Jan’s Portfolio LLC

By Jamie Lee

I could not wrap my head around what I just read, for the third time, as I closed the back cover of Jan’s journal, for the third time. Jan and I had been partners in Jan’s Portfolio LLC for sixteen years, and I loved the girl dearly. But this…how can this be? Her full name is Janelle Mathew, she and I are the same age. And she is our daughter! But our Janelle Mather is only, five-years-old!

****Chapter 1****

****I closed the back cover of Jan’s journal for the third time, and I still couldn’t believe what I just read, for the third time. Mechanically I reached to my left, picking up the mug of tea off the end table, realizing it was cold as I took a sip—I needed something a bit stronger, not knock me on my butt stronger, just a bit stronger. I uncurled my legs, got up from the couch and made my way to the kitchen. My mind must have split in two, one side mulling over what I read, for the third time, and the other taking up the tasks which brought me into the kitchen. I don’t remember pouring the cold tea down the drain, rinsing out the mug, setting it on the counter, or turning and taking two steps to the island. Nor do I remember taking down two wine glasses from the overhead glass rack, or opening up the wine chiller below the island and taking out a bottle of our favorite white wine, or getting out the corkscrew, or anything else until I heard my name shouted and a hand shaking my shoulder. It was good those two actions happened, because I suddenly realized I was about the wash the island counter with white wine. I quickly stopped pouring and sat the bottle down; looking to my left I saw my distractor was Joanne, my wife—or maybe my husband?

“Sara are you alright,” she asked me in that beautiful voice which developed after she changed six years ago, a concerned look on her face, as she gently stroked my cheek with the hand that shook my shoulder. I leaned into that beautiful hand, the hand that belonged to the person I fell for sixteen years ago, the person who was much different when he walked into Jan’s sixteen years ago for a job interview. That’s right, “he” walked into Jan’s, but “she” is my wife/husband! And that’s partly what has me so confused, likely you too shortly.

I shrugged my shoulders in answer to Joanne’s question, kissed her hand, and poured another glass of wine; three-fourths this time. I handed Joanne the glass, bent down and slurped enough wine out of my glass so it wouldn’t spill, took Joanne’s hand and led her to the couch in the living room. I set my glass down on the end table, picked up Jan’s journal, extended it to Joanne and said, “read it.” I could see the questions in her eyes, but told her again more forcefully, “read it.” She set her glass down on the other end table, took the journal, sat down on the couch, tucked her legs under her, opened the journal and began to read. I folded myself back where I had been reading and watched as Joanne flipped page after page as she read. In a few minutes she had finished reading, looked at me, back at the journal, back at me, then picked up her wine glass and drained it. I knew why she had drained the glass; I had after all read that book three times. I gently took the glass out of her hand, got up and went to the kitchen for a refill. From the kitchen I could hear page after page being flipped—Joanne can speed read up to 2500 words a minute when she wants to. I refilled her glass, grabbed another bottle out of the wine chiller and went back to the living room, where Joanne was closing the back cover of the journal for the second time. I handed her glass to her, and she downed about half of the wine, setting the glass on the end table and started reading again. From experience, I knew she’d read confusing material nine or ten times before she’d come up for air. And this material WAS confusing. I sat back down, let my head fall back against the couch, closed my eyes and starting thinking about what I read; Joanne would nudge me when she finished reading.

Sixteen years ago I had been Sara Maria Thomas, a grad student who was then working on her MBA. I was twenty five, had my Bachelor degrees in finance and statistical analysis, with minors in accounting, bookkeeping, and data processing. All this did keep me busy, but as it turned out, all I had acquired was about to let me take the ride of my life. A ride which now has me sitting here reviewing what I have just read, what I have experienced these past sixteen years. And how in the world to tell all about how I met a woman named Jan, whose journal I now have, and read three times?****

****Chapter 2****

I didn’t need the journal to tell me that I was working on my MBA sixteen years ago because I was there. One day, I had time between classes and decided to satisfy my need for chocolate, caramel, cinnamon and nutmeg by stopping in at the coffee shop on campus; they also had the most delicious croissants this side of the Atlantic. I had come here so often that my order was up even before asking for it or getting to the register. I stood behind another girl who seemed to be having problems with the correct amount of change to pay for her drink, so I reached into my purse and pulled out the amount she needed and after getting her attention, handed it to her. She thanked me and I thought that was that.

After paying for my fix I headed towards the back of the coffee shop, an area which was much quieter than up front, sat down and pulled out a textbook to catch up on some reading. A few moments later I felt someone close by and look up to see the same girl I’d helped at the register.

“…um, hi, mind if I sit down,” she asked me, seeming a bit hesitant with her question. She was about my height, with light brown hair which fell down past her shoulders. She was also about my weight but built a little bigger than I was—the cow! Her makeup was light but there was a beauty about her which I’d never seen on any other girl. She had a smattering of freckles just below her eyes that ran right across the bridge of her nose. There was an air about her which suggested grace and poise; maybe that was because of the modest but stylish clothing she wore.

I took all of this in in a matter of milliseconds and told her, “no, not at all.” She sat her bag on the floor, sat down and in a matter of seconds my text book was forgotten as she started telling me about a business she was going to start; somehow I got the feeling that I was being interviewed. It was also odd that she seemed to know how much time I could spend in the coffee shop before going to my next class, because she gave me a downtown address and asked me to meet her there the next morning at 9 a.m.; no one but my friends and family knew I had the morning free on that day, so how’d she know? On my way to my next class, I decided to meet her at the address she gave me and at the prescribed time. I don’t know why, but I had the feeling I was about to embark on a journey that would be life changing, a journey I’d never forget.

At 9 a.m. the next morning I arrived at the address she gave me, only to find paper covering the inside of the glass front door. On one of those papers was a handwritten sign which read, “future home of Jan’s Portfolio LLC.” Finding both doors locked, I gently tapped on the glass, getting a quick response as the door unlocked and that girls’ beautiful face appeared.

“Ah, good, you made it,” she beamed and actually pulled me into the building. Once inside I could see the building had power, for all the overhead lights were on. And there were several workers, working; it’s the best I can describe since I didn’t know what they were really doing.

“Oh, and by the way, my name is Jan,” she offered as she dragged me back to a glass enclosed office.

“Hi, I’m Sara,” I replied as I tried to take in as much of the work going on while trying not to fall from being dragged to the glass enclosed office. And if being dragged along with this whirlwind wasn’t enough, her next statement really had me buggered.

“Yes, I know, I’ve done my homework on you.”

My shoes developed spikes on the bottom, and I planted my feet so abruptly that my arm was jerked out of her hand.

“What do you mean you’ve done your homework on me?” I asked, as I took a few steps backwards, not knowing what I was getting into. And damn sure I didn’t want to.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it maliciously,” Jan told me, a shocked look on her face, while appraising me at the same time.

“Please, I have some tea brewing, please, come, sit and listen to what I have to say. And if you still have troubles you may leave.”

We looked at each other for a few minutes, me trying to gage her truthfulness, and Jan, I don’t know what. But I didn’t sense any maliciousness about her so decided listening wouldn’t do me any harm. I nodded my head yes, and we continued on towards the glass walled office.

I won’t bore you with the three hour talk we had, rather Jan talked and I listened and asked questions, but she laid out everything, her plans for the business, she was already interviewing for employees, even explaining why she had wanted to talk to me, and why my degrees and minors had really impressed her. (It wasn’t until I read her journal all those years later that I learned exactly why she chose me, her mom, to become her silent partner. She wanted to work with her mom.)

She then dropped the big bomb, one I hadn’t expected, and one that had me picking my jaw up off the floor. Jan wanted to make me her partner, albeit a silent partner. I think I shot the sip of tea I had in my mouth out my nose when she said that, because she started giggling.

“Jan,” I started, after wiping off the tea I had actually cough out of my mouth. “I don’t have the finances to become anyone’s partner, silent or otherwise. My plans were to join a brokerage firm and start at the bottom to gain experience.”

“Yes, yes, I know, but I’m not asking you to provide any finances,” she said and went on to explain that a mysterious backer had approached her and offered the finances for her to open her own business—another falsehood I discovered from the journal, she was actually loaded.

So it was on that day, and for the next sixteen years, I became the silent partner, and dear friend, to the owner of “Jan’s Portfolio LLC.” And started a journey the likes I could never imagine.

****Chapter 3****

A month later I had attained my MBA and “Jan’s Portfolio LLC” opened. We started with ten well qualified employees and one hundred and fifty clients, a good beginning but I had a feeling it wouldn’t last.

We started our mornings at 8:30 a.m. and had a group meeting before we opened to our clients at 10 a.m. During the previous interviews, Jan had explained there would be a dress code because she wanted everyone to look business like. And several prospects walked out when they found out what that dress code would be. For this first group meeting, Jan looked everyone over to make sure they met the business dress code. For men it was white dress shirt, or a colored dress shirt that coordinated with either a black, brown, or navy blue suit; brown could be light but not shocking. Ties and socks had to also coordinate, and shoes were either brown or black. No sandals or any other recreation type shoes. For women, dresses or dress/pants suits, business style. Blouses, like the men, had to coordinate with the outfit, as if any women needed that reminder—I chuckled the first time she told me her idea about the dress code for women. Scarves could be worn but like the men’s ties, had to coordinate with the outfit. Hosiery was to be worn but nothing which was made for clubbing. And what woman needs reminded about coordinating her shoes, right? But it was in the dress code as well. And no heels that were higher than two inches. She also included the no recreation type shoes whatsoever. And why do I bring all this up now? You will see later on.

Our first day of business was garnished with city dignitaries, well-wishers from businesses, and a general public inspection to see what we offered. In a word, our first day went well, if only it had remained that way after six months.

Each new employee was on probation for the first six months, a standard practice in our field we learned about before we hired anyone. We were doing brisk business for the next six months, gaining another one hundred clients. But on six months and one day is when the trouble started, trouble that lasted exactly one week. Trouble, Jan told me later, she knew was brewing thanks to a little birdy who happened to be a former employer with two of our men. It seemed this little birdy had family in three other firms who waved a red flag in Jan’s face when they found out we had hired these two guys.

Their gig was simple, be compliant with the “yes sir,” “no sir,” follow all the rules for the probation period then make their move. Or they tried to at the other three firms. Tried to in that they were another pair whose elevator never reached the top floor; a brick shy of a full load; they were in the wrong business for attempting to find their butts with a map. These two guys had the desire to try and pull off a takeover, but lacked the knowledge to pull it off. After being caught and fired three times, with a threat of arrest should they ever come back, they decided a newbie owner would be the perfect pigeon for their next attempt. Only the pigeon they went after turned out to be an extremely large Saber Toothed tiger, and she bit them big time.

During one of Jan’s and mine after-hours meetings, which we held every night after we closed, she clued me in on two of the guys we had employed. She talked about where they had worked, what they had tried, and their subsequent firings, and what they were in for should they return to their previous employers. After what she told me, two and two finally resulted in four, as I’d got the feeling those two were up to something based on their computer usage which I monitored as part of my job. Jan had had a program installed on our server which flagged questionable computer activity, and which was flagged on my computer for review. I told Jan of my suspicions based on their activity being flagged, and we both knew right there and then, what they were again attempting.

As her way of thanking the other three firms for the heads-up, Jan called each and every firm and asked if they’d like to help her give the Feds two new guests for an extended stay. And each firm gladly accepted the offer—scum like those two ruin it for everyone.

Because we wanted these two gone as soon as possible, Jan’s and the other three firms set the peanut butter in the trap and set it out for observation on Monday. Everything they put in the files was fake, or nearly fake, but tantalizing enough that the other firms were sure those two would take the bait. Nothing that was illegal, just maybe a bit underhanded, if that.

Monday morning after our group meeting my computer dinged, showing me those two had taken the bait; their computer usage had been flagged. I notified Jan that our peanut butter had been taken and things might happen very soon. Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident, but their computer usage was still flagged. Based on what they were doing, I told Jan I felt they’d make their move Thursday morning; I guess I should bet more often, because on Thursday morning, before we even had our group meeting, the two march into Jan’s office like they owned the place.

Jan’s and the other three firms, had agreed to merge our information and take it to the DA, and would notify their offices when things went down. Since the two morons paid no attention to me, I made the phone calls to the DA and the other three firms. It was rather comical to watch, as Jan played the dumbest woman you’d ever seen. All the while turning everything back on them so they had to explain themselves over and over again; I had an ear bud which let me listen in on the meeting in Jan’s office when it was important. And it wasn’t just me who found it comical, as all the shouting from the two numb nuts had attracted the attention of everyone who arrived for work. As “the dumb woman” stalled, the two never saw the DA, two detectives, and four uniformed officers enter the office. But they did when the DA interrupted their shouting by opening the office door and flashing his credentials. Oh, and seeing the police didn’t hurt.

Those two saw the writing on the glass walls, and tried to backpedal saying it was all a joke. But they couldn’t backpedal fast enough with the DA at their backs, because when Jan came around her desk, the look on her face told them they were not going to like what happened next. And they didn’t, as two officers came in right behind the DA and handcuffed the two, leading them out the office and the building. While the drama was taking place in Jan’s office, I had been recording everything those two had said. I also had Sandra, our IT tech, print off everything those two had been doing on their computers for the last month. She also took their computers off-line so the server could no longer be accessed. While one detective went with Sandra one stayed with me while I made him a copy of the office drama. I also gave him four CDs containing all the information from the other three firms, each labeled with the firm’s name. After the DA chatted with Jan, and the detectives had the evidence, they bid us all a farewell and went to have their own brand of fun. Jan ordered breakfast for everyone on that morning to celebrate the loss of nothing important. (And again, I didn’t need the journal telling me what happened because I was there.)

****Chapter 4****

We heard a few weeks later that our two ex-numb nuts had pulled duty at a very nice Federal hotel for half of their existing life times—20 years each. And again Jan provided breakfast for everyone to celebrate their good fortune, and ours. Jan already had two replacements in the pipeline and when they showed up the following Monday morning they got right to work. Over the next three years the drama sessions were far and few in between, each year seeing us adding more staff because we were acquiring more clients. Something I didn’t know, but read in the journal, as our individual investors increased, so had the other three firms corporate investors increased. Seems we became a sort of model which the other firms copied, thus increasing their corporate accounts.

It was in year three, during one of our hiring phases, where I found myself having to pick my jaw up off the floor and putting my eyes back in my head. Walking by my desk was a very attractive man who had come in for an interview. He was about 5ft 10in, sandy blonde hair, maybe blue eyes, wearing the sharpest suit I’d seen anyone were to an interview. I don’t know how I knew, maybe it was the switched that clicked, but I knew right then he was right for me. I hesitate to use “soul mate,” but that’s what he was to me. And I had a feeling he felt the same, for I caught him trying not to be seen looking at me.

As I did with all interviews I placed the ear bud in my ear so I could listen in on the interviews. New prospects were another thing Jan and I discussed in our after-hours meeting, so I had to listen to the interview, and what I heard made me realize we’d received manna from heaven with this guy.

His name was Jonathan Mathew; he was thirty-five-years old, held Bachelor degrees in mathematics and finance, with minors in statistical analysis, accounting, French, Spanish, and German. He had his Masters in mathematics with emphasis towards statistical probability. He even had his MBA. This guy was a gold mine, and it was gold like him which we needed. And it was him I needed.

We didn’t need to discuss this guy in our after-hours meeting, not as far as I was concerned. I looked towards Jan’s office, she surreptitiously looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I gave her not only a nod yes, but two thumbs up; Jan hired him on the spot; he’d start the next day. And so would I.

*****I opened my eyes when a glass bottle clinked on crystal, watching as Joanne poured herself another glass of wine, and took a sip before setting her glass down on the end table and began reading Jan’s journal yet again. I noticed this time she read more slowly, which she did when she wanted to glean more facts which had confused her the first nine or ten times through. I laid my head back on the couch, closed my eyes and continued my thinking back to the days after Jon had been hired.*****

Six months into our third year, the remodeling of the second floor was in full swing; there was a lot of demo to be done before reconstruction could begin. It was also at that time that two ladies had to go on maternity leave, making it necessary to hire two new employees. Monday morning, a young lady entered the office, told Cindy who she was and why she was there, and proceeded to make a beeline to Jan’s office. Now had she been dressed for a business interview no one would have taken notice of her passing. But those of us close enough to her path couldn’t help but notice her passing. The jeans she wore looked like there were sprayed on, and had more holes in them that Swiss cheese; she was wearing sky blue lace panties—there were holes visible after her passing. The tank top she wore was so loud that many of us either looked away or shielded our eyes; the tank top didn’t do a thing to cover the assets which wanted to fall out at any moment. I happened to look toward Joni and both of us just shook our heads, knowing this girl would not be hired. And if her clothing weren’t worse enough, when she reached Jan’s office door, she walked right in; a huge mistake in office protocol.

I watched Jan’s face as the girl just walked into her office, and saw the cringe on her face when she saw how the girl was dressed. Both of these offenses were addressed before the interview even began; I heard it all via my ear bud. Jan covered the girl’s qualifications, her schooling, and the usual, to get a feel for the interviewee. Jan also gave her the printed out dress code and one for office policy. Overall the interview went well, but I didn’t give Jan a thumbs-up yet. This girl would be a topic for our meeting tonight.

That night I expressed my concerns about hiring that girl, noting her clothing and all the piercings she was wearing, while Jan believed we should at least give her a chance because her qualifications where excellent. Given that we had to fill two spots for six months, I decided to give the girl a try, we could let her go if she didn’t work out. So Jan called the girl and told her she would start the following day at 8:30 a.m. The following day, I waited with baited breath for the girl to show up for her first day on the job. At 8:28 a.m. the girl walked into the office dressed much like she was for the interview. I buzzed Jan’s office to get her attention, and saw her temperature increase as she saw what the girl was wearing. Jan stepped out of her office, called to the girl and asked her to step into her office. This wasn’t an interview so I didn’t need to listen in. But my ear bud wasn’t necessary because the raised voices seeped out of the cracks around the office door. The girl was extremely animated, and vocal, before she stormed out of Jan’s office and out the front door. I looked towards Jan and she just shook her head no, she fired the girl before she’d even started her first day. I later found out the girl didn’t believe in a dress code and wasn’t going to comply with ours. But it was for the best, because later that morning, and early that afternoon, we found two wonderful new employees who we both felt would be a great asset to the company.

Just as the first three years of our business flew by, so did the next seven, with only a few minor glitches. By the tenth year we had two hundred and fifty employees, and almost three thousand investors. The ground floor was becoming a bit crowded so Jan and I hired an architect and designer to see what we could do to the ground floor and third floor to help give us a better looking, and functioning, business. When the two came back with ideas, Jan scheduled a company meeting so everyone could see the ideas and actually have an input; this was, after all, their business too.

The idea everyone settled on, with a few minor additions, gave us a huge auditorium and a meeting room. We would now have an employee locker room and lounge. There would be changing rooms for both men and women and the same for showers. We had an idea of the number of employees we would be hiring for the years to come, so that many and a few more lockers were going to be installed. Bath towels would also be provided, delivered by one of the towel delivery businesses here in the city.

The lounge would have a snack bar, refrigerator and freezer, coffee machines of different types, chairs and tables and couches and chairs. There would be soda and candy machines, fruit machines, and frozen dinner machines with dinners sized to fit a nice sized microwave. It would be a better place for breaks than what we had now, and likely less expensive for all of us.

Jan and I had hashed over doing the same for the second and third floors, but decided we’d like it better if those moved to the second and third floors had to come downstairs to mingle with those on the ground floor. Yeah, that employee room was going to be huge. The architect also informed us that the elevator would have to be brought up to city code, but we already knew it had to be refitted so it wasn’t unexpected. We went over everything again with all the staff, and when all hands went into the air, Jan signed the contract and work would begin on the first and third floors the following week. (And again, I didn’t need the journal to tell me what occurred, I was there. It just helped me remember.)

****Chapter 5****

*****A flushing toilet brought me back to the present, which is a good thing, as I think I need to take care of some personal business. I rolled my head, looking in the direction where Joanne had been sitting, and saw only the opened journal sitting on the couch. I also note one empty wine bottle on the coffee table along with a not so full one; I never even realized Joanne had gone to the kitchen and fetched another bottle.

It wasn’t long after the water for the sink shuts off that Joanne reappears, deep in thought by the look on her face. “Well, what do you think?” I asked her just before she bends down in front of me and gives me a very passionate wine tasting kiss.

“Don’t know…got to read it more,” was all she said after breaking the kiss that had kicking starting my motor. After reading it three times myself, I totally understood what she was saying.

Before folding herself back down on the couch, Joanne drained her wine glass, refilled it, sat it down on the end table, picked up the journal and resumed her position on the couch. I’d seen her like this several times in the past and knew nothing short of an earthquake was going to get her attention. I picked up my wine glass, drained what remained, refilled it, sat it back down and decided now was a perfect time to follow Joanne in the bathroom; explaining the rest of the story was going to be difficult if not downright confusing. Even as I contributed to the sewer system, I was mulling over how to explain something I still didn’t really understand. A lot of it I’d have no trouble telling, because I witnessed it. But what Jan wrote about her personally…Oy, that was going to be a fuzzy brain freeze. I finished up in the bathroom and resumed my position on the couch, again starting to think back to the tenth year of our business, the seventh year since we hired Jon.*****

One thing Jan insisted upon was to have one day a month where every client was to meet with their portfolio analyst, and it was going to be mandatory. She felt, and I could see her point, that it was important for clients to see that their portfolio analyst was a human being, not some faceless voice over the phone. It gave our employees and our clients a better chance to become acquainted, and at the same time, the portfolio analyst would go over the clients account, checking to see if the client wanted to make any changes. Because of this unique way of doing this type of business, some very good friendships developed over the years, with some clients increasing the worth of their accounts substantially. Was it all smooth sailing at the beginning? No, it wasn’t, but it was dealt with in Jan’s usual no nonsense manner.

Jan and I decided at the beginning that Friday was going to be our mandatory meeting between a client and their portfolio analyst. A new client was told, upfront, about the mandatory meeting once a month, and for the most part it was greeted with affirmation. Until one day when two men came in to open a new account. I saw the two men come into our office Monday morning, watched as they spoke with Cindy our receptionist, and watched as Cindy picked up her phone to speak with two of our staff. It wasn’t long before Thomas and Mary arrived at the reception desk, Thomas shaking hands with one man and Mary the other. Thomas and Mary directed the men back to their desks to get the process of opening new accounts started. And nothing looked out of the ordinary.

It wasn’t until the mandatory Friday meeting between client and their portfolio analyst that a problem arose with these two men. Two weeks before the mandatory Friday meetings a notice is sent to every client, reminding them of the required meeting, with a time the client was to meet their analyst. On those Fridays everyone starts at 7 a.m. so they have time to get ready for the meetings which start at 9 a.m.

It was about 11:05 a.m. on one of the Friday mandatory meeting days that first Thomas then Mary came to my desk and said one of their clients hadn’t shown up for their 11 o’clock meeting, and would I look into it. I said I would, and also said maybe they were stuck in traffic, so give them a little more time. Based on our experience, we found out most clients were in and out usually within fifteen minutes, thirty being the longest. So it was decided to block out the meeting in thirty minute increments. If the client visited in a shorter time, then if the next client was in the building they’d then be called for their meeting. If not then it was agreed that the remainder of the thirty minutes would be used as a break for our employees; most Fridays like these no one left before 8:30 or 9 p.m. and the breaks were needed.

I pulled up the accounts for the two missing gentleman, and saw their notices had gone out on time, were received—we sent them registered—and that they were scheduled for 11 a.m. I phoned the office of first one of the men then the other, getting the voicemail systems which stated they would be out of town for the next two weeks; dates of their absences were given. I looked at a calendar on my desk I saw that their second week absent fell on the time they were to meet with their portfolio analyst. After the recorded messages had played I left a message, reminding them of the once a month mandatory Friday meeting. And would be expecting to hear from them on the following Monday. I notified Thomas and Mary about the missing men and told them to meet with their next client if they were here, or just take a break until their next meeting. I also notified Jan about the problem.

Monday came and went, as did Tuesday, and still no word from either of the two men. I had been keeping Jan in the loop and it was Tuesday afternoon when Jan stepped in and called both men. She motioned for me to listen in on, and record, the conversations. Both men were very cordial, very professional, but made it clear to Jan that they were just too busy to be bothered to come to her office, once a month, for any type of meeting. Oh did those two make a big mistake by telling Jan that; actually, she already knew these two men weren’t going to let some woman dictate to them about anything—another of her little birdies. She politely thanked the men, hung up the phone after each call, came out of her office and hollered for Thomas and Mary to cash out the accounts of the two men; she gave their names in a rather loud voice. While it may not seem very professional for Jan to have accounts cashed out, she was on a mission, one which would either lose us two accounts or teach a very valuable lesson. It wasn’t long before our accountant had two money orders cut, each for a sizeable amount, and in Jan’s hands. And it wasn’t long before a messenger showed up and given instructions where to deliver the two checks.

Jan must have known the two men would show up very soon, given the size of the two money orders and that both men’s accounts had a sizeable increase since coming to Jan’s, because she was standing at the reception desk when first one man then the other man walked into the office about thirty minutes after the messenger left. Both men looked rather contrite, under Jan’s glare, and actually looked like a couple of school boys who got caught smoking in the boys’ bathroom. With a bit of frost in her voice she told the two men to, “follow me.” It was almost quite comical watching these three people walk to Jan’s office, one looking like the principal, the other two like two “dead meat” school boys, even though they were both very successful business men. Being successful, they both believed they were too important, and above the need, for any meeting which they felt was a waste of time. But Jan was having none of it, and lit into both men the minute the door closed to her office. When the flames died down, she started explaining why the meetings were necessary, and why they were mandatory; thank you little earbud. Taken down a peg or two both men apologized, and begged Jan to reopen their accounts, explaining that none of their other accounts had done as well as their accounts with her. Jan casually looked at me to see what I thought, so I gave her a wiggled thumbs-up, meaning go ahead and give them a chance to redeem themselves. We both knew, had discussed it beforehand in fact, that if both men apologized for their attitudes and asked to be taken back, we’d do it but for a six month trial period. That was the last time we had any trouble with anyone who opened an account at Jan’s Portfolio LLC, word had gotten around about the fireball that’d drop an account in the blink of an eye if agreements weren’t adhered to.

*****I opened my eyes again, picked up my wine glass and took a good long drink, before reaching for the now almost empty second bottle to refill my glass. I then looked over to Joanne, who now had the journal open in her lap and her head leaning back on the couch. I’d seen her do this as well when she was trying to figure out a particular difficult piece of information or equation. I also knew that not even an earthquake would disturb her when she was like this. I’m at the point of my story where it gets rather strange, even weird, the part that has me really confused. It’s the part that depends a lot on what Jan wrote herself, the part which is extremely hard to believe. I laid my head back on the couch back, closed my eyes, and thought back to the mandatory meeting Friday which caused Joanne to become, Joanne. But it wasn’t supposed to happen, according to Jan.*****

The remodeling that had been started during our tenth year in business, took about eleven months to complete. Both the third floor and first floor were as we desired, so the overflow of employees could be moved to the third floor. And as only Jan knew, and wrote about, it was a good thing too, because something was going to happen, something which hadn’t been planned for yet, but yet, had been. And it was going to happen to Jonathan. Right now seems a good time to explain what I’m talking about, maybe it will help me understand.

As I previously stated, I read Jan’s journal three times. And three times I wasn’t sure I fully understood what I had just read. For sixteen years I never knew Jan’s full name, she always sidestepped my question when I asked so I let it drop. But after reading her journal three times I know her full name now, but can’t believe it. For sixteen years I’ve been working with Janelle Mathew, our daughter. But our Janelle is only five-years-old. It wasn’t until I read more of the journal before Jan explained how it was possible.

****Chapter 6****

I guess it’s time to tell Jan’s story, or try to in any event, as I still find it hard to believe. The Jan I worked with for the past sixteen years, our daughter Janelle Mathew, is from eighty years in the future. A future which was changed because of a little glitch they caused in Jonathan’s past, a glitch which affected his development before he was even born, a glitch which made him a male instead of the female he should have been. And it was Jan’s job to try and correct the event which hadn’t taken place during one of the mandatory Friday meetings, the event which hadn’t taken place the seventh year Jon was employed by Jan’s.

There’s actually two parts to Jan’s story, the one why she looks so young after eighty years, and the one which caused the glitch that changed their time. Twenty years into our five-year-old Janelle’s future a brilliant bio-chemist had developed a serum which he hoped would cure the cancer which killed both his parents. But before he could be sure it worked he had to run a five year study. His preliminary study said it should work, but the Government mandated the five year study just to be extra sure it was safe; gotta love the Government, always looking out for its citizens.

He sent out helpers to capture wild mice and for them to bring back only mice which looked sick or had unusual growths. It took some time but his helpers finally found fifty wild mice which looked sick or had the unusual growths the chemist was looking for. After examining all the mice, twenty five met the criteria for having cancerous growth in or on their bodies, the rest were let go back where they were found to let nature take its course. None of the mice had the particular cancer which killed his parents, but the cancers they did have were similar enough to what humans developed that he decided to go ahead with this part of the trial.

Again it took some time, since the type of cancer each mouse had needed to be identified. Then, when that was done, the mouse was given one injection. He then noted in his log the time and date the injection was given, and decided to check each mouse once a week for the first month to see if there was any changes to the cancerous growths. It was also at this time his helpers visited cancer centers and spoke with patients who had stage four cancers, to see if any would volunteer to be in the human part of the trials. This particular trial didn’t need a control group because it dealt solely with eliminating the cancer all together. In the end, he ended up with fifty volunteers who felt they had nothing to lose and everything to gain if the serum worked as everyone hoped. Even the doctors were on board since they’d tried everything in the tool kit to combat the rampaging cancers.

Identifying the cancers the human patients had wasn’t necessary because the hospital had already done that, so all he had to do was enter their names and age in the separate log for the human testing, have them sign a consent form, and give each the one injection, noting the time and date as he’d done for the wild mice. He had already arranged to have facilities in place to make the human patients comfortable during the first part of the trial, thereby saving his having to travel to the hospital every other day. With the human patients he was going to check on them once every day, if for no other reason than to make sure they were comfortable. There would be nurses on 24hr shifts to look after their other needs, and all he could do now was wait and see what happened.

He knew the serum would take time to work its way throughout both the mice and humans, so he wasn’t disappointed when he didn’t see any changes after the first week. It wasn’t until the second week when one of his helpers had been cleaning one of the mouse cages when he noticed something strange with that particular mouse. When the chemist investigated further he saw a slight reduction in the cancer growths that mouse had. Seeing this, he checked the other mice and they too had slight reduction in their cancer growths. With this in mind he had all the human patients checked and found similar results in them as well; he spirits were high at this point, but he still had to be patient.

By the third week big changes were starting to be seen in both the mice and humans, bigger changes in the mice because of their size. The human patients who were in stage four when they started the trial, were judged to now be in stage three, causing each and every volunteer a great measure of hope for a total cure. By week four the cancer infecting the mice was all but gone, and the human patients were now down to a stage two cancer. By week five no cancer could be found in any of the mice, and the humans were now at stage one. By the end of the sixth week more than ninety percent of the humans were completely free of cancer; the other ten percent were still getting better. For those ten percent it took eight weeks before they too were completely free of any cancer. He had done it, he had found a cure for cancer, but with four years and ten months left on the trial he had to reign in his excitement. Because now they had to see if the mice and humans remained free of cancer for the time left on the trial.

For the next four years and ten months, the mice were checked every week for any signs of recurring cancer. For the volunteers it was a checkup every two weeks. As the months turned into years and the years came closer to the end of the trial, no signs of recurring cancer had been found in either the mice or the volunteers. And when the clock wound down to the final tick of the trial, his data showed that he had indeed found the cure for every know type of cancer which infected humans; and wild mice. However, during the last few checkups the volunteers had, he notice, something rather strange. He noticed that none of the volunteers appeared to have aged during the five years of the trial. In fact he verified this by having pictures taken and comparing them to pictures that were taken when the trial started. He felt sure he was right, but took the pictures to a plastic surgeon to verify his suspicions. It took the plastic surgeon three weeks to get back with the chemist, but as it turned out he was right, none of the volunteers had aged a day. He even checked the wild mice, and they too were still kicking after five years, where wild mice only lasted a year at best. Could it be that he inadvertently discovered a “youth” serum in the process of developing a cure for cancer? He already had proof based on the five year trial, but would that be enough for the Government? None of the mice showed the slightest afflictions because of the serum, and neither did any of the volunteers. In fact they all seemed to be in better health than when the cancers were gone. When he did additional research he found that aging had slowed to about two months for every year of life. So it took about six years before a person would age one year.

He was now fifty five, thirty years older than when he started his research because of his parent’s deaths. He had all the date, all the results on film, he had fifty healthy humans whose doctors could testify were on death’s door five years ago, and who were healthier now than when their doctors saw them before they developed cancer. He also had the mice, but decided they might scare a few of the Government panel so decided to give all of them a good home at the lab. Thirty years of his life was spent for this exact moment, and it didn’t take him long to decide to go for broke and take his finding to the Government oversight panel.

Three months later he received a letter from the panel, approving his serum for general distribution. And three months after that he started getting offers from every major pharmaceutical in the world, some offering him so much money he could have paid off the National Debt. But he knew what they were actually doing, and why. They wanted to get his serum off the market because it would spell ruin for the cancer drug businesses. It would cost them millions, if not trillions of dollars if his serum became widely used. And with each and every offer he very diplomatically told them to “shove up their ass.” He was not going to let anyone bury his discovery just to save their profits. But the pharmaceutical companies weren’t put off that easy, so they went to the chemical supply companies and offered them the same amount of money if they would charge the serum company an exorbitant price for the chemical supplies. And like the chemist, many in those companies had lost loved ones to cancer and they too knew what the pharmaceutical companies were trying to do. They too were very diplomatic in telling the pharmaceutical companies if they were to charge one company an exorbitant price, they’d have to charge ALL companies an exorbitant price. Upon hearing this, it didn’t take the pharmaceutical companies long to see the writing on the wall, the writing which said get ready to lose their cancer drug business.

After receiving the go ahead from the Government, he and like minded individuals went ahead with their plans and first patented the discovery, then formed the company they had planned. They then purchased the buildings they had picked which would suit their needs to become the manufacturing plant for the serum. Machinery was purchased, and employees were hired and vetted extremely well. Because they all knew someone would either try and steal the formula or sabotage the plant, a state of the art security system was installed and a security firm was hired to provide 24hr security all year long. No employee was going to be allowed to bring anything into the plant; the company was going so far as have each and every employee working in the plant change into special clothing which made impossible to hide anything on their person. And because thorough background checks were done, those found to possess exceptional memories were going to be barred from any areas where they might be able to memorize what went into the serum. The company was also going to pay very well, so no one job had a higher pay than another. Hopefully, they believed, they’d thought of every way to deter theft or sabotage of any kind. But time was the only real test.

It took almost eleven months to complete the plant, hire and train the employees, and produce the first batch of serum. The question they were still discussing was the cost to the consumer. Besides the chemist, each of the other partners had lost family due to cancer, so they wanted the price low enough so anyone could afford the serum; they wanted to help humanity, not line their pockets and become filthy rich. So it was finally decided $150 was the going price for their serum, and they would package it for one injection per person. And if a person was destitute, they would reduce the cost by ninety five percent. The same would apply to very poor countries. All of the chemist’s partners had more money than they knew what to do with, so helping out those who were eking out a living was the least they could do.

*****I open my eyes, again, looking to my right and see Joanne still in her heavy contemplating mode, and realized my bladder was sending me urgent message that I should heed. Once my bladder was happy I went to the kitchen to find something to eat, preferably something light. I grabbed some cheese from the fridge and actually eat all of it on my way back to the couch, where I refilled my wine glass, took a sip and resume my previous position on the couch. I lean my head back against the couch back, closed my eyes and thought about how Jan remained so young looking.*****

****Chapter 7****

Jan was thirty one when the first batch of serum was released to the general public, and did it cause a stir. The first to be given the serum was every cancer treatment center in the world, including those centers in the most desolate places. Then to those physicians who were treating cancer patients individually. Then to personal physicians whose patients were cancer free. While the initial demands were high, it wasn’t long before about a quarter of the planet had received the serum. The chemist and his partners knew it would take time for the entire planet to receive the serum, but they were in for the long haul. As for Jan, she had to wait her turn but finally got her injection and the added age reducing benefit.

Those cured of cancer were ecstatic because they now had a new lease on life. But when it was revealed that aging was slowed along with the cure for cancer, questions were raised as to over population and how would they cope. These questions put Thomas and his partners at the middle of a huge argument by groups who worried about over population and those who claimed they were playing God; and those who made money off drugging the elderly. And yet, through it all, Thomas and his partners remained stoic, putting out article after article, sitting through interview after interview, explaining how slowing down the aging process also slowed the time when the human body was ready to reproduce. They also made it very clear that the serum did not stop natural deaths, accidental deaths, or other forms of illegal deaths—murders and the like. It did take a while for their message to finally sink in, and the drug companies to finally settle down and look for a different market, but in the end the world actually became a somewhat better place to live.

The second event may be even more unbelievable, since EVERYONE knows time travel is impossible, right? Every time the subject was broached, every scientist has loudly proclaimed that time travel was simply impossible, it was pure science fiction. And yet the idea never died, never lost its aura to those who didn’t let the scoffers spoil their dreams. But none possessed the merest talent to even contemplate how such a feat could be realized, and their dream simply remained a dream. Until a newly minted physicist named Jonathan Mathew, brilliant beyond his years, decided to try and make his dream come true, a dream which developed with his first reading of “The Time Machine.” Even though his brilliance shown in the work he did in high school and at University, in the projects he designed and built, he, like others, was scoffed at when at University he brought up the idea of time travel. But he, unlike the others, was not deterred but bolstered by every professor who scoffed at him and his ideas. Each and every professor used mathematical formulas to prove it wasn’t possible to create such a machine which could take one back in time. And with each written formula Jonathan’s ideas grew even more powerful, until the last professor to show him the error of his ways unintentionally showed Jonathan the path he needed to travel to determine how a device could be built. For it was this last professor who made Jonathan realize, much like two students in an old science fiction television program, that everyone was asking the wrong questions. And it was then that Jonathan knew which questions that needed asking.

Even before Jonathan received his degrees, R&D firms and teaching institutions were inundating him with job offers, offers which came with very generous salaries. And due to the cold reception his want to develop time travel received, Jonathan knew he had to make a living if he was to work on his ideas on his own time. So he took all the materials sent to him, all the information that was sent to him, and looked at which one would give him the greatest amount of free time to do his work. The teaching institutions were all out of the question, for they required him to publish several papers a year besides teach. All the Government jobs were rejected as well, for the Government would monitor even his time away from work. That left all the R&D firms, big and small alike; he separated their information into piles of large and small firms. Many of the large firms offered major advantages not available with the small firms, but after seeing who’d he be working with, he knew there’d be a lot of in-fighting and politics involved. So he disregarded any of the large firms. He was looking through the information from the small R&D firms when he came across one firm who had employed a person Jonathan thought might be the mechanical engineer he’d need to help build the device, his own sister, Christine Mathew. Jonathan knew Christine was working for an R&D firm, but because of security, she was never able to say which one. So it came as a happy surprise when he saw her name within the material he was sent. Contacting Christine, Jonathan asked if they could meet for coffee, he had some questions he’d like to ask. To Jonathan’s surprise, Christine agreed, even saying she had questions for him. And so it was after the two met, on their own time, and Jonathan explained his ideas to Christine, and received favorable replies from her, that he accepted the job offer with that firm. A small R&D firm it may have been, but it afforded him the personal time he needed to work on his own life long project. And have access to a mechanical engineer who was just as excited as he was to see if it could be done.

It took Jonathan a little over two years to acquire the knowledge he needed on Quantum Mechanics, the field Jonathan knew held the key to making a breakthrough in time travel; for as was discovered in Quantum Mechanics, everything that can happen happens at the same time. For example, you go into a bar and ask for a drink. At that time every possible drink in that bar is offered to you, but it’s only the drink you observe that is the drink you get. Or take Schrodinger’s cat, a thought experiment by physicist Erwin Schrodinger. A live cat is in a sealed box which contains a Geiger counter, a control mechanism, a hammer, and a flask of poison. The hammer is attached to the mechanism which is controlled by the Geiger counter, and is set so that if the Geiger counter detects any radiation the control mechanism releases the hammer which falls and breaks the flask, releasing the poison and killing the cat. Schrodinger reasoned that until a person looked inside the box, the cat was both alive and dead, but not both when a person viewed inside the box. This brought up the question of when did the quantum superposition end and reality collapsed into one possibility or the other. With this knowledge in the forefront, Jonathan then began working on the mathematic equations and formulas he knew would be needed for the device he had in mind. Because he did, after all, know the right questions to ask.

*****The couch shifts, which causes me to open my eyes and see Joanne making a very quick beeline to the bathroom. She left the journal lying open on the couch so I knew she had more thinking to do—cannot outlast a full bladder. My legs and other body parts were screaming at me so I decided it was time to get up, stretch and get something decent to eat for the both of us. We both needed a break; I knew what Joanne was going through. There was very little conversation as we ate a nice, filling, meal. I tried to get Joanne to tell me what she thought, but my questions were always met with a shoulder shrug. I was not upset by her responses because this is what Jonathan always did when he had a sticky problem he was trying to solve. I also knew, when Joanne got up from her chair and came and sat in my lap, hugging me tightly, that she was very upset by what she was reading, and for good reason; I wish she’d been here my three time through that journal. I felt the tears wet the shoulder of my blouse, and knew the reason they were falling. Jan explained it all in her journal, the other incident which had taken place. I pushed Joanne away from my body and wiped the tears off her cheeks, softly telling her, “Let’s get back.” She nodded, got off my lap, and we both went back to the couch, Joanne back to her deep thinking and me back to my memories of the actually events.*****

Asking all the right questions, it took Jonathan five more years of his free time before he believed he had all the formulas and equations he would need to build his device. But it took both Jonathan and Christine another five years on their own time before they thought they had sufficient plans for the device. Now all they needed was the right material that could withstand the forces which would be produced when the device was powered, producing a portal which would allow one to, step back in time. Nothing available passed any of the tests they ran to see if the material would hold up, and it didn’t take them long to realize they had to come up with something new. It was also about this time their company hired a young lady who looked in her thirties but both knew was much older due to the cancer serum, who happened to be a specialist in materials of every kind. Janelle Mathew, as it turned out, had just about every degree possible in the field of particle science; and a few in the world of finance. Jonathan and Christine couldn’t have been happier when Janelle Mathew, their sister, was hired by the firm. Right off the bat, they knew she was a safe bet, and when they reached the part of the explanation about needing a new type material for their project, Jan’s eyes lit up like the sun. Both saw the change in her at the mention of new material and asked why her excitement. Like Jonathan and Christine, Jan had come to work for the company that would afford her a lot of free time after work. Because like them, she too was working on a project to try and develop lighter and stronger materials which could possibly replace steel and other materials that were starting to become rather scarce and more expensive. Their project would give her the perfect opportunity to try out some of the ideas she had formulated some years ago, but not the time to put them to the test. And on this day the secret society of time travel was formed. And they realized it had to be secret, least the Government or some other nefarious individual get their hands on it. It was then they also realized they would now have to find a backer, someone with not only the money but the maturity and wisdom their work needed.

It was another ten years of trials and failures before they finally had the right material, a working prototype, and a backer; they acquired the backer some five years before. With the backer’s surreptitious help, a warehouse had been set up for all their work those five years ago. And now it was going to be the place where they would find out if all their work was in vain or actually worked. Before “pressing the button,” they made sure to backup all of their data and the data on special material Jan had accidently produced during one of her trial batch runs. Material that would hold more than a hundred times the information than anything on the market; when this project was over she planned on marketing the material. They also thought it prudent to back up as much non-project data as they could, data from around the world. They all knew that if one change was made in the past, their present day could be changed in unpredictable ways.

When everything was double checked, the backed up data safely stored, and everyone wearing their safety gear, Jonathan “pushed the button” as it were. As predicted the device took several seconds to initialize and come up to speed and power. But it didn’t take long before they realized they had a tiny little problem, the device was vibrating. Even though a violet oval had been formed on the target wall they couldn’t be sure it actually worked. They had talked about what type of test to run to make sure a time portal had been formed, and came up with the idea of going back a few hours before the test and write on the test wall, “this is a test wall.” If the portal was working, then the words should appear as though it were magic. But now they’d have to wait until Jonathan and Christine discovered the reason for the vibration.

Jonathan and Christine had come up with a way to completely shield the warehouse from not only prying eyes but from outside electronic interference. So while everyone waited for Jonathan and Christine to solve the vibration problem, the backer got on one of the outside lines to check for any messages. It was during this time that he noticed something funny which didn’t match the memories he had, something which dealt with business practices which had changed some seventy-five years ago. Practices which changed because of how one Mr. Marks had been treated by a brokerage house after he received tragic news about his daughter. The backer asked Jan to pull up a specific event in their stored data and found that what was occurring now was totally different than their stored data. It didn’t take long for a meeting of the minds to form and for the backer to explain his findings. And it didn’t take long for everyone to realize, that even with the vibration, the device had worked, though because of the vibration a glitch was caused in the past. The cheer that filled the room was quashed as quickly as it started because as the backer pointed out, something had changed in the past which is now affecting their present. It wasn’t a huge change, but it was a change nonetheless. And how were they going to fix it?

Jonathan and Christine both agreed it was going to take time to discover the source of the vibration in the device, and it might be a very good time for Jan and a few others to go through all the outside data they had to try and discover the specific cause of the change to their present time. With plans in mind, Jonathan pulled up all his calculations and began going through them one at a time. Christine broke down the device and checked the integrity of every circuit board, every connections, and then once reassembled, went through the device’s program line by line. Once she had finished his tests, she and Jonathan again checked the device’s programming to see if they matched the figures from Jonathan’s calculations. Christine hadn’t seen the problem with one line of code until they did the comparison; her initial run showed no glaring errors. And so it was, on one line of code, the inputted data was one one thousandth of a point off. To a normal person this wouldn’t seem like much, but when it was critical to be precise in both time and space, that was quite a lot. Meanwhile, Jan and three others, along with the backer, pored over file after file in trying to pinpoint the main cause of the change in their time. Even though it proved daunting all three groups had their answers within two weeks of the initial test of the device, Jonathan and Christine were happy, Jan and the others not so much.

The backer had been correct, the change had taken place seventy-five years ago, and it had happened the day Mr. Marks met his portfolio analyst during the mandatory meeting, but that wasn’t the “main” cause of the change. The main cause occurred one hundred and seventeen years ago, during the gestation of Jonathan Mathew. During their data gathering before the initial test they gathered as many birth certificate records as they could get. It was during the search of those records that a Joanne Mathew had been recorded being born exactly one hundred and seventeen years ago. And who had worked at the same brokerage house as the one used by Mr. Marks. And when that birth record was compared to present day birth records, it wasn’t Joanne Mathew who had been born, but Jonathan Mathew, the person who was working at the brokerage house the day of Mr. Mark’s tragic news. Every eye swiveled towards Jan, giving her the “well” look. Jan was very upfront with everyone, telling them all that her memories were of a mother named Joanne, her other mother was Sara. That she had a sister named Christine, two brothers, Thomas and Jonathan, and that both her mothers had worked at the same brokerage house. After her explanation, everyone had that “ah ha” look, which Jan didn’t get. It was as though everyone except her saw the answer to the problem of how to get their present time back on the correct timeline. Once their telepathy session was over, the backer explained to Jan that she was the perfect candidate to go back and straighten out the error that had occurred with Mr. Marks. Dumbfounded didn’t cover how she felt, but after listening to all of the logic, she had to agree that she was the only one with the qualifications who could pull it off. With that little problem out of the way, it was decided to run another test of the device the following day, giving someone the chance to write “this is a test wall” one day before they first tested the device. When the device was powered on the next day it sounded and acted much better. After the violet oval appeared on the test wall, a volunteer stepped through and as if by magic the words “this is a test wall” appeared on the test wall to the left of the violet oval. Because the test was done in the warehouse, there was no need to close the portal by turning off the device, so a few moments after the words appeared on the test wall their volunteer stepped back through the portal. They had done it! They had developed a device from the ground up which would allow them to step back in time. And their first job was to try and fix the problem their initial test caused.

****Chapter 8****

Over the next several days, a discussion took place between the group to try and determine when and where they should send a team of three, Jan and two others, to try and get their time line straight. Some thought the day of Mr. Mark’s tragedy, others thought a few days before. It wasn’t until the backer pointed out that they couldn’t just “drop in” or they might create even more problems. No, they had to go back to the beginning of the brokerage house, to the time it was first envisioned. That was the only way they could be sure not to cause any more problems. They could get a list of everyone who was hired, fired, or not hired from the outside data they collected before the initial test; the owner of that brokerage house kept meticulous records. After more discussions ensued it was agreed by all that the backer’s idea was the soundest and the least likely to cause even more problems. The backer also pointed out that it was late, and everyone looked dead on their feet. They had more work to do before even venturing into the past, so bid each other goodnight and made their way to their homes, each knowing it would be a very busy tomorrow.

*****I opened my eyes and saw Joanne was again reading Jan’s journal; she must have finally understood the problem that stumped her. This part of Jan’s journal always seemed to give me a headache, just like the one I felt coming on right now. And like the previous ones, I got up off the couch and went into the bathroom for two aspirins. I also knew to give them about thirty minutes to kick in before going back to Jan’s journal or my headache would only get worse; journal reading number two proved this fact. As I waited, I sipped my wine and watched as Joanne read page after page in Jan’s journal, occasionally staring out at nothing while wordlessly talking to herself. With thirty minutes passing, and my head feeling much better, I again laid my head back on the couch back, closed my eyes and remembered the day they left for the past.*****

As it turned out, leaving for the past didn’t take place as quickly as many hoped, thanks to Jonathan pointing out all the work they had to do to prepare. He and Christine had to redesign the device so it was smaller, and contained a self-contained power source, they had to get dates and times of every event leading up to the creation of the brokerage house—they also needed a name for that house—they had to go through all of the brokerage house data to get names of all the employees, when they were contacted and/or hired, they had to get names, dates and times of anyone fired after they were hired, they had to get the same for anyone coming in for an interview up and including the year when the event with Mr. Marks didn’t happen. And they had to know why it didn’t happen. It was also imperative they find a location to set up a base that was out of the way of any prying eyes or regular traffic, and off the power grid. This was most important since drawing power from some abandoned place would draw unwanted attention.

The days passed slowly as Jonathan and Christine worked on redesigning the device, while everyone else pored over all the data they had to formulate a timeline of events leading up to the event which didn’t happen. Work on the redesign was completed in about a month and a half, while data sifting took up most of two and a half months. When the data gathers felt they had all the information they needed everyone sat down and went over the events as they occurred to make sure they had all the needed information so another glitch wouldn’t take place. Encountered in their research were listings of old abandoned manufacturing plants on the edge of the city. They’d been for sale for years, and abandoned even longer. They were simply shells of their former selves; they would zero in on one building and port there. If it didn’t look worthwhile, they’d find another. Those helping Jan sift through all the data even came up with a name for the brokerage house, much to Jan’s chagrin, Jan’s Portfolio LLC. That name was rolled around for a few minutes until the backer asked why that name. Looking a bit shy, and embarrassed, one of the data helpers said, “Because that was the actually name of the brokerage house, something we missed the first time we looked through the data.” It took a few minutes for the implications of that name to hit everyone, but hit them it did. Jonathan was the first to say what he could see everyone thinking.

“Are you sure about that name, there couldn’t be an error in the data?” He asked the helper who first spoke the name, and everyone turned to look at the helper.

“Yeah, we’re sure. All of us had a go at double checking the data. We even found a reference to the house in an old business magazine. So yeah, we’re sure.”

Whistles and “oh my god” drifted around the group, as the realization of that name slammed into everyone’s mind like two cars colliding. They had done this before. They had gone back in time before, or a likeness of their group had. And what they tried to do to fix their time line hadn’t worked. With this realization more than fresh in everyone’s mind, Jonathan told everyone to redo their work, recheck everything, not to rush anything. If they had to wait another two months then they’d wait another two months. But they had to get it right this time, or risk getting locked in a loop of an offshoot of the group continuing to try and fix the glitch. And two more months did pass while everything was rechecked, and rechecked again. They left nothing to chance, they were after ending their continually going back to the past to fix that glitch and correct their timeline.

They ported into one of the old abandoned manufacturing plants, with all their equipment, and began inspecting that location. One person did a cautious walk around the building to look for any hidden monitoring devices; one walked the entire interior doing much the same—he also made an assessment of likely visitors based on what trash he found. Jan was left to find the office and see if it would work for their purposes of a base. Thirty minutes later the other two met Jan in the office and reported their findings, this was the perfect to set up their base. So for the next few days they worked setting up their advanced security, making sure the entrances to the plant were next to impossible for just anyone to enter. Obscure cameras were set up to cover everywhere within and outside the plant. Once security was up and running they turned to the other equipment they brought, including the redesigned device. Jan prepared a message, slipped it into a small cylinder, the device was activated and the cylinder thrown into the violet oval, instantly disappearing. A moment later a similar cylinder flew out of the portal and landed on the floor. It was a message letting them know that both portals had synched and their exact location was known. They turned off the device, pulled out a carrier and had dinner; they had a few days to relax before the real work began.

****Chapter 9****

*****I opened my eyes when my nose detected a luscious aroma that could only mean Joanne was cooking. I notice the journal is sitting closed on the couch before getting up and walking into the kitchen. I see something is in the over and see the timer has about ten minutes left before the oven will shut off. Joanne is standing in front of the sink, staring out the kitchen window. She turns her head slightly to let me know she knows I’m there, and leans back into me when I step up behind her and wrap my arms about her waist. I see tears running down one cheek, and understand why she is crying—the rest of this story will let you understand too. I lean my head into her cheek but she turns in my arms, puts her head on my shoulder and starts sobbing. The timer for the oven went off, but I just held Joanne as she cried. Slowly her crying lessened until we were just holding each other. I wiped the tears off my cheeks.

It wasn’t long before Joanne pushed herself away from me so she could look me in the eyes. “You know I love you, right?” She asked me as I reached up and tried to wipe the tears off her cheeks.

“You know I loved you from the first time I saw you, right?” She asked as she reached up and wiped tears from my face.

I do remember the first time I saw Jonathan Mathew walk into Jan’s for his job interview, and how my heart flipped a switch letting me know he was ‘the one’. “Yes love, I know you love me, as I love you, and I knew the first time I saw you that we were meant to be together.”

I hoped this wasn’t going where I thought it was going because I was going to kick one beautiful butt if it was. I was also frightened of where I thought it might be going. I could see the wheels turning in her beautiful head, her trying to find the right words to say. And when she finally found the words she was looking much better, and I felt a huge weight fall off my shoulders.

“Did you want Jon to be with you or me?” She asked me with obvious fear in her eyes.

It took me a moment to realize what Joanne was really asking and why I saw the fear. “Jon was a very handsome man, someone I would have been very happy to be with,” I started, hopefully picking the right words. “But the more I got to know him the more I realized I was in love with his complete package, not just his looks. And his complete package has become even more beautiful. Yes, you changed outside, but not inside, you were beautiful then and even more beautiful now.”

As my finally words left my lips, the fear in Joanne’s eyes disappeared, to be replaced with happy tears. She also decided at that moment to try and find the tonsils I had removed when I was a young girl. It didn’t hurt that I returned the favor. Our tonsil search was interrupted by two growling stomachs, two empty growling stomachs. That caused both of us to break out in a fit of giggles and break our embrace, opting for the contents of the oven. Somehow we both knew we weren’t ready to discuss Jan’s journal, so we ate in silence, staring into each other’s eyes while we ate. As a bit of relief we did the dishes before heading back to the couch, Joanne to the journal and me to my memories.****

We had reached ten years of Jan’s being in business before I explained how most of all this came about (reread the first few chapters if you need to refresh your memory); it was the seventh year of Jon being employed at Jan’s. It was also the year that Jan and her group had been waiting for in the hopes of straightening out their timeline. And it all hinged on Jon. Again, I guess I better explain so you’ll understand.

The group’s plan was basically a simple one. All they had to do was get Jon to give Mr. Marks the hug he didn’t get because of the glitch and he would do what he did before the glitch caused the problem. Clear? As mud, right? In the timeline before the glitch, Joanne would have hugged Mr. Marks when he told her of the tragic news he had received that morning about his daughter. But the glitch caused Jonathan to be born and that hug never took place. And Mr. Marks never helped make the drastic changes in business practices throughout the world. And because of that one event not happening, Jan’s time line was changed. And how were they to get Jon to hug Mr. Marks? With manufactured mud that was developed by Jan.

In all respects it would look like any regular mud, with the mixture of silt, sand, and clay. But this mud would contain nanites, programed to make sure this girl made mud filled every crevice of Jon’s clothes and outer body. They were going to be microscopic earth movers, ensuring Jon was so dirty that he’d need a change of clothes. They were also programmed that once the pile was in motion, thanks to a truck running through the edge of the pile, they would carry a large quantity of the pile in the opposite direction. To any onlookers, it would simply appear that some very rude driver drove through a pile of discarded mud that completely drenched a man standing on the sidewalk. And once the nanites had done their job, they would self-destruct into nothing more that bits and pieces of dirt. But there’s more that needs told.

During the ten years Jan and her crew had been in the city, going home when needed, they had helped themselves to information they needed to know about traffic patterns up and down main street, the time and days City street sweepers roved the streets, including when they left the yard, returned, and break times. Their plan was to “borrow” the spare street sweeper that was kept at the yard, take it back to their base of operations and fill the catch bin with Jan’s mud before dumping it in front of Jan’s—it really was the just add water type mud. They knew the time Jon would reach Jan’s Portfolio on the mandatory meeting Fridays, so they would take the loaded street sweeper to the front of Jan’s and empty the catch bin on the street right in front of the door. They watched Jon enough over the last seven years so they knew exactly how he walked down the sidewalk and approached the door to Jan’s. Because the records they helped themselves to showed traffic lite or next to nothing at 6:30 a.m., they decided to dump the mud at that time. That would then leave them thirty minutes to get the street sweeper back to the yard. Once the sweeper was back in the yard, the driver would add another special mix Jan developed and any “mud” left in the catch bin would simply break down into nothing more than atoms. Thus, if anyone looked into the catch bin of that sweeper they’d find nothing whatsoever. And that’s exactly what they did, not worried another maintenance crew would be along to clean up the mud because those crews didn’t start work until 8 a.m. Now all they had to do was to wait for Jon to make his appearance.

****Chapter 10****

Jon told me a few days after the mandatory Friday meeting that he thought that day was going to be horrible because of four events he experienced while getting dressed on that morning. He thought he had the layout of his bedroom memorized, so didn’t need a night light or other illumination. Extra street lights had yet to be placed along the street Jon lived on, as had happened on other streets, so it was rather dark in the mornings he had to get up early for the meetings—they were placed some time later and lent a bit of light to Jon’s bedroom in the early mornings. Jon slowly made his way towards where he remembered the bathroom door to be, only to find the chest-of-draws with his right foot; he said that after expressing himself concerning that meeting, he’d need to repaint the bedroom walls. Knowing that the bathroom door was to the left of the chest-of-drawers he then had no trouble switching on the bathroom light; blinding himself for a few moments. He did his business at the throne, then shaved and showered, brushed his teeth, and deodorized himself before heading back to his bedroom. He said it must have been reflex, because as he reached the bathroom door he reached up and shut off the bathroom light. And as the light went dark, he took a step with his left foot and found the chest-of-drawers again; he said like the bedroom, he’d likely have to repaint the bathroom walls.

He then was able to slowly make his way to the bedroom door where he then turned on the bedroom light—blinding himself again. The clock showed him running a bit behind so he hurried a bit to get his underwear, tie, and socks from the piece of furniture which assaulted him twice. He had decided on blue today so after opening his closet, took out his navy blue three piece suit, light blue dress shirt, black belt and shoes. After putting on his briefs, undershirt, socks, and dress shirt, he stepped into the suit pants, fastened the bar closure, and started zipping up the pants only to have the tab of the zipper come off in his hand. He tried to push the zipper down, pull it down, but could never get a tight grip on the zipper. It wasn’t until he went down into the kitchen and found a pair of pliers in a drawer that he was able to unzip the pants. Thankfully he had another pair so he wasn’t totally lost. And if that wasn’t enough, he’d just tied his left shoe lace and had started on the right shoe when the lace broke. All he could do was shake his head and go to the beast that attacked him and get a new pair of laces. He finally made it to the kitchen to have a small breakfast before walking the block to the bus stop to catch the 7 a.m. City bus. I guess I need to backup and explain something else here.

Finding a parking space downtown had become a problem for customers, because employees were taking up most, in not all, of the spaces right in front of the businesses. There were vacant lots behind every block downtown, but because parking there was so haphazard it was almost impossible to get out once they parked. Business owners went to the City leaders and complained, and complained, until the leaders finally marked the lots, and issued each business parking passes for each employee they employed. Employees were told by their employers to park in the lots behind the businesses or if they were caught parking on the street they would get a ticket; sounds rather harsh but the leaders had some parking structures designed that had yet to be built, and once built the parking passes would no longer be needed.

Another idea the City leaders came up with, to cut down on the needed parking and traffic congestion, was having City bus routes down the main street of each subdivision. It took six months to send and receive questionnaires asking if the individual who worked downtown would be willing to take City transportation instead of driving into the City. After tabulating the number of people in each subdivision willing to ride a City bus, and when they needed to be at work, the leaders authorized the purchase of new buses so that two buses would run at 7 a.m. and then again at 8:30 a.m.; the routes would be monitored closely and if additional runs were needed they would be scheduled. And since most people got off work at either 5 p.m. or later, the leaders decided the nighttime runs would be shut off at 9 p.m. Now we’re back to Jon who was walking the one block where he would get on one of the two 7 a.m. buses running his route.

Their research paid off over the seven years Jon worked at Jan’s; with Jon’s bus arriving right on time; Jon taking the same time to walk from the bus stop to Jan’s, and Jon reaching the spot he needed to be to receive a full immersion of the mud. They timed how long it would take the truck to reach a spot in front of Jan’s where the mud would be dumped. They also calculated the speed necessary to cause the nanites to pull the mud in the opposite direction. They even tried out the voice which would be used to get Jon’s attention, which it did. And on this Friday, at 7:35 a.m. when the voice captured Jon’s attention, a truck sped through enough of the mud to cause it to fly into the air right at Jon. As if memorized by the sight, Jon watched as the mud flew into the air and a moment later, Jon Mathew looked like a golem; and the nanites went to work. There was not one space on his body which hadn’t been covered by the mud. It got into his ears, his hair was saturated. Reflexes had caused him to close his eyes and he could feel his eyes covered by the thick paste. The worst part was feeling it inside his underwear, even down to his toes. It was as though he took a mud bath before removing all of his clothes.

“Don’t move Jon, keep your eyes closed,” he heard the muffled voice say. He thought the voice belonged to Thomas, but because his ears were full of the mud he couldn’t be sure.

“Keep calm, Jon…Mary go get Jan. Oh, and grab towels and water from the employee’s lounge.” Jon was fairly certain it was Thomas because the voice was closer to him this time.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw what happened to Jon, and watched as Thomas started taking charge to get Jon help and other employees moved out of the way. It didn’t take long for Jan to arrive and Mary’s reappearance, leaden with towels and bottle water. “Jon,” Thomas shouted in one of Jon’s ears, “we’re going to get you head cleaned off. Keep your eyes and mouth closed until we say otherwise, ok?” Jon had very little choice in the matter so he simply nodded his head in understanding.

Mary had been thinking ahead, for she also brought disposal gloves to use so they could keep the mud off their hands. And after about fifteen minutes, using towels and bottled water—cold bottled water which caused Jon to scream without moving his lips—they had his head clear of as much mud as they could.

“Okay, Jon, we have your head as clean as we can, so you can open your eyes,” Thomas told the partially looking golem that was Jon. Slowly, very slowly, Jon opened his eyes. The next thing he did was spit, several times; I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. It really wasn’t funny, to Jon, but it was in a way. During their time cleaning off Jon’s head, Jan had ducked back into the office and when she came back out had a large tarp and several more employees.

Jan walked around so Jon could see her and asked, “Are you okay?” Jan is an enigma. One time she’ll be a fire breathing dragon, the next the most concerned person you’d ever want to see; and this was one of those times. Several years ago Chris came to work looking very upset and actually started crying when she sat down at her desk. Jan saw Chris crying and went to see how she could help. Jan helped Chris out of the desk chair and took her into her office, where Chris must have cried on Jan’s shoulder for about fifteen minutes. A few days later we learned that Chris had received news from her doctor that she had early stage breast cancer, and didn’t have the money or insurance to cover the treatments; Chris was not yet covered by Jan’s full health insurance and Chris’s husband was in the say situation at his job. It was a long time later we found out that Jan had paid for her entire treatment and care out of her own pocket. That’s Jan, an enigma.

“Yes, I’m okay,” Jon told Jan as at the same time looked down at himself. “That stuff has gotten into my underwear and shoes, and it feels horrible.”

“Um…Jon, you can’t go into the office with all that mud on you and your clothes, so we’re going to remove ALL of your clothes.” Jan told Jon as she and the others with her started opening up the tarp.

Jon is brilliant, and sometimes because he’s thinking about five or six things at the same time, it takes him time to process something simple. And when his eyebrows furled I knew what Jan just said registered. You remember Mr. Spock’s eyebrow, think of Jon doing the same thing. “Take off all of my clothes out here, outside in public?” Jon asked Jan as she and the others continued spreading the tarp.

“Yes Jon, out here, in public. But don’t worry. We’re going to use this tarp as a large curtain to help give you, Thomas and Mary some privacy.”

Remember Mr. Spock’s eyebrow, because Jon looked at Mary while he told Jan, “But Mary? She’s a…she.”

It was funny to watch when Mary got an indignant look on her face as she stood almost toe to toe with Jon, looked him square in the eyes, and told him in as roguish of a voice I think I’d ever heard. “Listen here, bucko, I have four younger brothers. I had to help bathe and change ‘em, so you ain’t got nothin’ that I ain’t already seen. So buck up and let’s get you out of them soiled clothes.” The twinkle in Mary’s eyes said she was having fun, and others had to cover their mouths to hide their amusement. But the look on Jon’s face because of the tone of Mary’s voice was priceless.

Jan had the other employees spread the tarp so it formed a curtain around the three, so I couldn’t see what was taking place inside the curtain. But I had the key to a room on the second floor that overlooked that area and made a beeline up there. Once there I opened the window, and stuck my head out; I wanted to hear what was being said as they undressed Jon. And oh did I get an eye full, and it was very nice.

The dragon crept into Jan’s voice when she said, “ALRIGHT, anyone not involved with helping Jon, you have to get ready for our meetings today. If you work elsewhere, aren’t you late for work?” When Jan used that voice it was experience that told everyone who knew her that they did have business elsewhere and should be getting to it. I don’t know how she knew, but she even glanced up at me hanging out of the window and winked at me.

“Pull the tarp tight, so it won’t droop. And keep you backs to those three inside.” Jan told those who were going to hold up the tarp around the three, and used her dragon voice when she did. Oh, this was going to be fun to watch.

“Alright Jon, we’re going to start with your shoes and socks,” Mary told Jon as she and Thomas donned the disposal gloves and snapped open large plastic garbage bags.

“Thomas is going to steady you as you lift first one foot then the other, and I’ll take off first one shoe and sock then the other. Okay?” Mary told this to Jon as Thomas got around behind Jon and Mary knelt down on the sidewalk. It didn’t take the three long before Jon stood barefoot on the sidewalk, and the shoes and socks placed in the plastic garbage bag.

“Now your pants, Jon,” Mary said, looking up at Jon, who had a very pink tinge to his cheeks. Afraid of his voice at the moment, he only nodded yes. His pants proved a bit more daunting to remove because of being thoroughly soaked with the mud; it didn’t help that his legs were also thickly covered. But, down the pants went, and off they came, also being added to the plastic garbage bag. The pink in Jon’s cheeks had deepened a wee bit at this point. Next was his shirt and tie, the tie being the easiest to remove. As with his pants, his shirt was almost glued to his undershirt because of the viscosity of the mud. In the end it took both Mary and Thomas pulling from behind to peel off Jon’s shirt; it too was added to the plastic garbage, which was then tied shut and a new one snapped open.

Mary and Thomas stood back and surveyed Jon, trying to decide how they were going to remove his undershirt. “What do you think?” Thomas asked Mary, as he could only think of one way it had to be done. Mary looked at Thomas and saw he too knew how it would have to be removed, then told Jan, who was standing on the other side of the curtain, “Jan, we need a pair of scissors.”

“Scissors…did you say scissors?” Jon asked for the first time since his mandatory disrobing had begun; he was shaking slightly, whether from the cool air or fear could not be determined. Once again Mary got almost toe to toe with Jon and looked him squarely in the eyes, “Jon, we can’t pull your undershirt over your head because we’d have to clean off your head again. So we’ll have to cut it in several places and take it off that way, and we’ll be very careful Jon. Please, don’t worry.” Mary then reached up and gently wiped the tears off Jon cheeks with a towel.

It wasn’t long before Jan returned, and handed Mary the scissors over the top of the curtain. She turned back to Jon and asked, “Ready?” At this point it was a no win situation in Jon’s mind. He was down to his underwear and needed to get cleaned up so he could meet his clients today. Simply nodding he told Mary, “Please be careful.” She smiled at him and starting cutting the undershirt up the center in the front. After the sleeves were cut it again took both Thomas and Mary to peel the undershirt off Jon. That mud was super sticky.

Jon knew his briefs were next, and tears were flowing freely from his eyes, he was scared. Scared of being naked in from of Mary and scared others might see him. Mary took off the disposal gloves, took a towel and again gently wiped the tears off Jon’s cheeks. She then gently took his cheeks in her hands, looking straight into his eyes, and told Jon it would be alright, there was nothing to be embarrassed or scared, about. Nobody was going to laugh at him, or pass any kind of judgment, but the briefs had to come off so they would wash off the mud. Jon gave Mary a shuddered sigh, nodded yes, and Thomas and Mary worked to remove the final piece of Jon’s clothing. And I had a very nice view of the man I loved in the buff.

As in cleaning off Jon’s head, Thomas and Mary first used the towels, and many more replacement towels, to wipe the mud off Jon. Then they used the bottle water to rinse off as much as possible; thirty bottles were used in all. They then had Jon step back onto a towel that was placed on the sidewalk after they cleaned off the bottoms of his feet. Finally, Jon was clean enough to go inside and take a good shower in the employee’s locker room. So with Jon properly clothed with a towel around his waist, the curtain was dropped and the three made their way to the showers. Thomas and Mary, and Jan had discussed how to help Jon first get as clean as he could while outside. Then Thomas and Mary would go with him to the showers and use brushes to help remove more of the mud before they left Jon to really scrub with lots of soap. They told Jon all this but a slight hiccup developed when Jon told them he didn’t have any soap, or shampoo and conditioner, in his locker. I had returned to the first floor by the time the little group was at the lounge door, just in time to hear what Jon had said. “That’s not a problem,” I told the little group, “I have what you’ll need in my locker.”

As Mary and Thomas took Jon to the men’s shower I got the soap and shampoos and conditional from my locker, setting it on a bench in the men’s locker room. About an hour later Jon came walking out of the men’s locker room with a towel around his waist and looking a lot cleaner. With about an hour to go before our clients started showing up, we had to find Jon some clothes to wear. Thomas asked Jon his measurements, and then headed off to ask if any of the men had any spare clothes that would fit Jon. It wasn’t long before Thomas came back with sad news; none of the men had anything that would fit Jon. They were either to large or too small. There wasn’t time to take Jon home or to a nearby store because there was less than thirty minutes before the meetings started.

Ideas were bounced off the people in the lounge, from Jon going home sick to meeting as he was dressed, just a towel around him. With each suggestion Jan nixed first one then another and they still didn’t have a solution. With much trepidation I said, “I’ve an idea if Jon is willing.” I then went on to say that Jon and I were about the same size, and that maybe my spare clothes would fit him. All eyes turned from me to Jon, who looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Well Jon, what do you think? We don’t have much time and you do need to meet your clients today,” Jan said while giving Jon her best stink eye. More than one person there was nodding their heads and pleading with their eyes, but I think I did the trick when I walked up to Jon, took his hand and told him, “It will be only for one day and no one in this building will think anything less of you.” Jon took a few moments to look from face to face and then looked into my pleading eyes, finally slowly nodding yes. Mary grabbed one arm, I grabbed the other, and we rushed Jon to the women’s locker room to help him get dressed.

With the two of us, we had Jon dressed in about ten minutes; we even fussed with his hair a bit. When we walked back into the lounge, the only thing Jon heard was the applause from those there. They were very proud that Jon would fight his fears in order to help Jan’s clients. And there was an even bigger shock when Jon came out of the lounge and walked towards his desk. Everyone who saw him stood up and applauded; others looked up from what they were doing and joined in when they saw Jon. No one had a single ill word to say about Jon wearing a skirt, blouse, hosiery, low heels, and what they couldn’t see, a pair of panties. He was even wearing a bra so the blouse fit him better; credit Mary for helping him decide the bra was a good idea. He looked very presentable according to Jan’s dress code. It was a good thing too, as it turned 9 a.m. and our first clients started coming in.

****Chapter 11****

*****I opened my eyes when I felt Joanne practically crawl on top of me, she was crying again. I put my arms around her and pulled her tightly to me. I had a feeling she was again lamenting not being born a girl, then being turned into a girl. I rocked her as I held her, talking softly to her, telling her how much I loved her and had from the first day I saw her come into Jan’s. We stayed like that for most of an hour until Joanne had run out of tears and started hiccupping; she’d start hiccupping when she was really emotional, like now. I helped her off the couch and took her into the bathroom to wash off her face and for other necessities. We’d had enough wine so while in the kitchen I poured us both tall glasses of iced tea—Joanne’s with sugar, mine without. Her hiccups had slowed so I knew she was feeling a bit better, and took her back to the couch so we could get on with trying to understand everything Jan had to do. Our teas were on our end tables, Joanne laid her head back on the couch back, as did I and we both closed our eyes in an attempt to come to terms with the fact that Jan was out daughter from the future.*****

According to Jan, it was Mr. Marks who was the key to correcting her timeline, and at 7 p.m. he came into Jan’s for his meeting with Jon. Jan and everybody else held their breath as Mr. Marks walked up to Jon’s desk and sat down on the chair provided. Mr. Marks was well known for his no nonsense business dealings; having ripped off more than one head of an underling who didn’t met his standards. And this time was no exception, as he started right in on Jon.

“What the hell are you dressed like some fairy, Jon? Lose a bet or have you come out of the closet? Boy, you picked the wrong time to be seen prancing around like some, GIRL!”

Each sentence was louder than the next, so loud that even those at the other end of the office heard him. “WELL…” Mr. Marks screamed at Jon. Jon had had to explain his clothes to every client he met with throughout the day. And all had been very understanding, one asking for Jon’s phone number causing him to blush. Mr. Marks’ actions brought Jan out of her office, asking Mr. Marks to come with her. Those nearby watched as Jan basically read the man the riot act until tears started falling from the elder man’s eyes. We couldn’t hear the words from either person, but Jan reached out and hugged the man. Mr. Marks came back to Jon’s desk and apologized for his ill behavior. He went on to explain that he had received a phone call that morning informing him that his only daughter had been killed in an auto accident. It was at that point that the tears fell in earnest from Mr. Marks’ eyes. Jon got up from his chair, went around his desk and hugged the man from behind. Mr. Marks got up out of the chair turned in Jon’s arms, placed his head on Jon’s shoulder and cried in wracking sobs. Jon glanced at those next in line to see him and every one mouthed, “Don’t worry about it, take care of him.” I took a closer look at the people waiting to meet with Jon and it appeared they too had something in their eyes, every last one of them.

Jon held Mr. Marks for fifteen or twenty minutes until Mr. Marks was cried out. Jon then helped Mr. Marks sit back down, offering the tissues and bottled water Jan had put on Jon’s desk. The area around Jon was rather quiet after Mr. Marks’ emotional display, so they were able to hear the next thing Mr. Marks told Jon.

“My daughter was on her way to work, and was halfway there when an oncoming car crossed the center line and hit her car head on. It was later learned the driver of the other car had been texting on his cell phone at the time.” Mr. Marks’ words caught in his throat throughout his telling and tears freely fell as well, but the wracking sobs never came. “Jon, I’d appreciate it if you’d make time to attend her funeral,” Mr. Marks said as he wiped the tears off his cheeks. I could see Jon was taken back by the request, and only replied, “I’d be honored, sir.”

After Mr. Marks had calmed down a bit he looked at the time and saw he had gone over his allotted meeting time with Jon. “Oh, heavens, Jon, my foolishness has caused our meeting to run too long, I’m so sorry.”

Upon hearing Mr. Marks’ declaration Jon looked the man straight in the eye and told him, “Tom, what you did was not foolishness. It was the act of a man who showed how much he loved his only daughter, and how hurt he is at her loss. You have every right to grieve no matter where it happens to be.” A few tears leaked out of Mr. Marks’ eyes at hearing Jon words, and a small smile appeared on his lips. “And Tom, it is Jan’s policy that we do our best for each and every client,” Jon added. Mr. Marks dabbed at what tears had rolled down his cheeks with a tissue, stood up, offered his hand to Jon, then winked when Jon took the offered hand, and told Jon, “You do look quite pretty dressed that way.” Before turning and walking out of Jan’s, Mr. Marks told Jon he’d get the time and place for his daughter’s funeral to him as soon as they were finalized. Every eye near Jon’s desk watched as Mr. Marks walked out of Jan’s Portfolios. Neither Jon nor Mr. Marks knew of the greater admiration and respect they had received from those who witnessed the meeting between Jon and Mr. Marks. Jon because of the way he treated Mr. Marks, and Mr. Marks because he had the courage to express himself in such a different way than had ever been seen. Word would get around about what happened this day at Jan’s, and as I had read in her Journal, it would be only one of the factors that would increase their client base. Two days later Jan received requests for seventy-five applications for new accounts, many telling Jan that Tom said Jan’s would take good care of them and their accounts.

Jon had come around his desk as Mr. Marks got up to leave. After Mr. Marks left, Jon walked over to the slightly red and puffy eyed people who were waiting to meet with him, and asked if they would mind if he took a short break before his next meeting, getting a resounding no from all. They even told Jon they too could use a break before their meetings. I could see something was up with Jon as he walked toward the employees’ lounge, so I followed him. As I walked into the lounge I saw Jon sitting on the couch freely crying. I walked over, sat down next to him, and pulled him close to me to comfort him; he didn’t resist my offer. In fact, he even pulled me as close as I could get to him and continued to cry. I noticed Jan look in on us and just nod her head before leaving—she was likely going to explain to Jon’s next client the reason for the delay. Judging by what I saw on those peoples’ faces, they wouldn’t mind at all.

We hugged for about fifteen minutes until Jon was cried out and his hiccups started. Over the years I had discovered that when Jon was this emotional he always got the hiccups when he stopped crying. And he had them big time this time; Mr. Marks really affected him. “I’m, hic, sorry about this, hic, Mr. Marks really touched me, hic.” He had pushed away from me and was looking me in the eyes as he spoke.

I gave him my best evil stink eye when I told him, “Jonathan Mathew!! You have NOTHING to be sorry about. You did what you did out of love and concern for another hurting person. And don’t you EVER apologize to anyone for being a loving and caring human being.” I had to fight my tongue before I told him it was one of the reasons I loved him. As I’ve said before, Jon is brilliant, but not a real worldly man. The look on him face when I gave him my stink eye was one of shock and bewilderment until I had to cover my mouth to turn my laugh into a giggle. His face relaxed and he broke out into a grin as he finally understood that my attitude towards him was not one of true anger. I think I saw in his face the same as I felt for him but like me, he couldn’t say it.

“Come on, now. Let’s get you cleaned up and back out there, you’ve more meetings to take.” Jon simply nodded and I took him back to the women’s bathroom to help him get his face cleaned. His eyes were still red and puffy, but he did look a bit better. And I bet when he saw his next clients, he’d notice their eyes were also red and puffy.

*****I opened my eyes again, damned bladder.*****

****Chapter 12****

Saturday mornings, after our late Friday meetings, give me the chance to sleep late; I usually did anyway but after those late meetings, it was needed so much more. So I was not a very happy person when my phone started ringing at what the clock showed to be, 7 a.m. in the too damn early in the morning. Someone better be dying or my winning a huge lottery or my apartment on fire, or I was going to ream out the person on the other end.

At 7 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday, out of a deep sleep, my tongue hadn’t regained its full functionality so all I could mumble was, “’ello.”

“S…S…Sa…Sara?”

The way the caller said my name made me instantly come full awake; their tone of voice said they were really scared. I looked at my caller ID and saw it was Jon’s number. “Jon, is this you?” I asked, to make sure this wasn’t some kind of prank.

“Y…y…yee…s,” was all that he could get out.

“Are you alright, is everything okay, Jon?”

“N…n…nooooo!” It was at this point Jon started bawling, a full blown bawl.

“Jon, I’m coming over. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” I told Jon as I slammed the phone down and literally flew out of my bed to get dressed. I must have broken my own record for getting dressed because I was out of my apartment and headed to Jon’s apartment in a cool ten minutes. And my twenty minute drive only took me ten minutes; thank you Saturday and hardly any traffic, and no police on my way to Jon’s. We apartment sat for each other when one of us went on vacation, so I had a key to Jon’s apartment. I didn’t bother knocking but went right in and after slamming the door closed, followed my ears to the sound coming from upstairs. It was crying, not the full blown bawling I heard over the phone, but still the sound of someone in great distress. I took the stairs two at a time and was soon standing in the doorway to Jon’s bedroom.

As I arrived the crying lessened, but didn’t stop; it was more of a whimper now. Standing at the foot of Jon’s bed was the most attractive woman I had ever seen. She had chestnut colored hair that fell well past her shoulders, a face most women would die for with high cheeks and a very cute button nose, and my guess, at least a ‘C’ cup breasts. And she was wearing a robe.

“H…h…hiii…Sara,” the girl hesitantly said to me. I could now see she was starting to shake very badly.

“Jon?” I asked, getting a fast nod from, Jon. “What happened to you?”

It was with that question that the bawling I heard over the phone resumed. “I DON’T KNOW, PLEASE, HELP ME SARA!!” Jon screamed at me as he let the robe fall to the floor.

Jon was not only bawling but seemed to be shaking uncontrollably. I rushed over to him, um, her and pulled him, um, her to me in a very tight hug. He, um, she wrapped her arms around me, laid her head on my shoulder and bawled; because of the pain Jon was expressing I felt sure one or more of his neighbors would soon be knocking on his, um, her door. But none appeared.

After what seemed like an hour, Jon was all played out, and all but collapsed in my arms. “Here, here, let’s get you lying down,” I told him, um, her as I slowly walked him, um, her to his, um, her bed. When he, um, she did lie down it was almost in a fetal position, lying on his, um, her side facing towards me where I sat on the edge of the bed. And his, um, her hiccups started. This was indeed, Jon. I waited a few minutes to make sure he, um, she was calmer then got up to get a cool wash cloth from the bathroom—I knew it would feel good after such a cry; and no, I won’t explain how I know. I sat back down and began to gently wipe Jon’s face, getting a, “Oh, that feels nice,” from Jon. After taking the wash cloth back to the bathroom, and sitting down next to Jon, I reached up and began to gently stroke his, um, her cheek, getting another, “Oh, that feels real nice,” from Jon. As I continued gently stroked Jon’s cheek, I could see his, um, her body visibly relaxing, relaxing to the point that he, um, she rolled onto his, um, her back. I know I see a woman before me, but my mind was still thinking of Jon as a he.

I let my hand gently glide along Jon’s forehead to his other cheek, down under her mouth, back up under her nose, and very gently across first one then the other eye. I even guided my hand down her nose, only to repeat the whole process. As this was happening I swear Jon was purring, just like a cat that enjoys the place that’s being rubbed at that moment. Just to make sure I wasn’t imaging it, I let my hand drop down to her neck, gently stroking it from one side to the other. She WAS purring! I had a sudden thought which I thought was utterly ridiculous but needed testing. And that thought? Jon was being pranked. Someone had drugged him at work and timed it so he’d be home when he felt extremely sleepy, and would be in a deep sleep when they broke into his apartment and applied the things now on his body.

So with that thought in mind I slowly let my hand drop to her breasts, examining first one then the other, all the while hearing sounds from Jon only two lovers might produce in each other. And when I reached the nipple of each breast, and gently rotated each one between my fingers, Jon emitted an almost guttural sound as her body arched, pushing that breast into my hand. It wasn’t long that I realized the breasts on Jon’s chest were real, and my caressing them was getting her very excited. I let my hand drift further down her chest, lingering a bit around her navel. Then slowly, ever so slowly, I let my hand drift down between her legs. As my fingers slid past her clitoris, Jon’s hand suddenly reached down and grabbed my fingers, pulling them back to her clitoris, and pushing them hard down into that area. She then began using my hand to rub her clitoris and the effects on her were simply amazing. The last time I heard those sounds was the night I was on my patio and a cat in my neighbor’s yard was yelling for a mate. I also noticed Jon was extremely wet between her legs. When she relaxed a bit, releasing my hand, I let my hand start gently stroking her labia. It wasn’t long before she took my hand again and guided my fingers in and out of her. She was very wet and my fingers slid in and out of her with ease. She had started a rhythm with my hand that her hips now reciprocated. She raised her hips quickly when my fingers entered, and lowered them when they slid out; and the rhythm was getting faster. It wasn’t long before Jon let out a sound I don’t think I’d ever heard, but was a clear indication that she was climaxing. Her breathing slowed as did the rhythm, and she was again simply lying on the bed. I continued my ministrations a bit longer before going to the bathroom for a warm washcloth.

After cleaning Jon between her legs, I said, “Jon, I’m going to go call Jan. She needs to be told of your change.” I no longer had any doubts that Jon hadn’t been pranked, not with her reactions in the past—hour? Jon didn’t protest, she didn’t start crying, she simply smiled and nodded her head yes. I took the washcloth back then went downstairs so I’d have some privacy when talking to Jan. A sleepy Jan answered the phone, but not one when I told her about Jon and her reactions. She said she’d be there in thirty minutes; I sat down and waited, Jon was quiet upstairs. The banging on the door fifteen minutes later was enough to make me think it was about to be kicked in, so I quickly opened the door to see a very concerned Jan standing there. As she rushed in, I tried to explain what I found when I arrived. After my quick summary, like I had done, Jan took the stairs two at a time. Jon was once again standing at the foot of her bed wearing her robe, looking scared again; I guess it took a few moments for what I said to penetrate the euphoria she had experienced. Like me, Jan saw a woman standing there, with all the same features I first saw. Unlike me, she didn’t say anything before approaching Jon and gently stroking her face. I had moved into the room and off one side to watch. The fear Jon first exhibited started to fade with each stroke of Jan’s hand. Jon didn’t see anger that he feared was coming, but love and concern in Jan’s eyes. And she didn’t flinch when Jan reached down and removed the robe Jon was wearing.

Jan stepped back and began surveying the woman before her. She didn’t say a word as she started running her hands over Jon’s body. As when I started my examination, Jon started purring, and then started reacting as she had for me when Jan’s hand reached her breasts. As Jan explored Jon’s breasts, Jon placed both hands on Jan’s shoulders, presumably for support. Jan let her hands go lower until they were between Jon’s legs, causing Jon to spread her legs wide. As I watched, Jan started with Jon’s clitoris, causing Jon to start moving her hips with Jan’s actions. When Jan started on Jon’s labia I could see Jon was in full erotic mode with sounds to match. Jon then reached down and grabbed one of Jan’s hands and guided the fingers into her as she had done to me. As Jan slid her fingers in and out, Jon reacted with her hips, slamming her hips forward to impale herself hard on Jan’s fingers. Eventually Jan could stop moving her fingers in and out because Jon was being so forceful with her hips that she was literally impaling herself on Jan’s fingers. It wasn’t long before Jon emitted THAT sound as she reached her climax, and slowly allowed her hips to stop. Jan caught her under both arms as Jon started to collapse, guiding her to the bed and laying her down. As I did before, I got a washcloth from the bathroom and gave it to Jan when she reached for it. I watched as Jan gently cleaned Jon between her legs as I had done a short time before.

As it appeared Jon had fallen asleep, Jan motioned me to follow her and we went back downstairs. “Did Jon say anything to you,” Jan asked me once we were in the kitchen, each drinking something cold.

“No, he, um, she was such a mess when I got here that she never said.” I could see that Jan was more than concerned—I found out why much later—and that her mind was racing.

“Well,” she began, “let’s let her sleep awhile then see if she’ll tell us what happened.”

I was about an hour later when we heard the upstairs toilet flush, letting us know Jon was awake. Jan grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and we both went back upstairs. Jon was sitting on her bed and wearing her robe. She looked up as we both came into the bedroom and we could see tears on her cheeks. I sat down beside her and pulled her into me as Jan opened the water and handed it to Jon. Jon accepted the proffered bottle of water and almost drained it in one swallow. It was Jan who asked the question that both of us had wanted to know; Jon’s hiccups were back.

“Jon, can you tell us anything about what happened? How you became a full woman?” Jan asked as she sat on the other side of Jon. We were patient because of what Jon was going through, but it wasn’t long before Jon told us all he knew.

“How I became a woman, hic,” she started, “I haven’t a, hic, clue. I was pretty drained after yesterday’s meetings, hic hic, especially after Mr. Marks. As I was leaving the office, hic, I had that feeling like I was getting a cold, or something else, but just put it down to being very tired?” Jon finished the rest of the water before continuing; her hiccups seemed gone now.

“I got home around 9:30 that evening and had something lite to eat before taking a shower. Because it still felt like I was getting a cold, or something I took a couple of aspirins before going to bed.” Tears had started to fall as Jon told her story, but increased when she said, “And when I awoke this morning I was as you see me now.”

Jan added herself to the hug I had with Jon as she put her arm around Jon’s shoulders and leaned into Jon. We waited a few minutes until Jon had calmed before we started discussing what to do next. Jan said we needed to get Jon a complete physical, which shocked Jon a bit until he, um, she had listened to Jan’s reasons. Jan also said she knew of a doctor who could see them now and was very discreet. Jon then tried to put up a defense using the, “but I don’t have any women’s clothing,” until I reminded him, um, her that she had my clothing from yesterday. “Oh, yeah…,” a sad faced Jon replied.

*****I learned after reading the journal that one of the people who came into the past with Jan was a fully licensed doctor, and it was her Jan was taking us too.*****

It wasn’t long after Jan took us to a rather obscure office building that we had returned to Jon’s apartment. As Jan and I believed, Jon was indeed a full woman, capable of bearing children if she wanted. All through the examination, I got a strange feeling that there was more going on than just the examination. I couldn’t put my finger on it but it seemed that both Jan and the doctor were in a slight panic over what happened to Jon. They hid it well from Jon but the air around the two was excited with real concern.

*****I was right about the excited real concern Jan and the doctor exhibited. Jan had written that the nanites were programmed to only make sure Jon was covered from head to toe, and under his clothes, with the mud that Jan had developed. But somehow their programming had been altered to completely change Jon right down to his DNA into a female, the female she should have been born as when the glitch caused that initial problem. That meant someone in the group had reprogrammed the nanites for this job, someone who wanted to correct the mistake that changed their timeline. And there was only one person with the know how to reprogram the nanites, Christine. It could only be Christine because she developed the little suckers. Jan wrote that she headed out to their base at the abandoned plant and contacted the group back in her time. She told them about the transformation Jon went through, and asked how this would affect their timeline. To say most of the group was upset with Christine would be putting it mildly, but when they checked their charts, they found that nothing significant had been changed. They did tell her, though, that had Jon not changed, she, her sister, and two brothers wouldn’t be part of the group today. They told her they’d explain everything when her job was over.*****

The next problem was obvious. Jon needed clothes, and lots of them. Jon looked dumbfounded when Jan said we needed to go shopping to get Jon appropriate clothes for work on Monday. “You’re not going to fire me because of this,” Jon asked as tears once again filled her eyes—I was getting better with the pronouns in referring to Jon.

Jan gently took Jon’s face in her hand and told her, “Fire you for what? Something that happened to you which you couldn’t control? Jon you are a real asset to the business, NO, I’m not going to fire you. And I see you fear what others are going to say on Monday.” Jon nodded sadly at Jan’s last statement, because that very thing had weighed heavily on her mind.

Still holding Jon’s face gently in her hands, Jan also told Jon, “Jon, whether you know it or not, there isn’t a person at the office that doesn’t care or respect you. Over the seven years you’ve been with Jan’s, you have helped almost everyone in that office, and all of them were very grateful. And after the way you treated Mr. Marks yesterday, the respect for you has gone through the roof. Do you think those people would have responded as they did to the way you were dressed yesterday if they didn’t care and respect you?” Jan let that question hang as we both saw Jon think about it. Her response was a simple shake of her head, no. That concern taken care of there was the concern on Jon’s part about going out in public. Jan, every the pragmatist, ordered Jon to stand up, take off the robe and go stand in front of the mirror on the closet door.

“NOW, tell me what you see, Jon,” Jan ordered Jon, as she stood facing the full length mirror. “WELL?”

We both stood to the side so Jon wouldn’t see us directly while looking into the mirror. She took what seemed like forever to examine her frontal view, then her left side, then her right, then her rear view as best as she could. She physically examined her face, her hair, her breasts, between her legs, her legs, and her butt, before turning to us and saying, “A very beautiful woman.”

Four hours later we were back into Jon’s, oh, excuse me, Joanne’s apartment with more bags of clothing than the three of us could carry in on one trip; each of us made four trips to and from Jan’s car—the name change occurred while we were on our way to shop. And what really shocked both Joanne and me was that Jan paid for everything. Jan and Joanne almost got into a physical fight arguing over who would pay, until they flipped a coin Jan had in her purse; I smelled a rat with that coin, but kept quiet. Back at the apartment Jan also told Joanne not to worry about getting any papers corrected, she’d see to it on Monday. Learning that today was not the day to argue with Jan, Joanne just hugged Jan.

I might add we did have one bit of trouble after we got to the mall. Joanne was a trooper as we walked into the mall, but started becoming nervous when the stares and cat calls started. One particular moronic trio kept walking near us offering lude suggestions aimed at Joanne. Apparently the head knuckle dragging Neanderthal had finally screwed up his courage because as we were about to enter one store, it stepped in front of us, blocking our path. He was so close to us that we could smell last week on him, and could see last year’s dirt. His eyes were riveted on Joanne as he spewed his filth, and when we tried going around him, he blocked our path once again. He must have felt a lot braver because this time he reached up to touch Joanne’s cheek, only to be pushed away by Joanne.

Apparently this bruised his ego, for he once again blocked our path and once again started to reach for Joanne. Now I’ve seen Jan stand up to some pretty big guys at the office, and watched as those same guys walked out with their tails between their legs, so I wasn’t totally shocked when Jan stepped between Joanne and that a-hole and told him in a voice she had never used in the office, “Walk away while you can.” After hearing her say that, even I was ready to walk away.

But the Neanderthal’s ears must have been clogged with dirt because his hand came up to push Jan out of the way. Now, I can’t begin to describe what happened next in great detail, because it happened too fast. But the next thing we heard, and then saw, was a THUD and the moronic spaz lying face down on the concrete mall floor. The THUD must have been when the guys’ entire body hit the floor at the same time. Meaning, his face was not cushioned in any way as it hit the floor. Jan still held the arm that tried to push her aside, but it was now at an elevation and angle which I knew from an anatomy class in college, it wasn’t meant to be in. And it had to hurt. It took a few moments for the jerk to finally come around and when he did he let out a scream in pain; I should think so if my face had slammed down hard on a concrete floor. Of course having my arm in that position wouldn’t help.

When the guy stopped screaming because of the pain, Jan bent down and told the guy, “You were warned to walk away, and I meant it. Now I’ll tell you one more time, LEAVE US ALONE! If you so much as sneeze on us I will continue this demonstration and rip your arm out of its socket, which will tear every muscle in that shoulder.”

I did say the morons’ ears might be clogged with dirt, because he chose that moment to tell Jan about her parents, and Jan took that moment to show her anger at his description of her parents. That guy must be a glutton for pain, because Jan really cranked his arm until the guy was crying for her to stop. It was about then that mall security showed up. The head of the group kindly asked Jan to release the guys arm, explaining they had everything on audio and video, and these three guys had finally stepped over the line; he later told us they’d acted this way with several women in the past, but never tried to touch any of them.

I also forget to mention our house cleaning when we got back to Joanne’s apartment. Everything in her closets and her chest of drawers was removed and bagged for delivery to a thrift store. And the three of us restocked her closets and chest of drawers with all the items we had purchased. We knew all the clothes would fit because Joanne tried them on at each store. But the sleepwear we guessed at based on the measurements she had taken at one of the two lingerie stores where we shopped. Jan wanted to make sure everything fit, so she told Joanne to try one on one of each piece we purchased. Joanne first came out of the bathroom wearing one of the PJ’s, and Jan had to put her hand on my arm to keep me in place. The next time she came out of the bathroom she was wearing one of the short nightgowns, again Jan held me in place. The third time she was wearing a cami and tap pant set and this time Jan grabbed my arm to keep me in place. And the last time Joanne came out of the bathroom she was wearing a baby doll nightie. Jan could not hold me back this time, as I rushed up to Joanne as soon as I saw her in the doorway to the bathroom. From the time I first came over until now, I saw the look on Joanne’s face as she looked at me. And I know how I looked at her every time. I stood back a little from Joanne, afraid of what to do next, but she took that fear away from me as she stepped up to me and kissed me gently on the lips. We must have lost track of time during our kiss, for Jan cleared her throat and we then realized she was still in the room. I bet I wasn’t the only one wet after that kiss.

Sheepishly we both looked at Jan, expecting something fierce to come out of her mouth. Instead, all she said, “WELL, it’s about damn time you two stopped dancing around the subject.” While Joanne and I were still holding each other, Jan walked over and hugged both of us and said she was very happy for us both.

*****Damned bladder, or maybe too much wine. I came back after I found relief to find Joanne leaning back on the back of the couch, eyes open, and just thinking—she had that look. “Penny for your thoughts,” I said to her. She looked at me and just said, “I love you so very much.” How could I pass up an opportunity like that? So I bent down and did my best to look for tonsils I knew she had removed years ago as a child. I sat back down on the couch, took a sip of wine, laid my head back and thought about the following Monday.*****

****Chapter 13****

Jan took us out to dinner that Saturday evening, and it was lovely. I don’t think Joanne and I let go of each other’s hand the entire evening. When we returned to Joanne’s apartment, we set up plans to meet at her apartment the next day so we could help her get used to choosing the right combination of clothes for what occasion. We also planned to teach her about the makeup we purchased, what to wear when and so on. Jan and I flipped a coin, my coin this time, to see who was going to explain to Joanne about her menstrual cycle and how to care for herself; the damn coin ended up on its edge. And all of this was going to happen between Jan taking us out for meals. Jan noted how late it was getting and decided to leave, I took my time leaving. In fact it took me another two hours before I finally went back to my apartment. And I was going to be sore in the morning.

We had agreed to meet at Joanne’s apartment at 9 a.m. so Jan could take us to breakfast before we started teaching Joanne the ways of women’s clothing. At noon we went to a little place Jan knew that served the best burgers she had ever eaten. For supper, Jan took us out for Italian, a favorite of all three of us. The in between times we had done our best introducing Joanne to choosing her clothes, her makeup, her lingerie, and yes, we both talked to her about how to take care of her monthly cycle and care for her body. Because tomorrow, Monday, was going to be her first day at work as a woman, I made it very clear that I would come and help Joanne pick out her clothes, help with her hair and makeup and drive her to work; I wanted to make sure she was safe her first day at work, and become comfortable being around others as a woman before letting her take the bus.

At 6 a.m., the first Monday Joanne would be going to work as a woman, I was leaning on the door bell for Joanne’s apartment, hoping she was already up but glad if the noise woke her. When the door opened I didn’t expect to see Joanne wearing one of her new cami and tap pants sets or holding a cup of coffee. Holding up the cup she asked, “Coffee?” She backed out of the way and I stepped into the apartment, having my hand taken right after Joanne closed the door. She pulled me out into the kitchen where she poured me a cup of coffee. On regular days we have to be at Jan’s at 8:30 a.m. so we had a bit of time for a little girl talk.

I was about to ask Joanne how she sleep, but her lips interrupted my doing so, not that I minded because she was on my thoughts most of the night after our short get together over the weekend. And I was still a bit sore. After Joanne stopped probing for my tonsils, which I had removed when I was a kid, I finally asked her, “How’d you sleep, knowing today was approaching?”

She sat down in one of the chairs at the kitchen table and seemed to think about my question; Jon had always taken time to analyze questions which to us normal people could be answered right off. A few moments she simply said, “Fine.”

“You’re not nervous about showing up at work as a woman? You’re not worried what everyone will say or how they’ll react? Or what our clients will say or do?”

Again, she knitted her brows and thought about what I asked. And again gave me a simple answer, “No, not really.” Either our four hour shopping trip Saturday helped give her the much needed confidence to be out in public as a woman, or how Jan dealt with that spastic moron, or the times Jan took us out to eat, however it happened, Joanne was showing a great deal of confidence for someone who was a man only forty-eight hours ago. And looking into those sky blue eyes I saw she really meant what she said. I couldn’t help myself and took the opportunity to try and find Joanne’s tonsils, tonsils I knew she had removed when she was a kid.

“…mmm, that was nice,” we both said at the same time, while staring into each other’s eyes. “Yes it was,” I said as I took her hand and pulled her up out of the chair. “But come on, we have to get you upstairs and ready for work.” I lead her up to her bedroom only to find she had laid out an outfit that resembled what Jan and I showed her yesterday. Out of the five skirt suits we purchased, she had chosen the cream colored one. She paired it with an open collar, admiral blue, satin blouse. She chose white lingerie and nude hosiery, and the cream colored shoes. She also had jewelry laid out, a very nice dangling necklace which would fall to just above her breasts, stud earrings in a matching color to the blouse, a matching ring and bracelet. Just thinking how she was going to look in this outfit caused me to want her now, but I settled for becoming a bit wet instead.

I looked at Joanne and she seemed a bit nervous, so I asked why. “Um…I was afraid I’d made the wrong choices, that I hadn’t understood what you and Jan told me yesterday.” She actually had tears in her eyes and so I told her, “Honey, you understood perfectly. This is a very good choice of clothing, and accessories.” With those few words she brightened up again, knowing she had made the right choices and that I approved. My reward was another tonsil hunt.

It didn’t take her long to get dressed, then we went into the bathroom and I helped her with her hair. Because this was the first time Joanne would be at work, we kept her makeup light and subdued; Jan did have requirements in the dress code for makeup. Between our tonsil hunts, and me helping to calm Joanne down, now and then, it was now 7:25 a.m., time for us to head off to work; Jan had called everyone over the weekend and asked they be at the office at 8 a.m. on Monday for a special meeting. It would take us about fifteen minutes to drive into work from Joanne’s apartment, and another five or ten minutes to park and walk to the office. Joanne grabbed a matching cream colored purse containing all the necessities a girl would need, I picked up my purse from the kitchen table downstairs, and we headed off to work, Joanne locking the apartment door after us. Today should be very interesting, both for the other employees and for our clients. I only hope I can keep my hands to myself.

As I predicted, we arrived at Jan’s by a quarter to eight. Just after we walked in Jan came flying out of her office with a huge smile on her face. “My oh my, aren’t you a beautiful sight. How do you feel?” Jan asked Joanne as she eyed her from head to toe. How is it that Jan can get instant responses from Joanne, but with me, it takes a bit of thinking? Because Joanne instantly said, “I feel really good, beautiful in fact.” Jan’s smile grew even bigger, as she tightly hugged Joanne. “Why don’t you to head to the conference room, I’ll be in in a minute,” Jan told us and she headed back to her office.

I think I explained that before we opened the office, we had an employee meeting to talk about any problems anyone was having and to try and find answers to any of the problems brought up. It used to be with us just crowding around near the entrance to Jan’s. But since the remodeling we now had a conference room that makes our meetings much more comfortable. As Joanne and I walked into the conference room, I could see we weren’t the only ones there. I knew everyone who worked at Jan’s and could see there were several who had yet to show up for work. I hadn’t told Joanne this, but Jan and I discussed introducing Joanne to the rest of the employees, so we had several front row seats blocked off, and that’s where I took Joanne. As we walked to the front, I could hear the murmurs coming from those already there, with most asking, “who’s the woman with Sara?”

Those missing employees came into the conference room just before Jan walked in. And as we’ve done in the past, it was a very informal meeting. Any problems could be brought up, and anyone could offer a solution; unless of course it was a maintenance problem. A few brought up problems they were having with a few of their clients, explaining in detail the problem. We almost needed a fire extinguisher for Jan when she heard about these problems. She reigned herself in before telling those employees, “Don’t worry, it WILL be taken care of.” The fire extinguisher may be needed for Jan’s office when she met with those particular clients. They would, all of us knew, need plastic surgery on their butts.

Once all of the company business was settled, Jan began talking about what happened to Jon on Friday, with Thomas asking, “Is he alright?” And Jan answering, “Yes, she is alright.” It didn’t take long for everyone listening to understand the pronoun Thomas used and the pronoun Jan used weren’t the same, because Mary asked the question which was buzzing around the room.

“What do you mean SHE’s alright, Jan? Don’t you mean HE’s alright?”

And the room went silent, except for one person who had the misfortune of needing that precise moment to toot their horn. From the giggles in the room, and unamused glares around Roger, everyone heard his sheepish, “Sorry.” After the giggles died, Jan started speaking.

“Many of you saw what happened to Jon last Friday, and because of that, Jon is no longer with us.” It wasn’t hard to hear the crying that started after Jan’s words. It wasn’t hard to see the pain on the faces of almost everyone. And it wasn’t hard to see the confusion appear on everyone’s face with what Jan told them next.

“Please, let me explain.” If someone could have dropped an atom it would have been heard hitting the floor.

For the next few minutes Jan explained, to a silent audience, exactly what happened to Jon on Friday. She explained that before Jon had entered the office he had been completely drenched with mud that was splashed from the street by a passing vehicle. She explained that the mud covered him from the top of his head down to his shoes, even getting under his clothing. There was no choice but to take all the clothing off and try to rinse as much mud off him so they could take him to the employee showers. She explained how a tarp was used to give Thomas, Mary, and Jon privacy so ALL of Jon’s clothes could be removed. She told of Sara coming to the rescue with soap, shampoo and conditioner after Thomas and Mary helped him get more of the mud off in the showers, so he could then scrub himself completely clean. She then told about the clothes Jon had the courage to wear because none of the men were Jon’s size. And she went into great detail about how Jon treated Mr. Marks because of the news he had received about his daughter’s death—I noted more than a few were wiping their eyes after this part of Jan’s talk. And then she got into this past weekend, which elicited several, “Oh my gawd,” several, “That’s not possible,” and a lot of, “My gawd, she’s beautiful.” Oh course she left out our examinations, but when she finished speaking she had Joanne stand and presented her to those in the room. That’s when the questions started, the tests, really, which Joanne answered without pause. Some of those questions were of a personal nature, which I presume the questioner didn’t fear having answered. But when the testing questions ended it was clear to everyone in the room, that the woman standing before them next to Jan had indeed been, Jon Mathew. I saw Thomas stand and start clapping. Then Mary joined him. Then like dominos falling others stood and joined in, until everyone was on their feet clapping, showing their support for Joanne. Showing their respect for a person who they knew was a man seventy-two hours ago, but had the courage to stand before them now as a woman. The meeting ended at that point, with almost everyone coming down and hugging Joanne and telling her how great she looked; almost all told her how much they admired her courage.

I had stood beside Joanne the entire time Jan had presented her to our employees, and now held her hand as the last person left the conference room to get ready for the day. She had done well not giving in to some of the fears she still harbored, and that along with how she looked made me turn to her and try and find her tonsils before we too had to go to our desks. We were so into our search that it took a very loud throat clearing for us to look up and see Jan’s head poking around the conference door. “Um…when you two get finished hunting, we’ve got work to do,” she told us with the biggest smile on her face I’d even seen. A quick peck on the lips and we left the conference room hand in hand, heading to the lounge to freshen up a bit before starting the day.

****Chapter 14****

Jan and I watched Joanne like a pair of hawks the rest of the day, wanting to make sure she was not only okay, but to ensure that none of our clients treated her with disdain. Since I was closer to her desk, I could hear Joanne explain herself when asked, “Where’s Jon,” by her clients. Many were shocked at first but after telling her story, came around her desk and gave her a hug, saying they really admired her courage, and how pretty she is.

Something else happened throughout the day, but with other employees. For some reason everyone had a problem which required either my help or Joanne’s. They either came by our desks or called us over the intercom to come to their desks. As it turned out it was all a ruse, a ploy so they could all tell us basically the same thing, “It’s about time you two stopped dancing around the subject of being in love.” Mary’s was the funniest out of everyone. When she showed up at Joanne’s desk, she handed a folded piece of paper to Joanne and asked if Joanne would be a dear and handle this for her. Then she walked off, whistling—Mary has never been heard whistling--and it caused everyone to follow her as she walked back to her desk. Then everyone who had witnessed Mary’s actions, looked back at Joanne, including me. When Joanne opened the folded piece of paper it read, “About damn time you two showed everyone how much you loved each other. You cost me ten dollars. Love, Mary.”

Joanne got up from her chair and came over to my desk, handing me the piece of paper; there were tears in her eyes. I understood why the tears when I read the note from Mary, for they formed in my eyes too. Still holding the paper, I got up from my chair, took Joanne’s hand, and we walked over to Mary’s desk, where I hugged the woman from one side and Joanne the other. I then reached into the pocket on my skirt and handed her a ten dollar bill, and kissed her on the cheek. As we walked back towards our desks, we saw Jan sitting at her desk, her hands steepled under her chin, watching us with an enormous grin on her face. Then she winked at us, and motioned for us to come see her. She couldn’t stop smiling as she told us, mainly me, that they had their usual after-hours meeting and Joanne was to be there as well. I tried to puzzle out why Jan wanted Joanne at our meeting, but decided to think nothing more about it as I went back to my desk and met with another client.

Joanne’s day went well, for her first day as a woman. None of the clients she met with exploded when they heard her story, and she even received several new clients because of recommendations from Mr. Marks. When we went out to lunch, her confidence at being a woman shined through, getting more than her fair share of looks from both men and jealous women; more than one bus boy dropped the dishes trying to look at “that gorgeous woman.” The rest of the afternoon went well for Joanne and the hours passed until our closing time of 6 p.m. arrived, and time for our after-hours meeting. I know Joanne had to wait on me to take her home, but not why Jan wanted her at our meeting. But it did turn out to be a shocker.

Jan and I went over the books, noting which bills had been paid and making out checks for those bills coming due. We noted changes or additions in accounts posted for the day, and then Jan opened a desk drawer and took out a folder. She opened the folder, took out two pieces of paper and handed each one to Joanne and me. In a matter of moments I had read the paper and likely giving Jan a puzzled, but surprised look, because she was simply smiling. We both looked at Joanne who was still reading the paper, or so we thought. Turned out she had read the paper three times to my one time and was sitting there trying to digest what she had read, because she then told Jan, “I don’t have enough money to become a partner, even a silent partner.” So that was it, Jan hadn’t told me she wanted to make Joanne another silent partner because she wanted to surprise us both.

“Joanne, you have been worth more than money these past seven years, especially how you treated Mr. Marks on Friday. Did you know because of your actions, he recommended us to other, others who took him at his word and opened new accounts with us, making it necessary for us to hire more employees? Joanne, it’s you I want, you and your talents need to be rewarded for all the work you’ve done, for the way you’ve treated everyone you’ve come into contact with, for the person you are inside. What do you say? Do we sign the papers tonight, or do you want to think about it for a day or two?”

Jan and I had seen Jon for seven years go through a thought process that at times, was quite comical. But if it was an important decision, he, now she, would mentally weigh the pros and cons before giving an answer. And sometime she did it all in a matter of minutes. And a matter of minutes it was this time too, for all she said was, “Yes!”

Jan must have known, (I found out later that she did), Joanne would say yes, because she took out several more sheets of paper from the folder and had Joanne and I read and sign them. After the last signature, Joanne was officially a partner of Jan’s Portfolios LLC. A silent partner, but both our partners nonetheless.

I don’t think Joanne noticed I was taking the long way back to her apartment after we had eaten, because she seemed deep in thought. There was something I wanted to ask her, something I began thinking about Saturday after we returned from shopping. But I was afraid, afraid it was too soon, afraid she’d say no, afraid I’d lose the person I was deeply in love with. I pulled over into a parking lot, put the gear into park and shut off the engine. This got Joanne’s attention and a question. “Why are we stopping here, are we shopping for something?”

I was looking down at my hands as I tried to ramp up my courage to ask her one of the first I wanted to ask her. “Uh Joanne, I’ve wanted to ask you a question ever since Saturday. I’ve been wondering if maybe we could…”

“Move in together?” Joanne had a smirk on her lips as she finished my question for me. “Yeah, I’ve wanted to ask you that same question. And I have a place in mind if you’d like to see it before taking me home.” Again with the smirk, but accompanied by a twinkle in her eye. As I sat there looking at her, thinking, she held up a set of what looked like house keys. She jingled the keys in the air and told me, “I’ve got the keys.”

I could NOT resist the smile that was displayed when she jingled those keys in the air. I reach over, pulled her close and did a little lite hunting for tonsils. I started the engine and following Joanne’s direction until we pulled into the driveway of an attractive house, a rather big house, with a monster front door. I turned to look at Joanne and saw the biggest smile on her face and she was nodding her head a mile a minute.

“You can’t be serious, this place is huge,” I told her as I looked at the front from one side to the other. “Why would we ever need a place this big?” I ask before the reason finally hit me. I banged my head on the steering wheel a few times and Joanne just laughed.

Joanne jingled the keys again, this time right in front of my face. I simply shook my head and agreed to give the house a tour. The house sat on about an acre of land, it was a two story with five bedrooms upstairs and an en suite for each. The master bedroom was in the Southeast corner on the first floor, so it caught the early morning sun. The master bedroom en suite rivaled the lounge at the office, with a very large shower and whirlpool tub. And the walk-in closet was as big as the whole downstairs in my apartment—I could see shopping days ahead. There was a room on the first floor I believed would be an office with the right furnishings. The kitchen was huge, with a large island and all stainless appliances, a real chef’s delight. The kitchen, living room, and dining room all had an exposed beam ceiling. There was a full finished basement, a laundry room that could easily fit three washers and dryers, and the finish on all the cabinets throughout the house had a richness that bordered on quaint. It was the perfect place for Joanne and me and however many kids we had—four if we used one of the five bedrooms as a guest room. Did I mention the garage was large enough to house six cars, two rows of three? It was perfect.

Since my vixen had done this behind my back I decided a bit of a payback was in order, so as we walked about the house I kept nitpicking at this or that. Making noises about not liking this or that, or the color of this wall or that wall. And after a while I could see her hopes were starting to falter, so I turned around and hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear, “It’s perfect. Let’s do it.” It took a second for her to realize what I said, and when she did she pushed me back and hit me hard in the arm saying, “YOU snot!” I started giggling until I felt her lips on mine and then an “I love you so much” whispered in my ear as she held me tight. We closed on that house that very day; cash of course, for every payment. Joanne even made phone calls to all of the utilities and received schedules for each one, as we drove back to her apartment from the realtor’s office. It would be a few days until we moved in, since we had a lot of shopping to do and would wait for all the utilities to be turned on, but we could wait.

Joanne had surprised me so I felt it only fair that I surprise her. Jan and I had developed a signal system, of sorts, so we could signal each other if there might be trouble or if we needed to speak with each other. So one day I gave Jan our “I need to speak with you” signal and she buzzed my phone. I made sure those around me knew Jan wanted to talk with me, and after closing her office door, laid out the plans I had to surprise Joanne with a proposal of marriage during our one of our morning meetings. I told her I wanted to use the screen to display my proposal, and if she couldn’t come up with a presentation that was needed for our employees, then slip my proposal at the end. Having known Joanne as long as I have I knew she would sort of zone out when the screen was used because she was processing what she was seeing. So I knew it would take her a moment or two before my proposal at the end of Jan’s presentation would register. Everyone else would see it right away, and react, but Joanne would take a moment longer.

We set my plan up for a Monday morning meeting, I had already shopped for and purchased a very beautiful wedding ring set, the engagement ring I would give Joanne after verbally asking her to marry me. Joanne and I had spent the entire weekend together at my apartment, but I was a mess that Sunday before I planned to ask her the following morning at the office. She kept asking me what was troubling me and I kept making up something about the office. It was getting late so we decided to go to bed, but didn’t fall asleep right away.

Afterwards I still didn’t fall asleep right away because I was worried about tomorrow and if Joanne would accept my proposal. I must have fallen asleep about the time we had to wake up because when the alarm went off, it was 6 a.m. I shut off the alarm then rolled over and gently woke Joanne, and received a nice first of the morning kiss. After getting up I went to the kitchen to get the coffee going and Joanne went to the bathroom for her morning ritual. Then we switched and it was my turn in the bathroom and her turn in the kitchen. After a light breakfast, which I was having trouble keeping down, we dressed and left for the office; I made damn sure the engagement ring was in my purse.

I felt like one of those fathers whose wife is in the delivery room and the only thing he could do was pace the waiting room floor, or a cat trying to figure out how to catch the mouse that ran under the turned over flower pot. Jan told me several times after we arrived to calm down, because everything is going to be fine; I almost got to see what I just ate for breakfast. I should have figured something was up because Jan keep smiling and glancing at first me then Joanne. And it was!

I don’t remember what Jan presented on the screen because I got a shock as much as I shocked Joanne. As I discussed with Jan, my slides came up asking Joanne to marry me, and everyone reacted just as I predicted; and so did Joanne. And she said yes right in front of everyone, with tears rolling down her check. “Oh but we weren’t finished,” Jan said after I slipped the engagement ring on Joanne’s finger, because additional slides displayed various pictures of me over the years. And wouldn’t you know it, the very last one was Joanne proposing to ME? I should have figured out something was up when no one left the conference room after I proposed to Joanne, and they all were sitting there with shit eating grins on their faces. Joanne held out the engagement ring to me and the only thing I could do was blubber, yes, letting her put the ring on my finger; we also did a tonsil search right there in front of everyone. I then pushed her back and hit her on the arm as hard as I could and said, “YOU SNOT!!” and kissed her again. The cheers were deafening from that many people in that size room, and I noticed more than one person dabbing their eyes. Unlike our presenting Joanne that Monday morning, everyone came by before going to their desks to congratulated the both of us, and wished us all the happiness in the world.

For the next few months we traded off staying at my apartment or Joanne’s while we took our time and furnished our new home. Most weekends were spent shopping for the house, with most evenings arranging those things which had been delivered. Fate must have been working with us because the lease on my apartment was up for renewal the same time as Joanne’s, and because we were almost finished finding the right place for everything we purchased for our new house, we both told the apartment managers we would be moving out the day the leases were up. From the tidbits we let slip at the office everyone sniffed out our plans, because on the day I was to move out there were more than enough people and vehicles to help me remove my things from the apartment—it was decided to take all of the furniture to the consignment store. And the process was repeated a few days later when it was time for Joanne to move out of her apartment—we did the same with all her furniture. Even though we purchased everything new for our house, we each did have some nice kitchen items we thought would go nice in our new kitchen, so those we kept. And both time our caravan arrived at our new house, a few neighbors would come out and watch an enthusiastic bunch of lunatics almost form a conga line and pass the small stuff from one to the other before it was taken down to the basement. Some of the neighbors actually came over and joined in the fun, and it was fun and a tear jerker watching all those people help Joanne and I move into our new home. After the last of Joanne’s thing had been taken into our new home, I announced that everyone was staying for dinner, something Joanne and I had discussed in advance. It wasn’t but ten minutes after we finished moving Joanne into the house that the Italian we ordered was being delivered. It turned out to be a delightful evening.

****Chapter 15****

To say we were happy would be an understatement. The old new Joanne had lost her self-doubt and was now a very confident woman. Thanks to Mr. Marks we had so many people asking for applications to become our clients that Jan had to hire more than we first predicted. And thanks to Mr. Marks, or maybe the way Jon treated him, the third and fourth floors were now being remodeled. Jan, Joanne and I had sat down one evening and discussed when we should marry; Jan’s counsel was important to both of us. For some reason Jan kept leading us to a late spring wedding, instead of a summer wedding. Something was up with her but I couldn’t tell what. So after getting redirected to a late spring wedding by Jan throughout our get together, Joanne and I decided to schedule our wedding for late this coming spring—Jan explained how long it would take to choose dresses for us and our bridesmaids, or have them made, and to find a venue large enough for all she was going to invite. Wait, Jan was going to invite?? There was a twinkle in her eyes when she said that. Joanne and I should have expected the very last thing Jan told us that evening. She was going to pay for everything, all of the dresses, and tuxes if needed, the venue, catering, everything! We were gallant, we tried to talk her out of paying for everything, we did our best to try and pull that mule along but it dug in its feet and wouldn’t budge. SHE…WAS…GOING…TO…PAY…FOR…EVERYTHING, period!!

I’d like to say everything was happiness and alright right up until our wedding, but I can’t. A few weeks after we had moved into our house, Joanne received a letter giving the time and place of the funeral for Mr. Marks’ daughter. There was also a handwritten note explaining that due to the criminal charges being brought against the other driver, his daughter’s body couldn’t have been released right away, and it had taken until now before they could finally lay his daughter to rest. I saw tears actually falling from Joanne’s eyes as she read the note, and understood why as she handed it to me.

As we arrived at the cemetery a gentleman was stopping cars and asking for our names; they were checked off on a sheet he held. When we told him ours, he had a younger man guide us to a parking place and then we were lead to seats in the front row. I was keeping a close eye on Joanne to make sure she was alright and didn’t notice a man stop in front of us. We both looked up at the same time and saw Mr. Marks standing before us. He took one of my hands in one of his and one of Joanne’s hands in his other before telling us, “I’m so glad you two could come, it means so much to me.” He then focused on Joanne and told her, “I heard what happened to you, and I must say, you are a very beautiful woman.” He then quickly asked us to wait for him after the funeral, he had a favor to ask. I’m glad I reminded Joanne to make sure she had tissues in her purse, because I forgot to put any in mine. It was a very lovely service, with at least two hundred in attendance. And after the services were over, we waited by Joanne’s car for Mr. Marks. It wasn’t long before a young man came up to us and asked for us to come with him. He took us back to the grave site to where Mr. Marks was sitting, having me sit on his left and Joanne on his right.

“Girls, Joanne, I can’t thank you enough for what you did on that Friday a while back. I was an old fool to get angry with you simply because you happened to be there.”

“Mr. Marks, Tom, I told you then and I’ll tell you again, you weren’t an old fool, and still aren’t. You were grieving for the loss of your daughter, and you needed someone to help you grieve. You may have a gruff exterior, Tom, but you have a heart of gold and need to let more people see it.” Joanne then leaned over and kissed Mr. Marks, Tom, on the cheek. She also reached over and wiped tears off his cheeks.

“Thank you for those kind words, Joanne. But, girls, I have a favor to ask before you two leave,” Tom told us and his disposition seemed too brightened. “A little birdie told me you two are getting married late next spring.” I leaned forward to look at Joanne at the same time she leaned forward to look at me. We had not announced to the world, yet, when we were getting married. So there could be only one way Tom heard the news, Jan. I’ll bet she had that insufferable great smile on her face about now.

“Girls, you’ve both done so much for me, for my daughter, I’d be honored if you both would allow this old fool to walk you down the aisle at your wedding. I know you both have lost your parents, so I’d like to step in and be the father who would have walked each of you in.” I heard someone besides me sob, then say, “oh my gawd.” I’m not sure which of us starting hugging Tom in earnest first, but he ended up with both of us crushing him for each side. Joanne quickly looked at me, tears ruining her makeup, and after seeing my slight nod told Tom, “We’d be honored, Tom.” The three of us had our own hug fest and when Joanne and I pointed out the makeup we both deposited on his suit, he kissed each of us on the cheek and said, “It was okay if his adopted daughters got makeup on his suit. Their hugs were worth the dry cleaning bill.”

As is always reported, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Jan’s gained more clients as the days passed and more employees as well. Thankfully after six months the fourth floor remodeling was complete and all furnishings placed. An area on the second floor had been set aside because when the second floor was remodeled the thought of “in case” was discussed to have lounges on each floor. And now that we were making room on the fourth floor for more employees, Jan decided it was time to have that area on the second floor made into a lounge. The locker room and showers would still be on the first floor, but a lounge on each floor made it easier on the employees on those floors.

During our after-hours meeting, the three of us saw a need to have a floor manager for the three upper floors. So we threw out names and discussed whether they were suited to be such a person, with Jan having them come to her office the next day to discuss the position with them. Many of the names we’d discussed turned down the additional responsibilities sighting bad past experiences for their refusal, plus not wanting to have such responsibilities. We were left with three names, Thomas, Mary, and Chris. And when Jan spoke with those three, all three accepted the offer, also gaining a raise in pay. Mary was already on the second floor so it felt best to leave her there; she got along famously with those on the second floor. Jan, Joanne, and I couldn’t decide which floor to assign to Thomas and Chris, so they were called into Jan’s office and had the situation explained to them. Both made it even more maddening because both didn’t mind which floor they were on. When an outright decision couldn’t be made, Jan decided the flip of a coin would settle the problem, with “heads” getting the third floor; Thomas often joked about getting nose bleeds. Because of the number of employees that were now employed at Jan’s, the auditorium was the only place large enough to hold our company morning meetings. And it was at the next day meeting that Jan announced the opening of the third and fourth floors, and the decision to have floor managers on each of the upper floors. They weren’t going to have a special office, just their desks as everyone had now. They weren’t going to have a title change, just be there if any problems arose that didn’t need Jan’s attention. Major problems would be relayed to Jan as always, either through the floor manager or Jan directly if the floor manager was busy or gone for the day. When the people were announced who would be on what floor, you’d thought we were having a party at that moment. And as the days passed, our idea of floor managers worked well, with only a few calls to Jan and a few new clients told, “Don’t come back!!”

*****I opened my eyes again, a wonderful smell the cause, only to find Joanne in the kitchen cooking. One look told me she was doing this to help her come to grips with something that was bothering her. If nothing was bothering her we both would be in the kitchen fixing whatever meal for whatever time of day. I watched her work, seeing what she was doing told me show was about to break down over the thing bothering her. I hurried into the kitchen, took her in my arms, and let her cry on my shoulder. “Your birth and change,” I asked her and she just nodded. This was the third or fourth time those two events had upset her, but I couldn’t do anything to help her but to offer myself when needed; I’d do almost anything for this lovely woman. I set the table, Joanne finished fixing our meal, and we ate in silence, Joanne mulling over what she read in Jan’s Journal. By her expression at the end of our meal it looked like she was feeling better, or had come to some decision—her expressions were sometimes the same for both. We cleared the table, did the dishes and went back to the couch. Joanne cuddled up to me as I again laid my head back to remember.*****

****Chapter 16****

Several times when Jan interviewed a prospective employee, and I was listening in using the ear bud, she’d come out of her office to get my opinion. And several times when I thought the person was right for us, Jan would point out why they weren’t. It took me a few interviews, and Jan’s guidance, to finally understand how Jan was determining out which person was right for us and who wasn’t. Her interview started when the person walked through the doors of Jan’s, not when they entered her office. She watched how they interacted with our receptionist, Cindy, and those waiting to see their analysts. She watched what they did when asked to “have a seat, it will be just a minute,” and how they acted as they waited. She also watched as they walked towards her office to see what kind of an attitude they had, and also how they were dressed. Jan said anyone could have impeccable credentials, but not everyone had the attitude she wanted for Jan’s.

One day, there were three who came in to interview for two positions on our staff. All three were dressed for business, so that gained them points. But one was clearly not who we were looking for because of his arrogant attitude toward Cindy and how it continued as he waited. He even got up and asked Cindy if it would be much longer. Then he got up and started pacing, again asking Cindy the same question. And when he finally was called into Jan’s office, you’d think God himself had asked the guy to come to Jan’s. Oh he had great credentials, and they out shined his attitude which really broke down when Jan told him he wasn’t the person she was looking for. Jayce, our security guard, actually had to escort him out of the building; we’d need to repaint some of the walls.

Interviewees two and three were keepers. The second guy who came in had Cindy in stitches as he introduced himself. I understood why as I switched channels on the ear bug, having to catch myself as the guy talked. And by the time he was called back for his interview, you would think that everyone waiting was his best friend and he theirs. And the smile he had on his face as he walked to Jan’s office was as genuine as they come. His credentials were great, as was his entire interview, what with the humble confidence he exuded. I gave Jan two thumbs up for this guy.

The last to interview was a woman in her mid-forties, extremely well dressed and projecting warmth towards all she interacted with; she was very cordial with Cindy, as she introduced herself. And as the last gentleman, she was cordial with those she sat with as she waited for her interview. But there was something about her, something that cast a shadow on her, a shadow of sadness and worry. It was well hidden but there all the same. And the more I studied her the more I felt she was worried about getting a much needed job, which proved true during her interview with Jan.

As Cindy sent her back to Jan’s office, I watched as she came to and passed my desk. She had a confidence that was neither arrogant nor demeaning, simply a reassurance in her abilities to do her job to the best of her abilities. I casually gave Jan my approval signal, as the woman reached Jan’s office door. She knocked, rather useless with an office having glass walls, waited until Jan motioned her to enter, entered and sat down on the offered chair. Jan took a few moments going over the woman’s qualifications and experiences. Her name was Julie Thompson, forty-five-years-old, divorced, with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a thirteen-year-old son. She had been running her own brokerage firm out of her house for the past five years, quite successfully if what Jan had heard was correct. As Jan covered this portion of the interview, Julie’s eyes teared, until her eyes could no longer contain them and they rolled down her cheeks. Jan immediately left her desk chair and came around to sit in the chair next to Julie. Jan leaned forward and pulled Julie to her, letting the woman cry on her shoulder. Jan silently signaled me and I went to the lounge for bottled water and something light to eat, taking the items to Jan’s office. When I returned, Julie looked a little better, makeup a mess though, but dabbing her eyes with the tissues Jan always kept in her office. I quietly enter the office and left the items on Jan’s desk before returning to my desk. Ever the very concerned parent, Jan helped Julie out of her chair, and guided her to the lounge to freshen up, all the while keeping an arm around Julie’s waist. Those who saw the two ladies heading towards the lounge thought nothing of Julie’s appearance or Jan having her arm around the woman’s waist, because they’d seen the same scene many times over the past years, causing them to be more enamored with Jan due to her compassion for others. It wasn’t long before Jan and Julie returned to Jan’s office, Julie looking more relaxed and her makeup repaired. Jan offer the bottled water on her desk to Julie, which she graciously took. Then as I listened I heard a story that made me want to get a knife and go gonad hunting.

“How are you feeling, Julie?” Jan asked Julie, as Julie took a deep draft of the bottled water.

“A bit better…thank you. I guess you’d like to know why all the tears,” Julie said to Jan as she dabbed at first one eye then the other with another tissue.

“I would like to know but only if you’re willing to tell me. I may not be able to change what happened, but I do listen quite well.” Jan watched as Julie mulled over Jan’s offer, seeing her come to a decision, listened as Julie told her story.

“Bill and I, Bill is my EX- curse him,” Julie said with more venom than the most venomous snake carried with it, “were married twenty-five years ago. We were so in love at first. Then after finishing my degrees and getting my licenses, I started my business out of our home. The overhead was less and I really didn’t have the kind of money to start any place else, plus I was my own boss with the freedom that went with it.” Julie paused and drank again from the bottled water, showing Jan a look that Jan took for organizing her thoughts.

“Bill had his job and for a while was happy for me, seeing my client base go from a couple of friends to thirty before it hit the fan. It started slow, innocently enough, but as time went by I started noticing more and more withdrawals from my business account. I contacted the bank and was told my husband had said he had your authorization for the withdrawals. That night when Bill came home from work, he saw how angry I was and made the mistake of asking why.” Jan noticed Julie was gripping the arms of the chair very tightly at this part of her story, reaching over and taking one of Julie’s hands in hers. Julie smiled at this gesture, reached over with her other hand and patted Jan’s hand, relaxing as she did so.

“When I questioned him about accessing my business account, he came up with one lame reason after the next, claiming it was needed to catch up on this or that bill that he’d fallen behind with. I tried to remain angrily calm as I told him in no uncertain terms that he is not to touch that account ever again. But I should have known better as he sweetly reassured me it wouldn’t happen again. He so sweetly assured me, once again, why I fell in love with him. Nine months later our daughter, Terry, was born. The year following, after catching him again accessing my account, and he sweetly apologizing, Mark was born nine months after that sweet talk. It was tough juggling two kids and my business, but being home made it much easier.” As Jan watched, she could see the anger creeping back into Julie’s face, anger which wasn’t attractive on her. Jan sat quietly as she watched Julie work to calm herself before she continued with her story.

“One day as I’m feeding Mark my bank calls, asking me if I wanted to reopen my account. I couldn’t imagine what they were talking about because, even after Bill’s crap, there was close to a million and a half dollars in that account after five years of hard work. I explained this to the woman who called, and she told me that my husband had come in and withdrew everything from the account, giving the bank some lame excuse as to why. I told her I’d be down shortly, and got the kids ready and drove down to my bank. A very helpful teller looked after the kids for me as I talked with the bank manager, showing her my books and watching as she looked at the paperwork for my account. She had all the withdrawals Bill had made and even my notification that no withdrawals were to be made unless it was by my verbal authorization. But somehow, someone messed up and didn’t check for withdrawal authorization because as she showed me, Bill had completely withdrawn the one point five million dollars that had been in my business account. Upon seeing this, and my reaction, the bank manager first called her manager then the police. She then called in the teller who had made the transaction.”

Jan watched as Julie broke down again, again hugging the other woman close and letting her cry. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks and thought it best to take my break while Julie took her break. Cindy saw my state and followed me into the lounge, consoling me as I took cried wracking sobs. I had no sooner got back to my desk after Cindy helped me “fix my war paint,” as she called it, then Julie and Jan again made their way to the lounge. As I watched I could see a lot of concerned looks on the faces of those who watched the two ladies walk to and into the lounge; the concern was still there as the ladies returned to Jan’s office. As I listened, Julie continued her story.

“The bank manager starting questioning the teller about the withdrawal she had handled, wanting to know if she had followed all bank procedures. The teller swore she had, and because the bank had run into scams before, even followed the bank’s recently enacted procedure of recording all phone conversations for such large withdrawals. The recordings were stored on the bank’s servers, so the manager had no trouble accessing the recording. As she played back the recording I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There on the tape was a woman, not me, giving the teller the correct passphrases and passwords to my business account, giving the same lame excuse to withdraw the one point five million dollars. Somehow Bill had learned of my passphrases and passwords, so the teller hadn’t made a mistake and had followed procedures but still had been duped. At first I was heartbroken, then raging mad at what Bill had done; and I wanted his head on a pike with his balls hanging out of his mouth.”

“It wasn’t long after we heard the recording that a detective arrived along with the main branch’s manager. Everything was explained to the two and we again listened to the recording, showing again that the teller who handled the withdrawal was not involved. After a few questions, the teller was allowed to return to her window, but my anger was still in its lava state. The detective asked a few more questions, mainly about Bill, where he might go, was he seeing anyone, and so on in order to try and track him down. He asked if I had a picture of Bill with me so he could send it in to enable his squad to know who they were looking for. It didn’t help my anger when I found the one I carried, for I almost ripped it up before I gave it to the detective. He asked to use the bank’s fax machine then put in a call to his office, letting them know about the picture they would be receiving and the details of the crime. He told me it might take some time to track down Bill, but they would eventually find him.”

Julie took a break at that moment, drinking the rest of her water, and asking Jan if she might have more. No sooner had she made the request then Susie knocked on Jan’s door and entered with a small cooler full of bottled water; she’d been watching the proceedings as well. Thanking Susie, Jan handed Julie another bottle of water only to watch as Julie almost drained that bottle. I saw Julie take several deep breaths and continued with her story.

“When the detective was at the bank, he told us that Bill would likely try and flee the country, going somewhere that didn’t have an extradition treaty with the US. Well, I knew Bill better than that, something like that would never cross his mind because he hated anything that wasn’t American. And I was proven right only two days later. Two days later, Bill was caught trying to open a new account at a bank three States west of us. I didn’t learn until later that as the main branch manager had sent the notice to all the other banks in the city, it had also been sent to the surrounding States. Those States in turn sent it to other surrounding States and no sooner had the next surrounding States received the notice, in walks Bill to open an account. His head was going to look good on that pike with his balls hanging out of his mouth.”

“It took a few more days for the States Attorney General to okay Bill’s extradition back to our State, and a few more days before he was brought up on embezzlement charges. It may have been his first time breaking the law that they knew of, but with the amount he embezzled, he was going away for several years. It took several more months before my money was returned, but what I had in my personal account was sufficient to help carry my business during that time. While Bill was running I had gone down to our lawyer and asked for the name of a good divorce lawyer, that bastard was going to be my ex as soon as possible. Bill had a double whammy when he was returned to our State because a process server served him with divorce papers while he was being booked into the City jail. His first phone call was to me, trying to apologize for what he had done, hoping I’d forgive him and we could get back together. My divorce lawyer told me should he contact me for me to keep a lid on my anger and be firm in my speaking with Bill. Oh but it was hard not to rip him a new one, but I did as my lawyer told me and told Bill to sign the papers because he was going to jail and not be married to me when he did. Try as he might, he finally realized he had lost and shortly after the door to his cell clanged shut, he signed the divorce papers, making me a free woman again. I was eventually summoned to appear in court during Bill’s trial. There wasn’t much I could testify to because Bill’s actions had come as a complete surprise to me. The trial lasted two days, with Bill being found guilty and sentenced to prison. Oh, and I found out during the trial that all the times Bill said he was working, he’d really been seeing a twat he met at work. Oh, and I also found out that he’d been fired six months before he made off with my money. When I was asked if I had anything to say before the Judge set Bill’s sentence, instead of telling her I thought Bill’s head would look good on a pike with his balls in his mouth, I simply told her to give him the maximum sentence the law allowed. And she did, much to Bill’s dismay.”

“After a while, I realized I no longer enjoyed the business I had, thanks in part to what Bill did, but in part because it was no longer a challenge. So when I saw the ad in the paper that you were hiring, I decided this might be the challenge I was looking for. And here I am, interviewing for the open position. I did tell my clients what I had in mind, and if I got the job I would recommend transferring their accounts to Jan’s. I also told them if the job fell through I’d still be their agent operating from my home.”

As I listened to the last of Julie’s story, not only was I giving Jan two thumbs up but vigorously nodding my head. Julie was just the type of person we wanted to add to our staff, and would openly welcome her clients into our client pool; letting her continue to be their agent.

****Chapter 17****

As goes the world, so do the days, and days, and then weeks. Soon the holiday season was bearing down on everyone, first Thanksgiving then Christmas. Those who had been with Jan’s for some time knew the kind of holidays she gave us during this time of year. Our very first Thanksgiving at Jan’s was like a big family dinner with all the fixins; there were only twelve of us that first year. But as the years passed, the family had gotten so big that Jan had to rent a venue which could accommodate such a growing family. And I do mean family, because all immediate family members of our employees were also invited to our dinners. And when Christmas came around, I don’t know how she did it, but every employee, every child of an employee, and every spouse/partner/girlfriend/boyfriend went away from those parties with the best gifts Santa had made. And at each event there was never, NEVER, a hint of falseness from Jan. She really enjoyed these events and seeing everyone happy.

It was also during this time that Joanne and I sat down with Jan and tried to discuss our wedding plans. Oh Jan was polite and listened to us tell her we needed to find a church/venue, that we needed to look for our wedding dresses and dresses for our bridesmaids and tuxes for the guys we’d have standing up for us. Oh she was polite alright, but had that insufferable smile which we knew meant she had things well in hand and she wasn’t going to tell us a thing. All we ever got out of her each time we approached the subject was, “don’t worry, everything will be okay.” And every time Jan said that Joanne and I wanted to bang our heads against the wall, because time was slipping away.

Joanne and I had decided a few of the people we wanted to stand up with us at our wedding, Mary and Thomas for Joanne, and Chris and Julie for me. When we told Jan our choices, she suggested one more person for each of us then gave us that damnable smile. So for Joanne’s third person she chose Cindy, and I chose Roger, maybe he wouldn’t have to toot his horn this time. And when we asked these six people if they would stand up with us at our wedding, you would have thought we were under attack with all the squeals, cries, and shouts. But they did say yes in the end. And all Jan did was smile, damn woman!

****I opened my eyes to the feeling of a head on my right shoulder. I also heard the light snore coming from the mouth of that head. Joanne had laid her head on my right shoulder and promptly fallen asleep. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was 4 a.m., a whole bunch way past our normal bed time.

“Hey, sweetheart, hey,” I said as I gently shook Joanne, wanting to gently wake her so we could get to bed. My reward was the warmest kiss for this time in the morning. “How about we go to bed?” I asked her, receiving a slight nod. The kitchen was rather cluttered with cookware, a few too many empty bottles of wine sat on the coffee table, but tomorrow was Saturday, and we could clean up the place then. Standing up and pulling Joanne up at the same time, I supported her as we made our way to our bedroom for a nice rest of the early morning sleep. Hopefully when the kids saw the mess we left, they’d do likewise and not mess with us until we got up. And yes, I knew our kids and knew what they’d do before and after, so we better get as much sleep as possible. I just hope they didn’t break anything cleaning up our messes.

As I said, I knew our kids, all four of them, and they didn’t break a thing as they graciously cleaned up our messes and then, woke us up, wanting breakfast. Even though Joanne and I only had about four hours of sleep, we were not going to scold our precious ones simply because they wanted us to get them breakfast. In fact, the six of us didn’t leave our bedroom for another two hours, as we all fell asleep on our bed.

Joanne and I spoke very little about Jan’s journal with the kids around, one of her stipulations was to make sure the kids never learned of that journal or read from it. So we got ourselves cleaned up, made the bed, checked that the kids had made their beds to the best of their abilities, and headed to the kitchen as the engines to a small train of four kids. Saturday was our special day, we were home and so were the kids, so breakfast was special. Chairs were scrapped across the floor as the kids paired off to get plates and glasses out of the upper cupboards. The taller, older kids, would stand on the chairs, grab the plates and pass them down to the shorter, younger kids. The chairs were replaced around the table and the table set with the items removed from the cupboards. Two of our kids would then get out the silverware while the other two grabbed the condiments out of the fridge and lower cupboards. All the while this was going on Joanne was fixing scrambled eggs and the toast, while I worked on pancakes and bacon. A few bobbles did take place, nothing that required a stern rebuke, by the time we all sat down to our special Saturday breakfast.

The kids dug in with glee, happy to be having their special breakfast with their moms. I took a fork full of scrambled eggs and saw Joanne sitting there watching the four kids happily enjoying their time together and with us. I caught her eye and asked her the question on my mind using a raised eyebrow. All she did was make a book out of her hands, indicating Jan’s journal. It was then I knew what she was doing, imaging our four kids being the four grownups in Jan’s journal, a journal Janelle had yet to write, but had.

Our Saturday mornings were always a happy time, when the six of us could all be together. It was also a very silly time, as the kids could let their hair down and have fun for a change. Joanne and I could tell when the kids had had their fill, and it being time to clean up after breakfast. With these four, it was just a matter of making the statement, “guess we better clean up all this mess,” and they would take their plates to the waste basket to scrape off any uneaten food then stacking their plates next to the sink. They would then help each other get out the step stool to use so they could reach the sink without difficulty. And before Joanne or I could actually start rinsing off the plates and silverware before putting them in the dishwasher, the kids had formed a chain to do exactly that. Of course after they had finished their self-imposed task, Joanne and I would have to take them to their rooms for a change of dry clothing. I could tell by the expression on Joanne’s face that she wanted nothing more than to stick her nose back into Jan’s journal, to reread it a bit more slowly than she had the last umpteenth times. My heart felt for her, but we both knew it’d have to wait until the kids went to bed this evening.

So the rest of our morning was helping the kids with what homework they had and then do a bit of house cleaning. The six of us fixed lunch then decided to go to a park, with the kids deciding which one. We packed the kids swimsuits, and ours too, because the park the kids had chosen JUST HAPPENED to have a swimming pool nearby. And the kids loved the water, which was good for Joanne and I since swimming would tire them out and give Joanne and I another uninterrupted opportunity with Jan’s journal.

After swimming we took the kids out for supper, and yes it was pizza, one of several of their favorite foods. We arrived home around 7 p.m. and after bathing our four charges, we didn’t have any trouble getting them into bed a little after 8 p.m. Soft snoring coming from the four bedrooms told me the kids were asleep, granting Joanne and I uninterrupted time with Jan’s journal. Joanne was already on the couch in the living room when I arrived, she even had supplied us with a glass of our favorite wine. She was already reading, again, and didn’t acknowledge me as I sat down on the couch, laid my head back, closed my eyes and remembered what I experienced.****

****Chapter 18****

It was three months until our wedding and we STILL hadn’t had a dress fitting, or picked out any of the other dresses or tuxes. And every time we broached the subject with Jan, all we’d get is, “don’t worry, it’s being handled.” And that damn smirking smile of hers. And handle it she did, the little snot. We read in Jan’s journal what she had planned, and once she carried it out, were sworn to secrecy.

You see, Jan’s plan was to have Joanne and I, on separate occasions, go with her on some pretense she’d make up, something to do with Jan’s or something or other. And it worked perfectly, because neither Joanne nor I had the slightest hint what Jan had each of us do on the day she took us out, or how Joanne or I keep it secret. Here’s what she did.

Because Joanne was now a partner, albeit a silent partner, there would be times when she would need access to the company’s bank accounts, if Jan or I weren’t available. So one day Jan tells me she’s taking Joanne to our bank in order to get her authorized to access our accounts. To me, at the time, it sounded innocent and was needed; I had to do the same when Jan made me her partner. And that’s exactly what they did, first, for about an hour. But then Jan took Joanne to the dress shop she was using to have our dress made for our wedding. They were gone about two and a-half-hours, claiming they stopped for a mid-morning snack and ran into some clients that were there. I could tell by looking at Joanne that she was way overly excited, but only got her standard, “I’m so happy to be a partner” reply in return. I knew how she felt because I felt the same way the day I signed those papers, so I dismissed my suspicions.

Another day Jan came to me and said Thomas wanted to speak to the two of us at his desk on the fourth floor. We had done something like this before so as usual, I thought nothing of it. That all changed when we reached Thomas’s desk on the fourth floor and he had a cheesy grin on his smug face. I started to stop at his desk but was grabbed by Jan and dragged into the fourth floor lounge. As Jan was dragging me along, I noticed the same cheesy grins on everyone’s face, and was extremely surprised with what I saw when we entered the lounge. There in the hands of a woman I’d never seen was the most gorgeous wedding dress I’d even seen. I didn’t remember my hands going to my mouth to cover my surprise, but they did and more than a few tears flowed. I turned to Jan and saw the biggest smile I think she’d ever had, and then was enveloped in her soft embrace hearing, “surprise.” Yeah I was surprised alright, because time was running out and I knew it took time to make wedding dresses. I pulled back enough, looked Jan straight in the eyes, and smacked her as hard as I could in the arm, telling her, “YOU SNOT.” The minute I yelled that, laughter erupted from outside the lounge. I released Jan and stepped out of the lounge, only to find everyone on their feet applauding and cheering—they were in on it too. I showed all of them a fist, which only encouraged more applause and cheering. I loved them too.

It took about an hour to do my dress fitting, including all the necessary under things—no one would listen when I said the under things weren’t necessary at this time. Still, I was thrilled with the dress Jan had chosen for me for my wedding. And as I found out later, after reading her journal, Jan said this must be kept secret from Joanne, and that I must act like I’m still worried about our dress fittings. But in order to pull off this secret we had to put our collective heads together and come up with a valid reason for speaking with Thomas. After about fifteen minutes Susie, bless her heart, offered the perfect solution due to her concern about not having enough staff on the fourth floor to handle all their clients. You never saw a girl blush more as three people kissed her cheeks, thanking her for her concern and our solution. Jan did tell her though, that she was aware of the overload and had sent out want ads for ten more employees.

Our ruse of needing more employees on the fourth floor satisfied Joanne’s curiosity of why Thomas wanted to speak with us. But she could see something had upset me and asked what it was. So crossing my fingers behind my back, I told her I spoke with Jan about our dress fittings, and was told not to worry, everything would work out. My play acting earned me a very nice, if not so hidden, kiss. A week later, twenty people applied for ten positions, with five being rejected outright—remember the girl who came for her interview wearing lacy sky blue underwear, which was seen because of the holes in her jeans, think of the male version dressed similar.

As usual, I listened in on the interview thanks to my ear bud. And after each interview I gave Jan a nod and a thumbs-up. After the fifteenth person, and the fifteenth nod and thumbs-up, Jan was a bit wound up because we hadn’t been able to narrow our search to just ten people. I quirked my head at her, she read my meaning and called Thomas, Mary, and Chris to ask them to stay after we closed for a short meeting, explaining that we needed their input. Closing time came and our impromptu meeting started.

“We have a problem,” Jan started off saying. “We want to hire ten new people to fill ten positions for the fourth floor, but we have fifteen people who’d be perfect for our firm. Do you three believe fifteen new people would help us in any way right now?”

Jan and I could see the wheels spinning in their minds, mulling over the number of clients their floor handled. Thomas already knew ten of those new people were going to his floor, so it really came down to Mary and Chris. Jan and I could read the hesitation on both the women’s faces, hesitation to say what they thought without fear the dragon would appear.

“Mary, Chris, what’s the matter,” Jan asked, as the expressions on the two women’s faces because a bit more tense.

“Well…” Chris slowly said, “We could use three more on the second floor to ease our client load. And I know after talking to Mary, she could use two more for the same reason.”

It was priceless watching these two women as they were put on the spot by Jan. Chris battled a deadly disease and won the battle. And Mary, the bull in the room when necessary, acted like a schoolgirl called on account she didn’t know the answer to the question. I had to cover my mouth to hide the smile that wanted to form, Jan faked a coughing fit to hide hers. And Thomas wasn’t much better, but he hid his as well.

“So it’s settled, we’ll hire all fifteen; ten for the fourth floor, three for the second floor and the remaining two for the third floor. Wonderful!” Jan exclaimed and we watched as both Chris and Mary relaxed in their chairs. The two women no sooner relaxed then Jan hit them with the only question left.

“Chris, Mary, why were you two so nervous when answering my question? You’ve never been nervous before when you came to me with a problem. Why now?”

This time it was Mary who spoke for the two. “Those problems, you referred to, dealt with existing conditions, be it client or employee. We’ve never been asked for our opinion about hiring more employees, and were worried we’d step over the line if we suggested doing that. Chris and I had talked about the need for more staff for our floors, but, well…” and she shrugged her shoulders at this point.

Jan looked at the two women for a moment before telling them, “Ladies, don’t ever feel nervous about recommending we hire more people to give our clients better service. That’s what we are here for, that’s what my policy has always been. Besides Thomas and Sara I value both your opinions, you’ve earned the right to speak it boldly.” And yes, we had a hug fest, the five of us, which was accompanied by tears. Even Thomas had to wipe his eyes a few times.

So fifteen new people were hired, and the days rolled by, as did the months, new clients applied, new problems were handled, and soon it was one month until our wedding. And we, supposedly, still hadn’t had our dress fittings. Or even knew where our wedding was to be held. Our persistent questions were met with the same answer Jan had given us before, “don’t worry, everything will be alright.” The snot!

****Chapter 19****

****I opened my eyes to check on Joanne, who was taking a sip of her wine and staring out into space. My guess she was trying to digest the Quantum Mechanics part of the journal and Jan being there and here now. I quit trying to understand that part, and just accepted for what it was. Damn bladder.****

A week before our wedding Jan took Joanne and I to have our dress fitting, our supposed dress fitting—we both had played our parts well (Jan’s journal said so). Everyone there, including Jan, made damn sure neither Joanne nor I saw the other one wearing our dresses. The snots! It was probably for the best, because I wanted Joanne so bad right now I would have ripped the dress off her to take her. But we did tonsil hunting a few times, getting a few coughs and cleared throats from some there. Our supposed dress fitting over, Jan took us out to lunch at one of our favorite places, Charlies’ Pizza. Yeah so what, Jan splurged a bit today on a meal.

Jan must have arranged for Thomas and Mary to cover for us while we were out, since both were on the first floor when we returned. Jan almost dragged Thomas into the lounge when he made a reference that, thankfully, went over Joanne’s head. He even cringed when he saw me giving him my stink eye. But the building hadn’t burned down, and we all went about our business as usual. Closing time rolled around and we had our usual after hours meeting, going over the day’s accounts and any other matters that had cropped up. Then Jan told us about a person she wanted the two of us to visit tonight; a person of some means who was considering opening an account with Jan’s. She said we were to be there at 7 p.m. for dinner and to present our firm to him. I had a feeling we were being set up because Jan had that enigmatic smile on her face, which faded almost immediately when she noticed I was giving her the eye. She gave us the address and shooed us out the door to get ready for tonight. As we were walking out I glanced over my shoulder and could swear I saw Jan do an arm pump. Only I must have been mistaken since Jan gave me a little wave as I turned back around and walked out the door. The little snot!!

We didn’t have to rush getting ready for our meeting that night, but we couldn’t spend any time tonsil hunting either. We dressed nice, not night club nice but not cotillion nice either, more of a going to a nice restaurant and church nice, with our makeup according to office specs. We pulled out our city map, and from the eyes in the sky, and found that we were only a few minutes from the address Jan had given us. A lite kiss to wish us luck, and we headed out for the five minute drive to our, hopefully, new client.

Joanne navigated as I drove and we soon stopped in front of a 16th century style castle, or at least that’s the impression I got when I questioned Joanne about the address. The place was huge, and set quite a ways back from the street. Questioning Joanne again about the address, proudly shining from a gorgeous granite pillar near the front gates, I pulled into the drive and drove us up to the front doors. We had no sooner stopped then a smartly dressed gentleman was at our car opening first Joanne’s door then mine. Then he floored both of us by offering her arms to escort us into the, house(?), telling us our car would be looked after. If I thought the outside was spectacular the inside was breathtaking, taken right out of some Victorian manor home.

Joanne look as taken aback as I was, but our inspection was interrupted by a very attractive woman walking across the foyer towards us; maybe that should be arena floor because the foyer was that big. I was actually captivated by the woman walking toward us, and judging from a glance at Joanne, she was too. She must have been in her mid-50s, or early-60s, with auburn hair done up in a very smart style. Her makeup was exquisite, not over the top but drawing out her natural beauty. And her dress made me wish we had dressed as though we were attending a cotillion. But what set her off the most was the biggest, and most sincere, smile I’d ever seen. A smile not even Jan could match. And it was a warm smile.

“Welcome, you must me Sara,” she said, giving me a hug as she reached us. “And you must be Joanne,” she said to Joanne as another hug was given. “I’m Silvia, the Mrs. of this palace.” Silvia laughed after saying that, the imp in her dancing in her eyes; I really liked this woman.

“Let me have a look at you to,” she told us as she gave us a rather critical eye up and down. “Just as he said, you both are absolutely beautiful,” Silvia told us as she pushed her way between us and took our arms, leading/pulling us towards two tall doors off to our left—we might get there sometime around Christmas. As we walked, well, strolled, Silvia told us a little about the house, her family, and the loss they suffered a few months ago. That mention of loss didn’t register with me or Joanne until opening the tall doors, Silvia led us into a huge library, and face to face with, Tom Marks. Silvia started giggling when she saw the look on our two faces, as did Tom. But it was what she said next, as she put her arms around our waists that floored us both.

“Girls, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for Tom that day we learned our daughter had been killed in that car crash. As Tom will tell you himself, he was so devastated that he was going to take his own life, and nothing anyone here could say helped dissuade him. He came to Jan’s in order to get everything in order, get a good account set up so I’d be taken care of. But it was how you treated him while he was there that changed his mind, how you gave him the support no one here could give, including me. Girls, from now on consider yourselves part of our family, the family Tom and I know you no longer have. We’d be honored if you would accept our offer and become our adopted daughters.”

Looking at Joanne, on the other side of Silvia, I could see she too had tears running down her cheeks; Silvia did as well. Joanne looked at me then we both looked at Tom and saw his tears as well. We knew these two wonderful people were being honest with us because as Joanne and I looked at Tom he was nodding his head and mouthing, “please.” As if on cue, I looked at Joanne and her me. I quirked an eyebrow and Joanne nodded her head. What could we say but, “we’d be honored.” Those three words changed the entire atmosphere in that room, with Silvia hugging both of us as though we were throw pillows, and Tom doing a bit better. There were plenty of tears going around, and plenty of thank yous from both Tom and Silvia. It was shortly after our acceptance that Tom started laughing; explaining he now had three raccoons in the house when the three of us ladies gave him our stink eyes. But he paid for that comment as the three of us girls smacked him as hard as we could—even that didn’t put an end to his laughing, only increased it as he grabbed the three of us and hugged.

“You old reprobate,” Silvia told him, as she gave him a close tonsil inspection right in front of Joanne and I. “Come on girls, let’s go repair our faces so we can shut this old coot up and have our dinner.” Joanne and I gave Tom kisses on his cheeks then told him, “thank you,” receiving another round of hugs and kisses of our own. I said that crossing that foyer might take until Christmas? Think of a room full of everything a person might need for a comfort stop, and double that size twice, you’d then have the size of the bathroom Silvia took us to. I felt exactly as Joanne exclaimed as we walked into that bathroom. Even Silvia appreciated our enjoyment, as she had that big warm smile on her face when I looked at her. “Come on girls,” she told us, grabbing our arms and leading us to the biggest vanity I’d ever seen. No wonder Silvia’s makeup was so perfect, that vanity had everything a girl could want in makeup. And because of that our three faces were quickly repaired and possibly better looking than when we entered the house.

Silvia led us back to where we left Tom, having her arms entwined with ours. As we reached the library doors Tom stepped out and took Joanne’s arm in his and together we walked to another set of massive doors. I caught a bit of something going on between Tom and Silvia as we walked, but put it down to the pair getting ready for later that night, when they were alone. Oh but was I wrong, and in a big way. Because when Tom opened one door and Silvia the other the only thing Joanne and I heard was, “SURPRISE,” from a room jamb packed with people. They were all from Jan’s, with the head snot standing right up front with that damnable grin on her face. To say Joanne and I were shocked would be an understatement. To say we were crying would be correct. Tom and Silvia gently guided us into the room, getting hugs first from Jan then everyone else. And yes, more than one face was streaked with tears.

“…how? Why?” Was all I could get out before the room quieted to let Jan explain.

“You two don’t really know how you’ve affected everyone in our office. Oh you see it here and there, but overall, you’ve affected everyone in one way or another. As much as you two tried to hide the love between you, everyone could see just how much you were in love with each other. And because of that and what you’ve done for Jan’s and everyone, we wanted to throw you this surprise party to wish you a very successful marriage and a long life together. Oh, and we wanted to make sure you had everything you needed for your home,” Jan finished as she pointed to a large pile of wrapped gifts next to one wall.

I know I was sobbing with happiness and heard another doing the same. Turning, I saw Joanne with her hands over her mouth and almost in full wracking sobs. She did go into a full blown sob when I took her in my arms and pulled her close. (We later learned from the journal that Jonathan had been alone most of his life after the death of his parents. Because of how he treated others, foster parents were pleased to have him stay with them. But he never really had that wanted feeling that he got from his real parents. That’s why Joanne was in full blown sob mode as I held her, she finally felt wanted, loved, and knew it was real.) The thought also crossed my mind that we’d have to make another visit to that mausoleum for another face repair, but when I pulled back from a calmer Joanne, our makeup was still intact. After a questioning look at Silvia she whispered, “Waterproof.” In the annals of our history, this is one night Joanne and I would never, ever forget. We had a family, a family which loved us and carried about our happiness. We also gained two loving parents, who no doubt, were going to spoil us as rotten as they could. I also knew in a few hours I was going to end up being very sore.

****Chapter 20****

****I seemed to be moving, pulled to my right side. I opened my eyes and realized Joanne was pulling me to her; my cheeks felt wet. “Shhh…it’s alright, I got you,” Joanne spoke to me as I laid my head on her chest and really cried. Reliving the memory of the night at the Mark’s, seeing all of friends from the office, really brought back how much I missed my own parents. More so since we are adopted daughters of a wonderful husband and wife. I sniffed a bit, but finally wound down, getting pulled up off the couch and walked into the bathroom for a little clean up and toilet break. I’ll never be able to tell that girl just how much I love her for who she is and what she’s done for me in such a short time. I do bet both of us will be very sore come morning. Joanne fetched another bottle of wine while I got comfortable again on the couch. Remembering that party wasn’t hard, but oh did Joanne and I have fun when we got home.****

Going to work the next day proved rather difficult, after our impromptu bachelorette party at the Marks’ castle, and our after party romp. I think I used muscles I’d never used before; Joanne wasn’t in much better shape. We arrived at work and saw that everyone had Jan’s enigmatic smile on their faces. Or they developed the pose shortly after they walked through the doors coming in to work. Did they know something we didn’t? No, that wasn’t it, as I watched Joanne walk from her desk to the lounge. Oh gawd, they know what Joanne and I did last night just by watching Joanne try and walk normally. I thought I’d just stay at my desk the rest of the day and tough it out when nature called.

Jan could see the stress building in me and Joanne, so she kept us busy the rest of that day and the rest of the week. And it seemed to work, since the days passed rather quickly until Friday rolled around. Joanne and I came in our usual time, 8:30 a.m., and met not only Jan but Thomas, Mary, and Chris. When I gave Jan the eyebrow she just smiled and told me, “in a minute.” Seems the four of them had been having their own private pre-opening meeting and the two of us weren’t invited. After what Jan said, Joanne gave me the eye and I responded with a shoulder shrug—can’t say what I don’t know. They finished their business and Jan started for the doors, turning as she walked and telling us, “Well, let’s go.” Go? Go where? “Well, come on,” Jan said as she stopped at the front doors with that damnable enigmatic smile on her face. “Hurry up!!” I looked at Joanne, she looked at me, and we shrugged our shoulders, grabbed each other’s hand and follow our mother out of the store. I did mention how sore I was, right? Now everybody else knew too.

And where did we end up? Guess! Today’s Friday, our wedding is tomorrow afternoon—we finally found out—and what’s necessary to look our best? If you guessed a beauty parlor you’d win the grand prize. The parlor Jan took us to had an excellent reputation for quality work. And quality work came at a quality price. I gave Jan a serious look but she simple told me, “You both deserve the best available. Now shush and come on.” As I started to follow Jan, I still had a hold of Joanne’s hand, which abruptly stopped me dead in my tracks. I turned to look at Joanne and saw sheer terror on her face. It took me a few moments but I finally realized this’d be the first time for Joanne to be in a beauty parlor. I called Jan and together we helped her calm down, much like we did after she transformed.

“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry,” I told Joanne as I hugged her. “I completely forgot you’d never have done this as Jonathan.” Her shaking slowly subsided as we talked a bit more; even Jan apologized for her forgetfulness. About ten minutes later a calmer Joanne walked into The Pretty Kitty with Jan and me. And about two and a half hours later the three of us walked out of the parlor and headed for lunch; this time it was a posh restaurant. And this time, the three of us caused several broken necks as we were escorted to our table.

Jan sent us home for the rest of the day, telling us to get some rest since tomorrow was going to be a busy day. The two of us got a kiss on the cheek as Jan went into the office and Joanne and I walked to the parking structure. Before the door closed behind Jan, we were told to expect her at seven in the morning, for a remake of today, only better. Something in Jan’s manner told me she was, once again, up to something. All through lunch, she kept surreptitiously watching first me then Joanne, all while carrying that enigmatic smile. Whatever it was I hoped we were going to enjoy it, or a little snot was going to hear about it.

The entire week had been stressful, despite the busy work Jan gave us to keep us busy. Plus our wedding was tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, so it wasn’t any wonder that we both crashed the minute we got home and lay down. When I awoke, I think the clock showed 6:30 p.m., but it was hard to see through Joanne’s hair as she was trying to meld her back with my front. I gently kissed the back of her neck, getting a moan in return. “That was nice, keep going,” she mumbled as I followed her command. It wasn’t long until Joanne rolled over to face me, and our tonsil hunt was once again in full swing. I know she was as wet as I was but I convinced her we might want to eat something and maybe save the rest for tomorrow evening; I did not want to be walking funny down the aisle during our wedding, a prospect I brought to Joanne’s attention. She giggled when I told her and hunted one more time before getting up and pulling me after her. We had a nice leisurely dinner, a bit of wine while sitting on the couch listening to some music, and about 10 p.m. decided to call it a night, and saved the rest for tomorrow night.

“Someone is going to die for this,” I said, coming out of a deep sleep, looking at the clock and seeing it was 6:30 a.m. “Whoever is banging on our front door will die in a few minutes.” I throw off the covers, slammed my feet into my slippers and stomped my way to the front door. “What the hell is going on?” Joanne groggily asked as she padded up behind me. I should have known, but had to high a head of steam. I ripped open the door and there was, Jan. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, and with that damnable enigmatic smile. “Hi guys, you ready,” she said as she bounced, yes, bounced into our home. Slacked jawed we just stared at Jan. Here we were, standing in front of an open door with our night clothes on, and Jan wants to know, “are we ready?” I looked at Joanne and she looked at me, and we advanced on Jan with every intention of doing bodily harm. Like some school girl, Jan ran off screaming into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge. “You two go get ready while I make coffee and breakfast. I slammed the front door, grabbed Joanne’s hand and headed to our bedroom, but not before telling Jan, “YOU SNOT.” Her reply was a very girly giggle. Why do I bother?

****I opened my eyes and saw Joanne thumbing through our wedding album; she must have read my mind. I scooted over, laid my head on her shoulder and looked at the pictures along with her. That was another day we would never forget, and a day which almost didn’t happen.****

Jan yelled instructions as we walked down the hall to our bedroom. “Just brush out your hair and don’t worry about makeup, the parlor will take care of that. Wear something that isn’t trashy but not flashy.” I mumbled a bit as Joanne dropped my hand I used the bathroom first; today was NOT a day to shower together, at least not right now. While waiting for her to shower, I made the bed and decided what I had that wasn’t trashy or flashy, and decided jeans and a blouse would do. I gave Joanne a kiss as we walked by each other, me to the bathroom and her to pick out not trashy or flashy clothing. About thirty minutes later we were sitting in the kitchen drooling over a scrumptious looking breakfast of scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green peppers, and onions mixed in. Bacon that was crispy like we enjoyed it, and waffles. And, our ambrosia, coffee, in large mugs. Jan had really gone to town for breakfast, guess she knew something we didn’t.

I could tell Joanne was more alive after eating something, as I did, but we both could have used another half a day to really feel alive. And our way too chipper at this time of morning friend wasn’t helping with her, “Right, grab your purses and let’s be off,” announcement. I think I heard Joanne mumble something about a shovel, a map, and a lot of vacant land as we picked up our purses and zombied after Jan. This was way too early to be out and about or chipper.

From our house, the drive to the Pretty Kitty should have taken about twenty minutes, we made it in ten. We spent ten minutes experiencing the most horrific ride in a car we ever had. Well, maybe Joanne had, I’d give Joanne second place after she drove us somewhere once. The minute we pulled up in front of The Pretty Kitty and Jan shut off the engine, the back door opened and slammed almost simultaneously while Joanne mutter something as she got out of Jan’s car. I couldn’t move to see if she was alright, I couldn’t let go of the dashboard. In the ten minutes it took us to reach The Pretty Kitty, I don’t know how many cars Jan passed at places where there wasn’t space to pass. My knuckles were whiter than I think I might have been. And when I heard, “We’re here, let’s go,” I could only turn my head in her direction and give her the most incredulous look I could manage. “You okay sweetie, you look a bit peaked.” Hearing Jan say that, I ripped my hands off the dashboard, opened the passenger door, got out, slammed it, and starting muttering myself. It took a few moments to realize that Joanne was kneeling on the sidewalk and holding her head while saying to no one in particular, “Never again never again never again, NEVER AGAIN!” I used my hand to start rubbing the back of her neck in the hopes it would help calm her down. She turned her head into my hand, kissed my palm, took my hand and used me to help her stand up. Joanne looked me square in the eye and told me, “I’m never riding with that mad woman EVER AGAIN!” I gave her a sweet kiss and said, “I agree.”

There was a bit of a surprise as we walked into The Pretty Kitty, because Mary, Chris, Julie, and Thomas were sitting in the waiting area. No one said a word, they didn’t have to since they were all wearing Jan’s enigmatic smile. And when I looked at Jan for an explanation, hers was there too. I could understand Mary, Chris, and Julie being there to have their hair and makeup done, but Thomas? When I gave Thomas a curious look, he simply pointed to his hair. That’s when it clicked, he came here to have his hair cut and styled.

At the click of heels on the tile floor, my attention turned to the woman approaching our group. “Well, is everyone ready,” Penny Lions, the owner of The Pretty Kitty, ask our group, and consulted the clipboard she was holding. “Let’s see, we’ll take you five first,” she told the other five, and then told Joanne and I, “Then we’ll take you two ladies last, since it’s your big day we want this experience to be very special.” At first what Penny told us sounded fine, it wasn’t until Jan spoke that things got a bit dicey. Putting her arm around my waist Jan told us, “Before you two go back make sure to give each other a rather nice kiss, because you won’t see each other again until this afternoon at the wedding.”

That’s when I felt a vise like pain shoot up my right arm. I was still holding Joanne’s left hand and she had reached across and grabbed my right arm in a death like grip—she may have transformed but that girl had one hell of a grip. My left hand flew to cover her right hand, hoping she would understand that she was hurting me; she didn’t get the message, and tears were forming in my eyes. It took a bit of coaxing to get Joanne in The Pretty Kitty the first time, and she almost bolted that time. I could only hope I could get these people to understand some of Jon’s morals had surfaced again and Joanne was on the verge of running out of here.

“Jan,” I began with all the force I could muster, “That is NOT going to happen. We ARE going to stay together until the wedding or the wedding as you hoped won’t happen.” In a voice laced with frivolity Jan replied, “Nonsense, Sara, the brides never see each other on the wedding day once they get ready.” At hearing this, the other six just chuckled. I reached behind me with my left hand and removed Jan’s arm around my waist. Joanne still had my arm in a death grip when I told her, “Come on, sweetie, let’s go. We’ll get married our own way,” and started guiding Joanne towards the door, still trying not to cry because of the pain in my arm. Seeing us starting to leave the chuckling stopped on a dime, and they got a lot more serious. “Sara, Joanne, where are you going, this is your wedding day, a lot of people will be there. Tom will walk the both of you down the aisle,” Jan said as she started after us. Up to now, I had no trouble putting up with some of Jan’s frivolities, even enjoyed them. But her words had scared Joanne, really scared her, and THAT I would not put up with. I hugged Joanne to me as I rounded on Jan.

“How stupid can you be? Look at Joanne, look how frightened she is. Can’t you remember the trouble we had asking her to come in here the first time? Can’t you remember she almost bolted on us and we had to calm her down to get her to see that girls came in here all the time? To help her remember she is a girl?” I was seething, I was seeing red, and I wasn’t finished yet. “To all of you this is nothing new, you’ve been who you are your entire lives. But Joanne hasn’t, she was once Jonathan Mathew, a man, and now a woman, a girl, a female, who hasn’t had all your experiences. Coming into a place like this is still new and frightening because Jon’s morals still popup now and then. And they’ve popped up with a vengeance again. Come on, sweetie, let’s go.” We once again started for the door when Chris spoke up.

“Sara, Joanne, please...wait,” Chris called after us with her soft, gentle voice, as we walked towards the front door of The Pretty Kitty. “Please…wait?” Her voice the second time carried more pleading than before, more desire for us to wait, more concern than before. Chris’ pleading caused us to stop walking and turn to face her as she approached us. She calming walked up to us as the others watched, reached out with her hands toward Joanne and held them there, silently asking to take Joanne’s hands in hers. Joanne’s fearful eyes bore into mine, and with a slight nod, telling her it’d be alright, Joanne let go of her death grip on me and placed her hands into those of Chris. “Joanne,” Chris started in that same soft, gently voice, “I know this is scary, really I do. Because I’ve been really scared, so scared I could hardly do anything.” I put my arm around Joanne because tears were running down her cheeks, as she remembered why Chris had been so scared at one time. “Finding out you have cancer is a lot scarier than coming into a place like this, but the fear of being away from your loved one is the same. If you will let me, I’ll be with you the whole time, and you can lean on me when you become frightened. Would you do that? Would you do that for the woman you deeply love? Would you do it for all those who love and admire you? Would you do it for Tom, the man your actions saved from his own hand?” It was at that point Joanne lost it, grabbed Chris into a tight hug and wept on her shoulder. I noticed that I too wasn’t the only one wiping my eyes because of what unfolded before us, and as we all watched, Joanne nodded her head as it rested on Chris’s shoulder. A horror stricken Jan walked up to me, her hands covering her mouth, active tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh my gawd, I’m so so so sorry. I didn’t realize how traumatic this was going to be for Joanne.” Her voice dropped into a whisper as she took me into a hug and repeated what she just said, while laying her head on my shoulder and softly crying. “Its okay, Jan, you just didn’t know,” I told her as I hugged her close and let her cry. God I love this woman dearly.

It wasn’t hard for everyone in The Pretty Kitty to hear the commotion up front, and had come up to see why. And more than one nose had to be blown and more than one gave out a soft weep as they watched what occurred. It was Penny, using a shaky voice, which got us back on track. Joanne and I, after visiting the lady’s room, sat and waited while the other five were made to look their best. And when it was our turn, Chris true to her word, offered her hand to Joanne and went with her to get ready for our special day. I will never forget what that woman had done for Joanne. She will be part of our family one day.

****Chapter 21****

Remember the Wizard of Oz, the scene when Dorothy and the others reached the Emerald City and they took the four back for a makeover? Remember how they treated Dorothy? Well, I got that treatment and then some. If I thought I was sore after a session with Joanne, after the pulling and ripping that was done to me I was sure I was going to be sore before another session with Joanne. But after applying lotion and some other type lotion, what pain I had been feeling completely faded. I do hope Joanne like what she saw later tonight, because it was completely new to me. Another thing which was new to me was the way they styled my hair. I usually wear my hair straight, with a few clips to hold back the sides out of my face. But they took my mid-back length hair and created French braids which then were join high up on my head into a rather striking ponytail. And when they placed the delicate tiara I would be wearing on after they had finished, wow! And the makeup job, WOW, again. If Joanne looked half as good as the woman I saw in the mirror, we weren’t going to get any sleep tonight; Joanne would keep me up until sun rise.

I don’t know how they keep us separate, but they did, because when it was time for me to be dressed, yes, be dressed, Joanne and Chris were nowhere to be seen; looking around the room where I had been lead, standing there quite naked, they must have dressed Joanne here as well. Ah well, I thought to myself as I was handed a pair of white lacy panties, I can wait, barely; a lacy bra was next. I was pulled over to a chair after a garter belt was placed around my waist. I didn’t sit down as much as was sat down by one of the girls getting me dressed. It was almost comical as two girls knelt before me with a stocking a piece in their hands, and together put the stocking on me before attaching them to all six garters; I was pulled out of the chair by the same girls so they could finish attaching the other four garters. They then led me over to a bar and told me to “grab hold,” as they put a white corset around my upper body. The last time this was done, I was really glad Joanne hadn’t seen me, because that corset gave me a bust that would have melted Joanne’s eyes. And a waist she would have had trouble not grabbing. “Exhale,” one of the girls ordered me, as the cords were pulled tighter. I balked the first time they did this, but was reassured they wouldn’t pull the cords as tight as they could be pulled. They didn’t want me to faint during my wedding. Next were the crinolines, followed by a slip, then my wedding dress. I could hardly wait for Joanne to see me in my dress, with its throat high collar, encrusted with lace and pearls, and short puffy sleeves, and the same encrusted lace and pearls at the bust line. And the crinolines flared out the skirt in a way that made it look like I was wearing hoops. And the ten foot train, encrusted with the same lace and pearls but in a delicate pattern. I was then led over to a wall of mirrors, which had suddenly appeared. It was then I saw that Jan had been here the entire time, but had kept out of sight. “OH, my, you are absolutely gorgeous,” Jan told me as she came up beside me and hugged me. The me I saw in the mirrors caused my eyes to start watering, Jan’s too. “You two are going to amaze everyone at your wedding. Never have I seen two more beautiful women in my life.” By this time tears were sliding down my cheeks, but no makeup came with them—Waterproof.

Jan took my hand and led me out a back door, right out to a waiting limousine. A white limousine with a woman driver dressed in the smartest white outfit I’d ever seen. I was helped into the limo by Jan and the driver, my train had to be handled carefully, before the door was shut and we started our journey to my wedding. Jan never told us where our wedding would be held, but that cheeky smile she often wore told me right now that I’d be pleasantly surprised. And I was, because we drove up the drive and to the front of, Marks manor. And of all people waiting for us was Tom and Silvia, my adopted parents. Getting out of the limo was exactly the reverse of getting in, only there were two more people to help. After I had been helped out of the limo, and was able to stand tall, I saw glimmers in the eyes of Tom and Silvia; some have escaped down their cheeks. “Absolutely spectacularly beautiful,” Tom said as he kissed me lightly on the cheek. Silvia reverberated his opinion as she kissed my other cheek, then my adoptive parents each took an arm, and Jan held my train, as I was lead into the house and to a large room, where they told me I was to wait until it was time. I was not left alone in that room, for Jan was there, as was Silvia, Mary and Julie. I assumed Chris was with Joanne as well as Thomas, but I never found out until later. Roger seemed to be a no show until there was a light rapping on the door and in walked a snappy dressed Roger (Jan’s journal explained why Roger had not been with us at The Pretty Kitty. But it was personal and not my story to tell.) Since Joanne’s transformation, Roger seemed to have mellowed. He was still the happy-go-lucky guy he had always been, but the years seemed to have helped him develop a gentler side, a more caring side, which had increased the number of clients asking for him to oversee their accounts. As he walked toward where I was sitting, he was shaking his head and examining me with his eyes. He reached out with his hand for my hand and told me, “You are positively gorgeous, Sara. I whole heartily wish you and Joanne a very long life and a happy family. The two of you truly belong together,” he finished then kissed the back of my hand. I’m sure glad I had tissues tucked away on me, because what Roger just said made me use one.

As I’ve said several times before, Jan had kept our wedding plans close to her vest; and yes she wore them now and then. And no, we didn’t have a rehearsal so Joanne and I were going to be winging it, so to speak. Tom came in and said the magic words, “It’s time,” at which point both Jan and Tom explained that Joanne would be led in first, while I was kept here. Then Tom would come and get me and walk me down the aisle as he had Joanne; I hope I don’t pee myself when I see Joanne. Everyone except Jan followed Tom out of the room, as music started playing some distance away—I did say the Mark’s home was big, did I not? Not long after Tom and the others left, the double doors to the room I was in opened and my smiling adopted father walked in to collect me, giving me a light kiss on the cheek and another thank-you for all we did for him. Was I nervous? Do bears, never mind, yes, I was nervous. Very nervous, since there would be a lot of people her to watch Joanne and I get married. Was I looking forward to being married? Oh you betcha, and looking to as long a life with Joanne as we’d have together.

Tom offered me his arm and I slipped my right arm into the crook of his left arm. He reached up with his right hand and patted my hand, as we made our way to my wedding with Joanne; Jan followed behind to make sure my train didn’t get caught on anything. Given the lavishness of the house, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when we stopped before a set of elaborately carved double doors at least twelve feet tall. Two smartly dressed men were standing before each door, their hands resting on each door pull. I felt a tug on my train and when I turned to look, saw Jan fanning out my train straight behind me. “Are you ready, sweetheart,” Tom asked me as I took a deep breath. “Yes, daddy, I’m ready.” Receiving a light kiss on my cheek, Tom nodded his head and the men started to slowly open the double doors; and the music started to play.

I was grateful Tom had gently captured my hand in the crook of his left arm because I did feel a bit light headed. Our wedding was taking place in what had to be a huge ballroom, just as lavish as the rest of the house. As I scanned those in attendance I saw that our entire office was there, including their families. I also recognized quite a few of our clients and their wives. But about a fourth way down the aisle, three people caught my attention; two nicely dressed men and a smartly dressed young lady. Somehow I know those three, somehow I recognize their faces. But at the moment I'm unable to put it all together, maybe I will later. The two men nod as a way of showing respect, and the young lady does a very small curtsey. I know them from somewhere, I know I do.

As we pass the three, my eyes scan ahead and catch my first glimpse of Joanne. Oh I’m so glad Tom is keeping my arm in place or I might rip that dress off her and take her right here. She was beyond gorgeous, she was outstandingly stunning. The lower portion of her dress was much like mine, billowed out by the crinolines. The train of her dress was almost the same as mine, but above her waist, whoa! Her dress gave her bare shoulders, which swept up to a neck high collar joined at the middle with white pearl buttons. The lacy on the dress accentuated her bust line as did the pearls on top of the lace. There was something else about her dress which I couldn’t understand until I realized it had silver thread sewn into elaborate patterns from her neck down to the hem of the dress. And with every twitch, the light reflected off that thread and made the dress glimmer. As I walked closer I could see tears running down Joanne’s cheeks, and Chris’s arm around her waist—that woman was going to be part of our family. I finally reached the front, everyone sat down, and the pastor, a young looking woman, began our wedding. I won’t bore you with the pastor’s part; it was pretty standard in comparison to wedding I’ve attended. I will tell you about the vows we gave each other.

****I came back to myself when I heard, “Oh damn, I gotta pee,” from Joanne, as she threw the wedding album in my lap while getting up at the same time. I just had to chuckle at this because she does this all the time. She gets so lost in what’s she’s doing that she doesn’t feel that her bladder needs emptied until almost the last minute. The kids have learned to clear a path when momma Joanne comes running through the house heading to the bathroom. So far there’s only been the one time I had to get her a clean of panties. God I love that woman. Joanne returned to the couch after having visited the kitchen first to get us water. One of these days she may figure out that water causes her to run as fast as she does.****

The pastor finally got to the part where we say our vows to each other before placing our rings on the other’s finger. The pastor must have been told about Joanne’s nervousness because she allowed Joanne to say her vows first.

“From that first day I set foot in Jan’s Portfolio LLC for a job interview, the minute I saw you I felt sparks. Sparks which told me you were the one for me, the one who could make me whole, the one I wanted to spend what life I had left with you through anything we might face. But I didn’t expect how my love for you would deepen as I worked with you these past seven years. And now, I can’t imagine my life without you, I can’t imagine how I could live without your help in our daily lives. Words cannot express how deeply my love runs for you or what I’d do to make you happier than you’ve ever been. I give you my love freely and will honor you through whatever comes into our lives. Sara, I take you for my wife for now and forever.”

Joanne slips her ring onto my finger, and I reach up and gently wipe the tears from her cheeks—I notice Chris step back after Joanne said her vows. And I’ll keep saying it, that woman will be part of our family forever. Then it was my turn to say my vows.

“Joanne, I lack the words to express how deeply I love you and how it’s grown over these seven years. I too felt the sparks the day you walked into Jan’s and by my desk to your interview with Jan. I too knew you were the one who could make me whole, make me happier than I’ve ever been, the one I wanted to be with until the world was no more. To say my love for you deepened with leaps and bounds would be putting it mildly, for its grown deeper than any known canyon and it burns to express itself to you. I too can’t imagine a day without you in my life, sharing all I have, helping us get through all that we will face, you guiding me as only you can, you make me whole. I will cherish you for as long as we live. I will give you myself freely and without recourse. I will nurture you as you need and will care for you in all ways possible. Joanne, I take you as my wife until the light no longer shines.”

I feel Joanne gently wipe tears off my cheeks as I slip my ring onto her finger. I’m not sure if we did it right, but didn’t care, because Joanne and I take each other’s hands then look up at the pastor. And then we hear the magic we’ve been waiting for, “I now pronounce you wife and wife, you may kiss your bride.” Joanne and I had done a lot of tonsil hunting, but today we searched for each other’s belly buttons. It wasn’t until we heard the small cough, that we ended our search and were told to face the audience. “Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you Mrs. and Mrs….

****My laughing brought me out my memories because it was kind of funny how we decided on our last names. After we got engaged, we talked often about last names, whether we’d keep our own or take the others’ name. We were still discussing this problem when we ran out of time the week of our wedding. So we did the mature thing, we flipped a coin, twice. The first flip was to determine if we’d keep our own names or take the name of the other. And if it was determined we’d take the name of the other, a second flip would determine whose last name we took. Joanne ask what was so funny and when I explained she joined in with me.****

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Mrs. and Mrs. Mathew.” With this pronouncement the music started along with the applause, as Joanne and I made our way back up the aisle to wherever we were going to receive our guests and friends. Tom met us at the double doors, kissing each of us on the cheek, giving us his arms, and lead us to another enormous room set up for our reception. And what a reception it was, what with over three hundred in attendance, it was quite some time before we were free to mingle, and eat something. We also spent some time on the dance floor, hardly ever letting anyone cut in after the first dance. At one point Tom and Silvia came to us and told us to stay the night since it was going to be rather late before the reception broke up—I hope the room they give us is sound proof! It’s 2 a.m. by the time the last guest leaves, leaving Thomas, Chris, Mary, Julie and Jan with us and the Marks. (Again, Jan’s journal told why Roger left and it was personal, so a story not for my telling.) These five people have become a core family Joanne and I never had, and it meant so much to us. There were hugs and kisses all around, and after saying our goodnights, well, good mornings, Tom and Silvia walked us to a set of stairs where a maid was waiting to show us to our room. Extended hugs and kisses were given and received before we were shown to our room and the chance to express our love in a more intimate way. Sure hope the walls are soundproof!

We finally feel asleep at 6 a.m. after a long expressive love session. I don’t know how long after I fell asleep when I felt something soft and warm pressing against my lips. I slowly opened my eyes and was looking into the eyes of Joanne as she gently kissed me to wake me up. To reach me Joanne had rolled over so that she could reach my lips, she had also positioned herself so she was directly over the fingers of my left hand. She didn’t have to say a word, as I used the fingers on my left hand to see how tired Joanne really was after our earlier sessions. Some fifteen minutes later we pulled each other out of the bed and walked hand in hand to the shower in the en suite bathroom, where we took our time in washing each other’s hair and body. Our shower done, we dried off and put on robes we found hanging on hooks on one wall. I walked to the vanity, picked up the hair dryer and a brush, and started brushing and drying my hair.

Unexpectedly, Joanne took my hand holding the hair dryer, shut off the hair dryer before placing it back on the vanity. She then placed her hands on my shoulders and turned me toward her, and started giving me a very sweet, slow kiss. At the same time she parted the front of the robe I was wearing and started rubbing my clitoris, getting the reaction she was obviously after. I reached down with my left hand and grabbed her wrist to steady it and road her fingers for all they were worth. It wasn’t long before I had my head buried in her right shoulder, as I came with a scream of ecstasy and bit down on her shoulder at the same time—that was going to leave a mark. My undulations finally started to slow until they finally stopped, as Joanne kissed the back of my neck and whispered in my ear, “Now you know the pleasure you and Jan gave me on that Saturday morning.” I nodded my head before turning to kiss Joanne’s neck several time before being able to stand up straight. Joanne reached down and took the brush from my right hand, a brush I didn’t remember holding, picked up the hair dryer and proceeded to brush and dry my hair; I had to hold onto the vanity as Joanne worked on my hair because my knees were still weak from the intensity of that orgasm. After Joanne finished my hair I worked on hers while still reveling by what I just experienced. I’m quite sure there were going to be many more experiences like that one, and I was going to end up very sore but for a very good reason.

As we walked into the en suite hand in hand, so we walked out hand in hand, only then realizing we needed clothes to wear today. I pointed to the chest of drawers and Joanne pointed to the walk in closet. I walked to the chest of drawers and opened the top drawer, getting a rather nice surprise. Neatly folded were bras, panties, stockings, garter belts, and pantyhose. There was also a card on top with Joanne’s name written on it. Closing that drawer I opened the second one, only to find the exact same thing but with the card having my name written on it. “Hey, Joanne,” I hollered, “You need to see this.” “Maybe you should look at what’s in here,” she replied and I closed the second drawer and walked over to the walk in closet.

I stood in the door opening and just starred, gathering in all the clothes I saw hanging from the clothes rods. But seeing Joanne looking from left to right and back again, and that she had her hands on her hips, let me know something more confusion was occurring. Joanne never said a word but pointed to the card hanging about each group of clothes. I looked to the right as Joanne pointed and saw the card had Joanne’s name on it. She then directed my attention to the left and to the card with my name on it. I walked closer to the clothing on the left and realized there were my clothes from home. Joanne must have done the same as she was now looking at the close under my name as I was looking at the clothes under her name. We must have been destined to be together, because we turned in unison and said at the same time, “These are our clothes from home.” Realizing what we had just done started giggling with abandonment. I then took her hand and led her to the chest of drawers, opening first the top drawer then the second one. It was about this time there was a soft knock on the bedroom door before it opened and we heard, “Is it okay if I come in?” Turning toward the voice Joanne and I saw the face of the maid who took us to our room early this morning, and motioned for her to enter. She must have seen the puzzled look on our faces as Joanne held up the card with my name one it. She giggled a bit before telling us, “Mademoiselle Jan took us to your home and had us bring some of your clothing her so they were here for you to wear.” Mademoiselle Jan? Now Jan is a mademoiselle? I think we needed to have a serious talk with that little snot. “Monsieur Marks sends his love and wishes for you to know lunch will be ready when you come down.” At those words she turned and walked out the door, closing it behind her. I turned to Joanne and said, “I’ll choose our lingerie and you choose our outfits for today.” The only answer I received was an almost tonsil hunting kiss before Joanne turned and started towards the walk in closet. She was still close enough and I couldn’t let a good opportunity escape, so I smacked her on the butt, getting a squeal and a giggle before she scurried out of my reach.

I turned back to the still opened drawer containing my lingerie and decided to wear my favorite bra and panty set, only to have a feeling wash over me that caused me to choose my white lacy bra and panty set. I had also decided on garters and stockings but that feeling had me grab my jet black pantyhose. I was frowning as this occurred but frowned even more as I chose the same for Joanne. Still bewildered, I closed the drawer containing Joanne’s lingerie and turned to see Joanne standing in front of the walk in closet holding two dresses. In the short time we’ve been together we’ve developed a sense of what the other was saying or asking just by our body language or facial expressions. I held up what I was holding and gave Joanne my “heck if I know” look and shrug, only to receive the same from her. I noticed Joanne had pulled out her beige two inch pumps and my black two inch pumps, plus our matching purses. This time I gave her my “what the hell” look and she returned the same. We both shook our heads and decided the best thing to do was just go with it and get dressed. We’d done our makeup light, only a light application of mascara and lipstick, so we were ready to head downstairs about ten minutes later.

As we approached the head of the stairs we could hear murmurs of conversations. They became a bit more distinct as we descended the stairs, but still too low for us to make out the individual conversations. We were once again met by the maid who’s been looking over us since our wedding, and we didn’t even know her name—kind of rude of us really. “Pardon me, would you mind telling us your name? I feel we’ve been rude not asking,” I told her as she replied with, “I am Susan, and it really has been my pleasure to help you. Would the Madams please follow me, I’ll guide to the dining room.” As Susan guided to the dining room, I couldn’t help thinking Tom and Silvia could use a Bullet Train for this place; it’s that big. Susan stopped before a set of opened double doors and directed us to go inside. All talking stopped as Joanne and I walked in, hand in hand, and looking a bit shocked—again. We expected to see Tom and Silvia, but didn’t expect to see Thomas, Mary, Chris, Julie, and of course, Jan. “Ah, there they are, finally joining the living,” Tom said in a very cheerful tone as he walked over to us and gave warm, and welcomed, kisses. “Come in, sit sit sit,” he told us and directed us to the two remaining empty chairs. And wouldn’t you know it, the little snot just had to get things started as she asked, “Well, how’d you sleep or did you get to sleep.”

You’ve probably seen a person like Jan, one who love to dig right in to an embarrassing situation, and is about to burst out laughing at any comment that’s made. Those five were primed and ready, as were Tom and Silvia by Jan’s question. And everyone within earshot died on the floor when Joanne replied, “We’re both very sore this morning. And yes we got to sleep, at 6 a. m.” I dropped my head to my chest and just shook it; I also wanted to find a mouse hole to crawl into. I could not believe what Joanne just said, it is so out of character for her. What else that was out of character was her sticking her tongue out at our five family members; which started another round of laughter. Joanne became red faced when she realized what she had said and done, but being swarmed by our family soon helped her realize she had no need to be embarrassed.

We had another lovely meal at the Marks, with all our family. And yet all through the meal I kept seeing Jan glancing at Tom and Tom glancing at Jan, each having twinkles in their eyes. Something was up, again, and it had to do with Joanne and me. Their surprise was presented, sprung on us was a better term, just after dessert.

“Joanne, Sara,” Tom said after clearing his throat a couple of time. As Tom started speaking the room became deathly silent, as he continued with, “There is no way I can repay the kindness you showed me or what you did for me on that day we learned our daughter, Donna, had been killed. That simple act stopped me from going out, as I had planned, and killing myself—I was that distraught. I, no we, will be eternally grateful to you two and you both have a place in this house forever. You also made us happy beyond words by becoming our adopted daughters, if only in spirit.” Jan handed Tom an envelope and he continued. “Girls, you both may know that it’s customary for the happy couple to embark on a honeymoon after their wedding.” I could feel the tears running down my cheeks and saw Joanne did too as I looked at her, then back to Tom and his outstretched hand holding one of the envelopes. Taking the envelope I tried to open it with shaking hands, only to have Joanne gently take it from me and open it. Inside was two first-class round trip tickets to Europe by air, along with a week-long stay in Paris at one of the finest hotel in that city—I’d been there once. “And girls, you can’t be in Paris without going shopping to your heart’s desire,” he told us as he handed over the other envelope. Joanne took it this time because I WAS a mess, sobbing over what these sweet people were doing for us. “Oh my, are you sure,” Joanne asked as she looked in the faces of the seven people sitting with us. “Sweetie, no one here now has the words to express what the two of you have done for us, personally, and Jan’s since the two of you found each other seven years ago. I honestly believe Jan’s wouldn’t be as successful without the effort you two put in with not only our clients but other employees. You two, whether you realize it, have shown everyone a courage that had been lacking for so long and a caring for one another that had also been lacking from many lives for far too long.” Jan took a breath before finally saying, “Yes sweetie, we’re sure, we want you to have that money.” I looked down at the money Joanne was holding as she whispered, “There’s twenty thousand dollars here.” That’s when we both lost it, only to be engulfed by hugs and love from seven of our family members. We later learned even Susan had to excuse herself for a few minutes. And why did that feeling have us dress as we did, because our flight was leaving in three hours, giving us enough time to get to the airport, check in and get through security. And it was going to be a seven person escort up to the security checkpoint. And no, don’t worry about our luggage, it had been packed and waiting in the car.

****I wiped the tears off my cheeks as I remembered that time, and reached over and did the same for Joanne, as she had reached the pictures of that moment held in time. “That was really a day to remember, on top of all the others,” she told me, as she backhanded more tears off her cheeks. Aw, crap, damn bladder.****

****Chapter 22****

After our melt down subsided, and a bit of face repair, the nine of us rode to the airport in one, yes one, of the Marks’ limos. A porter took care of our luggage as we entered the terminal and checked it at the airlines. Airport security could take some time to get through so we were escorted to our security check point and given tearful hugs and goodbyes; the lady’s room would be our first stop before going to the first class lounge. At this point it would be pointless to give a day by day of our activities while in Paris, we did so many things. I will say I was glad there was a UPS store near our hotel because we shipped quite a bit home, with a lot of gifts that were for our family and what they did for us. One of the things we did get came from our short time spent in London; we got to ride the train through the Chunnel. I do hope the Marks and Jan like what we got them. Saturday finally arrived for our return to the States, our flight didn’t leave until late afternoon so we had time to have one more fabulous meal, so we didn’t rush getting up Saturday morning. After our meal we checked out of the hotel; our luggage was waiting for us in one of the hotel limo. We said our goodbyes, climbed into the limo and were taking to the airport, where a porter once again took care of our luggage while we checked in at the airlines desk. Security took a bit longer because of the number of people wanting to catch flights, but we eventually made it through and walked down to the first class lounge for our flight. We didn’t realize how tired we really were until the flight attendant woke us to let us know that we’d be landing in a few minutes. Joanne and I had slept the entire time on the flight home. And the lady’s lounge was the first thing we’d find when we landed. And yes, we were both extremely sore after our trip, but glad for it.

After we visited the lady’s, we headed to the luggage carousel to pick up our luggage. When we arrived at the carousel we had another surprise as we saw Thomas, Mary, Chris, Julie and of course the little snot, Jan. The smiles on their faces were so wide I’m surprised their faces didn’t split. There were cries of joy at seeing us, hugs, kisses, tears, more hugs, more kisses, and more tears, and questions galore before we finally got down to removing our luggage from the carousel. They already had a trolley, so we had no trouble getting our luggage out to what turned out to be, the Marks limo. And guess who was waiting in the limo to surprise us? Yep, Tom and Silvia; think wash, rinse, and repeat from our meeting at the carousel. It had been such joy to see these people again that I hadn’t had time to ask the obvious question, “What are you all doing here. Joanne and I were going to take a taxi home.” Have you ever had seven people give you an incredulous look all at the same time? Makes you think you got caught with your hand somewhere it shouldn’t have been. “Road biscuits,” Tom said in that fake mad voice he uses most of the time around us. “You two are not taking some horse pucky taxi to get home. Our daughters only travel in style.” And with his speech finished, we received kisses on our cheeks and were then pushed into the awaiting limo.

We wanted to get home, had to get home, we’d been away from our home for too long. We actually wanted to get home to see if any of our plants were still living after letting Jan take care of things. At our mentioning this all we received from the little snot, was her tongue waved in our faces. It was wonderful to see these people again. We weren’t told we’d have company waiting when we returned home, because there were two rather expensive SUVs parked in the driveway. Funny how quiet things got when I mentioned this fact, watching as all eyes landed on Tom. “Okay, Tom, give,” I said in my best “I’m pissed” voice—of course I really wasn’t. Tom is what, seventy, seventy-five, and yet he looked like his hand was caught trying to take cookies from the cookie jar. “Well, you see, um, I um, well I bought you both new SUVs,” rushed out of him like the wind of a tornado. I know Joanne was trying to grasp what he just said because it was written on her face, and it must have been written on my face because all eyes suddenly turned towards Joanne and me. I bet those seven wished they had ear plugs because when the realization of what Tom said finally sunk in, Joanne and I screamed our heads off—the limo driver simply raised the glass partition. A collective sigh left those seven as they then basked in the joy we were displaying. We also ran over everyone as the driver opened the door after parking in our driveway.

Joanne and I were like to little girls on Christmas morning, running around those two SUVs trying to decide who got which one based on the color. That’s when Joanne took a coin from her pocket and told me, “Call it.” “Aw crap,” I said after she flipped the coin and it came up tails. Joanne chose the deep blue SUV, leaving me with the deep maroon one. We had the good graces to look at our seven family members after our little bit of excitement, and saw they were having as much fun just watching our antics. There was another round of hugs and kisses and hugs and kisses before I asked, “Would you all like to come in for a while?” Tom ever the gentleman took my hand then said, “Honey, this is the first time you two are home as married woman. You enjoy your first married night in your own home, but come to our home Saturday morning and spend the day with us and then attend a welcome home party that night.” Six heads nodded in a pleading agreement, so what could we really say but, “Deal.” The driver had already taken our luggage into our house, so we gave more hugs and kisses until the last one was in the limo and it was backing down the drive. Joanne and I watch until the limo was out of site before we turned to each other and said in unison, “Welcome home Mrs. Mathew.” Joanne tried to pull the flip the coin trick again to see who carried who over the threshold, but I’d have none of it, since I was bigger so I was going to carry her. Or so I thought when I tried. Joanne just chuckled as she swept me off my feet and carried me into our home, kicking the door closed behind us and going directly to our bedroom. We didn’t pass go or collect our two hundred dollars, but oh gawd were we going to be sore in the morning.

Ding-dong-dong-ding dong-dong-ding-ding

My eyes snapped open at the sound of the front door chimes. Joanne and I finally drifted off the sleep around 3 a.m. and it being Sunday, someone had better have died or there being a city wide emergency, or our house is on fire, because I’m going to kill whoever woke us at…I looked at the clock to see it showing 10 a.m. Joanne had fallen asleep as close to me as she could without crawling under my skin. Her head rested on my chest, just above my breasts and her left leg was draped over my left leg with her left hand resting on my belly. “Hey sweetie, someone’s at the front door,” I told her in a near whisper. “Uh huh,” she murmured back to me as her head slid down to my left breast and she began to suckle the nipple. At the same time her left hand slid down between my legs and began where she left off at three this morning.

Ding-dong-dong-ding dong-dong-ding-ding

Oh gawd Joanne’s administrations felt wonderful, just as they had most of last night into early this morning. “Hey hon,” I whispered just before kissing the back of her neck, “I need to get up to see who’s at the door. I’ll kill them quick then you can continue what you’re doing.” I kissed her neck again, as my motor was getting extremely close to ramping up. I knew if I let her continue much longer, I wouldn’t care who was standing in front of our front door. I reached over with my right arm and took hold of her left ear with my right hand, at the same time I used my left hand to take hold of her right ear and pulled her head up so she was looking me in the eyes. I had to laugh at her expression, which was a cross between sucking a lemon and a kid who’s pouting because they didn’t get their way. “Sweetheart,” I said between laughs, “I really need to see who’s at the front door, okay?” Still holding her ears I nodded her head up and down. “I’ll kill them quickly then you can continue what you were doing, okay?” Again I nodded her head up and down and for my efforts she stuck her tongue out at me; I quickly lifted my head up and sucked her tongue for all I was worth before releasing her ears. Joanne levered herself up enough so I could get out of bed, after which I grabbed my robe as I walked by a chair near the bedroom door. Basically stomping down the hallway, while dragging my robe behind me, I reached the front door and actually threw it open and yelled, “WHAT?”

As I looked into a face too cheery for this time of morning I heard, “Morning, you girls already up?” My sleep deprived eyes took a moment to recognize the person standing before me, but it didn’t take much longer for my facial recognition software to kick in when I heard, “A bit underdressed aren’t you?” Jan, it was Jan, too cheery at this time on a Sunday morning and I was going to kill her slowly. She held up a bag then said, “I have food.” At the mention of food my stomach let me know that neither Joanne nor I had eaten any food from the time we got in bed until this moment. Her first question hit me as I looked down at myself and remembered I was in my birthday suit. I gave her my best incredulous look, backed the door against the wall, and watched as a too cheery Jan walked into our home.

As Jan’s butt cleared the door, I slammed it shut. “I hope you realize you interrupted the beginning of another wonderful session with my Mrs.?” I told her while all the time trying to decide what to do with her body. I guess all the noise I was making caused Joanne to get curious because no sooner had I chewed Jan out for interrupting us, then Joanne came walking down the hall, dragging her robe and in her birthday suit. “What’s all the noise,” she slurred/mumbled when she walked into the living room. “I got food,” Jan said again, this time to Joanne as she held up the bag. Joanne came to a stop directly in front of Jan and told her in her still half asleep voice, “You realize I was in the process of getting Sara all hot and bothered? And you interrupted that!!” As I watched, Jan set the bag of food on the floor then took Joanne face in her hands and gently kissed her. Joanne’s reply was gentle to start with, but grew in intensity as the kiss lingered. I watched as Jan dropped her left hand down between Joanne’s legs and began doing what Joanne had started with me before the front door chimes rang.

I quietly walked up behind Jan and reached around and started unbuttoning her blouse. She dropped her arms long enough for me to completely remove her blouse, but resumed what she was doing between Joanne’s legs. I then unbuttoned and unzipped the side button and zipper on her slacks and helped her remove them completely while she never once missing a beat with Joanne. Next to be removed were her bra and panties, and where they landed I couldn’t tell you. I walked around to Jan’s right side and leaned into her and began suckling her right nipple, while my hand started doing to her what she was doing to Joanne. I saw Joanne grab Jan’s left wrist and steady it as she mounted the fingers and started riding them of her own volition. I felt Jan’s right hand reach between my legs and I was off to the races. Joanne was riding Jan’s fingers just as I was, while Jan and Joanne were still kissing while I was giving Jan the same between her legs. I could not tell you who came first or if it was a group yell, but it wasn’t long before we wondered if the neighbors might have called the police to report a murder. Everything started slowing down between us until we were leaning on each other for support. To my surprise, Joanne then took Jan’s hand and started pulling her down the hall to our bedroom. In a move which surprised not only me but Jan as well, Joanne picked up Jan and gently laid her on the bed, getting on the bed herself and right between Jan’s legs. I quickly understood what Joanne had in mind; it was our turn to pleasure Jan.

I opened one eye and it happened to be the eye which could see the clock, and when it focused I saw it was three in the afternoon. I was cuddled up to Jan on her left, while Joanne was cuddled up on her right. My head was on Jan’s shoulder while Joanne’s head was on her chest; oh this should be good, I thought as I realized how Joanne had positioned herself. And right on cue, Joanne slid her head down to Jan’s right breast and began to suckle the right nipple. Her hand, which had been resting on Jan’s belly, slid down between Jan’s legs and began rubbing her clitoris. Jan let out a moan as Joanne used her own form of a wake up alarm, which was more pleasant than any alarm I’d ever heard. As Jan moaned louder, and deeper, Joanne increased her administrations, until Jan’s moans became a staccato array of moans with guttural overtones of a growl. It didn’t hurt that I was giving her left breast and nipple a bit of TLC.

As if Jan had been shocked by an electrical wire, her body tensed, I felt a hand on the back of my head pressing me hard into her left breast, as she pulled Joanne’s head harder into her groin. At this point Jan uttered a deep moaning guttural scream as our administrations culminated in her climaxing. Ever so slowly Jan started to relax, the tension going out of her body and her hold on Joanne and I easing. “Oh my gawd, that was so intense,” she told us as she reached up with her right hand and began combing Joanne’s hair with her fingers. She turned her head to me and we locked lips and we explored each other’s tongues for a bit less than she had with Joanne. “Oh gads, what time is it?” Jan asked as we all came up for air. “A little after three in the afternoon,” I told her as I stroked her hair. Joanne had turned herself so she could look at Jan, I was facing her, but we both started laughing when Jan made a face which showed she couldn’t believe how late it was. “I still have food,” she told us and all three of us broke up with laughter.

The three of us finally got out of bed and made our way to the two bathrooms in our house, where we used the toilets then both showers; Joanne and I didn’t want to waste water so we showered together, and were good girls doing so. Mostly, sort of, kind of. About twenty minutes later, give or take, three cleaned and pressed girls finally ate the meal Jan had brought with her when she arrived at ten that morning. We told her about our honeymoon, where we went, what we saw, and it was then I went into our bedroom and brought out Jan’s gift we purchased in London. I sat the box in front of Jan, getting a questioning look from her as I told her, “We hope you like it.” Still giving us a questioning look, Jan took the knife I offered her and carefully cut through the tape keeping the box flaps closed, then after removing all the packing material, carefully lifted out a rather ornate wooden box. The wooden box was about eighteen inches tall and about six inches square. The top of the wooden box was held in place by four latches, one on each side of the box. We had been shown how to open the box so I did what we had been shown and wrapped my hands around the sides while I nodded to Jan to undo the latches. Joanne then reached over and removed the top and I slowly let the sides fold down one at a time. “OH MY GAWD,” Jan exclaimed after the sides were folded down, revealing a glass figure of Aphrodite. It stood a little over fourteen inches high, and stood on a base which was about five inches square, and made of solid crystal. “…oh my gawd,” Jan whispered while taking in the beauty of the statue. I reached over and gently wiped the tears off her cheeks as I told her, “When we saw this, all we could think of was everything you’ve done for us over the years and in making our wedding so beautiful. You showed us a beauty we’d never seen, or had, in our lives until meeting you. Neither of us can fully express the love we have for you or how grateful we are that you came into our lives. At that point Jan lost it and started crying in earnest. Joanne and I gathered up that lovely woman and held her until she cried herself out. As we watched, Jan seemed to be gathering her thoughts to tell us something, she was pensive, even biting her lower lip, but instead of saying anything she surprised us by taking first Joanne’s hand then mine and led up back to our bedroom.

This time all three of us came back to the land of the living about the same time, after having another wonderful time together for an unknown amount of time. It was Joanne, this time, which became the coo-coo clock and told us it was 8 p.m. We looked at each other and started to giggle, because first it was from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., then from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m., with only one meal where food was involved. Our giggles turned into laughter, the laughter turned into cuddles, and the cuddles turned into caresses which lead to us falling asleep an unknown time later. But we still had only one meal where food was involved. When the three of awoke the third time, we realized we were starving, but needed to clean up before getting something to eat. Knowing what would ensue if Joanne and I showered together, I wisely let her go first; Jan showered in the other bathroom. While they showered I called one of my favorite places, theirs too, and placed an order for three of the number 10 Chinese dinners, with extra sauce and extra fortune cookies. As Joanne and I passed each other, and kissed, I told her a delivery would be arriving shortly.

****I came back to reality to find Joanne looking at me with a concerned look on her face. “What’s wrong, sweetie, you have that hurt/embarrassed/guilty expression on your face,” she asked as I could once again feel tears sliding down my cheeks. “I was remembering that Sunday after we returned from our honeymoon, and our love making with Jan. What have we done, Joanne, our own daughter?” I told her as I burst into tears. Joanne pulled me in close to her, pushed my head down onto her shoulder and let me cry. “I know sweetie, I’ve thought about that too. But at the time we didn’t know she was our daughter, the daughter we have right now who attends kindergarten. All we knew at the time was that we had fallen in love with a young woman who had almost moved the world for us and we knew only one way to express ourselves to her, beside with words. Does that make us terrible people, no I don’t think so. Will it help us love our Janelle more, yes I think so, and Jonathan and Thomas and Christine. That time with Jan showed us how much people need another person in their lives if it is to be complete. You make my life complete, and at that time, Jan made our lives complete. I don’t think whatever God that’s out there will be mad at us for the way we loved another human who showed nothing but love for us.” I sniffed a bit and mulled over what Joanne just said. Do I love the kids, and Joanne, more because of that day with Jan…yes, I do. I’m not so afraid to be more physically with the kids, too afraid to hug when in a crowd or give a kiss with others around. And because of Joanne and that day, I understand a lot more what love feels like, what it makes you want to do for others. Joanne is right, we didn’t know then what we know now and I shouldn’t dwell on it being a mistake in our lives.****

The door chimes sounded, as I was drying my hair, which meant our food was here. This time no one was wearing a robe, we all had our clothes back on; thank goodness, I’m not sure my soreness could stand more soreness. I hope no one notices three women walking rather delicately tomorrow at work. The conversation as we ate was light, joking, and about work tomorrow. “Um…” Jan started and paused to get her words right. “About tomorrow, I’m not sure, but there might be a welcome back party for you two. But you didn’t hear it from me and I’ll lie through my teeth if anyone finds out I told you.” She was sure my foot, that smile she had on her face said she was the ringleader of this party. “Uh, huh, right, you know nothing about this party. I’ve know you too long, you snot, and I know when you wear that smile you are the head of any conspiracy that involves doing something good for someone else. And we love you all the more for it.” My last statement got Jan’s tears flowing; heck, it got all our tears flowing. But it was the absolute truth when it came to this woman. The tears caused another group hug fest before we finished eating. It was after midnight before Jan left, but not without kisses all around and another group hug. Tomorrow should be rather interesting in more than one way.

****Chapter 23****

When the alarm went off the next morning, Monday, Joanne was snuggled up against my back with her left arm draped over my chest. Just after the alarm stopped sounding that minx started tweaking my left nipple in order to walk me; she also knew what could result if she continued. “You know if you continue doing that we’ll be late for work?” I told her with a bit of a croaky voice, which didn’t persuade her to stop. “…mmm huh,” she mumbled, but didn’t stop. I turned over as gently as I could so I wouldn’t pull Joanne’s fingers from my nipple, and spent a few minutes hunting for her tonsils. After breaking the kiss Joanne told me, “I guess we better get up, huh?” I hunted her tonsils a few moments more and replied with a sigh, “Yeah, we better.” In one of our moments like this, I should know by now never to turn my back on Joanne when I’m naked. I rolled over to get out of bed and had no sooner started to get up than received a slap on my butt. Of course I jumped, then turned around only to see the most precious grin on Joanne face, one which a certain cat in a tree would do well to learn. I showed Joanne a fist before offering my hands to help her out of bed. I should have also known that Joanne allowing me to help her out of bed was part of another want she had, because as she put her feet on the floor and I pulled her up, she pulled me toward her as at the same time letting go of my hands and wrapping her arms around my back. And if you haven’t guessed by now, yes we tonsil hunted a bit more as we grinded against each other. Joanne was going to be terrible at work today, she was not going to let me forget what she wanted tonight. I only hope the fire hoses work on the first floor, I may need them.

Reason finally reached Joanne’s brain, and while she did the bathroom I did the kitchen getting our breakfast started. “Your turn,” she hollered when she walked out of the bathroom and into our bedroom to get dressed. Most of what I was fixing for breakfast went into the over, and Joanne would keep an eye on it while I showered and dressed. We had breakfast then dealt with the dishes, were dressed and had touched up of lipstick when the clock showed eight o’clock. We grabbed our purses, walked out to my car and were on our way to work by five after eight. When we reached our usual parking structure the place I usually park was taken, as so were the next one and the ones after that, which is strange because we usually arrive early enough not to have a problem with parking. As we went up to the next level we saw the strangest sight, a sign hanging over a parking spot which read, “Sara park here.” I looked at Joanne, she looked at me, and we both remembered what Jan said last night, about a welcome home party being thrown for us on our first day back. I rolled my eyes and shrugged, as did Joanne, and pulled into that parking space. We walked to the elevator and there too was a sign reading, “Sara, Joanne, take this one,” with an arrow pointing to one of the two elevators. Joanne and I just shook our heads, I pushed the button, and Joanne grabbed my hand; what else did these lovely people have in mind.

The elevator took us down to the ground level of the parking structure, where when the doors opened we saw a red carpet, and another message. “Joanne and Sara, stay on the red carpet.” The really strange thing was that this wasn’t here when we first pulled into the structure. We had to park on the fourth level, so that must have given whoever enough time to get this placed. “Well, might as well walk the red carpet, sweetie,” Joanne said and she pulled me out of the elevator and along the red carpet. Normally we’d walk the breezeway and enter Jan’s by the front door. But the red carpet was taking us to the back of the auditorium and to its rear door. That door is always kept locked, but not today, it opened right up when I presses down on the outside latch and pulled on the door. Just inside the door was a big arrow pointing in the direction of the stage; the red carpet headed that way too. Staying on the carpet we followed it until we were standing in the middle of the stage behind the main curtain. I’m sure my foot tapping could be heard quite plainly had anyone been in the auditorium, which they hadn’t, until someone activated the main curtain and we heard, “SURPRISE,” from a completely full auditorium—that was everyone in our office. And then as if on cue, “WELCOME BACK.” Jan had prepared us for a surprise but actually having it happen was altogether different, especially with all the genuine smiles we were seeing. Jan came up and gave us both a hug and kissed our cheeks, then led us off the stage and into a mass of lovely people. This was really the best way to start off the work day.

A year ago, before we married, Joanne and I decided we’d wait one year after we were married before becoming pregnant—and yes we flipped a coin to see who would be inseminated first. And it may sound crass but we spoke with Thomas and his wife, after we had talked about waiting the year, about Thomas being our sperm donor. They didn’t reject our request outright but asked us to let them discuss it and they’d let us know their answer in a few days. Joanne and I are currently at our OB-GYN and Joanne is holding my hand as our doctor, Dr. Janice as she likes to be called, is about to inseminate me with Thomas’ sperm. Joanne had watched me like a hawk these past few days, making sure we came in at the peak of my ovulation. Dr. Janice told us after the procedure that we’d know for sure in a couple of weeks if the insemination had been successful. Two days later I got to see what the inside of a toilet bowl looked like on a very personal level; Joanne had called Dr. Janice and was told to bring me in for an exam. At Dr. Janice’s office, she had just taken a blood sample when I told her I was going to be sick, again. It was a good thing they had barf bags handy because I left her a full one. Dr. Janice said it looked like I was pregnant but they’d look at my blood and let me know in a few days. Feeling good I was not, my stomach was empty and I wanted something to eat. The first five places Joanne mentioned Joanne said my face went all green. The sixth place, a place we never visit, was the winner, a health food restaurant. We really shouldn’t be surprised because Dr. Janice told us I might start having weird cravings once I became pregnant.

Joanne and Dr. Janice kept a close eye on me as I started showing. There were regular visits, visits Joanne pulled me too, visits I would have blown off because “I was feeling fine;” Joanne has yet to master the incredulous look but she tries. As we had discussed before we married, the winner of the coin toss was pragnantized first with the other to follow six months later. We are again in Dr. Janice’s office but this time I’m holding Joanne’s hand as Dr. Janice performed the procedure. And just like what happened to me two days afterwards, Joanne got up close and personal with the inside of the toilet bowl. Guess that meant she too was now pregnant, huh?

Two pregnant women in the same household, one six months along in her pregnancy and the other a few weeks, and talk about weird cravings, oy, did we have some weird cravings. I really don’t like fish, or any of that type food, it’s a long story that I won’t talk about here, but during these last six months I ate more fish and fish type foods than I ever had, since the thought or mention of eating red meat, of any kind, caused my stomach to do more than flip flops—I’ll have to remember to get that toilet a birthday card. And if you think I was bad, Joanne was much worse. Joanne has a hard time eating any leafy greens, another long story, but in the short time she’s been pregnant she can’t get enough leafy greens. And watching her as she ate copious amounts of red meat was enough to send me running towards my old porcelain friend more than once. So we had to compromise about which restaurant we visited, or what we fixed or had delivered, so that neither of us sent the other to visit our now very old friend.

One night about three months later I suddenly woke from what I thought was a bad case of gas; looking at the clock it showed 11 p.m. I used the crane over our bed to hoist myself out of bed and waddled into the bathroom where my old friend did receive a deposit, but I still felt out of sorts. I waddled back to bed only to feel more discomfort which must have waken Joanne because her table lamp came on and she then looked me square in the eyes and asked, “Are you in labor?” Hearing Joanne’s question caused my light came on, only it wasn’t my table lamp but the one in my head. So this is what labor feels like, as I told Joanne, “I guess so, guess we’d better get me to the hospital.” By the time I grunted my way out of bed, Joanne had already called Dr. Janice to tell her it was my time, and we were heading to the hospital. Being the two girls we are, and where we work, we’d already thought ahead and only had to grab my already packed small suitcase before Joanne helped my waddling body get to her car.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the hospital, where as we were walking in an orderly suddenly showed up with a wheelchair that became my legs into the hospital and towards the delivery room. Thankfully Dr. Janice was there, because even though Joanne never left my side, I was scared. Scared to go through the whole experience and very scared I’d never get to see my baby alive. We were taken into a delivery waiting room where they gave Joanne a surgical gown and helped her wash her hands properly. While that was happening I was helped into a hospital gown and helped onto an examination table. Dr. Janice came in just as I was up on the table and as she always did we us, explained everything she was now going to do, in that extremely reassuring voice she used. After what seemed a quick look, Dr. Janice said to the room in general and me specifically, “Hey sweetie, we best get you into the delivery room right now, because your water broke and I can see a small head of hair.” Just like the day Joanne and I were whisked off to the airport for our honeymoon, those in the room with us whisked us off to the delivery in a well-rehearsed manner. First I was helped onto a gurney, then with one nurse on one end and one on the other, my gurney was wheeled out the door with Dr. Janice right behind me. Joanne was held back until I was out the door and guided down to the delivery room. Joanne was given a mask before guided into the room, while a hair net was placed over my hair; and we never once stopped our forward motion. An hour later, while Joanne held my hand and helped when directed, Janelle Mary Mathew made her first appearance into the world, a beautiful 7.5 lbs. 18.5 inch long healthy baby girl, who had no trouble announcing her arrival. It took a few more minutes for the birthing process to complete, but when it did I was cleaned up and taken to my room; we had pre-registered me so we didn’t have to worry about that when delivery time came.

I must have had a concerned mothers’ face on when Janelle was taken out of the room, but Dr. Janice assured me it was alright and Janelle was just being given a thorough exam and cleaned up before being brought to my room. What seemed like forever, Jan was finally in my arms, having been clothed in a pink blanket and cap, and making it know that she wanted something—she takes after Joanne in that department. Because of all the help Dr. Janice gave us throughout my pregnancy I knew Janelle would be hungry and had the greatest thrill the minute Janelle began feeding from my breast. Joanne could do things to my breasts that not only buckled my knees but curled my toes as well. But this, my own child suckling my breast, was heads and tails over anything Joanne could do. As Joanne watched Janelle nurse, I could see the longing in her face, in her eyes, as I pulled her close and whispered, “Not long now before you get to have the same experience.” She kissed me then laid her head on my shoulder so she could watch as Janelle nursed. I also felt my shoulder get wet as the tears escaped Joanne’s eyes, tears of happiness and tears of expectations. We had started our family.

We also had a spy among our midst, because there was a soft knock on the door as it opened to admit Jan, Thomas, Alice, Mary, and Julie, each carrying a small gift. I became a bit worried when I saw Thomas for I was feeding Janelle, but he mouthed, “It’s okay, been there seen that, got the t-shirt to prove it.” I could only snort at his silent comment, but cover Janelle’s head anyway in case any of the nurses objected; I explained this to Thomas a bit later, getting a story about the same thing happening to Katie when she was feeding Tammy—only that nurse threw his father out of the room, literally threw him out of the room.

Dr. Janice knew how close the two of us were, and except for Janelle, who went into her own small bed, Dr. Janice had spoken to the hospital on our behalf and Joanne had slept besides me the rest of the night. Not only did we sleep through the rest of the night but so did Janelle, and was the first one up when she announced she was messy, wet, and hungry. A nurse came in about that time and we knew they monitored the rooms audibly so weren’t surprised when she came in to change Janelle. She used that time to help us learn how to care for an infant when their diaper had to be changed. And yes, explain just how messy we might find her diaper before her system stabilized a bit more to accept solid foods. I raised the head of my bed up so I could take Janelle from the nurse and let her breast feed. The nurse told us that my breakfast would be brought in as soon and Janelle stopped feeding, so I suggested that Joanne go and get herself some breakfast; someone nixed two breakfasts being brought into my room. “Hey, hon, I’ll be fine and so will you,” I told her as I squeezed her hand and pulled her down for a very nice, loving, kiss. She looked a bit better, nodded her head and left to find the cafeteria. Joanne has come a long ways since her transformation, but there are times when Jonathan’s embarrassment over being a girl ekes out and I have to help remind her that no one even sees a man when she is by herself—I reminded her in another way over the past two years. More so since our wedding; and I’m sore again but it’s a wonderful soreness.

Joanne and I had had the foresight and the kick in the pants by Jan, to discuss what to do after our children were born. We had decided to ask Jan if taking a month off would put Jan’s in a bind, we could then hire a nanny to help with the children. We shouldn’t have been surprised when Jan TOLD us we would be taking a month off and she had a nanny already lined up who would be with us during the day to help us with our infants. I was doing it, and felt sure Joanne was too, but I could only shake my head in amazement of that woman. You can’t argue with a tornado any more than you can argue with Jan once she’s made a decision. We would be taking a month off; we would be having a nanny, end of story.

It was Saturday, and Janelle was six months old, and had just fed and was down for her nap. Joanne and Kelly, our nanny, were in the kitchen fixing lunch when Joanne let out a loud groan and grabbed the island counter. “Aw, crap,” Joanne said in an exasperated voice, “My water just broke and messed up the kitchen floor.” I couldn’t help it as I burst out laughing at her proclamation. “Hey, it’s not funny, now someone has to clean it up because I can get up off my knees once I’m down.” That did it, both Kelly and I were roaring with laughter. Leave it Joanne to worry about something that isn’t important when something spectacular is about to happen. It totally escaped her notice that she was in labor. Once our laughter died, Kelly gently took Joanne and guided her to my car while I once again called Dr. Janice then grabbed Joanne’s suitcase. Suffice to say as with my delivery, wash, rinse, repeat, and like my delivery, about an hour after we were in the delivery room, an 8 lbs. 19 in long Christine Alice Mathew enter the world singing to her hearts’ content. Their treatment of Joanne was exactly like the treatment I received, wonderful and very caring. As Joanne had six months ago, I laid my head on her shoulder as Christine nursed, and wet Joanne’s shoulder as my happiness leaked out. Two of our four planned children had comes into our lives, and soon the other two would be joining them. And of course the spy had blabbed and the usual five showed up baring gifts, again. Wonder if I’ll ever stop saying how much I love those people, all of them.

****Coming back from my memories, I took Joanne’s hand and pulled her up off the couch. I silently led first to Jan’s room, then to Chris’s, then to Jon’s, then to Thomas’. She knew what I was doing, and pulled free of my hand and put that arm around my waist. “Remembering their births,” she whispered, and I just nodded. Those four sleeping forms never saw their mothers sucking face just outside their rooms, or where mother Joanne put her hand on mother Sara. I almost melted against Joanne’s hand, but broke our kiss and told her, “I’m hungry.” Joanne just giggled and we went into the kitchen before going back to the couch. Wash, rinse, repeat about my feelings for the woman I married, and our children.****

I should probably back up and tell about the day Kelly and I took Janelle to Jan’s a few days before I was to return to work. The day started off calmly, with Kelly packing all of Janelle’s major necessities while I got her dressed. We got Janelle into her car seat and Kelly sat in the back with her while I drove to Jan’s; I parked in front of Jan’s since I was technically not an employee today. In hindsight I should have phoned Joanne to let her know we were coming to Jan’s because the minute Kelly opened the front door and I walked through carrying Janelle, Cindy went absolutely nuts; I wouldn’t be surprised they didn’t hear her on the third or fourth floors. Cindy’s banshee cry alerted everyone on the first floor and within seconds it was a mob trying their best to see Janelle. I thought for a minute Joanne was going to break out a club in order to make her way to us, but thankfully when everyone realized who was trying to push through the mod, they gladly let her through; it took me several minutes to calm her down. A few moments after the mob gathered around, I heard the shrillest whistle I’d ever heard, which, thankfully, diverted everyone’s attention. “ALRIGHT YOU BOZOS,” Jan yelled at those gathered around us, “BACK OFF!!”

Momma bear had come out of her den and found her cub threatened by a huge mob, and the mob included almost every client which had been in Jan’s at the time on the first floor. You remember about Moses parting the Red Sea with God’s help? Jan’s voice and known attitude was all people had to see and hear to move way back away from us. “Sara, dang it all, why didn’t you call before you came? This pack of hyenas had been clamoring to see Janelle since the day she was born.” Giving the impression to everyone but Jan that I had been properly chastened, I smirked at the same time Jan did. “Okay, you animals, take it easy now and have a look, there are others higher up who deserve a chance too.” This time things were a “bit” more orderly, as everyone had a chance to see Janelle and do their own version of ogling. Once everyone, including our clients, had had an eyeful, Jan called up to the other floors to warn them of our coming. The visit on the other floors was more orderly, but just by a hair. And what happened when Kelly and Joanne brought both Janelle and Christine to Jan’s, wash, rinse, and repeat my experience times two.

The year flew by, business at Jan’s increased so much we had to refurbish two more floors and hire more employees. It was also Janelle’s birthday, her first, which we had to have at the Marks because of orders from the little snot. As Joanne and I found out later, holding Janelle’s birthday at the Marks was really a diversion, because when we got home both Janelle’s room and Christine’s room had been refurnished with items that had to have cost a fortune. And it wasn’t long after we got home then the front door chimes rang and who should be stand there with a smile on her face, that’s right, our own lovely snot, Jan. Joanne had perfected her incredulous look by now and joined me in giving it to Jan. “So, how do you like it, the change I mean,” Jan sheepishly asked. We both could tell she was nervous, afraid we would blow up at her for what she did. She even had tears forming when Joanne and I pulled her into a very tight hug and told her, “We love it, thank you.” Jan let out a sob we didn’t realize she was holding back, and had there been time or us afraid of walking up Janelle or Christine, we would have taken that girl to bed—we did find others times to express our love for that girl and make her walk a bit differently afterwards.

As we discussed before our marriage, and it may sound like we’re rushing, but when Christine reached her first birthday, Joanne was inseminated a few days later, again using Thomas’ sperm. And as we did before, I was inseminated six months later, also using his sperm. We did exactly as we had done, everything was packed for both of us, and with Kelly taking care of Janelle and Christine, when our times came we knew the signs, the play, and how it would feel bring a new life into the world. Three months after I was inseminated Joanne gave birth to a 8 lbs. 20 inch baby boy we named Jonathan Roger Mathew. And six months later I gave birth to a 7 lbs. 19inch baby boy we christened Thomas Michael Mathew. We had done it, we had our children, we had our family. We had hope that through Joanne and I they would learn how to love and care for others as though they were family. We also hoped their grandparents didn’t spoil them too bad. We also hoped that Joanne and I, along with their grandparents, could instill in them a work ethics which would anchor them well throughout their lives. And maybe someday help them achieve something great.

****Chapter 24****

Six more years have passed at Jan’s, and five years since our kids were born. Business at Jan’s has been steadily increasing to the point another three floors were refurbished; one of those floors was turned into a massive conference room, large enough to hold about a three-fourth of Jan’s employees at one time, comfortably. At five years old, Janelle started kindergarten, at which the others, Christine now four and a half, Jonathan three, and Thomas two and a half, bristled at because they couldn’t go with her. Joanne and I did our best in explaining the reasons they had to stay home, but at such a young age, they should never have learned that incredulous look; try not laughing while trying to look serious when you get “that” look from your two and half year old child. Of course, Joanne and I knew that they knew why they couldn’t go to school with Janelle, and as usual it broke up into a giggle fest and tickle fight. And as usual, we’d hug and kiss everyone before we left for work while leaving them in Kelly’s excellent hands—her teachers’ hands. Yes, Kelly had her teaching credentials, and while taking care of the kids she would teach them in a play sort of way. So you can imagine our surprise when we came home, one evening, only to find Christine reading one of Joanne’s basic math books from our library. As we quizzed her about the book, we found that while she didn’t understand most of what she read, she understood more than a child her age should have. And as time went on we discovered that to be true of all our kids.

It was a sad day three and a half years later when we said goodbye to Kelly, it was one of those things we discussed with her when Jan hired her. At the time Kelly told us she had been applying for teaching positions, but was told none were expected to open up for at least two years, but her applications would be kept on file and she would be notified when a position came open. As if fate had a hand in it, Kelly received a phone call to let her know a teaching position had opened and they felt she was the perfect person to fill that position—of course she jumped at the chance, explaining her current position would terminate in a three weeks. They told her that would be acceptable and would see her in three weeks. As her former employers we were contacted and told them we’d rather meet in person to give them our evaluation of Kelly, since we had a few reports we’d like them to see. Ah those reports, done by a child psychologist we took the kids to when we noticed their propensity for more intellectual activities than those activities of other children their ages. When those test results came back, because of Kelly’s tutelage their knowledge was two to three times greater than kids of comparable age. Those reports also said they all have higher than normal intellects given their ages. And they give a lot of the credit to Kelly, and we wanted to make sure those hiring her knew all this.

Thomas was now in the first grade and Jan had arranged our schedules so we would be home before the kids returned from school—we threatened to quit if that arrangement couldn’t be made. An incredulous look from just about anyone else was almost pathetic, but from Jan it was two lasers getting ready to penetrate four inches of carbon steel as though it was hot butter. Even with her stare, Jan knew we were dead serious when it came to our kids, and knew we would walk out those doors and kick the dirt off our shoes as we did so. We wanted to be home when our kids walked through the front door and learn all about their day.

It was about a week after Kelly left that another sad event took place. We make sure the kids are in bed by eight or eight-thirty, no ifs ands or buts, even though they do try end runs around that current rule. What those little buggers didn’t realize was the minute their heads hit their pillows they were out like lights, so all their pushing the limit did them no good. But this one night we just got the kids to bed when about fifteen minutes later there was a light knock on the front door. Being a quarter to nine we wondered who would be visiting this time of night. The light knock sounded again before I could open the door to see Jan standing there, a not so happy expression on her face. “May I come in,” she asked in an extremely sad voice before I took her hand and pulled her inside and into a hug. “I need to tell you guys something,” she whispered to me as we hugged. I pulled back far enough to look her in the eyes and saw that this time she was very serious. Joanne, having seen the look on Jan’s face, was already heading to the kitchen to fix tea while I closed the front door and pulled Jan to the couch.

****I took a moment for me to realize Joanne had pulled me into a hug because I was quietly crying. My head rested on her chest as she stroked my hair and whispered, “I miss her too. But we’ll see her again in a few years.” I could only nod as my tears fell, even though we couldn’t tell her about herself.****

I could tell Jan was nervous, worse than the time we found out she had the kids rooms refurnished. She was so nervous she was looking at the floor as she played with her hands. This was a different Jan than we’d see before, a Jan that was baring bad news and not sure how we’d take it. I’d put Jan on my right side on the couch so Joanne could sit on her right side; I had a feeling she was going to need a lot of support. Joanne brought in three teas, placed them on the coffee table in front of us, sat down then asked, “What is it, Jan, what has you tied up in knots.” Jan continued looking at the floor, and playing with her hands, as her face said she was gathering her words before she spoke.

“You guys know I love you, right? That’s I’d do almost anything for you guys because you deserve it, right? And you know I’d never do anything to hurt you guys, right? I do love you guys, and we have loved, and I’m not trying to hurt you but I have to tell you that’s it’s time for me to move on. It’s time for me to leave, and I’m leaving you two Jan’s Portfolios LLC.”

That living room suddenly became deathly silent after what Jan said. So quiet in fact that given the location of the kid’s bedrooms at the other end of the house, we could hear all four breathing as they slept. I was suddenly in a fog, unable to but two words together to ask Jan the obvious question, the one Joanne asked. “Why?” I looked to and past Jan to see tears on her and Joanne’s cheeks, and was finally able to croak out, “Do you have too?” That question seemed to have been the trigger which caused Jan to finally break down. And as we gathered her in a hug, Joanne and I joined her. It took several minutes for the three of us to cry ourselves out, and several more before we were calm enough to talk intelligently. Dry throats caused us to find out our tea had gone cold, so Joanne went into the kitchen to make more while I held Jan and she me.

Our throats were dry from crying so it took a few swallows before we could again talk properly, before Jan told us why she was leaving (Her journal told us she had to be very careful about the reason why she was leaving. She had to make sure she never once hinted about the main reason for her leaving.)

“Why am I leaving, Joanne, after so long? Because I’ve accomplished what I set out to do, build a splendid business staffed by the best people I could find and provide service greater than anyone else. And I’ve, we’ve, accomplished that. Do I have to leave, Sara, yes I do, I have other goals in mind that can’t be reached here. Do I want to…” her voice caught here, “leave, no not at all. I won’t be able to help your parent’s spoils those stinkers rotten. Where will I go? I have a place in mind where I can try and achieve that goal I referenced. Will I miss you two, and our loving time, oh gawd yes. You two and that time together I’ll miss the most, but will never forget the two of you.” “That” Jan took over as she continued. “Now as to Jan’s Portfolios LLC, our attorney has been working on the paperwork to transfer ownership to you, Sara, and you, Joanne, at no cost to either of you. I might suggest, though, that you make Thomas, Mary, Alice, and Julie your silent partners, and give them more responsibility as I did the two of you over time. If they act like you two did, make sure you don’t step on their jaws so you won’t have any trouble putting them back in place. In a little over two weeks we three will met our attorney and I’ll sign everything over to the two of you. Everything! You two will own all of the accounts, our bank account and holdings, the works. You two will become, Jan’s Portfolios LLC. And if you two let that business run into the ground, I’ll personally come back and kick your butts up between your shoulders. Kidding aside, treat everyone who works at Jan’s or comes into Jan’s the way you treated Tom that day. If you do I guarantee that business will continue to grow, and so will you. I’ve one more thing to ask, keep this between us until the Monday of the week I’ll be leaving. On the Monday after these next two and a half weeks I want you two in my office at 7 a.m. and then we’ll have an employee meeting at 8 a.m. in the auditorium. I know the both of you are upset, so am I, but we must act as though nothing is wrong during this time; business as usual. Okay? Now, I have to go, things to do, people to see, and I’ll see you two tomorrow.

More than cheek kissing occurred between Jan and Joanne and me before she finally left; gads I wish that girl didn’t have to leave tonight. After seeing Jan off, I don’t remember closing the front door because I was busy thinking about all she just told us. I flopped by down on the couch and Joanne leaned into me and I her before we said, “WOW!” I don’t know how long we sat there taking in everything Jan said, but when we finally went to bed I needed Joanne and she showed she needed me before we finally fell asleep sometime later. I remember thinking, before drifting off to sleep, the rest of this week and for the next two weeks, it was going to be hard NOT giving off upset vibes, very hard.

The real hard part of not acting upset started the next morning as we got the kids up and ready for school. We had learned through the years that our precious ones were very perceptive when it came to picking up on something being wrong with Joanne and me, and we had to deflect their questions the best we could. Still, getting the stink eye from your own children was at the same time funny, in that they had yet to perfect its use, and sad because we could see how concerned they were for us. We did a group hug and told them that their mommy’s were alright and thank you for being concerned for your mommy’s. That got us kiss from each child as they walked out the door to the bus stop. I didn’t discuss what I had planned but after Joanne and I got to Jan’s, I called Silvia and asked if we could come over with the kids and speak to her and Tom Thursday evening. Hearing we wanted to bring the kids over caused her to squeal with delight, just as though she’d won a major lottery. “Oh my gawd, Sara, come over, come over for supper say about six thirty? We’ll have all the kid’s favorites.” You may be thinking all the kid’s favorites leaned towards pizza, hamburgers, chicken strips, and the like. Hardly, Tom and Silvia had broadened their palettes by serving dishes I can’t even pronounce, but do enjoy. Once that task was finalized I caught Joanne’s attention and mouthed, “The lounge,” going there and waiting until she arrived before telling her what I’d done. “Thanks, sweetie, I was going to suggest we do that.” A few minutes later, and after a bit of mouth color repair, we returned to our desks and continued with the rest of the day.

When the kids got home from school on Thursday, Joanne had them sit down on the couch so she could tell them something. “Tonight we’re going to grandmas and grandpas for supper, and you know what that means, right? You are to behave yourselves, you don’t go running through their house,” I rolled my eyes when Joanne said that, that place was these kids playground. “Now, change out of your school clothes and put on something nice.” The minute Joanne finished four rockets went screaming down the hall to their bedrooms, breaking the sound barrier as they went; they were not TOO excited. As Joanne and I got ready all we heard was, “Come on moms, let’s go,” from four all too excited kids. By the way they were acting a person would think those four downed a 5 lb. bag of sugar. Joanne and I were finally ready, had just grabbed our purses when four hands grabbed Joanne’s hand and four grabbed mine while hollering, “Come on let’s go,” as they pulled us out of the house and to my car. Were those kids excited? Naw, nothing like that.

Mathew and Shelia were the kid’s two favorite house staff at Tom and Silvia’s home. That talk Joanne had with the kids, the one we always have with the kids before going out to the home, goes out the window when Mathew and Shelia are around. Those two are very good with the kids, firm sometimes, but fun for the kids to be with. We also notice how the kids respect what they say when something gets a little out of hand, and we like that about the kids because that’s how it should be when they’re in someone’s house. Because we came out early, we had time to speak with Tom and Silvia before supper, while our hoard searched out Mathew and Shelia. As our hoard went on their search mission, Silvia took Joanne’s arm and Tom mine before walking us to the library while asking, “Why the sad faces?” Silvia no sooner closed the library door then Joanne and I lost it. And no sooner Tom and Silvia had us hugged against them, each stroking our hair and telling us it will be okay. How that was said didn’t register at the time, or I would have realized that they already knew Jan was leaving. Once we calmed down they sat us down on the settee together with them outside of us. “Jan’s going to be leaving Jan’s,” Joanne told the pair, “And she’s leaving Jan’s Portfolios LLC to us, lock stock and barrel,” she finished as more tears fell from the two of us.

Tom pulled me toward him and pushed my head down onto his shoulder, Silvia did the same with Joanne, before Tom told us, “We know girls, Jan told us several days ago. She asked we not tell you because she wanted to tell you herself.” I know I nodded hearing that, because that’s how Jan liked to handle things with those she loved. “We’re going to miss her something terrible,” I whispered to Tom as fresh tears started to flow. “We know that too girls, so are we.” Tom always the gentleman handed me three tissues, one to keep and two to pass down. He also took one for himself. We were all going to miss that little snot. “Girls,” Tom said after a few moments of silence, “It isn’t hard to see the love you three have for each other, maybe you can bring the kids out this Friday and they could spend the weekend? And if you want, perhaps for the next two weekends?” Tom said as his voice suddenly rose in pitch towards the end. It took only seconds for three women to realize what Tom was intimating and for six pairs of eyes to be drilling into Tom’s head. “Thomas Marks!! What on earth possessed you to say that in front of these girls, even though what you intimated would help our girls immensely.” It suddenly became very hot in that room, and looking at Joanne, I realized a beet didn’t have the market on being red at this moment.

Tom just chuckled before telling us, “Girls, it’s no secret you three love each other enough to love each other when the occasion arises. And you three need each other for the short time you have left. Bring the kids over Friday, and every Friday for the next two weeks, and let the three of you love each other, share each other, for what little time she has left.” Joanne and I were, to say the least, shock by what we just heard Tom say, but one look at Silvia nodding her head was all it took for us to realize they were in this together. They were telling us, for our own good, take Jan into our bed with us for the next three weekends and enjoy ourselves. I laughed before saying, “You two old coots are really something.” That broke up all four of us and gained us hugs and kisses. “May I use the phone, Tom,” I asked, actually getting up and walking towards it lay on a desk. I don’t know if he said yes or no, I didn’t really care, I just knew I had to call someone and ask them to spend the next three weekends with us. And oh gads, were Joanne and I, and a certain someone, going to be sore come the Monday after each weekend. I would make sure it happened.

The past two weekends the three of us made love with abandonment, cherishing the short time we had left together during the weekends. Today is Sunday, the day before we meet with our attorney to finalize paperwork which would then make Joanne and me the new owners of Jan’s Portfolios LLC when Jan left for the final time on Friday after closing time at 6 p.m. Because this was our final weekend together ever, we loved each other with ferocious reckless abandonment. We may have slept four hours the entire weekend because we didn’t want to lose one minute of physically expressing our love for each other. As with previous Sundays, Jan usually left around 3 p.m. in order for Joanne and I to straighten up our bedroom then get cleaned up before Tom and Silvia brought the kids home a little after 5 p.m. Today, though, was different, because it was the last time the three of us could spend our time together like we had, ever.

Today, we were standing at the front door, like the past two Sundays, but no one was in any hurry to wave goodbye to Jan as we had done. Today, while standing at the front door, tears were falling from the three of us, tears which caused us to group hug one last time before the final week leading up to Jan’s departure. My finally goodbye to Jan was a long, slow, lingering kiss, the same that Joanne had done moments before. “I need to go,” Jan whispered as Joanne and I rested our heads on her shoulders. “Yeah” Joanne whisper back, then giving Jan another long, slow, lingering kiss before I did the same. Before we did something we’d get caught doing by our four precious charges, Jan opened the front door and tearfully headed to her car. Joanne stood behind me with her arms around my waist and her chin resting on my shoulder, pulling me tightly to her; I pulled her arms even tighter into me. Joanne’s tears were falling on my shoulder and mine to the floor as we watched Jan back down the driveway and drive off down the street.

When the kids got home, as before, they’d not know about the activity that had taken place in their absences; we felt there was a right time to talk to the oldest about such things, but not today. Joanne and I were sitting on the couch, holding each other, comforting each other, when the front door flew open and four bullets rocketed into the house and straight for us. Watching the life that possessed these four precious children made it almost impossible to remember the sadness which gripped our hearts, or not wanting to join in possessing such vibrant life. “Mommies, mommies, mommies,” were the cries we heard from our four bullets, moments before they launched themselves straight into our laps, hugging and kissing and kissing and hugging before telling us they really missed us and really loved us. Because of our deep sadness over Jan leaving it wasn’t hard for the tears to flow while listening to what our precious charges told us. But leave it to Thomas to notice our tears, as his small hands gently wiped our tears away while asking, “Why are you crying, mommies.” My arm went around two of our children, Joanne’s arm around the other two as we pulled them into a family hug and we both simply cried; our hurt not going unnoticed by Tom or Silvia. When we finally gained a bit more control of ourselves, we pushed back from the kids only to notice concern on their faces. Four small hands wiped tears off my and Joanne’s face before Joanne told them, “We’re crying because we missed you guys so very much.” That part was true, but only that part. “Now,” Joanne said, getting their attention, “I want you four to calmly go to your rooms, put your dirty clothes in the hampers and put what clean clothes you still have where they belong. Okay?” At Joanne’s okay, four heads nodded up and down, saying they understood. Looking back, though, the twinkle in eight eyes should have told us they understood what they had been told, but had something else planned.

After a few more kisses and “I love you,” the hoard climbed down and carrying their backpacks, walked towards their rooms just as Joanne asked them to do. But the minute they took two steps down the hallway leading to their bedrooms, their afterburners kicked in and their sonic screams pierced our ears. Joanne and I bumped our heads together and simply chuckled—this wasn’t the first time those imps had done this, and they know more fun was on the way, it was our family game.

Joanne and I continued leaning on each other as more tears fell, not noticing as Tom sat down next to Joanne and Silvia next to me. Four arms held us tightly as our sadness took over once again. “We’re really going to miss her,” I whispered between sobs, “Really miss her,” Joanne choked out. I felt Silvia run her fingers through my hair while saying, “We know girls, we know.” “We’re going to miss her too,” Tom supplied, before a sudden BANG brought the four of us back to the four matters at hand. We also heard giggling, then “Quiet” said in a loud whisper. “Those four did the same thing to Mathew and Shelia several times, and thought it was great fun,” Tom said with a bit of laughter in his voice. “It took them ages to figure out what the kids were doing,” Silvia told us as she chuckled. The two of us gave Silvia and Tom questioning looks but all they did was point in the direction of the kid’s end of the house. Still wondering what was going on Joanne and I got up from the couch and headed to the kid’s rooms, Joanne looking in on Janelle and Christine, and I Jonathan and Thomas. When we looked into each room, there wasn’t anyone there. I looked at Joanne, she looked at me, then we spotted the Marks standing in the hallway covering their mouths trying to stifle laughter, and pointed towards the rooms. I went back into Jonathan’s bedroom while Joanne went back into Janelle’s. I imagined Joanne did the same as me by opening the closet and having a good look, then in the bathroom between Thomas and Jonathan’s bedrooms.

I opened every cabinet which might be large enough for them to hide in. I even looked under the bed, but to no avail. I sat on the bed trying to think where else Jonathan could be when I spotted the clothes hamper. “Naw, he couldn’t have, it’s too small,” I said to myself as I slowly walked over to the hamper, opened the lid and saw the most gorgeous smile peering up at me, topped with bright twinkling eyes. Jonathan giggled as he said, “What took you so long to find me,” and stood up, reaching around my neck while pulling me close before whispering, “I love you.” I lifted him out of that hamper and held him as close as I could, hoping he didn’t see my tears. I carried him out of his room only to be met in the hallway by Joanne carrying Janelle and tears running down her cheeks. “Where’d you find her?” I asked as I set Jonathan down on the floor. “The laundry hamper,” she replied before she set Janelle down on the floor and we went into the other kids’ rooms. This time we went straight to the hampers but when we opened them up, we found nothing but dirty clothes. We heard two small giggles and two big giggles coming from the hallway. I stood in the doorway to Thomas’s bedroom, and Joanne was standing in the doorway of Christine’s bedroom just glaring at the four, which caused giggles and laughter. They must have been in on it together because they all pointed towards the bedrooms. So, finding two of the missing hoard wasn’t going to be as straightforward as we thought. I first searched the closet as I did before, finding no one. To save a bit of time I looked under the bed, wishing I hadn’t when I saw what was under there. That only left the bathroom, with only one cabinet large enough to hide a little boy. As I had seen when opening the hamper in Jonathan’s room, when I opened that cabinet door the most precious smile greeted me along with gorgeous twinkling eyes. “Hi, mommy,” Thomas said then giggled. I stooped down to help him get out of his hiding place when he placed his hands around my neck, pulled close to me and told me “I love you mommy.”

How can any parent hold back tears when they hear their child tell them that? After helping him out of the cabinet, I hugged him close as I carried him out of the bathroom, through his bedroom and into the hall, where I found Joanne doing the same. As I looked at Tom and Silvia they too had streaks leading down their cheeks from their eyes. It was Thomas who reminded us that we hadn’t eaten by saying, “I’m hungry,” and us four adults broke up in laughter. “Um…would a four meat pizza do Thomas?” I so wished Tom had asked him that question in the living room because his shriek, along with the others, was ear splitting. “So that was a yes, because it will be here in a few minutes, and some hands need washed.” Jonathan and Thomas nearly knocked me down flying towards their bathroom, while Joanne was almost knocked off her feet by Janelle and Christine heading to their bathroom. And standing there silently laughing was, THOMAS Marks. Joanne had her hands on her hips as she glared at him while I had them crossed in front of me as I glared. But that only made him laugh even harder until he had tears running down his cheeks. He pulled us into a hug and told us, “You girls are wonderful, I love you dearly.” He then kissed our cheeks before taking my arm and Silvia taking Joanne’s and lead us back to the living room. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and our pizzas had arrived.

After we ate, and before Tom and Silvia left, we explained that we had to meet Jan at the office at seven in the morning to sign papers that dealt with transferring Jan’s to us. And would it be possible for Silvia to be here by 6:30 a.m. to help the kids get dressed and their breakfast before catching the bus for school? We were glad we asked them that question in the kitchen and not in the hallway because the kid’s synchronized cheer became a sonic boom when they heard grandma reply, “Of course I can, dears.” After saying good night to their grandparents, the order was given to get ready for bed—it’s a good thing neither Joanne nor I were standing in their way or they would have knocked us down as they shot off towards their rooms. As the kids got older, we had been worried about having connecting bathrooms, worried they might fight each other to get into the bathroom. Sometime ago we peaked one time as they got ready for bed, and were surprised by what we saw. While one used the bathroom the other dressed for bed. We thought it was a fluke but the next time we peaked, the other was using the bathroom while the other got dressed for bed. They were treading off using the bathroom while the other got dress, for either bed or school, it didn’t matter, each day they traded off who used the bathroom first. I digressed a bit here but I think Joanne and I knew, as did Tom and Silvia, that because of Jan leaving we needed the kid’s foolishness tonight. I also had a feeling the kids knew too.

I won’t say we had a good night’s sleep because we didn’t, we were still hurting. It was 6 a.m., THE day, Monday, the day we’d become the owners of Jan’s. The beginning of the end to our relationship with Jan, the day which left four days before Jan would be gone forever from our lives. And I hated it, I didn’t want to get up, I wanted to pull the covers up over me and never get out of bed. I think Joanne felt the same because she was hugging me so very tight. I kissed her on the forehead and told her, “Come on, we got to do this, as much as it hurts.” She simply nodded and kissed me back. We helped each other out of bed, made the bed quickly, then headed to our bathroom. With our bathroom work done, and after dressing, we headed to the kitchen to get something to eat when there was a soft knock on the front door. I looked at the clock and saw it was six-thirty, so Silvia must be here. Oh she was here alright, and so were Mathew and Shelia along with her. Seeing the question in our faces she explained, “Mathew volunteered to fix breakfast and Shelia to help get the kids dressed.” Those two got hugs from the two of us and whispered, “Thank you so much.”

We made the rounds of the kid’s rooms, telling each it was time to get up and we’d see them later. All four mumbled, “Okay, bye mommy.” By the time I walked out of Thomas’ room I hoped I hadn’t ruined my makeup. We thanked Silvia, Mathew, and Shelia again before heading out to Joanne’s car. The drive to the office seemed much longer today, and we knew why. The walk from the parking structure to the office also seemed longer, and again we knew why. “I hope we can keep it together today,” Joanne said. “Don’t you mean this week?” I replied as Joanne put her arm around my waist and pulled us closer together. After unlocking the front door, walking in and locking it back, we started walking towards Jan’s office, but stopped when we saw Jan looking our way. I had developed a lump in my throat, as I’m sure Joanne had, but we started walking again then entered her office. With our attorney there we kept it business like and she started explaining everything that was in the paperwork, what Jan was leaving us, how to handle this and that, and a lot more, which I found hard to follow because of Jan being present.

Her leaving was topping my thoughts, and I’m sure we’d be talking to our attorney again very soon. Jan signed where indicated, as did we, before we shook hands with our attorney and Jan showed her out the front door. We saw Jan walking back towards her office with Thomas by her side, looking a bit upset as she shook her head at something Thomas asked. And by Thomas’ reaction, her attitude towards his question was a bit terse. He waved when he saw us but kept walking towards the auditorium, before Jan pulled us out of her office and towards the stairs. We ended up in the lounge on the second floor, in small office there actually. After we entered that small office Jan closed and locked the door; she had something to tell us and did NOT want to be disturbed. Jan turned from the door, grabbed me and almost pulled my lungs out of chest by the kiss Jan gave me, and noticed Joanne experience the same—not that we didn’t return the favor, we would’ve have taken her right there right then had we more time. Instead, Jan motioned us to sit down, while she stood, forming her words in her mind before she spoke.

“I guess from our adventures it’s no secret how much I love you two,” she told us as her eyes got misty. “And you know I wouldn’t have signed Jan’s over to the two of you unless I know in my heart you two would carry on what we started.” A tear leaked down her cheeks. “I am going to miss the both of you so much it already hurts, and I won’t be able to come back to help you through anything.” Jan couldn’t speak anymore because she had started to cry in earnest, so Joanne and I did what we also did when this happened, just held her until she cried herself out. When she was finally able to speak she told us, “Throughout this week I’m going to take the two of you around to show you our holdings, to meet people, and explain a bit more about Jan’s so you won’t be totally clueless when you start as boss come next Monday.” We had another round of deep kisses before being told, “Aww gads, you two look a mess, guess we’d better go fix our faces then go break the news.” We walked into the auditorium about five ‘til eight, and it started getting quiet as the three of us walked up the stairs to the stage. The last few to enter the auditorium never sat down but stood against one of the walls, and Jan began to explain.

“Those of you who were with me those first days of Jan’s have seen things change over the years, watched our staff increase as our client base increased. Look around you, look at how many are now on staff, think about the number of clients we have today and what excellent service we provide them. If you were to go elsewhere in this city and look at businesses like ours, you’d see the same excellent service. And I hope you continue to provide such service, I hope you treat our clients like you want to be treated, not like some number in our system but as the people they are, by the needs they have, regardless what those needs are, as we have done over the years.”

Jan’s voice caught as she said that last sentence, so Joanne stood on one side of her and me on the other, putting our arms around her waist, to support and comfort her so she could continue to say what had to be said.

“Know too that I love each and every one of you, and I will never forget what all of you have done over the years to make Jan’s Portfolios LLC the success it is today. I will never forget each and every one of you individually either, you all are lovely people.”

Jan had hired some very sharp people who had little trouble understand what she was telling everyone, she was leaving, which caused more than a few to become upset by what they heard. Some tried to cry quietly while others needed the help of one or both sitting beside them to comfort them.

“As some of you have already figured out, I’ll be leaving after we close on Friday. And I’ve turned over everything to Sara and Joanne; they will be the fire breathing dragons from now on.” Thankfully we heard laughter when Jan mentioned the dragon, and saw many more sad faces though. “I can see from the expressions on many of your faces that you’re asking why I’m leaving now. And the answer is that I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do when I started Jan’s, and I have other goals which I can’t attain here in this city. And before you ask, no, I won’t be able to return from time to time, I’ll be too far away. I ask all of you for one more favor, kept Jan’s Portfolios LLC running as it is running now. Do what’s best for our clients total welfare, just as we are doing now. Be true to yourselves, give the best you have to give, and remember others are people just like you.”

Jan started crying so hard we had to help her off the stage, and right into the hands of everyone who crowded around us; the line formed at the right and continued until every last person had hugged and kissed the three of us. I can only imagine how the rest of the week will go. But today, after hearing the sad news, everyone was on their best behavior and the day went without a hitch. Except the phone calls I got from Thomas and Julie, or the ones Joanne got from Mary and Alice. The subject of those calls Jan would NOT find out about. We said we’d get back to them and a simple nod from me to Joanne and her to me, we conferenced the six of us together and made our plans. Someone was going to have a tired finger after they made a call to all of our clients.

Jan gave Thomas, Mary, Alice, and Julie a heads up that the three of us would be out of the office most of the day, and to contact her if anything came up which they couldn’t handle—while Jan visited the lady’s I had a quick word with Julie about our plans. This was a perfect time for each floor to offer their ideas about the surprise that was being planned for Jan, before she left on Friday. All the rest of that day Jan took us around to meet people who Jan had invested Jan’s with and listened as they explained how their product was doing and how Jan’s investments were doing—I was getting a feeling that Jan had been building more than just Jan’s all these years. And by Wednesday my feelings were proven correct, as we were taken to businesses where Jan’s owned a controlling interest. Some of those businesses were small to medium ‘mom & pop’ stores, some were small to medium manufacturing businesses, and a few were quite large, employing over 500 people. And at each one we were shown facts and figures, which if Joanne’s brain calculator was close to being correct, Jan’s extracurricular investments were worth somewhere north of 20.5 billion dollars. When Joanne whispered that figure to me after one of our visits, I didn’t realize my mouth was hanging open as we walked backed to Jan’s car, and Jan simply reached over closed my mouth before saying, “Amazing isn’t it?” It took a moment to realize Jan had known why I was so taken aback, she knew, somehow, that I was thinking of that 20.5 billion dollars’ worth of investments, and she acted like it was nothing, nothing at all. I turned to Joanne and mouthed, “How’d she know?” Joanne’s reply was a shake of her head and shoulder shrug, she didn’t know either.

Thursday arrived, and Jan treated us to a lovely breakfast before we visited a few more of Jan’s investments. Unlike the lunches we had the past three days today we visited a “greasy spoon” place the three of us just loved. It was run by a husband and wife, the sweetest people you could ever want to know, and oh how they could cook. Yes, eating there 365 days a year would not be good for one’s health, but the quality of the food, and the taste, put the more expensive places to shame. We returned to Jan’s by the time Joanne and I left for the day to be home when the kids came home from school. Just before we left the office, and just after Jan went into the lady’s, Julie rushed over and told Joanne and me “Everything is ready, everyone in the office is ready and almost every client contacted would be there.” We quickly hugged her before she scattered and we went about acting like nothing was going on. I don’t know how we kept the girl with built in radar from finding out what was planned, but we did.

When we got home we found a car sitting in our driveway, one we hadn’t seen before. As Joanne pulled up behind my car we realized it was Tom and Silvia sitting in that car. After getting out of Joanne’s car, and the Marks there’s, I know Joanne had a question written on her face so I must have when Tom told us, “We don’t need the limo everywhere we go, plus I like to drive now and then.” We exchanged hugs then with Tom’s arm around my waist and Silvia’s around Joanne, Silvia explained they wanted to take us out to dinner, wanted to be with us for a while because of tomorrow, because they knew how depressed we’d be that evening, as we walked up and into our home. The kids knew more about the castle than we did because the front door blew open and four rockets came charging in hollering, “Grandma-grandpa-grandma-grandpa…” until the two had their legs entangled in eight little arms, causing the two adults to squeal with delight; got to love those two dearly. And as usual, when Tom told our precious one we were going out to dinner, they released another sonic boom I’m almost positive the neighbors heard. To their credit, they may have been overly excited about going out to dinner with grandpa and grandma, but every time we’ve gone we have gotten more compliments about how well they’re behaved.

Friday!! Today I hate Fridays!! Tom and Silvia were right about last night, we were depressed after they left around eleven. They did make the kids so happy, though, helping them get ready for bed then tucking them in, getting hugs and kisses from grandpa and grandma. But that was last night, and today is Friday, Jan’s last day forever. As everyone arrived for work I could see we weren’t the only ones who knew what today would mean. We’d seen her help not only Chris and Julie, but several hundreds over the years, and Jan became special to all of them, to all of us. Why did she have to pick Friday to leave? Why not Saturday or Sunday, at least the office would be closed and not have everyone trying to do their best for our clients while at the same time morning a loss that would occur in a few hours. Jan took us to breakfast one last time, and to our favorite “greasy spoon” one last time. There were tears between the three of us, plenty of tears when we were along with her, but Jan reminded us, “My love will always be with the two of you.” We returned to Jan’s just as it was time for our plan to be executed.

When we walked into Jan’s Portfolios LLC no one was on the first floor; steam started escaping Jan at that point, as we planned. She went to a phone and dialed the second floor, the third floor, and so on not reaching anyone. Oh she was pissed now; the steam was rolling off her. She took off towards the elevator with Joanne and me right behind, almost running to keep up. She searched the second floor, the third floor, the fourth floor, and the other floors, even our huge conference room. She even went up to the roof, looking for staff. This had all been planned, her doing exactly what she was doing, and her getting really steamed. We took the elevator back down and it was our turn to play our part, so we suggested she check the room behind the stage in the auditorium, and then the stage itself. “BY GAWD THAT’S A GOOD IDEA. I’LL KILL THEM WHEN I FIND THEM!!” Jan roared as we entered the door leading to the rooms behind the stage. As we returned to Jan’s there’d been a fly on the wall on each floor, including behind the stage, so everyone knew where we were at every moment. And as we walked up onto the stage from the back stairs, we held back as Jan was as close to the curtains as we wanted, which caused the curtain to rise and a loud scream of ‘SURPRISE” to be heard by us. That one word stopped Jan cold in her tracks—she was starting to wear a path across the stage—turning to look out at the sea of smiling and crying faces. We walked up to her, put our arms around her and told her, “You family wanted to say goodbye.” Joanne and I then, unabashedly, each gave her a kiss in front of everyone. The girl was more than sharp but we were able to pull this off right under her nose, so it wasn’t unexpected that it took her a few moments to realize what we had done. Jan then punched first Joanne in the arm then me before laugh/crying, “YOU SNOTS!” At that moment the party was on, but oh what a party it was. It only lasted two hours but everyone, including the clients who were there, said their personal goodbyes. What about our kids you may be wondering, after all we should have been home when they arrived from school. That had been taken care of as well, since Tom, Silvia, Mathew, and Shelia were there as well.

Out of nowhere a gong sounded six times. That got everyone’s attention because we don’t have a gong in the building. Jan broke free of the groups around her and as we watched walked up onto the stage; the only thing you could hear were sniffling sounds. “All of you are a bunch of snots,” Jan said with a big smile on her face. “How you were able to pull this off without me finding out I’ll never know, but words can’t express how much I appreciate it, and all of you. I will miss each and every one of you.” The last was said with tears streaming down Jan’s cheeks, and as we watched, Jan walked off the back of the stage, the curtain came down—not part of our plan—and that was the last we saw of Jan’s Jan. Crying began in earnest, hugs were given and received, we were all said that we’d never see that lovely girl ever again. Tom and Silvia brought the kids over to us and the eight of us held our own group hug, with Joanne and I getting “We love you, mommies,” from the kids. That by itself was worth the price of admission to this sad-fest. Silvia suggested the two of us spend the weekend at their place, which Joanne and I gladly accepted; being alone right now wouldn’t have been good for us. Silvia then surprised us by telling us our clothes had already been taken out to the house and our car taken out as well, so we could ride with them.

After wiping the tears out of our eyes, we told Tom and Silvia we’d need about thirty minutes to make sure business had been taken care of before we locked up for the weekend. The clients that were there came by to wish Joanne and I all the success and they’d see us again on the next mandatory Friday. The staff did a wonderful job of closing down their workstations, or finishing up with a client, before it was just Joanne and I, along with the Marks and our kids, left in Jan’s. As I got my purse out of my desk, I saw a book sitting on top of it with a note which read, “For you and Joanne only—ONLY YOU AND JONNE—no one else.” Joanne could see something was wrong by the way I was just looking at something, but when she gave me a questioning look, I shook my head slightly, letting her know we’d speak later.

Later turned out to be after the kids were put to bed at the Marks and we had done the same. I didn’t see the envelope underneath the note when I found this in my desk, but didn’t waste any time opening it and reading, “My dear Sara and Joanne, I’m leaving the two of you my journal, which you must not read until two weeks after my leaving. I’m not able to say why it’s important, just know that it is. Of everyone I will miss, you two I will miss the most. My deepest and forever love, Jan.”

****Joanne was sleeping softly leaning against my shoulder; I gently kissed the top of her head. Here we are, two weeks and four days after Jan left and Joanne and I have been pouring over her Journal, trying to find some clue where she might have gone and more about her life. It is 2 a.m., no wonder Joanne is asleep. I just started to wake her so we could go to bed when there was a knock on our front door. 2 a.m. was not a good time to be knocking on someone’s door because it often times meant bad news. “Hey,” I said to Joanne as I shook her lightly. “Someone’s at the door.” It took a moment for her to come around, then see the clock before saying, “It’s two in the morning, what’s going on?” She realized the implications of a knock at this time of night and formed a frightful look on her face. I knew by looking at here she was thinking it was bad news about Jan, because that was my thinking as well. When we got to the front door, Joanne pulled the curtain back to look outside then said, “It’s a courier service man.” I looked through the peephole in the door to confirm what Joanne said, and to make sure the person was along, before opening the door to hear, “Are you Mrs. Sara Mathew or Mrs. Joanne Mathew?” Still a bit stumped by someone delivering something at this time of night, it took me a moment before telling him, “I’m Mrs. Sara Mathew.” “Sign her if you would please,” and offered a pad and pen. There was something about this young man, something I couldn’t put my finger on, something which said I’d seen him before, but I signed and received a small package in return. I thanked the young man, and told him to wait a moment and gave him a twenty from my purse as a tip for coming tonight. He thanked us and left, leaving me holding a small package. I handed the package to Joanne as I closed the front door then we both went and sat back down on the couch, with Joanne holding another mystery.

Joanne looked at me and I shrugged, letting her know she might as well open it so we could see who sent us what. After the package was opened Joanne lifted out a small, finely crafted, wooden box which was about four inches wide and eight inches long, with a latch that held the lid closed. She also found an envelope at the bottom of the package which she opened, pulled out a letter and began to read loud enough for me to hear.

“My dearest moms,
Inside the wooden box you will find two vials of liquid, one pink and one deep red—one tastes like bubblegum while the other cherries. I don’t have to tell either of you who gets what flavor because I remember who liked which flavor. Now this is IMPORTANT, you must do exactly what I say. I know the two of you are reading this message, so stop, put it down and drink ALL of the liquid in each vial—do it, don’t think about it momma Joanne, just do it.”

The part of this message Joanne just read sounded very urgent, so for the first time in her life, Joanne didn’t stop to think about it, she took the vial with the pink liquid and drank it all, as I did for the vial with the deep red liquid. Joanne picked up the letter and continued reading.

I’d like to be there to see the look on mommy Sara’s face as she watched mommy Joanne do something without thinking about for the first time ever. Please put the vials back into the wooden box, latch the lid and put the wooden box back in the package, and don’t let anyone know about it or the liquid you just drank—NO ONE EVER. I’d like to tell you more but am not able at this time, but, on this Friday bring this package and Jan’s journal to the address below at the specified time and more can be revealed—it’s important you be on time, very important. I will leave you with this, no words can express the thanks for the love you gave us and how you showed us how to love each other and others.

Your loving son,
Thomas

Without saying a word, Joanne got up, went to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. I sure hope we could see straight tomorrow, because we were about to feel no pain when we went to bed. I also hoped our eagle eye kids didn’t notice.

A funny thing happened Friday morning, at 6 a.m., we woke up to the usual beeping alarm without a hint of a hangover. None whatsoever! Before the kids came into our lives, when Joanne and I tied one on, we usually had to buy a new alarm because one of us ended up throwing it across the room to turn it off—it was offensive loud. We also went through a bottle of aspirin between us at that time, but not today, today they weren’t needed. In fact, we sleep better than we ever had, and had quite the appetite. Remembering the letter, I used my cell phone to call Thomas to let him know Joanne and I would be late because of taking care of a bit more business because of Jan leaving; it was a good cover story and wouldn’t be questioned.

After showering and getting ready ourselves we each woke up our very sleepy heads to get them ready for school; hearing four “I love you mommy” sure gets a person’s day rolling. They were dressed, breakfasted, had grabbed their bags and we walked them out to where they caught the bus for school. Getting hugs and kisses, and more “I love you mommy” we watched as they boarded the bus for school. When the bus was out of sight we returned to the house and while Joanne pulled out a paper city map I went online and pulled up an online city map on my cell phone. Joanne found the address quickly thanks to that brain of hers, and with her help was able to find it on my cell phone map. We had discussed using the cell phone city map but kept going back to the warning of not letting anyone know about all this. So it was decided to use the paper city map then delete all traces of every having look for the address from my cell phone.

Joanne calculated it would take us about twenty minutes to drive to the address, which was at the east end of the city where the old abandoned manufacturing plants still ruled. To be on the safe side we left the house at eight-thirty just to give ourselves a little breathing room. Because Joanne is much better with directions than I am, I drove and following her instructions we arrived in the area about twenty minutes later. It took us a bit longer to find the address and turned onto the street which would take us to the building we were looking for. We spotted a door on the west side of the building with a yellow star on it, so I parked close to the door, shut off the engine and Joanne and I got out and walked over to the door. There was a message on that star which told us, “Each of you place one hand on the plate to the left of the door.” After both of us hand put one hand on the plate we heard a click and the door opened, which told us we were at the right place and “come on in.”

Thomas’ instructions said to proceed to the office once inside the building, but this place was huge, still littered with abandoned junk, so how were we to find the office. No sooner had we asked each other that question then we noticed blinking arrows on the floor pointing us ahead. After the longest walk we’d ever taken in any building Joanne and I were led up a flight of stairs and into the office—the sign said so, the one right above the door. All we found when we entered that office was dust, dust and more dust, plus some old bits of paper. I looked at my watch at saw it was exactly 9 a.m., the time Thomas said we were to be here. But why? Were we supposed to meet someone here, if so, where were they? Those thoughts were crossing my mind as I was looking out the window to the outside when Joanne painfully grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. She pointed to the wall to the right of the door where a pink spot was forming. We watched as the pink spot which became larger and changed to a light shade of violet. As we continued watching that pink spot was now about seven feet high and about two feet wide, and had changed to a deep violet. But the most shocking part was seeing a person walk through that violet light only to be followed by another and another and another. And oh my gawd, one of those persons was Jan. The other three covered their ears as Joanne and I screamed our heads off and hit Jan at a dead run. Tears, oh yes there were tears from the three of us and kisses to boot. When the three of us finally calmed down a bit, Joanne and I turned to look at the other three. With our arms around Jan while she stood between us I saw two men and one woman standing before us. A second shock occurred when one of the men said, “Oh good, you brought the package and Jan’s journal.” But he floored us when he said, “Hi moms, I’m Thomas.” Joanne and I couldn’t believe what we were hearing; our youngest son was standing before us but as an adult. We didn’t mob him as we’d done to Jan but we did gently take him into our arms, while tears flowed. Joanne, her eyes red and tears running down her cheek, turned to the others and asked them, “You’re Christine, and you’re Jonathan,” receiving a nod from each. OH. MY. GOD. These are our children as adults. There was not a dry eye in that place nor were Joanne and I the only ones crying as we hugged and kissed our children.

“Moms,” Jan started, “we can’t stay long because we might upset something in this time, which would once again affect us—just like you read in the my journal. We gave you the journal so you would know how you affected our lives because of who the two of you are. Because of my journal you now know what we will strive for and you must let our younger selves do it, support our younger selves or our timeline will change again. Plus, the two of you would have had only a few more years after yesterday. We made sure Tom Marks was the only major event which had to take place, but you two do influence others for years to come, just as you did us. I’m sorry to say this, but this is the last time we will meet for another visit might damage our timeline beyond repair and produce something we don’t want.”

I had to wipe my eyes several time as Jan spoke, Joanne did the same. We then asked about the few years we would have had only to be directed back to the journal and what Thomas had discovered in his search for a cure for cancer. So it was cancer that Joanne would have died from, metastasized breast cancer. It would have robbed us from watching our children grow up, become what they are now, allowing Jan to spend time as an adult with her moms and we unknowingly with her. We heard a beeping sound and were told they had to go but will always remembered what we did for them as they grew up. Another round of hugs and kisses ensued before we watch our four children walk back through that violet light, only for it to reverse itself until even the pink spot disappeared. We followed the arrows back to the door we entered through, and watched as each arrow disappeared as we passed over it. The star was no longer on the door nor the pad next to the door. Any trace of anyone being here from another time had vanished. We knew what they went through to make the last few years possible and to correct their timeline because of a journal that no one could know about. But the crazy thing was we were going to be there to watch it happen. We were going to watch our children grow up and be who we saw walk out of, and back through, a violet light a few moments ago. We are the mothers of four very bright children who changed the world as it had been known. And they haven’t even done it yet.****

****Finis****

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