Matt stares at the screen, rubbing his chin, his head moving back and forth. He taps at the corner of the screen and a new program comes up. He goes back and forth typing on his keyboard and moving objects across the screen with his finger.
He finally leans back in his chair, rubbing his face. “Impossible!” he mutters. He picks up a small stack of papers, scanning the lines of text, before throwing it down. He rolls his chair to a bookshelf on the other side of his desk and pulls a thick paperback book from the shelf. The title Masterpieces in Java is colorful written across the cover on top of a college of famous paintings, photographs of the pyramids, and scores of music. Scattered among these are boxes of computer code, highlighted with glowing edges. He opens the cover and marked in blue ink, in cursive, is a message, “Matt, Should you ever need this. Your best bud, Christopher.” He flips a few pages to the table of contents and a queasy look appears on his face as he reads through it. He drops it on top of the assignment packet. He spins in his chair, and then goes to his computer, before taking a glance at the clock in his window.
It displays “
: : :
Matt walks home, barely able to move. Amber greets him at the door with a kiss.
“So, how are things at work?”
He doesn’t answer.
“That project,” Amber prompts.
“Yeah. What Somersby wants is impossible to do with the software we have. I’d have to go back and learn programming.”
“Babe, professional programs takes years to master. I mean, look at Chris VanDrey. He got to where he is by studying programming for almost thirty years. Maybe you should talk to him.”
“Yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. Don’t you ever see him when you go to pick up
“Not really. I’m mean,
Matt pauses, “So, what’s going on?”
“I wrote the check to church. We officially are spending more money than you earn.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re not in debt, are we?”
“Of course not. But when we earn this much,” she says, holding her fingers about three inches apart, “and spend this much,” holding the fingers of her other hand slightly farther apart, “then we lose this much,” holding up her thumb and index finger an eighth of an inch apart. “That’s not much compared to this, which is our nest egg,” holding her hand flat at shoulder level, “but that little bit soon will add up.” She lowers her hand slowly.
“We’re falling back on something. For now, it’s not in our hands. Any miracles, yet?”
“Luke took the newspaper today and cut out all the coupons and put them in an envelope for me, arranged by product type.”
“That could count.”
“It’s not going to save us. It’s not enough. Luke’s already a miracle.”
* * *
Matt looks at his watch. ‘Almost
Matt props himself back up, seeing the screen displaying a small window showing a list of names with the surname “VanDrey.” He taps over “VanDrey, Christopher T.” and a new window pops up.
“Call at work,” he states to his computer, and his modem dials the number as the TelePhony program pops up.
“Hello, this is Christopher VanDrey.” a voice reverberates through Matt’s speakers. “Matt?”
Surprised, Matt responds, “Yeah. Hey, Chris. How’d you know it was me?”
“My telephone program has CallerID.”
“Oh. Wha’cha doin’ for lunch?”
“I’m going to Isabella’s Mexican restaurant. Wanna come with me? My treat.”
“I call and it’s your treat? Of course, man.”
“See ya at
“See ya,” he finishes, taps his speaker, “End call,” he states blandly, breaking the connection.
He looks at the clock on the wall, seeing “
* * *
Christopher cheerfully greets his friend at the table for two in the smoky atmosphere of Isabella’s Mexican Café. Matt seats himself.
“What’s with the smoke? They banned smoking in restaurants years ago.” Matt comments.
“It’s not cigarette smoke. It’s fajita smoke. Lunch special for today is beef fajitas.”
“Oh,” he replies, sniffing, “You’re right. It’s just been so long since I’ve smelled cigarette smoke. Until Caroline came home.”
“Oh, no. The joys of parenting. Well, you know, they’ve banned it in so many places in after that smoke ban bill in ’07, plus the fact they’re so expensive now, and all this anti‑smoking advertising. It’s no wonder two of three big tobacco companies went under…”
“Not to mention
“Catherine’s enjoying school and do exceptionally. I don’t know where she gets it. It’s no use bragging to you, ‘cause you have
“I’m not going to tell her to be best friends with Catherine VanDrey just because her father is buddies with her father.
Christopher sighs, “He’s kind of quiet. I don’t where he gets it.” Christopher smiles, “He told me Caroline dyed her hair black.” Christopher eyes him.
“She’s not pierced, pregnant, or imprisoned. We thought this was harmless enough.”
“And Alexander is Alexander. Will’s bright and Catherine’s smart. Alexander does well enough. He still is in love with music. He spends an hour a day practicing. We bought him a packet of blank sheet music, and he filled it up in like six weeks. I’ve never seen such light in his little blue eyes. No one believes he’s ten after hearing him play.” Christopher pauses, “I’ve told you this before, haven’t I?”
“Yeah. You’re lucky to have such great kids.”
Christopher nods, “We’re blessed. I mean, you’ve got a nice set yourself.”
“Thanks,”
Matt and Chris order and then Chris pull something out of his satchel bag. “Matt,” he begins, “would you do me a favor and look through this?”
“Sure,” he says, taking the thick stack of papers, “what is it?”
“My newest assignment from the government. They want me to make a 4-D physics program that tracks and computes trajectories from a chemically calculated forced. They won’t tell me it’s for the military, but come on… The thing is I’m in over my head. This is going to require a lot of research. Either that or I’ll have to hire a physicist and a chemist and who knows who else?”
Matt isn’t listening. His eyebrows are lowered, “Chris, this is crazy. They’ve had these types of programs for years. Decades even. It would just require integrating the blast force into the physical computer. That’s fairly easy. I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before.” Matt pauses, “You know, probably there just hasn’t been a good enough one built yet. You just need to contact the right people. I could get you names.”
“Thanks, Matt, you’re a lifesaver.” Christopher says, wiping his brow. “I was going to be short on time or money, neither which I had any to spare.”
“No problem, man.” Matt smiles, then exhales, “Now, uh, would you do me the same favor?”
“Sure,” Christopher replies, surprised. Matt hands him the packet of papers. Christopher scans through it, indifferently, “Looks pretty basic, completely doable. What’s your programmer’s name?”
“We don’t have one.” Matt states, blankly.
“That’s insane. Your webpage software can’t handle this. I should know. I mean, I could do this just fine, but I’m not skilled in, you know, integrating it into webpage code. I know plenty of guys who could do this for you. I mean, I’m sure your webpage designer team is great, but they can’t handle this.”
“None of the four of us have had significant programming training.”
“Four? That’s seems pretty small for a division your size.”
“We used to have over a dozen, but we’ve gone through two lay-offs in the last eighteen months.”
“Boy.”
“So, Chris, what do you think?” Matt prompts.
“I think I’m going to, or get one of my cohorts to, talk to your board of directors. I tell you, they’ll listen to a former OmniTech employee.”
“That they will.”
Christopher sighs dishearteningly, “Matt, we got a problem. If I send one of my Net experts in there who could do the entire website in three weeks, he’ll get hired, and they’ll dump all but maybe one webpage designer. You might be in big trouble…”
“I alr—” Matt breaks suddenly, “Chris, do you have one of those disk machines that breaks protection seals?”
“Yeah, don’t go tell the police on me.” Christopher shrugs his shoulders, “I mean, they’re legal to have with my job description, but I’m not sure how they’d feel about me having one lying at home. Why?”
“A year ago, I used my Continuing Ed vacation time to go to a three-day seminar on computer-animated movies, which you know is…”
“…a hobby of yours. You wanted to direct them. I remember those days. Pre-Amber and kids.”
“Yeah. I got all these sample disks. Could you use them?”
“Absolutely. Break their seals, copy the code, we’re in business. I’d be done weeks in advance. I’d still have to pay someone the one-fifty an hour who knows how the programs works so I could splice them. But what about you?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“Matt, do you know how the programs work?”
“Take in input in these boxes and calculate them. I don’t know all the technical details.”
“Matt,” Christopher presses, pointing to himself, “I’m the one who’s all about the technical details. If you know how the input is thrown in the equations, it could be you making the one-fifty.”
Matt drops his fork into the beans on his plate. “You’re kidding me. You don’t need a physicist and a chemist?”
Christopher smiles, “Trick of the trade, Matt. When I say I hired a physicist, it means I hired a high school physics teacher or college professor. Looks good on the account sheet. Plus, real physicists charge way more.”
“What’d you call me? Web page designer wouldn’t seem worth the one-fifty…” Christopher brushes off Matt’s comment.
“I’d put something like 3-D Animation specialist or something like that.”
“So, what are you telling me?”
“That you can come and work for me. You’ll get paid well, plus bonuses…”
“Bonuses?”
“If we do it better than they want or early, they pay more. I do all the time.”
“Chris, I think that this just might work. I know it’s bad to talk finances, but Amber and I were getting into big trouble.”
“Well, God has blessed my family. We have enough money, but ‘Mom’ is away in
“And you?”
“Of course. I love her, but she’s really busy when she’s working.”
A short silence follows.
“Well, I guess I’m the one to pick up the check.” Christopher says, reaching for it.
“Nah, Christopher, I just offered a really great job from a friend of mine. Don’t worry about it.”
* * *
Matt, walks in, smiling, and is immediately greeted at the door by his wife. “Matt, I have good news.”
“Me too.”
“You first,” she insists.
“No, mine’s really good.”
“Well, I think we may have gotten our miracle. Shannon told me today that her math teacher wants
“Honey, that’s great, that’s a miracle, but I have another. That project I was working on? Chris says we need a programmer. He’ll call one of his old coworkers, and he’ll be able to do everything.”
Amber’s smile disappears, “Wait. If this programmer does everything, won’t the entire team be laid off?”
“Maybe.” In response to Amber oncoming panic attack, Matt shushes her, “But, there’s this project Chris is doing. 4-D physics and stuff… To make a long story short, he can save a lot of time and money by using that software that I got at the 3-D animation class.”
“The one you went to on company ‘Continuing Education’ time that I got so mad at you for?”
“Yeah, that one, but here’s the best part,” he says holding on to his wife’s shoulders, “he needs me to work for his as a design specialist. And he’s paying a hefty salary.”
At this point, Amber resorts to jumping up and down in joy, hugging and kissing Matt. “Matt, you were so right. We just had to let go and let someone else deal with our worries.” She hugs him again and Matt strokes her hair.
“So, where’re the kids?”
“Shannon and Luke are upstairs, doing homework. We assume. And Caroline’s at Jenna’s house, doing homework.”
“We assume.”
“Yeah.”
The phone ring, abruptly breaking the calm silence. Amber picks up the receiver, “Jacobs residence.” He eyebrows drop in concern, “Yes, this is she… What? Where? Yeah, I’ll be right there.”
Amber replies to Matt’s glance, “It was the police. They want us to go to Jenna’s house.”
“Oh, no.”
Chapter 5
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