So, CEDEM Research Facility, Attention Margaret Miller Lewis. Margie’s our CFO, so she can figure things out from there. Street address is 359 Junipero Serra Boulevard, Stanford, California, 94305. Ah, thank you, Dear.”

While I’d been baffling all of them with my talk, Beth had casually walked out to the Suburban and brought the bag in from under the driver’s seat.

“Fill everything up, and have them all ready for delivery here on Monday. Worst case, we’ll send some security officers over to pick them up, and Margie can sign your paperwork then. No financing needed, and insurance will be under our corporate policy, since the company owns way too damned many vehicles now.” I opened the case, and started pulling out straps. “Here, this is three hundred forty thousand. I think you can cut me a little slack regarding pricing, since it’s three forty-two, five, with sales tax.”

Carlsen took one of the straps, then flipped through it. He pulled a couple of bills out from the middle of it at random. “I apologize, Mister Lewis. This is California, after all, which means we know that movies use money that looks very real, but isn’t.”

Marcia laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember one scene that Dad did, we had a stack of fifty million in fake bills that we had to blow up. For pallet sized stacks like that, they only print three or four bills on top and bottom, and the rest is just blank, colored paper, for each strap. That way, there’s enough blowing around that is printed after things go up that you can tell at least some of the money is printed. When they do regular bank vault shoots, there’s only three bills on top of each row that’s printed, with the entire rest of the whole pile just colored paper.”

Carlsen nodded. “That sounds like you’re experienced in the business, young lady. In any event, the money they do use can be perfect when seen from a camera’s lens, but has to have something printed on it so that it’s obviously fake or prop money. Yes, I think we can handle cutting twenty-five hundred off the total price of nine vehicles, without any issue. Since you’re not wanting to take delivery on any of the vehicles tonight, it won’t cause us any problems to have them all ready by noon on Monday, so you or your people can pick them up afterwards.”

Beth said, “You can make it a little later than that. I think Jennifer might like to pick the colors for the Subaru wagons, which is something that Cal, being a man, wouldn’t think about. Our cars out here, though, that’s fine.”

Carlsen grinned. “I definitely understand that. Just changing the subject slightly, since you’re a part of the industry, do you know someone playing in the Hope Classic?”

Marcia smiled. “Of course. We all met Arnold at Disney World last month ... Palmer ... and Cal met Rodney Dangerfield, Johnny Carson, and my ‘uncle’, Izzy, on Thursday.”

I said, “Yes, Kirk Douglas seems to be a very nice guy. He’s going to read the book Helen recommended, to see if he thinks we ought to get the rights to make a movie of it. But you’ve heard us mention Jennifer, right?” He nodded. “She’s playing in it. Carson wants us to be on his show sometime, since she’s the first female PGA golfer in history.”

Carlsen got a pained look on his face. “J. Lewis, of course. I was watching the early news and all the sportscaster said was that the new rookie on the circuit was making serious waves, leading after the third round with twenty-six under par, eight strokes ahead of Craig Stadler, at least eleven ahead of everyone else. They couldn’t find any history on where J. Lewis recently played golf in high school or college. No one said anything about her being a woman, though.”

“Oh, she’s definitely a woman, I can attest to that,” I said with a grin. “Beth, you think that these will make nice birthday presents for the three of you that have birthdays?”

“Certainly. At least next week, none of us will have restricted licenses any longer, so we can take you out for a spin late at night. Maybe even in our new sports cars, too.”

That got a laugh from all of us, and a bit of a look from the others.

“Thank you, Mister Lewis, for your business today. Hopefully, I’ll see you again,” Carlsen said.

“September 14^th is our first game, against San Jose State. I’ll be the guy on the field wearing number eight.”

We shook hands all around and walked outside. I saw Dale come out with keys to the cars we’d chosen. He was moving all of them around to the back of the lot. We all also got to watch Mister Carlsen through the windows, talking to the other two salesmen. They both said something to him, but it was obvious he didn’t care. You didn’t need to be a lip reader or have super hearing to tell he told them both two words. ‘You’re fired!’

Then we got into the Suburban and headed off the lot.

“Cal, you surprised me there a little. I figured you’d try to negotiate or otherwise deal with him like we did when we picked up the cars from Rusty,” Beth said.

I shook my head. “No need to mar what was a special event for all of you. How much was in the bag?”

Marcia said, “Way too much to be casually carrying it around, even with a blatantly armed guard and Sayel.”

I shook my head. “It’s not that I disagree with you on that, sweets, it’s just that it’s a lot easier for me. If I were older, certainly. No one has any issue taking a check or running the credit card from someone who’s twenty-five or thirty. Even knowing who I am, they still would have had an issue taking a check back there, because legally I’m not old enough to buy the cars. Probably their insurance policy doesn’t cover drivers under eighteen for test drives, either. But bending the rules a little, especially when I pulled out cash money, means that they’re going to remember us, and treat us all VERY well.”

“Yes, but how much do you have in the bag, Cal?”

“Less than five million. I left the rest in my golf bag. Beth, remember when we kept a bag of ten thousand in small bills in the living room for petty cash, so that way if we needed groceries, or when Marianne needed a dress for Harry and Emily’s wedding, I just pulled the cash out of the bag so she could go buy a matching dress that the other girls had. This is the same thing to me. If I threw this bag out the window, it’d take three months, technically, ninety-two days, to earn this back. That’s from simple interest. In the last ninety-two days, the stock investments have earned over fifty million.

“Saudi Arabia by itself is a sixteen billion dollar deal. Japan is more than ten billion. Because of the proof of concept from Saudi Arabia, the deal in Germany is going to be worth twice what the other two are, combined, because every European country is going to fall all over themselves to switch to our rail services. Right this very minute, not counting any of that, or any of the new things that we’re working on, I control more than sixty billion dollars in businesses, inventory, facilities, and wealth, courtesy of the industries I’m partnered with.”

I pulled into the restaurant parking lot for us to have dinner. I put the gearshift into ‘P’ very carefully.

“And I can’t even drive us home after we get done eating tonight, because I’m not fucking old enough.”

It was quiet in the Suburban for almost a full minute. Beth finally broke the silence. “You got that out of your system now?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go get something to eat. Everyone. I know you can’t leave your vest and rifle in here, but you’re part of our security, which to me means you’re family.”

The guard simply said, “Of course, Mister Lewis. Thank you.”

I’d made reservations here this morning. The hostess had to call the manager, because our guard did wear his vest and rifle in. The guard showed him his Federal ID, and that took care of that. We got our tables without any additional fuss.

Over dinner, Beth and Dora explained what had happened with their testing. They’d each been given a Freshman final exam in a particular subject. When they were done with those in about ten minutes each, they were then given the next year’s exam, then the next after that, and finally the final exam as if they were graduating seniors. The three of them had all effectively tested out of Chemistry, Physics, Biological Sciences, and Mathematics, the first day. The second day, they each took the MCAT and LSAT. The three of them had already decided that Beth would go law with me, Dora would go medical, and Eve would cover all of the Philosophy and Religious stuff that would come up that I simply wouldn’t have time to deal with.

The afternoon of the second day is when they started taking ancillary tests. They did test out of at least three years worth of classes in some of the programs. Eve was going to have to write several dissertations and be involved in quite a bit of work before she could technically get her BA in Philosophy and Religious Studies, but they figured by the end of next year, she should have her doctorate there. Beth was also going to go into the hard sciences with me, and she was at least two years ahead of things in all of the engineering subjects. So was Dora. She ran the longest with her Poly Sci test, and the essay she wrote, the department chairs both read and then quizzed her over. That’s why the discussion had come up about whether or not to give her the PHD, depending upon how I came out with my testing.

When the girls were done, Marcia dropped the little bombshell that none of the older women were going to take any classes at all this school year.

“Really? You’ve kept that from us,” Dora said.

“Yes. It’s ... well, Margie feels like she’s got a cantaloupe in her belly. I’ve got an orange right now. So does Jennifer, but she’s had children before. The other four of us haven’t. This is going to sound selfish, but we don’t want to get involved in something that we can’t finish. Jennifer’s going to play golf until she can’t swing properly, so she’s going to be gone four days a week, for the next thirteen weeks. The next tournament weekend is the Master’s, and she can’t play in that this year. She has her baby, the PGA Championship is three weeks later, and then if she wins that, she can relax instead of playing the next eleven weeks. If she wants to come back and play at all.

“Margie is just going to write her paper up and let them give her a DBA, and call it good for this school year. She’s due two days after your practices start this summer. I’m due the day after Jennifer is. I’ve got my own money, and I’m going to use it. We’re going to make movies, good movies. Helen and Hannah ... they’re both going to see how their degrees translate into American things, and then they may take something just to keep their skills up. Helen is first and foremost your Priestess, and Hannah ... this is going to sound funny, considering what we all first thought of her. She’s your alter-ego.”

I took a sip of water and asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“She’s like me, lover,” Beth said. “She knows what you need before you need it. I’m going to be tied up in classwork, same as you are. That means if someone needs to hop onto a jet and fly to Japan, or Saudi Arabia, that’s going to be her job. It wasn’t by accident that she went with you on this last trip.”

I sadly smiled. “Maybe to all of you it was obvious. It wasn’t, to me.”

“She knows the council, and how they operate. She’s also not a scared fourteen-year-old, either. Someone is going to have to go to India for you. You also didn’t have the time to go by the Thug’s estate in England. That still needs resolved, too. Plus the horse farms in three countries,” Beth explained.

Dora shrugged. “I can tell you’re not happy, mi amor, but it’s what we talked about at breakfast this morning, only on a bigger scale. We’re all eight as close to being your wives as we legally can be, but a marriage is not a patriarchy or a matriarchy, it’s a partnership. In this country, conventionally between just one couple. But you were in Saudi Arabia recently. How many of the royal family have more than one wife? Most of them, of course. And so long as all of the partners are equal in the relationship, then it will continue and flourish. The reason that Sayel got to imitate the Ronco Veg-a-matic is because someone forgot that.”