11 March 2019

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I love email. If you give me a story line, I'll name a character after you. I really need ideas for fun situations. Get it?

Timmy from the Bahamas

Here in Dionysus.

I had lived here for ten days, getting ready to open our clothing stores. Our first was opening in the casino, at the same time as the store at Gamma, but we were building at Alpha and Beta, and on Vino and in town stores in Amyville, here on Eros, and Robertville, on Artemis.

Yes, I was in charge of all of them. At 19!

We knew we would do well, because everyone here was basically rich. The lowest level positions paid more than many executives in other locations. And your expenses are nearly zero. If you have a resident id, either a card or something with an RFID code, you just went into stores, picked what you wanted, and left. That's it. They didn't charge your account. They didn't charge you at all! The store got paid. It just came as a monthly check from the state treasury. Somebody named Luna's signature was on the checks. Everybody tells me I need to meet Luna.

It was nuts. I was enjoying nuts.

Morgan and Sophia had introduced me to their extended family. I had, how shall I put it, broadened my horizons? Orlando helped. So did Gabe. Then Bob did.

Then I met the other Tim. Damn.

But I met so many other people and got to know them better. Leslie, Hunter, Hallie, and Rylee. Chris and Noah. Orlando and Grace. Ruby.

Sorry I had to sit down after I typed Ruby. Oh, and Tavi, Amara, and Tomas. Such a sweet, um, foursome? Oh, almost forgot Carlina, Luca, and Tegan. I know, I couldn't play with Tegan or Carlina, but I could watch.

And Elena. I really liked Elena. Really, really liked Elena. It's so weird. She's 11 years old. I'm 19. Nobody thought a thing about it. Nothing. Oh, we're not dating or anything, but we do have a lot of similar interests. Sometimes she comes over and we Netflix and chill with a nice bottle of wine.

Sure, I share a bottle of wine, in bed, with a 11-year-old girl, and it is entirely normal here.

Well, she is smarter than I am. I know she is in college, so we're not planning our life together, but we sure are having fun. Then again, you never know who might be in my bed on any given night.

Kevin and Gina, for example. Another new experience. I'm enjoying my new experiences.

But back to the first store, at Gamma. It was hilarious. Remember that at Gamma, pretty much anything goes. It is rare for anyone to have clothes on. Makes it easy to do measurements! We don't even have changing rooms. Nothing like it. People just come in and we measure them wherever they happen to be standing. Men, women, boys, girls. Doesn't matter.

This clientele is amazing too. At the resort people pay by putting it on their room. We even charge a premium, and they just don't care. Our least expensive, entry-level, suit goes for $8,000. The custom suits start at $25,000. Shirts start at $500 each. Don't get me started on shoes. Yes, we custom-make shoes too.

No one cares. We have kids' line of suits that start at $7,000. We can't make them fast enough. We make the suits and dresses right in the store, so even a short vacation allows you to be measured, pick your fabric, and come in for a final fitting. You can take the clothes, or we'll ship them. We also allow you to order additional clothes over the web and we'll ship them to you. If you do that, we make them offshore, in less expensive locations. Same quality, same fabrics, higher profit margin.

And I own 40% of the stores. Morgan had insisted.

We had been open for 4 days. I needed more people already. We had to limit appointments, and I hated that. I talked to Morgan, who referred me to Amai, who helped me by shifting people from other jobs. They weren't seamstresses, but we could train them on taking measurements. We opened more appointments for people that were willing to let us ship the final product. We gave a 5% discount. Nobody cared, so I made the 5% a short promotion. We overwhelmed our new team members too. I paid them huge bonuses for overtime, until I could hire. Amai agreed I could hire anyone that wanted to keep the job and most of them loved it. Heck, a good quarter of them came from the ground crew to an indoor job where you worked with naked people. People that you could fuck if they asked and you wanted to.

We all wanted to, although I quickly figured out, I had to be selective or I'd wear my cock out.

I started having theme days for who I fucked. Today would only be girls that were 9. Tomorrow was boys that were 11. The next day was women with blonde hair and A cups. We were so busy that I still was turning people down.

Particularly on the day I picked 9-year-old girls. Damn they were a horny bunch.

Blonde women with A cups was a fun day too.

Well, OK, so were the 11-year-old boys.

One day I was tired so I decided I would limit myself to MtF transsexuals. I thought I was going to die. It appeared to be a popular demographic at Gamma. I'll bet.

Oh, which takes me back to Amai. When Elena wasn't available, I found myself spending more time with Amai. She is such a sweetheart. One night they both came over.

O.M.G.

There was chemistry there, for sure.

This Saturday, Elena is giving me my first flying lesson. Oh, I wanted to learn, and it would be great to go visit my family and the other stores we'll open, but the opportunity to spend hours with Elena was damn tempting too. Remember how Gabe and Carlina's relationship developed? I was hopeful. I didn't know how she felt, but knew we were friends. FWB. Could it be more? Who knows? It's not like we'd stop fucking other people.

What about Elena?

I thought I'd write about my relationship with Timmy. I think he's writing something too. I sure hope we're in sync. Here's the deal. I liked him a lot. Seriously a lot. My problem is that we're at different places in our lives. He's opening all these stores and that is so awesome. I'm in medical school in London. I loved when we got together for a movie and wine, and I'll admit I might be falling in love, but I'm not ready to commit. I might not ever be ready to commit. I think I might be a loner, of sorts, with a lot of friends, but nothing more.

Hell, I'm 11. I don't have to figure it out yet. I'll be in school and my internship and residency for years. I guess I'll just let it ride until he brings something up. Nothing's broken and I do care for him. I just hope I don't hurt his feelings. I'm fine with the flying lessons. I come home a lot anyway, but I am going to suggest he get hours with other instructors too.

I'm going to ask

"Hi," I said. Oh, so suave. We started walking towards the TTx, but I stopped.

"Elena, you know I care for you. Could we go out on a date?" I asked. There, it was out. Shit. I don't like that expression.

"Timmy. I care for you too. I really do. I love our time together and think you're a great guy, but the answer is no," said Elena. "I'm in medical school in London. You're here. I'd love to still be your friend, and spend time with you, but I'm years from finishing school and considering anything more with anyone. So, no, we can't."

Well fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Say something idiot.

"OK, I understand," I said. "School comes first. We'll just stay friends." Oh, but I knew it wouldn't be the same.

And it wasn't.

Elena ends it, sort of

Shit. Doing the right thing sucked.

Cobb and Jessica together again

When Jessica told me something, I usually did it. She was strong-willed. The shelters in Athens were up and were running about 80% capacity. We were in the market for more hotels, since we wanted to ensure we never ran out of capacity. Jessica suggested I back up, though, and tell the story about our second day when we met with the appropriate people in Athens to get all the approvals and permits. She thought it was funny. OK, we'll go with funny.

I showed up right on time that morning, dressed in a nice suit, as suggested. Jessica and Bill were ready to go and dressed equally as nicely. They both had business suits on. They were truly just super-tiny adults.

"Where do you find such nice suits in your sizes?" I asked. Bob snorted. Why did Bob snort?

"We had them custom made," said Bill. "We used to go to Nassau, but now they have opened up a shop in the casino. Timmy took care of us personally." Custom made suits. I had to go there.

"What does a custom-made suit cost?" I asked. Jessica and Bill looked at each other.

"We don't know," said Bill. "We don't pay for anything." I looked at Bob. He looked torn. Finally, he answered.

"Those are about $9,500 each," said Bob. Well of course they are.

So, we were off. Once again, I found myself heading off with the two toddlers of the King and Queen. It felt weird. Really weird. I've read all the journal entries, like the one where Elena and Ruby set up a relationship with an insurance company, but come on, I was going to meetings with freaking toddlers.

But off we went. None of us could fly, so we were taking one of the 37 boats. I had to type that the 2-year-olds couldn't fly, because you couldn't be sure, could you? A car had been staged at the marina for us to use, complete with, you know, car seats. We got there quickly, given how fast the 37 was. Jessica tried to get me to let her drive. Yeah, no. At least she took it well.

"I wondered if you'd ever say no to me," said Jessica, with a laugh.

The car was an SUV this time. A GLS63. Pretty damn nice. We got to the permit office and had a meeting with the director of the office, since our project was so big and, well, a little out there. He made us wait for 20 minutes after our appointment time. I'm chill, and Bill handled it well, but I thought Jessica was about to explode. I'm pretty sure the definition of Type-A was all about her. Finally, we were escorted in. I feared that she was going to go off and oh boy she did.

The director was a short little dude and clearly officious. He started to open his mouth after staring at the kids but didn't get a word out before Jessica went off. There was someone else in the room, but we didn't get an introduction before she tore him a new one.

"Oh, just fucking don't start," said Jessica. "Yeah, yeah, we're young, well fuck you, you're a prick that made us wait. I don't like it and I will never like it. Before you start spewing some shit about our ages, you should know that my name is Jessica. Princess fucking Jessica. Got it? Do you seriously get it?"

Wow. That was harsh. She's got quite a vocabulary of profanity. The little dude looked just stunned and I don't think it helped that the other guy just couldn't stop laughing. He walked over and did the little head bow thing that is just so weird.

"Your royal highness, my name Giorgos. I am the mayor of Athens and I so enjoyed your comments. You are right, he is a prick and his behavior was uncalled for. While it is not in my power to fire him, I assure you that my offices are available to you, and I am personally at your service," he said. With that, Jessica stuck out her hand and properly introduced herself. It was weird, she had to do that. You're not allowed to offer a handshake to royalty. Bill did the same, and then I introduced myself.

"Oh, your reputation precedes you," said the mayor, to me. "I see you have brought the A team with you to share your project. Please, please, sit down. We would love to hear what you have to say."

Mostly just to stick the knife in, I barely said another word. I just Jessica run with the pitch, and Bill added excellent comments. He made the point of how much tax revenue they would generate and that we were happy to pay it.

That caught their attention. Realistically, it was also going to take a lot of workload off their social services organizations, which was a huge win for them. Oh, officious dude gave her some grief and tried to trip her up, but it was Bill that took him down next. He challenged Bill's numbers. Oh, he shouldn't have done that. Bill pulled a printout out of his briefcase. Oh, come on, you know they carried briefcases. He walked through it. The mayor clearly got it, but the little dude's eyes glossed over. It took a bit longer, but we left with all the permits and licenses we needed. We opened very shortly after and the program was a huge win.

On to Cairo

Because we had Canadian passports with those names. We had driver's licenses. We had credit cards. We had an entire backstory. Bill had worked with our defense services, who worked with the Canadians. The passports and driver's licenses were real. I'm sure it was quite a story, but I am just learning to roll with it. We did have to leave all our RFID jewelry behind, because it would have paid for things and outted us. I'm not sure a 2-year-old girl with full carat earrings was sending the right middle-class Canadian vibe anyway.

We were getting there by flying, gasp, commercial. In coach. From Frankfurt. I admit I thought Jessica would be a pain the entire time, but these two kids were surprisingly grounded. After all, they were Bob and Amy's kids. They were polite, and respectful, and accepted their seats without complaint. Given it is over four hours, I was impressed. Heck I was tired of it, and I had the aisle. Oh, how fast we get use to our private hypersonic plane rides.

It's not like we were secret agents or anything, so we used Uber to get to our real hotel, the Four Seasons. We checked in with our real passports, which no one questioned, since they're diplomatic passports. Then we went luggage shopping. We needed cheap luggage to check into each hotel. So that was our pattern. Buy cheap luggage, check into a hotel, rinse and repeat, until we were checked into all eight hotels we were considering. That took most of the day, so we went back to our real hotel and had a nice dinner and went to bed. We had a nice two-bedroom suite, so the kids got a room and we got a room. They're, well, aware, so they let us have a nice quiet night. It was wonderful. A beautiful hotel, in a nice suite, overlooking the Nile. We made passionate love.

Then we fucked. Twice.

We've got a great sex life.

Touring and buying hotels

Then we went sight-seeing. Our plan was to see two hotels a day and sight-see the rest of the time. We would have to come back with Marybeth and Richie, because it was amazing. We felt safer as Canadians, although I think our real Dionysus personas would have been even better. Everyone in the region knew what our country had done for safety and stability. Heck, the Cairo economy was booming, and you had Chris and Morgan to thank.

We went to the pyramids, the antiquities museum, the Old City and more. We visited mosques. We visited a half dozen other museums. We went to the bazaar. That was a hoot. We put the kids in backpacks. You know, baby carriers. They're two. They fit. Now Jessica continually making horse noises and slapping my ear got old, but she thought it was hilarious.

Oh, the hotels. We decided on six of the eight. One of the others was just too dirty and rundown. We might buy it later and refurbish it, but we decided we would look for other choices. The eighth was too nice. It was a step above what we were considering and while the cost wasn't the issue, we had a target in mind, and it was working in Athens.

"I think there is another approach in the two sections where we didn't find a good choice," said Bill. "I think we should build our own hotels. These could be our first two to try. The jobs would be better at a more upscale hotel and we could custom build our floors rather than must convert them. I'm thinking small apartments, rather than rooms. Something a little more home-like."

So that's what we did. We built the first one in Athens, so it would be easier to supervise, but Bill ran with his idea and managed everything.

Of course, he did. He even proposed that our existing properties were fine but suggested a few that would benefit from a tear down and rebuild. Once the first hotel was built and the benefit of the new design was clear, he started work on which hotels were in areas that would support a better hotel, and which weren't. Those that were would be torn down and replaced, those that were not would just get a second round of refurbishment of their floor, and in some cases, adding a second floor. I was barely involved. The kids took the project and led the whole thing.

Kids. Look what they can do when you trust them.

We were saving lives and I was proud of that.

Schools are open

Schools were open in Berlin and Barcelona. We had even graduated our first students, even though we had not been open long. We will open Athens and Madrid shortly. Other sites are being considered. We were sticking with our plan of no university on the island but were adding the programs in Athens. We had to. Some of the students also held senior government positions.

Like me.

People were going to other universities and making it work, like Carlina in New York and Leslie in London but some roles had more local interaction.

Like the Minister of Education.

Still me.

Today though we were on Boreas for a global education conference. We had expanded the center with both above ground facilities and, gasp, a runway. Specialized, secure meetings would still be in the original facility with those rules, but this facility would be used more. It was quite nice too. Think upscale resort and go up a few notches. Is there a 6 star?

Yeah that nice.

I had an incredible suite, as the host. OK, that made me laugh too. I wonder if I am the only participant that brought their mommy and daddy with them. I didn't need to, but I wanted to. They're proud of me and I'm proud of them for letting me grow at this pace. My family is special in so many ways. Did you see me wink? Probably not since I don't wink very well. They tell me I'll grow into it. It's not like I've lost my first tooth yet.

OK, showtime. Amy had a nice navy suit made for me. Pleated skirt, white blouse, jacket. You know, a woman's power suit, but in my size. I was wearing my diamond earrings with a matching tennis bracelet too.

Amy doesn't do things halfway.

We had over three hundred attendees, including senior officials, like me, their teams, the press, and more. There was heavy press coverage since our education programs were receiving considerable attention. The details of our programs hadn't just leaked. They'd been shouted from rooftops.

With almost no reaction other than praise for the results. But there were professional educators who were being told that everything they knew, everything they had been taught, and everything they were doing was wrong. Catastrophically wrong.

I believe I might be a surprisingly tiny example. Yes, I'm an extreme example but not that extreme.

After all, my two assistant Ministers were Max and Martan and yes, they'd graduated and were starting at Dionysus Athens with me.

While I was typing this, Bob and Amy are opening the conference. I don't think I've ever seen Bob in a suit and Amy was dressed in a dark green version of my suit. Wow. What I aspire to. She is powerful and beautiful. Oh, I'm up!

"Thank you, your majesties. I too would like to welcome you to Boreas and the first annual Dionysus education conference. We have a packed program with dozens of breakout sessions for you to attend. We have also brought over a hundred of our students with us to the event so that you can meet and interact with them," I said. "I am sure you all expect that we brought our most exceptional students and while everyone you will meet is amazing, they are a cross section of our student population. We have over 8,000 students at our campuses now and attendance at this event was done via lottery. You will meet some students in their first semester in our program and some that are close to graduating. Some fit in both groups. We also brought a few recent graduates. Challenge them. Ask them tough questions. Debate them. This is your opportunity to see the results up close. We are confident you will be astounded at these students and their abilities. Don't just take our word for it. Test them."

"We also have special guests with us today. You were just introduced to our King and Queen and they will be at all our events. They're also leading several panel discussions, but I am afraid they were oversubscribed. The good news is we have asked them to repeat their sessions, so everyone gets an opportunity in a smaller group setting."

"We have our leadership team here as well, including our Prime Minister, our Foreign Minister, our Minister of Defense, and our UN ambassador. We also have our flight team from the Olympics. These are all people that accomplished what they have through the benefits of our education program. We also have the US ambassador to the UN, but given she is also our Prime Minister, I won't double count her."

Yes, that got a few laughs.

"Be sure to attend our evening events as well. We have some surprise entertainment for you too," I said. "Before we adjourn to our keynote speaker, I would like to open it up for questions. I believe I am in a unique position to answer as I am a product of the system for which I am now responsible."

"I should mention there is a microphone in your badge which will activate appropriately. There are several high-tech features at this conference. Please do visit their booths in the showcase area. They were all invented by students in the US via our king's BBF fund," I said. "Now, who is first?"

Dozens of hands shot in the air. We had expected this so allowed quite a bit of time. I won't bore you with the mundane.

I chose the Minister from Germany first because I knew from my research that he was a huge skeptic.

"Why should I believe any of this? This whole meeting is ridiculous. We have decades of research and you're suggesting we throw all that out. Give me one reason why," he asked.

"Well, given you asked that question of the Minister of Education of Dionysus, who is a product of the system, perhaps the fact that I am leading this conference is your best answer," I said. Yes, that caused a little buzz. "To add to that, not only am I qualified for this role, but I am also 4."

I don't think very many realized quite how young I was. Tiny and mighty.

"Perhaps a good example might be that I speak 26 languages fluently, including your native German. For all of you, feel free to test me throughout the conference. If I don't speak your language, I'll tell you, but there are decent odds I do."

That shut a few people up.

I moved on to the next question from the Minister from the UK. Oh sweet. She was one of the few that knew what I had recently done.

"But you have only graduated high school. Most of us have our doctorates. Why should we listen?" she asked.

"Well that's not entirely true. Many of you may be aware that several of our youth are in a specialized program at Kings College in London. As part of that program, they were given a series of complex exams from which they were awarded degrees and are now in graduate programs. My friend Hunter is in law school at 13. An even better example is my friend Elena. She is in their medical school," I said.

"She is 11. She currently holds the number one position in her class primarily because she had never missed a question. Not one.

"Rylee is in the doctoral program in computer science but is also a professor in the program. She is 13.

"All three were in traditional elementary school programs two years ago. Two in the US and one in Italy."

"But back to me. I recently spent a month at Kings college. I knew this would come up. I now hold my undergraduate degree in Education. I hold master�s in Education administration and in Mathematics. My third masters is in theoretical physics. I hold my doctorate in Counseling, with an emphasis on gifted youth. My dissertation focused on improving the educational system by challenging students," I added. "I hate to brag but these are important points. Don't believe me? Talk to me."

Yeah that quieted the room. I took a few more questions but they were innocuous. I closed the session and we went to a lengthy networking break prior to the keynote. We wanted the participants to have the maximum time to meet our students.

We had really done the kids up right. All the boys were in suits and ties. The girls were in business appropriate dresses or pants. All came from the tailors in Timmy's shops. Yes, even our youngest attendee was wearing a ten-thousand-dollar suit.

Oh wait. That was me. Well I told you it was a nice suit.

The student's lanyards were also red compared to regular attendees white. Anyone that went through our system wore the red lanyard. I did. Chris and Leslie didn't. They had graduated before they moved. At 11. That was what made us believe it wasn't just the challenge but also being treated as an adult. That's what Bob and Amy did.

Finally, it was time for our keynote session. I was really looking forward to it. We were highlighting success at a young age. Amelia was the moderator. She hated it but we highlighted in the program that she recently moved to number 23 in the Fortune 500. She was 21 now. Her panel was made up of millionaires and billionaires. Most were teenagers. One was 11. Rylee was on the panel too.

Our point was that even without our educational system some students succeeded when challenged. That was our focus. Challenged youth excel. My dissertation showed this clearly. When I finished the Q&A, a copy had been electronically distributed.

Just then a blaring alarm went off. Well crap. All our students were trained and had run through drills repeatedly. They herded everyone to the escalators and stairs down and into the tunnels. We got them going and into the secure underground facility and locked it down. I'll turn the pen over to Leslie since I didn't know what was going on. I just knew it was bad. We had the entire leadership of Dionysus here. We knew that was a risk. We had all our defensive measures in place including air cover.

Shit, the alarms

Our fear was they were nuclear. Our people would be safe, but Europe wouldn't be. The fallout out would be horrible. Even just splashing one would be a problem if it broke up. So far none had been.

Damn. Direct hit on the hotel. Just vaporized. All the planes on the runway were scrap metal. The runway was pock marked with craters and unusable. I was in communications with Heather and we were making tough decisions. The toughest was to take the direct hits on anything but the bunker. We had to focus.

I hate that I was trapped and so were my best pilots. We couldn't go anywhere. No way we were taking a plane elevator up. We were in lock down. We threw everything we had at it. Patriots. Antiballistic missiles launched from our space fighters. We were an overwhelming force, but I was trapped.

It sucked.

Once the hotel blew up the attack slowed then stopped. Either they didn't know we had made it to safety, or they did and knew they couldn't do anything. We knew that the biggest nuke could, but the fallout would be world ending given where we were. All Western Europe would die in the fallout. It would travel as far as Moscow.

They couldn't have that. They were the ones that launched. What we didn't know was if this was a rogue group, like in the US, or state sanctioned. What came up on CNN cleared that up.

Putin. There was a rolling translation but many of us understood him and the translation missed the nuance. They heard the words but not his fear. What he said was just BS to cover the attack. He was afraid. He had undermined the US and not only were we helping to bring it back, we were a world power.

But he underestimated us.

He saw his days were numbered.

Damn straight they were. He was mine. All mine. I don't care that they're on the security council. The UN was powerless.

I was not. Remember this day. The scales tipped and I was going to jump up and down on our side.

But for right now I had several hundred panicked people to calm down. We had them all in a large underground theater. Time to tell the truth. I stepped on stage and the large screen behind me came alive. The crowd quieted.

"First I would like to announce that everyone is safe. There were no injuries and the attack has stopped. We appreciate everyone following the directions given to you. It saved lives. When you can, take a moment to thank the person that guided you to safety and then think about the fact that it was likely one of our students that did," I said.

Well, it was.

With that, I let the CNN piece play. In a nutshell, he said he was wiping the planet of an abomination.

Us.

Given his Minister was here, he was willing to go far. I knew who he was and as it happened, he was in the front row and white as a sheet. Well sure. Once it was done, I stepped up to the podium.

"As you just heard, we know the source of the attack. What you don't know, if you don't speak Russian, is that the translation, while linguistically accurate, was utter bullshit. For those of you that speak Russian, which I do, the speech was full of code words. Of dog whistles. For those of you from the US, you've recently experienced this. A lot," I said. "This wasn't about his views on our lifestyle. It was all about power. Ours is growing and his is waning. Sadly, this is going to get ugly. Our Minister of Law has already issued an arrest warrant and presented it to the International court and to the UN."

"They will do nothing. They are powerless, ineffective bodies. But mark my words. I am not powerless. We are not powerless. We will not accept this. Take that however you want. Now back to the immediate situation. You understand from his speech that he believes everyone in this room is dead and it made him happy. Given his countrymen in the room, that is barbaric. I know this will be tough on your family, but we are going to let the world believe that until we can form a response. It might be a few hours, or it might be longer, but we will keep you in the loop. It does mean that we have shut down all communication. You can listen to any news or television you want but you can't reach out."

"Before you get upset, and we understand if you are, please be aware that at least two of the missiles we shot down were nuclear. Wipe out Western Europe nuclear. That is not and will not be public knowledge until we want it to be."

"So, all I can suggest is that you enjoy the conference. We will continue the sessions. You will all have rooms in this center. Clothing and toiletries will be in your rooms. We are all going to be informal because what we have is a huge supply of shorts and Hayden polos. Get used to the look. All our food and supplies were already underground so we will eat well. This includes a wide selection of our wines, so enjoy."

I stepped back and the buzz in the audience was loud. Understandably. Nan stepped up to the podium. Well on her stool.

"Well that was a different start than we planned," said Nan. "We are going to take a different approach to the conference. Sitting in rooms listening to panels or, God forbid, watching a PowerPoint presentation doesn't feel very proactive. Our methods work. Your lives were spared because our methods work. One-third of the pilots in the air were under 18. One-third. And that was with our best pilots in lockdown. All are under 18."

"Please take a moment to think about that. Two years ago, Leslie set records by being the youngest jet pilot in history. Just two years. Now dozens of young men and women have eclipsed that record. The top four at the last Top Gun competition were all from our team. The oldest was 15. He came in fourth. The youngest was 10. She came in second. It is time to stop setting artificial barriers based on age."

"So that is going to be our focus. This conference is now all about breaking down barriers and educating you, and the world, on the possible. There are 150 of you in this room that are educators. We are going to ask everyone to rearrange their seats. Anyone that is not an educator, fill in the rows in the back."

"Conveniently there are two center aisles. Those of you that believe, fill in from the bottom, on my left, your right. Those that don't believe and can't see how you ever will, fill the seats to my right, your left. Those that just are not sure, fill in the middle. Make sure to leave several rows empty behind the educators so we can visually see the counts."

"Now before we do the, please be assured that those of you that think we are wrong, we respect your opinion. We will not, in any way, hold it against you. Oh, let's do this. Each country limit your people down below to three. That will give us balance. OK folks, the music is playing."

And it was. It seemed like it got people moving. It happened quickly and once everyone was settled, I had to laugh. I had the tech crew focus a camera on to the audience from above.

"Now that we have settled down, you can visually see what we have," said Nan. "A bell curve. Roughly a quarter on each side and half in the middle. So, we are going to see if we can change your minds. Throughout the next three days, sit in the section you believe in. At any point your position changes, move to a new spot. Let's see where we are," said Nan. "We are going to have debates. We are going to start by having those of you that don't believe debate not those that do, but our kids. You may be surprised. We will choose the debate team with a drawing. If your seat number is chosen, you're on the next team. A traditional debate format. Three on each team. You'll have 20 minutes to meet and prepare."

Now we debate

We randomized our teams. Our first team was Tegan, Kevin, and Max. Oh boy. One formerly homeless 13-year-old and a powerful 8-year-old and 7-year-old.

They were going to smoke them. The first question was Do you believe the Dionysus education system works?. Pretty sure they believed. Tegan was the team captain. She would go last.

Their team included an educator from Mexico, China, and Germany. Yeah him. What I loved was that in all three cases their entire group of three were not in the same section. Mexico even had two in the approve group. Germany had one. China had one in the not sure group. We had told them any other things about our culture were out of bounds but promised that would be in a later question. We were going to hit it head on. Why not? We almost died.

First up was Kevin. I could see pain in his eyes. This was soul crushing for him. His willingness to get up and do it spoke volumes. He didn't have to. He wanted to.

"My name is Kevin," he said. "My answer is a story. Eight months ago, I was a homeless teen living on the streets of New York. My family had thrown me out when they discovered I was bisexual. I was malnourished and mere moments from killing myself when my guardian angel stepped into my life. Her name is Leslie. You all know her. She stopped, knelt, and spoke to me, as a person, not as a reject. She took me to lunch, provided me clothing, and arranged for me to move in with an incredible host family in Robertville. My story is one of many, but I believe answers the question. I had quit school in 8th grade. In the 8 months since, I have caught up and gone past where traditional learning would have me. I recently graduated from high school while also teaching music part-time at the school. You see, my passion is music and Leslie and all my teachers encouraged it. I will end with an announcement, which is news to my friends. Moments ago, I proposed to my girlfriend Gina and I am pleased to say that she accepted. Eight months. My response is eight months. Oh, and that host family was Nan's family. Thank you."

Tough to top that. Max did an excellent job pointing out the benefits of our program. I laughed when he said he was not tops in his class but was decidedly in the middle of the pack. In the 11th grade. At 8. He also shared that the average age of the students in his class was 9 but it was skewed by two 14-year-olds. You know. Those older kids that were only two years ahead.

The first two speakers on the other team where lightweights. They didn't have any coherent arguments but just kept ranting about little kids.

Their final speaker was the German minister. As moderator I had to stop him twice in the first 30 seconds and remind him that his argument had to be based on the education. It was clear his argument was going to be on other things which were out of bounds. He finally resorted to accusing us of cheating.

Tegan closed the debate. Tegan has fire in her belly. She is a powerful girl and American. Not sure why but that seemed to matter.

"My name is Tegan. Less than a year ago, I was in kindergarten at a public school in Wichita, where I was born. I was a troublemaker and constantly got sent to the office. I challenged the teachers and talked back, and they didn't like it. I was bored. I was forced to learn sight words I already knew and do math I could do in my sleep. Now you might think I was exceptional. An outlier. I wasn't. My friends were just as smart but instead of focusing our intelligence they shut us down," said Tegan.

"Now I live in Robertville. I haven't gotten in trouble once. I have never been sent to the office. I still challenge my teachers every single day with two major differences. The first is that they support it and challenge me right back. They push me and ensure I'm never bored and always learning. The second is that I am not in first grade as I would be in Wichita. I'm in 12th. Say what you will about my education, but I recently took the SAT and scored a 2350 out of 2400 possible points and you know what?"

"I was disappointed in myself. I can do better. In my 12th grade class, the average age is 10. The average SAT score is 2370. Over 70% of the graduates from our educational system score a perfect 2400. 70%. I will retake the test and I will score a perfect score."

"Max mentioned he is in the 11th grade. He already scored a 2400. Now, tell me again that our educational system doesn't work? Oh. Nan scored a perfect score too. I think I made my point."

I got back up to close this debate.

"So, we are not going to declare a winner or loser of these debates. We're going to ask those seated in the front to consider their position. While the next group gets up, please feel free to move if you feel so inclined," I said.

Almost a dozen people got up. 2 people moved from no all the way to yes. One person moved from maybe to no. Nine people moved from maybe to yes. Nine. I'd be willing to bet that one was swayed by Kevin's admission of being bisexual. There were a lot of homophobes in education.

Our sources

But then we just watched CNN again live from Moscow. It is early morning here and we are still on lockdown.

Holy shit. They're doing a perp walk.

Of Putin. Now there seems to be a press conference. Come on let us hear it in Russian.

Oh good, they did, with subtitles. The dude talking is the head of their military. He is saying they have rounded up Putin and his buddies for this heinous act. They have much of the leadership in custody and proof of their complicity. They're willing to turn them over to the right authorities but are awaiting guidance from...

Us.

They announced that their analysis said we are likely alive. Well they cleared that up for us.

He closed the press conference by declaring the military's allegiance.

Us again.

We didn't want a country. What the heck were we going to do now? I gathered the family. We had much of the council here, so we made do. We decided we had to do a press conference and announce both our safety and our interest in working with the UN to work through the issues in Russia. We were going to ask them to extradite all involved to the US. What were we going to do with them?

Then we had to decide who would do the press conference. The vote was unanimous minus one.

Dad. He is the king. The one person that didn't vote for him.

Dad.

He didn't want to do it but sucked it up and did. Anderson Cooper interviewed several of us. Come on. You knew Anderson was already here. Things settled down a bit once we were clear we didn't want Russia. Some of the wackadoodle news sites accused us of funding the coup. When we declined to take over Russia, they pivoted to taking credit for foiling it for us.

Whatever.

This was a weird post. We were getting dragged into more shit. We should have just stayed a country of a couple hundred people.

Nah. We were doing good. It's just a little amazing we have been attacked twice including once by a superpower with nuclear weapons.

Well three times if you count Tokyo. Oh. Twice with nukes. This was just nuts.

Pen back to Nan.

Sending them home

I think I'll end this entry. What a week.

Visiting sick kids

OK, back on track. My problem wasn't that no one wants to donate. It was that they want to meet us all before they'll write the check. So, we started to schedule a series of events around the world where multiple donors could come at once. Usually just receptions but sometimes dinner depending on the quantity and quality of the donor.

We also used the trips as opportunities to spend foundation money too. Our big focus was visiting children's hospitals. These kids idolized our kids. They were smart, successful superheroes to them. Whether it was Carlina, Gabe, Luca, or Tegan. Ruby, Tomas, Tavi, or Amara. Chris, Leslie, or Orlando, of course. Their significant others were much more involved now too, so Hunter, Hallie, Grace, and Noah were all huge draws. Our friends wanted in too and offered to do fund raising but we asked them to join us on hospital visits. Amara was universally the favorite, because she was so upbeat and always smiling, but in a wheelchair.

I'll give you a great example. We were headed to Indianapolis. A nice Midwestern city with a surprising tech community. We had a fund-raising event tonight at the Columbia Club. A reception for a larger group and then a small dinner for a select few. We did these as commutes, so they were late for us. Our body clocks were a mess. Dad managed all the events in his app and all the family members signed up. Tonight, I had our recent superstar, Carlina, with her hubby, of course. I also had my love, Sophia joining me. Sometimes I had last minute people show up. Mom and Dad showed up in Detroit last night. That caused a stir. Leslie had just texted me that she was coming tonight. Leslie was always a huge win.

Right now, we were headed to our Airbnb which was on the north side of town. A big place with 7-bedrooms but also a big driveway where we could land. We had found a place near the Columbia Club too. We were flying little planes that could VTOL. Sometimes be brought the big Hplane so we could bring cars. I had to laugh because Carlina and Elena had figured out they could drive the new Lincoln Navigator. You know they both had one. So did Tegan.

Ok, too much detail. We had our Airbnb early and all agreed to meet at 10 am local time. We had an appointment at 2 at Riley Hospital, the local children's hospital. Why did we get there at 10?

Really? Oh, not that, we needed to adjust to time zones, but, yes, that too. Lots and lots of that.

We hadn't played much in a long time, so we just played spin the bottle. Sometimes it hit Carlina, which resulted in a new spin if the proposed partner was too old, but we worked through that. We did it quickly, just to pick partners.

I got paired with Gabe. Damn that guy's skills continued to improve. It was incredible. He focused on me for almost an hour. An hour! I thought I'd died, and this was heaven. Thank goodness Max and Martan were with us too. Why you ask? Because I'd used up Gabe and Carlina was too much for just one. Oh hell, I enjoyed watching and learned a couple things from them too.

Leslie left a bit early as she had an errand to run. She would meet us at the hospital. She didn't tell me what.

Just picking up some friends

I picked them up in Taylor's driveway. I loved these new planes. We flew straight to the hospital and landed at the back end of the parking lot. Just parkin' our plane, right? I made sure we were early because you know it took a while to even make it through the lobby. We were meeting kids in the activity room and they were bringing them in and out so we could meet as many as possible. Then we would go see the sickest kids in their rooms.

One boy made me cry. The hospital director had come and gotten just me to go see him. Me? Come on. We walked into his room and there was a boy about my age lying in the bed. He was in bad shape. His parents were with him. So was his little sister. I found out he was Tam Jr, or TJ, and 12. She was Morgon and just 6. Another Morgan but spelled slightly differently.

What threw me off was the posters on the wall. They were all of me. One from the first movie and another from the Broadway version. One from the TV drama. I hated that one. It was us on the street. You remember. The one right in front of him was me in my flight suit, standing in front of an F-22. I remembered that one. I'd just won Top Gun.

He looked at me with a weak smile. Shit. He was too weak to talk so his parents explained that he had brain cancer. They were all here because he wasn't expected to make it through the night.

Well fuck.

"He idolizes you. What you have accomplished. He wanted to grow up and fly just like you do," said his Mom. "He wanted to go into space so badly."

I had an idea but asked a few questions first. I sent a quick text to Orlando because I knew he was at home.

Before I did anything, I sat on his bed and gave him a long hug. I positioned myself carefully and made sure I trapped one of his arms between us.

You know why. He deserved it.

I asked if I could speak with the Mom and the hospital director in the hall.

"He may be too sick, but I had to ask. I have a space plane arriving at the airport in 20 minutes. Could we transport him by air ambulance to the airport? There is an elevator on the plane that would hold a gurney. There is a couch he could be properly strapped into for takeoff," I said.

The director called the doctor over.

"I have to warn you he might not survive. That said, he won't make morning either way," said the Doctor. "It would be amazing for him. However, the cost would be very high."

I turned to the director.

"I will make a $25 million donation in his name if you have him in an air ambulance within the next 15 minutes," I said.

The flurry of activity was intense. While they were doing it, we agreed a nurse would come, as would the entire family. The nurse and the Mom went in the air ambulance and the dad and sister flew with me in my F-61. I radioed ahead and got priority permission to land by the space plane for me and the helicopter.

Twenty minutes after my initial suggestion, we were all strapped in and taking off. Orlando got us up fast. I was sitting next to TJ and when we leveled off, I unbuckled his seat belt. He floated up. His parents floated over, and each took a hand. He had a huge smile on his face. His sister managed an awkward hug.

And he died.

We were all crying and hugging. Orlando finished the orbit and landed back in Indianapolis. I had a few minutes with the family. They were both sad and overjoyed. He had accomplished his biggest dream.

"Surely you didn't mean it when you said you would donate $25 million in his name," said Mom.

"You know the picture on the street?" I asked and they all said they did. "That's my sister. You probably know her better for her philanthropic efforts. Her name is Chris Hayden. Yes, I meant it. In fact, it is already done. Chris spoke to the director while we were in flight. The university has been fund raising for a new pediatric cancer research facility. They had just started. Their goal was $125 million. We funded the entire thing. With your permission, it will be named after your son."

Yeah, they started crying again. I'd had Orlando fly us back to the hospital. I was in the back with the family. I discovered that young Morgon was a huge fan of our Morgan so I had her meet the plane. Kids are resilient. She squealed. I had also found out that little Morgon had spent almost every moment of the last 6 months in that activity room, playing with the sick kids. She was too young to be an official volunteer, but the hospital looked the other way. I also found out that her idol was Carlina. Well good.

We walked back in and upstairs and towards the activity room. Stupid money had won the day. Painted over the door in a nice script was the new name of the room. It was named after young Morgon. They all stopped and looked at me. I just smiled. They'd find out later that I had donated another million to completely refurbish the room, under young Morgon's direction. She was 6. She was old enough to be in charge.

Just then I heard another squeal. Morgon had spotted Carlina. Oh, they hugged. You know they hugged. Carlina took her hand and led her to a couch to chat. I found out that little Morgon's passion was racing. Our Morgan who was now sitting with them too.

Our Morgan came over and introduced herself.

"This is very forward of me, so feel free to say no. I have not mentioned it to your Morgon yet. We have the speedway rented for the next two days. I understand the funeral is day after tomorrow. Would you be open to our taking Morgon for rides tomorrow? We have a variety of cars. Carlina would love to take her for a ride in her NSX on the road course. You both would be welcome to join us or not," said Morgan.

"You're making our children's dreams come true. How could we say no?" said Mom.

"OK then I'll be even more forward. Could she spend the night? She could share a room with Carlina," added Morgan. They exchanged a look before answering. Oh my. I knew that look. Just then Chris walked up. Oh, there was that look again. She saw it too and just smiled back.

"Where are you staying?" asked Mom. Chris shared we had a very large Airbnb on the north side and shared the address.

They exchanged an entirely different look. Despair. Chris caught it too. Being Chris, she was direct.

"Spill it," said Chris in her take no prisoners tone. The Dad gathered himself.

"That was our house. TJ's medical bills wiped us out. We sold the house to investors that made it an Airbnb. We live in a small apartment now. I still make decent money and Alice will be going back to work, but with no savings, we will never make it out of an apartment," said Dad, who we found out was Tam Senior, but went by just Tam.

Chris moved faster than I did.

"If it is OK with you, we need it for a couple days. We will arrange the movers to move you back in on Saturday," said Chris.

They looked stunned for about the hundredth time today. After all, they had lost their son an hour ago. They had shared, though, that they were at peace. They'd had months to prepare and were devout Catholics and their faith supported them.

"How? How do you know they would even sell it? Why would you do this?" said Tam.

"They'll sell. I'll do it because the disaster of healthcare is a passion of mine. I'll do it because I can afford it. I'll do it because I want to," said Chris. Her determination showed in the set if her jaw.

"The Hayden foundation would buy our house back?" said Alice.

"No. I will," said Chris. And so, it was done.

I'll jump ahead a bit and then come back to the day at the track.

We all attended the funeral. Mom, Dad, all four of us, Sophia and her kids, and, of course, Carlina and Gabe. Little Morgon insisted Carlina and Gabe sit with her family. Carlina held her hand through the entire service.

There was a bit of a stir when the priest came out to lead the service. You see it wasn't their parish priest, although he came out too.

It is amazing the things you can get done with stupid money.

Like getting the Pope to officiate the funeral of a boy taken too soon.

Little Morgon

Morgon needed compassion tonight. I was a little startled when she got ready for bed by stripping, but not that surprised. I knew the looks we had gotten from the family. Oh, I stripped too. We got into bed and I gave her a hug.

Then she kissed me. That was no innocent kiss. Damn, it was one hell of a kiss. She even shared that she was sad, because her parents wouldn't play with her and she hadn't gotten to play at all since TJ got sick. They hadn't gone all the way, but she loved it when he went down on her. Well, I have skills, so...

LM woke me up early to go to the track. Yeah, LM seemed better than little Morgon. She woke me up by returning the favor. She had skills too. I did find time later to bring in Gabe too. LM's oral skills were spectacular for him too. Now we were off to the track. When she turns 7...

Her Mom and Dad met us at the track. It turned out they were big fans too, of all kinds of racing. That was good as we had part of the day scheduled for track testing both my new rides. IndyCar and NASCAR. Which means Marco was there and it turned out both Michael and Mario were too. Quite the clan going on there.

It costs a bit to build those cars so little ol' me can drive them but, you know, Amy. Grace was there too because she had new cars too. We were entering together. The cars were in royal livery with no sponsors. Just the crest. Oh, we had sponsors. You know how that worked. We just didn't have decals yet.

Amy again.

It turns out that LM was a huge Grace fan too. We all wanted to warm up, so everyone grabbed cars and we headed out onto the oval. I took LM with me. Amy took Tam and Gabe took Alice. Amy was in her 488C. I was in my NSX. Gabe was in the Venom F5. That's one hot car. Someone had ferried over quite a collection of cars. Marco grabbed a Project One. Michael took the McLaren Senna. Even Mario got in the act with an Aventador. I won't list everyone but let's just say the track was full. We had fire suits for our guests, of course. I led the way and we got up to speed fast. The cars were mismatched so a lot of passing. I thought LM would be scared but she spent the entire ride laughing. Given she had just lost her brother, that was good.

Finally, I radioed everyone to switch to the road course. I took the turn into the course at speed and we just burned it up. LM clearly enjoyed that even more. Then I realized she was as big as I am. Should I? Could I? Oh yes, I could. I radioed everyone that I needed the road course. They all exited back onto the oval. I went far enough that no one could see us and stopped. I pulled off my helmet and she did too.

"Do you want to drive?" I asked. Yep, got another squeal. And a kiss.

We traded spots and I started to go through the controls. Something told me I was wasting my time. She had everything adjusted in a flash and just beamed at me. I set the helmets at my feet and told her to go slow.

That didn't last. I made her stop to put on our helmets again. She got the idea and just went ripping around the track. I realized I hadn't explained she should use a more forgiving line.

Didn't matter. She wasn't just good. She was great. After three laps she was within three seconds of my best lap time. Just then Amy radioed to meet them in the pits. I replied that I needed the oval for two laps. She laughed and said everyone was already off. I'm pretty sure she already knew. She is incredibly perceptive.

I waved LM to go out on the oval and held up two fingers. She got it. She was on it and blew around the track. Finally, she pulled into the pits and up to the crowd of our people. Her Mom and Dad were walking up when we got out.

Now I know where her squeal comes from. Her Mom.

Her Mom still had her fire suit on and her helmet in her hand. I waved at my car again and pointed at the oval and the road course and walked away.

They blew past me about 10 seconds later.

Getting your speed on

Want to guess what we had? Want to?

I ended up at a small table with Tam, Alice, and Mom. My mom. Amy. They were all clearly grief stricken but trying their best for LM.

"So, Tam, what do you do for a living?" asked Mom.

"I am the head of fund raising for a larger non-profit. They've been incredibly supportive, and we had what we thought was good insurance until it wasn't," he said. "Alice was in administration at the school district but has been caring for TJ for the last two years. Losing him is devastating but it wasn't a surprise. It is so great to see Morgon laugh. She hasn't in so long. She told us she had an especially good time last night. She told us everything."

Did he go there? Yes, yes, he did.

Mom gave me the look and I just nodded. She knew I really needed help.

"This may seem a little off the wall, but do you know much about Dionysus?" asked Mom.

"Oh yes," said Tam. "We know all about it. Some friends of ours are members of one of your resorts. We were extended an invitation but couldn't afford it now. We used to be members of your resort in France. For years. We are also aware of the educational opportunities for kids."

Really. An invitation? Oh boy. I had to ask.

"Which resort?" I asked. He smiled back at me. I knew that smile too.

"Gamma," he said.

Yippee.

"This might be a little forward but how tied are you to the community?" asked Mom.

"Not much. Our social class changed, and we fell off invitation lists," he said, with a little bitterness. Mom just looked at me.

"OK, my turn. You know I run Hayden International, right?" I asked. He laughed.

"Of course. I work for a charity. Anyone in the business looks up to you. Dreams of it. We are out here hawking for hundred-dollar donations," he said, with a little awe.

I loved this part of our life. Particularly given what they just went through.

"As it turns out, I need someone to run fundraising. It has quite a bit of travel but pays well and comes with a pretty nice home on Dionysus," I said. "The job is yours if you want it. Oh, it comes with a Gamma membership too." I gave him my killer smile with that. It really didn't come with a Gamma membership, but it did for them. It looked like Chris bought a home they wouldn't need, but that was cool.

This is the part where people just stare at us.

"Why would you do that?" he asked.

"Why would I hire someone to fill a position that I desperately need filled that is clearly qualified for the job?" I asked. "I don't understand the question." By this point, little Morgon and Carlina had joined us.

"Can we talk in front of the little one?" asked Carlina. OK, we all laughed at those words coming from 7-year-old Carlina, but they said we could.

"What is your background Alice?" said Carlina.

"I was the assistant superintendent of the school district, but had to take care of TJ," said Alice. Well that couldn't have been more perfect. Carlina pulled out her phone and sent a text and I absolutely knew to whom. She was texting Pari. She needed a number two badly, particularly now that she was expanding into Africa. She quickly got a reply.

"I wanted to confirm something before I offered this but can now. Our country needs a Second Assistant Minister of Education, focusing on hiring. The Minister and Assistant Ministers are a little overwhelmed, as we are opening schools globally. These schools start at pre-K and go through doctoral programs. It is the system in which Morgon will be enrolled once she has been properly tested. You'd report to the Assistant Minister."

They asked about the testing and Carlina walked them through the school system. She was also blunt about the experiences of a child Morgon's age, including the 7-year-old party. Morgon was squealing again and started walking through the choices she had already met.

"Hold on Morgon," said Alice. "We haven't decided to move yet. How could we take these jobs? You said they both involve travel. We have Morgon to consider." Carlina looked confused for a bit, then you could see the light bulb go on.

"Sorry, it took me a bit to follow what you meant. I'm just a few months older and live in my house on the water with my husband. Now we're an outlier, but kids are given a lot of responsibility. But in this case, there isn't an issue. Your staff will have the appropriate background for her to stay with them in the house."

"Our staff," said Tam.

"Of course," said Carlina. "Your home will have a nice apartment for your live-in staff. In the role you will both be in; your home will be quite spacious, and you would generally have a couple. If you're comfortable, they likely would also have children. That would be good for Morgon. Generally, they're quite fun too!"

Yeah, they were all confused at this point.

"Let's make this easier. Are you both interested in the jobs?" asked Carlina. They said they were.

"Great. Unless you have something, you need to take care of, let's head to Dionysus this afternoon. We can get you settled and then arrange to move anything you want to move. You won't need clothes or anything like that. That's all provided for free, at your level. Everything is. We'll want to get Morgon in the driver's education program, and she'll need to pick a car. Her choices are a little limited at her size. You'll need to go through the program too. You can choose cars too, although you won't be limited and can choose as many as you want. I can say the NSX convertible is great fun. All the AMG models and M models are fun too. You'll want a decent track car for each of you. The NSX is the only choice for Morgon until she grows. You have lots of choices or can just use the cars that are kept at the track. Do any of the three of you know how to fly?"

"Any of the three of us. You included our 6-year-old in that question," said Alice.

"Sorry. It's a reasonable question on Dionysus, but obviously not here," said Carlina.

"Asking if a 6-year-old can fly is common?" asked Tam Sr.

"Probably not common, but not unusual. At your level in the community, you would each have your own hypersonic plane, assuming you have the interest in learning how to fly. It's a fun program and Morgon would benefit from the rigor," said Carlina. "It's nice, because they were designed for very short pilots, although our shortest pilots have to fly the F-61."

"Sure. You designed the hypersonic planes for 6-year-old pilots," said Alice. "But your shortest pilots have to fly a fighter."

"Yes, of course," said Carlina.

"And we'd all get our own plane. And cars. And a house with a live-in apartment big enough for the family that would be our staff," said Tam. "Do I have that about right?"

"Yes," said Mom, clearly needing to take over. "Let's follow Carlina's suggestion. It's still morning here, so it would be late afternoon there. You can stay with us until you're settled, or stay with Carlina, since she's in Robertville, which is likely where you'll want to live. You'll want to live near Nan, who is the Minister of Education and Pari, who is the Assistant Minister. Oh, that's right, Pari just lives a few doors down from Carlina, since she still lives with her parents."

"The Assistant Minister of Education lives with her parents?" asked Morgon.

"Yes," said Mom. "She can build her own house whenever she wants, but since she is so busy, she likes it where she is. Then again, given she is 9-years-old, there isn't a big hurry."

"My boss, the Assistant Minister of Education, is 9," said Alice.

"Oh, is that a problem?" asked Carlina.

"No, no, I'm just getting use to all this. I assume she flies her own hypersonic plane?" asked Alice. We all just nodded. "How old is the Minister?" It took her a minute when we told her Nan was 4-years-old.

"Can we get our asses out of these seats and onto a plane please?" asked Morgon. Little Morgon.

As it turned out, both Tam and Alice had their private pilot's license, so they got some seat time, but given the length of the flight, not much. They were naturals though, which was good for Morgon's potential.

I won't bore you with another "found a big house on the water" story. I will let them introduce their team when they're ready.

This is the fun part of our life, but their loss was staggering.

Email me. Comments, ideas, and suggestions welcome

End of Chapter