25. They Day after the Day Before
It hit him that he had school Monday morning. He told his dad that he would be home by 10:00p.m. In addition, no he asked his parents, if they would please have one of his sister's rooms made up for a guest, who might be staying "permanently"!
Dycke asked his dad not to pick him up, because he would be arriving at a different area of the airport than passenger jets and that he and his guest would make their own way home.
Chad was okay with this idea for two reasons: 1.Traveling to the airport at night was not his idea of fun. 2. Traffic outbound from Charleston to its' many suburbs at night, was always a nightmare.
Dycke looked over at Fiona and said, "On Monday, while I am in class, start making telephone calls: First, call your people and find more agents to help with protection for my family and the Temples. Second: find a realtor to get Mister Temple, high-end office space, with enough room to grow his future firm. Third: find me a secretary you will not have to kill every time she approaches me with information I have requested. Fourth: if people, at school, start bullying me, know that I am used to it. Do not kill or injure anyone beyond repair. I can take care of myself. Understood?"
Fiona said, "Yes boss. Boss, how did it feel giving me my first order rather than taking one from me?"
Dycke thought for a moment and said, "I didn't realize that I had given you an order, but now that you have mentioned it, it felt like...it was normal!"
"Good, boss" Fiona replied, "you may be getting the idea that you are no longer just Dycke Schneider, track star, you are "Dycke Schneider, Titan of Industry!"
Dycke dropped his head and said, "I am not that far along yet, Fiona." Dycke called ahead to Mister Temple to tell him he needed to speak him before he saw Payne this morning.
Piker Temple said he would meet him in the hospitals' lobby and hung up. Alletta and he were not at the hospital, yet, and he asked the driver, of the taxi, to go a little faster, so he would not make his newest client wait. His taxi and his clients' limousine drove under the hospitals protective canopy, nearly at the same moment.
Chad, Dycke, and Fiona exchange greetings and moved inside the hospital for an impromptu conference, as Alletta went upstairs to see Payne. Dycke started saying, "Dad, I have to leave tomorrow. I have school Monday morning and I cannot see any way to get out of it. I need your help figuring out what to do next. Can you help me, please?"
Piker Temple looked at Dycke and was amazed at how much he had grown in the past week. He looked at Fiona and asked, "What have you done to this boy?"
Fiona said, "I beat the shit out of him, because he left without his security detail, that day. Other than that, he grew up on his own."
Piker replied, "Well, that beating must have shaken something loose in his head, because he is thinking like a businessman, already."
Piker looked at his future client and son-in-law and thought for aminute before continuing. "I need that meeting with my partners to happen late tomorrow without fail. I need to start handling your legal affairs, now. You told me the documentation on your businesses should be arriving at my home this week. I will have to arrange for secure storage for them. I will need to set up office staff and see what type and how many lawyers will be needed to run your businesses efficiently and effectively. We will have to find out through which businesses we are going to charge all these expenses: legal, security, secretarial, travel, tutorial, housing, and everything else that goes on with the people that are in charge of the protection and well-being of your businesses and our families."
"Thank you, dad. I feel better already knowing that you have this under control."
"Let us not call it under control, Dycke, but it is not chaos, either."
Dycke said, "I think we are done here. Let us go take some abuse from your daughter."
Piker and Dycke stood up and started to walk towards the elevator when Dycke stopped cold. He said, "Fiona, I am ready to go now."
Fiona whispered in his ear, "Boss, you're no fun anymore."
Dycke smiled when he realized how close Fiona was to hitting him for forgetting his protection detail. She was right and he knew it. Once his fortune hit the Financial News Papers the life he once had would be over and his new one would begin. He had better get used to listening to her advice on security measures and following her directions as if they came from his father.
When they entered Payne's room, it was empty. The bed was newly made, but Alletta's coat was tossed over a chair by the window. They turned around and looked up and down the corridor but except for a few nurses, it was empty. Piker went toward the nurse's station and Dycke and Fiona went towards the visitors lounge.
Dycke smiled when he saw Payne sitting with her mother and said, "Is this the new home of sick patients and runaway mothers."
Payne said, "If you tell my nurses I am here, you will never get laid again."
Alletta said to Payne, "Dear, I have tried that on your father so many times and it hasn't worked once. The simple reason is 'We want it more than they do and they know it.' So try something else."
Payne, looking confused, said to her mother, "Is there something else, mother?"
"Payne, darling," Alletta said, "When I find it, you will be the second person to know. However, while I am looking for it, I also, go Shopping!"
Payne held her face and laughed.
Piker walked in with a nurse and said, "Did I just hear the word "Shopping!"
That was all it took! Payne, who was trying to control her laughing, burst out into a full-throated laugh that brought her to tears of pain.
Alletta started laughing, also, seeing the bewildered look on her husband's face.
Dycke and the nurse reacted to Payne. Payne was in a dire situation. She had to be back in her bed and medicated, immediately. Piker went to pick up his daughter. Fiona pushed him out of the way. She picked Payne up as if she were a feather and carried her to her room.
The nurse returned with the medication and injected Payne with it. She then gave her a second medication and told everyone assembled that Payne would sleep for a few hours. Laughter, she told them, is good for the soul, but not good for Payne's face right now, because the tissues were trying to adhere to the skeletal surfaces. The pain Payne was feeling was from new tissue tearing away from her new face. The nurse informed them that this laughter had to stop if her family wanted Payne to heal properly.
They returned to the visitors lounge and Piker started talking business with Dycke. He said, "I am going to buy you a new computer and a language program that the State Department uses. You will be at a great advantage if you are fluent in several languages, which you can understand and conduct your businesses. I think German should be first. Do you agree Fiona?
Fiona replied, "Yes. The second language should be Mandarin Chinese, Mister Temple."
Piker Temple said to Fiona, "Chinese? Not Russian or French?"
Fiona said, "Mister Turnquest felt that the next building boom would be in China's big cities. The Chinese are sitting on so many American Dollars that they can build up their cities at a record pace. He purchased huge parts of companies and stocks, in others he could not buy. Those companies included building equipment and supply industries, both inside China and from those countries from which China regularly buys. He always knows, years in advance, what businesses and countries, are likely to do, and prepares accordingly." Russia," he said, "Will be in decline until after 2021, and then its future is still uncertain because of its fundamental lack of democratic leadership. France, because of its' monetary issues and socialist policies, is also in decline. The four-day workweek, two months holiday every summer and retirement at age fifty-five is weighing heavily on their economy and slowing it to a crawl. Mr. Turnquest said many times that until France changes its ways, 'its' best days are behind it!'
Fiona looked at Dycke and said, "We have a little time before Payne wakes up, why don't we go to the gymnasium for a workout?"
