"Okay, you have to be kidding me," I said. Somehow. With a mouthful of Kendall's wild waffles. She'd learned how to make the tie-dyed ones from Joie. Fruit flavored, too. Studded with butterscotch and walnut bits. Dangerous.
Kylie poured herself some coffee and said, "Nope! Handcuffs and all. Right there in the kitchen."
Aisha frowned real deep and said, "They didn't need to do her like that. Woman too big to run!"
We all sort of chuckled a little bit, but it wasn't funny. Lurleen had been hauled off by the cops that morning, right in front of all the kitchen staff at The Club.
Nia looked up from her phone and said, "Wowza. Fraud. A whole buncha fraud--federal shit, man. This looks bad."
"Is it that thing she did with her kids?" Kendall said. "Something at school?"
"They were getting Social Security and whatnot by saying they were all handicapped or something like that," I said. "Disability, right? I think that's how it works. If you say they're so incapacitated that you need all kinds of assistance."
"But they damned near gotta be in diapers, though," Aisha said. "Ones needs to wear a helmet cause they be runnin' into walls and shit."
"Who is this?" Brian asked. Also through a mouthful.
He could eat, that guy. So Kendall had piled it on that morning. Pancakes, ham, bacon, mounds of eggs with green chiles and chorizo in them, toast made out of that Mexican torta bread, watermelon and feta salad...a whole breakfast buffet running down the length of the kitchen island. Two rows of food, actually.
She was feeling strong and happy. You could see it in her eyes. And she wanted to do more. Run the house, at least, if she couldn't do all the things she really wanted to do. So she would choose one big "chore" to complete each day. Something to show us how good she felt, despite all the danger signs.
And it was great to have her father there to be part of the home stretch. We were taking him to the ranch, too. He'd be there with her when I wasn't, until his first grandchild arrived.
Kendall said, "Remember the kid who stabbed him? It's his mother they took."
And he nodded and said, "The ones he got all the lawyers for?"
"That's the one. Rick had her making all kinds of pastries and things at The Club. She's an amazing cook. She was getting famous, too. She's been on TV and everything."
"Was gonna have some bakeries and stuff," Aisha said. "Wit her own name on 'em."
"Man, everything he touches turns to gold, huh?" Brian said, giving me a wink.
His daughter gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek.
Nia started scrolling her screen and said, "Well, we got some forgery...check cashing...mail fraud--wait. Oh, okay, I guess somebody was robbing mailboxes or something."
"That sounds like some o' her kids or sum. She wun out there doin' that," Aisha said.
"She let them take donations outside stores, though," I said. "That she knew about."
Cat looked up from repairing a chipped nail and said, "What was that again?"
"You remember," Mike said. "They pretended to be the Salvation Army or something."
I sighed and said, "Just when I thought home girl was going to do us proud. What's it gonna cost us to get her outta there?"
"Marc's probably at the courthouse. Lemme check with Rick," Nia said, those long-nailed fingers flying.
Kendall reached for my hand and said, "Sometimes even your best isn't good enough, sweetheart. You did all you could."
"And more than he should have," Cat said.
Joie called out, "Amen to that," from the laundry room. And then came out and kissed me on the top of my head and sat down to finish nibbling at the watermelon salad. She was dieting, so she couldn't even have her own pancakes, poor thing.
"I wanted one of us to win, though,' I said. "For a change."
"One of you did win," Joie said, giving me this little wink. "Looks a lot like you, too."
"I've seen that guy, too. Sooo, cute," Kendall said, giving me a little back rub.
I smiled and said, "Okay, I hear you, but I just--"
"--have to go meet with the charter school people," Nia said, without even looking up.
It was like no matter what she was doing, she could keep track of what I was doing.
"And it's going to cost you not one red cent," she added. "Because they already let her go. But her old man's not getting out, though. No bail."
"Because?" I asked.
"Flight risk."
"Yeah, you know that's right," Aisha said. "Them trailer people can jus' start up they house'n' go!"
Okay, we couldn't help but laugh at that. Which is precisely what she wanted. To lighten things up.
And as if to reward her for the comic relief, her daily Duke flowers arrived via Yoshi who had just arrived himself.
He set them down with a hearty, "Ohio!" That's "Hello" om Japanese, not the state.
And Kendall gushed, "Sunflowers! God, they're huge!"
"He gon' run outta flowers he keep doin' this," Aisha said. But you could tell by the way she ran to grab them that she was still loving every delivery.
"I will meet you at school," Yoshi told me as he sat down. "The sound and light people want to see the stadium and also the auditorium. So that they know what is necessary to bring."
"That band give you permission to film?" I asked.
"Yes, today, it came. And they were the last ones," he said. And then, with a twinkle in his eyes, he said, "Also," and held up his cell to us.
Kendall got hold of the phone first and said, "Lookit that! Oh my God, how perfect!"
My video game avatar was up and running. People were checking out the little demo like mad, too. A couple million hits so far. And Yoshi clicked so she could see something really cute.
"He dances like you," she told me, leaning so I could see him jamming out. You know how they dance, right? Even in WOW.
"When he wins or when he is happy, you can make him do his victory dance," Yoshi said.
"Lemme see," Aisha said, rushing over with the others to check it out. And then she laughed and looked at me and said, "They got you, didn't they? He doin' the damned thang!"
"What's the verdict so far?" I asked Yoshi. "Do they like it?"
"Very positive. And only one or two have found glitches," he said. "We could not duplicate them, so it's probably not our software. In fact, we know that in one case it was a phone issue, not ours."
"You check to see if it's like that on all the same phones or providers or whatever?" Nia asked.
"Yes, we did. He did not have the memory to play," Yoshi said. Patiently.
I think he was used to people who didn't really know that much about the technical side of things asking questions that would probably set a real techie's teeth on edge. He was a great ambassador for the gaming division, for that very reason. He didn't give you that Zuckerberg snark. He met you at your level, even if you were still in the basement, technology wise.
"I can head over to DeGrazia right after lunch, I think," I told him.
"And then he's mine for the weekend," Kendall said. "Do not disturb."
"Ya' heard?" Joie said, pointing to everyone.
They laughed. And Nia said, "Duly noted, Mamasan. Dark side of the moon 'til Monday."
Which made Yoshi smile. With his mouth full.
I took one last bite blue bite and said, "Gotta bounce! Love y'all!"
And as each one sent me their own little "goodbyes" right back, Kendall walked me out to the Boxster and gave me a pretty serious hug and kiss.
And I looked down into those starry eyes and said, "I live for this, you know. When it's just us."
She smiled a little more and said, "I know."
"Do you, though?"
She got this faraway look and said, "Amazes me, actually."
"Yeah, well, I couldn't do all this stuff without you. I really couldn't," I said. "This is why we met. Because we were meant to do all this together."
She gave me another hella sexy kiss.
And then laughed and said, "This little girl really gets excited when I get excited."
"Okay, that's kinda weird."
She spanked me and said, "She just feels my heart speed up, silly man. Go change the world!"
I gave her one last little smooch before we let each other go. But I didn't quit checking her out in the mirror 'til I couldn't see her anymore. It's probably not safe to love anyone that much, but damned if I cared.
I took all the warm fuzzies into the big conference room the charter school company had reserved at this big, swanky resort over on the East side. They wanted to put on the Ritz for me this time, to show me what a classy crew they were.
So there were two grinning reps waiting in the lobby to escort me into the meeting like royalty. That happens a lot now. I never get to just walk in and find my way around anymore. In fact, sometimes it starts the minute I leave my front door, because they send cars, too, when they really want to show off.
Which means Rashad, bless him--shoulder all reconstructed--only has to worry about the girls at this point. Kendall and I had our own drivers, Wanda and Durrell, on call.
Wanda loved Kendall like a sister. And she also had a lot of martial arts and marksmanship training, which put her 'way ahead of the other applicants. Durrell was also good with a gun and very, very observant.
You have to think about this shit. Way more than I'd like to. The security issues are real. I can't sidestep that. I mean, we try not to act like we're as rich as we are, but we're just two big old bags of money to most people now.
We had some experts sit with us and take us through all the new realities we'd have to internalize. Even how to introduce Gracie Ellen to the world. Newborn pics, sure. But after that, when she started to look like herself...no more.
Yeah. That kind of stuff we had to think about. Or let someone else think about. I always got a little pissed off at all the rule making, though I know they're just trying to keep us safe.
So I enjoyed zipping over to the hotel. Even the little bit of traffic. Tucson's rush hours are pretty tame compared to big city stuff. A snarl every now and then, especially if there's construction. But otherwise, you're pretty much always moving.
And I was really happy to see one of my other favorite warm fuzzy people was there at a table right up front, stirring her tea and looking like springtime as usual. You know who it was.
But it took me a while to get to her, because I had to go through a lot of glad handing and guffawing as I entered. That's something I'm used to now, too.
It reminds me of those British shows on Masterpiece Theater where people are presented to the king or queen and someone standing behind the royals tells them each person's name as they approach.
Of course, I forget the names almost as soon as they say them because it's all happening so fast. I just smile and shake, smile and shake 'til they've introduced me to everyone they think is important enough to meet me. Or everyone who thinks they're so important that I have to meet them.
That's the other side of all this. Suddenly you're the star of the show wherever you go. People climbing over each other to get at you. People who wouldn't have given a damn about you before.
Honest to God, if I went to Tiffany now they'd throw rose petals over me probably. Have people feeding me bonbons from a silver platter while I shopped.
But they moved me through the little line of invited staff members very efficiently and then over to the table where Wyatt gave me a really nice, "Welcome" smile that helped me settle back down to Earth.
She was wearing a flowery peasant blouse. Kinda Dillards boho. Upscale. But she had her hair down and it was shining like new money.
In fact, all the male suits were kind of checking her out on the sly. And the female suits were really checking her out. In a different way.
Let's go there, too, while we're at it.
See, Kendall calls herself the "head pussy blocker." Cracks me up, but she's right about that. There are women who approach even events like this as an opportunity to get some. I'm not talking about sex, either. They want it all. They want what she has. You can see it in those hungry eyes.
Wyatt's smile told them we knew each other. And in their minds, she became an obstacle. But in my mind, it was just a really nice place to land. Next to someone who'd been along for the ride. And knew what a wild ride it had been.
Not gonna lie, though. I was a little miffed that it might be her poet friend who had her looking so bright eyed and beautiful. But I decided to be happy for her if it was. She had a right to be as into someone as I was into Kendall. In fact, she deserved to be.
So I gave her a happy smile in return, and said, "Taking the day off for once?"
Her eyes kind of danced. I loved it.
"Well, they're going to be in the library with the counselors all day, as luck would have it."
"Boy we're really getting close to graduation, huh? Counting credits and whatnot?"
"That and their college plans. If they have any."
I said, "Uh, oh," and poured myself some coffee right quick.
There were personal carafes set by each person at each table. And I was happy to see that there were only two on ours. Free at last. At least for a while.
"Well, you, I've given up on," she said. "But I had a little workshop for all the kids who wanted to apply, since the counselors are so iffy about discussing anything beyond state schools and Pima Community. We did essays together, for the ones that still require that. Based on actual prompts."
"Pisses me off that the counselors straight up tell us we're not Harvard material."
"Even you?" she asked. Genuinely surprised, I think.
"Oh, especially me. I'm not prepared socially."
Those eyes sloped down at the ends. And she said, "Oh Colton, really?"
"When they saw my test scores, it was like they were almost mad at me. Cause it was like I had Einstein's brain and Larry the Cable Guy's background. What the hell do you do with that?"
She had a little laugh then. But sighed again, too.
And said, "Which is why the few like you who could be accepted don't even try. Although, I suppose it's also the expense. Even the East Side kids struggle a bit."
"We should make it so they don't have to worry about tuition and whatnot. Even for community college."
She hit me with real soft eyes and said, "We should ask some other people to do that. The community needs to step up. But, listen...tell me about Lurleen."
"How'd you hear--oh, yeah. Rick."
"He wanted to find out how much I knew about what they'd been doing. In case I got a subpoena or something."
"Which you will. But they let her go. For now, anyway. I have a feeling it was more the old man than her, but...God, I don't know. I hope the media doesn't jump on it too fast."
"It's that whole family," she said. "Generations of grifters. Carny scams, too. Skimming off the top. And getting caught over and over again until nobody would hire them."
"You gotta go some to be blackballed in that racket," I said.
She smiled and said, "That..." and then just stopped.
And when I tilted my head as if to ask why, she said, "The cheekiness, I miss. When you're all together, firing little quips back and forth..."
"You talk to Aisha, though."
"Electronically. About lessons."
I sort of tickled the side her wrist with a finger and sighed and said, "Your rules, not ours."
And her eyes were so sad when she looked at me that I was kind of relieved when this woman in a pretty serious Hillary Clinton pantsuit rose and smiled right at me.
"We're so glad to have this opportunity to meet with you today," she said. "And for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, this very young man is Mr. Colton James, who has become a familiar face on TV and...well, everywhere, lately."
I did some kind of weird wave and everyone laughed because they always do. But you know, I'm so young that I think they're sincere when they smile at me all earnest and interested.
People always seemed a little bit stunned when they met me. Even if they'd been told how young I was. Seeing me in the flesh made it kind of exciting and fascinating. Boring meetings like this one suddenly had a little sizzle.
They did some preliminary presentations to bring me up to speed on the real estate buy, based on a report from Sydney. There had been some initial push back from the school board, from a member who wanted to know why no Hispanic business people had been informed so that they could bid.
"That would be Hortensia Villalobos," Wyatt told me.
"You know her?"
"You will, too. Her husband used to be head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. They're staunch Republicans, but if it's a business thing, they turn into Delores Huerta and Cesar Chavez for the cameras. You gave due diligence, though. Going through the tribe."
I smirked and refocused on the presentation, because they'd gotten to pictures of the new campus as they envisioned it. All clean and classy. Maybe too much so.
"We would like the campus to feel more inviting," pantsuit said--her name was Caralynn, according to her gold name badge. "More student centric and interactive, so to speak. Which is why we've added vending and solar charging stations. Places to gather and to get things done."
"And speaking of solar, all parking lots will have solar parking canopies, of course," one of the men chimed in. "Electricity has been the real district budget buster for decades, so we're looking into all possible alternatives."
"Of course, some buildings will require more energy than others," Caralynn said. "The media center, especially. But the monthly energy expenditures should be a fraction of what they used to be. Lowering overall operating costs so that more resources can be funneled right into the classroom. Which will always be our main focus. 'Big Dreams,' yes?"
That was going to be the school motto. "Big Dreams" all over the place. School colors "to be determined." By the first students, I thought.
All in all, they gave me mostly good news. But the presentation reminded me of all the boring ones teachers had made me sit through, even if it was a jazzed up version with all kinds of bells and whistles that PowerPoint never had.
I looked at Wyatt and said, "Not likin' their style much," under my breath.
"Second thoughts?"
"Well, I mean, are you enjoying this? Would your kids sit through it?"
"Good point," she said, nodding as she pondered it.
After a few more team leader reports, they went to their team specific tables so that I could visit them one by one to ask questions. Get more detailed info.
And when we "reconvened" as a group after a little snack break, Wyatt went to town, boy. All those years of experience came gushing out over their heads while they just flailed around, trying to keep their heads above water.
She drew first blood with, "Given the extensive training it will take for new and veteran teachers to adapt to some of this, I would've liked to hear more about staff development."
Caralynn gave us a tight smile and asked her to "expand upon that."
And Wyatt didn't miss a beat.
"Over the years training has become less and less comprehensive just as standardized testing becomes more and more intensive. And this school, has very unique objectives. Objectives which will require teachers to think and behave a great deal differently than they previously have."
One male suit gave her, "And given that we feel it would be wisest to develop a plan for the staff with the staff."
And Wyatt said, "I'm sure that will be important as you go forward. For buy in. But the first hires may be coming from more traditional and far less technologically advanced campuses. Especially if you hire educators from our own community as one would hope. So they will need training just to get things up and running. Not just to master the type of lesson planning and other classroom procedures you've proposed."
I smiled, jerked a thumb her way and said, "Wyatt Taylor, ladies and gentlemen..."
And as they all "chuckled" nervously, I added, "My favorite English teacher. Who will be my advisor as we...go forward, as she said."
I don't have to tell you that she became the star of the show from then on. Which was fine with me. Because I was planning to make her literally that, once she got used to these people. They'd be answering to her, not me.
So I rose and put my hand on her shoulder and said, "This is my rock right here. My big dream began in her classroom. So all this is just my way of paying it forward. And only she can do it just the way I want it done. You feel me? What she says, goes. Just so you know."
I looked down into her big wide eyes and said, "And now you know..."
And winked. And walked right on outta there to show them I wasn't kidding.
One of the best days of my life, that was. The day I gave Wyatt a whole school to play with.
Surprised you, too, didn't I? Well, get used to it.
Lots of surprises comin' atcha now that I'm getting used to it.
But God had a few, too.
To keep me humble.