Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (23 page)

“
That’s not very far from
Fourteenth and Market,” Aden said.

“
Right. I’m not one to bag
on the cops, but even I was like, ‘Come on guys!’”

Aden nodded.

“
You should have seen
Art’s face when he lifted this rock and saw all the trophies,”
Sandy said. “If eyes were lasers, that detective would be missing a
body part or two.”

Sandy took a bite of a cookie while she
remembered.

“
We got home and everyone
was brave and happy,” Sandy said. “Heather stayed because Blane was
with you?”

Aden nodded.

“
As soon as they lay down,
one by one, the kids lost it,” Sandy said. “Heather was so great
with Tink and even Ivy. I tried to help Tim. When everyone was
really asleep, Charlie was upset. I finally got him to sleep on the
couch. I . . . I don’t know how they’re going to get
through this.”

Sandy shook her head.

“
It’s one thing to have to
go through the assault,” Sandy said. “And then go through the
process of getting better. Tink was probably beaten the worst. She
still has a lot of physical healing to do. Well, I mean, Ivy has
missing teeth and stuff too. After all of that, we ask these kids
to relive it for these cops like, ‘Oh, it’s a school night. Come
walk us through your worst horror.’ They all stand around watching.
Just gross.”

Sandy shivered.

“
Awful,” Aden
said.

Sandy nodded.

“
Are they going to school
tomorrow?” Aden asked.

“
I think they have to,”
Sandy said. “We have to keep things as normal as
possible.”

Aden nodded.

“
I missed you,” Sandy
said. “We could have used your . . .
stability.”

“
I wish I was here,” Aden
said.

“
How did it really go?”
Sandy asked.

“
Not great and okay,” Aden
said. “I think we can see the fractures in the company and, I don’t
know, maybe what’s going on in our country right now is playing out
here. No one trusts anyone else. They’ve formed these little
coalitions and don’t trust anyone outside their little group.
Everyone’s out for himself because he thinks the other guy is out
for himself. It’s like the more opportunity they have, the more
sure they’re being screwed out of something better.”

“
I think that’s
everywhere,” Sandy said. “It’s like shopping. Do I buy this now?
Maybe I’m missing a coupon or the deal that the guy in front of me
is getting, or there’s some insider thing. And even when I know
I’ve gotten a pretty good deal, I feel like I’ve been cheated. It’s
hard.”

“
Right,” Aden said. “It
feels like we’re all mice scrambling for crumbs.”

“
We can’t even pick our
meal,” Sandy nodded. “Just whatever falls from the table. It
doesn’t feel good.”

“
I guess that’s what gets
to me,” Aden said. “I see being able to buy into Lipson as a way to
get ahead and help my family. But the first thing people want to
know is how they can get a better deal. A bunch of families pooled
all of their money, like everybody and grandma gave money, to buy
in. So the big question tonight for Sam was: why did he give them a
better deal? I mean obviously they got a better deal because they
own more shares. Sam was so mad that I thought he was going to
stroke or something.”

Aden shook his head.

“
I think we made
progress,” Aden said. “But . . . Sam’s really
discouraged. He wishes he’d closed the place rather than letting
Jacob take over and sell it to the employees.”

“
I’m sure it’s just
growing pains,” Sandy said.

“
It’s hard to have these
growing pains when we’re really in the middle of a crisis,” Aden
said.

“
Did they see
that?”

“
Yes.” Aden nodded. “They
could tell we were in trouble. Just . . . there’s no
easy fix and . . .”

Sandy reached up and kissed his lips. He
smiled.

“
You’ve had enough worry
for the night,” Sandy said. “Let’s try to get some
rest.”

“
Would you like me to stay
out here tonight?” Aden asked.

“
No,” Sandy said. “I’ll
stay. Heather’s here too.”

Aden nodded.

“
Where’s Rachel?” Aden
asked.

“
I left her upstairs at
Jill’s,” Sandy said. “She was asleep and I didn’t want to wake her.
I’ll go up in a bit to see if she’d like to nurse. It’s our last
few nights with Val.”

“
You need your rest,” Aden
said.

“
We’ll get there,” Sandy
said. “One step at a time.”

He smiled.

“
With all these
kids . . . I was thinking about making something
yummy for breakfast,” Sandy said. “Are you due at start
up?”

Aden nodded.

“
Then off to bed with
you!” Sandy said.

He leaned down to kiss her and she looked
away. He laughed. He was almost out of the kitchen when he turned
and looked at her.

“
Love you,” he
said.

“
Go.” Sandy
pointed.

He nodded and left for bed. Lost in thought,
Sandy stood in the kitchen. She jerked to the present when she
heard Aden’s shower water turn off. Nodding to herself, she got out
the ingredients to make quiche.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday night —11:59 p.m.

Jacob lay on his back in the living area of
the loft. Using his psychokinetic skill, he juggled an apple, one
of Sarah’s mangy tennis balls, and a balled up piece of paper.
Every once and a while, he’d reach up to grab the apple, take a
bite, and return it to rotation in his juggling act.

“
Jake?” Jill’s sleepy
voice came as a whisper across the loft.

Everything fell out of the air. He managed
to catch the apple.

“
I’m here,” Jacob said and
took a bite of the apple.

Jill’s head appeared over the couch. He
smiled.

“
I’m meditating,” he
said.

“
I thought I saw some
things flying through the air,” Jill said.

“
Oh?”

“
Very funny,” Jill said.
“Will you show me?”

Jacob lay back. Soon the ball of paper,
Sarah’s mangy ball and the apple core were rotating through the
air.

“
Pretty exciting,” Jacob
said.

“
I thought you didn’t
meditate,” Jill said.

“
I did this as a kid,”
Jacob said. “Mom said it counted so I thought I’d try
it.”

“
How was the
meeting?”

“
Awful,” Jacob said. “I
should have stayed in Maine.”

“
You’d be awfully lonely
in Maine.” Jill smiled and crossed her arms over her expanded
belly. “Katy would miss you so.”

“
I wish I was lonelier
here,” Jacob snarled.

Jill smiled and went to the kitchen. She
returned with an apple. She waited until the apple core was near
her to grab it. She tossed the apple into the mix. It dropped and
then was caught by Jacob’s mind direction.

“
Was it really that bad?”
Jill asked.

“
It
was . . . honest,” Jacob said. “I don’t know why I
thought we could protect our little company from all the anger
around now.”

“
I can’t go to the grocery
store without someone sneering at me,” Jill said. “I’m glad I’m not
in school this semester.”

“
I thought all this
negativity would end when the election was over,” Jacob said.
“Mercury went direct or whatever. But everyone was sure angry
tonight.”

Jill came around and sat on the couch.

“
Dad was furious,” Jacob
said. “He actually said that he wished he had closed the company.
I’ve never, ever heard him say something like that.”

“
What did they say to
that?”

“
One of those jerks got
right in his face and said that Dad should have closed the company
instead of ripping off his employees for all those
years.”

“
Wow.”

“
Yeah wow,” Jacob said.
“You know we pay average or above salaries, have great benefits,
promote from within regardless of gender or whatever, provide
daycare for every employee’s child, and . . .
Anyway, Bambi took the guy on. Aden told him that he should just
quit if he felt ripped off. But Dad was just crushed. He’s worked
so hard to be fair . . . “

“
People feel like they’re
being ripped off,” Jill said.

“
Well . . .
I was just sitting here trying to decide if I should close the
company,” Jacob said. “I still own more than half the shares. What
would you think about that?”

“
I think it’s not
something you should decide after one angry meeting,” Jill
said.

“
You know that
whole
Atlas Shrugged
thing?” Jacob asked. “The hyper-responsible go on strike and
let everyone else suffer.”

“
Mmm,” Jill
scowled.

“
Maybe we should quit,”
Jacob said. “We’d have to sell a few things to have income and,
gosh, we could move to some beach and sleep for a month. You’d have
the boys and we’d have time to enjoy them. I never feel like I get
enough time with Katy.”

“
You’d last a day, maybe
two,” Jill said.

“
It sounds really
nice.”

“
I want to get this
straight,” Jill said. “You’re going to let this one singularly
irritating site manager change the plans and vision you’ve worked
on for over five years?”

“
Uh . . .
“

“
Sounds like you’re easily
manipulated,” Jill said.

“
When you put it like
that . . . “ Jacob said.

“
Maybe I should wake
Katy,” Jill said. “She found her pony bags tonight and remembered
that she really wanted a pony.”

Jacob made a noise that was somewhere
between a growl and a groan. Jill grabbed the piece of paper out of
the air and sat back down on the couch. She unraveled the wad of
paper to read it.

“
These are the numbers for
closing the company tomorrow,” Jill said. “You had Tres run the
numbers?”

“
I did,” Jacob said. “We’d
have to sell a house or two, but I think we can pull it
off.”

“
What did Tres
say?”

“
He said I was an ass,”
Jacob said.

“
And your father?
Aden?”

“
I didn’t tell them,”
Jacob said.

“
That’s nice of you,” Jill
said.

Jacob glanced at her and the ball fell on
his forehead. The apple hit his chest.

“
What’s going to happen to
the site manager?” Jill asked.

“
Aden told him to leave
before he did any more damage,” Jacob said.

“
Are you going to fire
him?” Jill asked.

“
Aden is going to meet
with him after start tomorrow,” Jacob said. “I guess that’s
today.”

“
And fire him?” Jill
asked.

“
Probably not,” Jacob
said.

“
So . . .
people can act out like crazy folks, cool off, and everything’s all
right,” Jill said. “But you keep a permanent record?”

“
Uh . . .
maybe,” Jacob said. “I . . .

He was about to justify his position when he
glanced at her face. She was scowling at him. He looked away.

“
He’s going to get a note
in his file,” Jacob said.

“
Uh huh,” she said.
“What’s this about?”

“
I hate selfish people,”
Jacob said.

“
Hate?” Jill
asked.

“
Yes hate,” Jacob said.
“Here we are, living in the great city, in this awesome time, in
the amazing country, and all some people can do is whine about how
they’re not getting what they should. They’ve won the lotto! You
know what he said?”

“
What?”

“
He told Dad that he bet
he didn’t pay any taxes,” Jacob said. “’Rich assholes like him just
let his kids starve,’ that’s what he said. Dad pays for all kinds
of things for the Lipson kids. Shit, I’ve supported that stupid
school for years. I should just close it and then see what he
thinks.”

“
That would sure show
him,” Jill said. “And since he goes to school there, I bet he’ll
really pay the price for being a jackass.”

“
He doesn’t go there,”
Jacob said.

“
Oh? Who does?” Jill
asked.

Jacob glared at her.

“
When Trevor and I went to
counseling, the lady told us that anger was like a hot potato,”
Jill said. “I’d get angry about something and throw my hot potato
at Trevor. He didn’t want to sit with a hot potato so he’d throw it
back. Anyway, our life didn’t exactly work like that, but it seems
to me that you’re making decisions based on someone else’s hot
potato.”

“
It pisses me off,” Jacob
said.

“
Okay,” Jill
said.

“
What? You’re not going to
defend him again?” Jacob asked.

Jill scowled at him.

“
Sorry,” Jacob said. “I
know you’re just trying to help.”