Double Twist
Chapter 167
“Americans worship technology. It’s an inherent trait in the national zeitgeist.”
—Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“SIX 6-MINUTE MILES followed by a 5.5-minute mile,” Jock yelled at us Thursday. “I want to see you building for a kick at the end of your races.” We were practicing at The Plex where Saturday’s race would be held. That meant we’d take a mile on the outdoor track to start, then feed ourselves into the 10k course from that point on. The New Haven Classic would have fifteen teams competing. It was the team’s last competition before sectionals. Hard to believe the season was almost over.
Of course, the team being finished for the season didn’t mean I was. I wouldn’t run in the sectional at Northrop. Instead, I’d be competing in the Pokagon Half Marathon the next day. But before that, I had the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Parke County next weekend. This weekend would be my last 10k cross country meet.
It was with that in mind that I set the pace through four laps around the track and then hit the trail with my team pacing me behind. That’s only partly true, of course. The six other guys who ran with me as our seven-man team at the meets were keeping pace with me. The other dozen on our total team were soon spread out and trailing behind. They’d come a long way in the two months of the season, but they weren’t up to the level of competing. Every one of them had shown big improvement through the season, though.
When we crossed the five-mile mark on the trail, I started increasing the pace until we were running a much harder 5:30 pace. We broke into the bubble with half a klick to go and I was pleased to see all six guys were with me and one was trailing by only a hundred yards. I didn’t try to run away from them. I ran faster than the 36:45 that we finished in last week at West Noble, but this was a team training event and the team did great.
“Jock, how about I don’t run Saturday?” I said.
“I thought this was your favorite course,” he said. “And you know that girl from North Huntington is going to be gunning for you again.”
“Yeah. It would be a shame to miss her, but look at the team. If I don’t run, all six of the guys will be in scoring position. We might not have as high a first-place finish, but I think they’d still place first or second without me. I won’t be running at sectionals with them and it would be good for them to know that as a team they’re still competitive.”
“That’s good thinking, Jacob. You know how I feel about running as a team. You built them this summer. I agree. You’ll have your work cut out for you next weekend in Parke County.”
“Nanette and I are thinking we’ll go down for the race on Friday night instead of making the long drive on Saturday morning.”
“I was going to suggest that. It’s almost 200 miles down there. You’ll need rest. Please have Emily give me a call. She’ll be the school employee as your driver and will have a voucher for your hotel and gas.”
“Thanks, Jock.”
“This Saturday…”
“I was thinking that if I wasn’t running, I might be able to head to Chicago earlier than I’d planned,” I broke in. He looked at me and grinned.
“Yeah. Do that.”
Before Beca and I could hit the road Friday afternoon, Cindy and I had to do the commission reenactment for Richards’s class. It turned out that he’d done exactly the same exercise in Beca’s class with Desi and Brittany on one side and an interview panel on the other. We thought we were pretty well prepared but got hit with a question I wasn’t really expecting.
“You propose that families, relationships, and individual interests be considered in assigning inductees to their training camps and stations,” Rick Allen said. He was a pretty sharp guy and I listened carefully to his question. “Doesn’t that create a special class of people that get special considerations? It seems that having the computer assign everyone based on aptitude and needed distribution is a fairer system and guarantees equal treatment under the law. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Hmm. I had to puzzle over that one. This whole equal treatment under the law thing was still new to me. In V1’s world there would be exceptions, exemptions, and deferments out the wazoo. Here, there were none.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll take that question,” Cindy said in her soft voice. I was shocked. Everyone leaned forward to hear her better. “Rita Jones, please don’t be offended that I use you as an example. Commissioners, Rita is disabled. She uses a wheelchair. In this building, there are ramps and even an elevator that will get her to second floor classrooms. She has special textbooks that are lighter for her to handle. Her physical education classes are customized so she can participate in a level of exercise that she’s capable of. These are all special considerations that serve to equalize her footing with other classmates. They serve, in fact, to give her equal status that she would not have without these special considerations.”
“You can’t possibly consider your desire to stay with your lover to be the same as having a physical handicap, can you?” Rick asked. “Although I admit it seems to be for some people.” The class laughed.
“The same? No. But it illustrates the fact that we can take into account the needs and desires of individuals while still maintaining equality and not creating a separate class of people. There is ample evidence, in fact, that acknowledging the unique relationships in this situation, as has been done in military training and assignment, enhances the individual’s ability and willingness to perform at her best. Equality under the law does not mean sameness. We are all individuals and shoehorning every individual into the same mold is actually denying their equal value as individuals.”
I was proud of Cindy. She didn’t even become flustered when Rick implied we were lovers. I know I blushed. We had some more discussion before the class was over and Mr. Richards promised we would study the concept of equality under the law, as it was fundamental to our constitution.
Beca and I had already packed and had our bags in the truck, so as soon as the bell rang, we kissed our lovers goodbye and headed toward Chicago.
“Executive decision,” Ray said. “Since you were able to get here a day earlier than you thought, we decided on dinner out tonight. We can start talking about the service tomorrow morning.” That was fine with me. We’d hit rush hour traffic and it took us an hour and a half to get into Chicago to the Longs’ condo. It was one of those nights when V1 would have settled for a cigar and martini. I definitely didn’t want to start down that track at seventeen.
“Thank you, Ray,” Beca said. “A more relaxed evening will give us more time with Joan.”
“I know you make up reasons to need my advice just so you can be together,” Ray laughed. We left the condo and went to dinner at the hippie place Joan liked so much down by the river. The food was good and the conversation was lively. I’d come to really like Ray and Debbie.
And later, dining on Joan, was nice, too.
“What are the big concerns?” Ray asked after we’d had breakfast and settled in the living room with coffee. It still amazed me how much I’d come to respect and depend on Joan’s father. His company was doing incredible work in artificial intelligence and even though he was a CEO and not an engineer, he had a remarkable understanding of the structure and science his engineers were developing.
“I’ll try to lay them all on the table and we can cover them in whatever order you think is best,” I said. “First, it seems like the National School is acting under the assumption that the reform act has already been written and passed into law. They are recruiting to have individuals join their school as a part of National Service. One of my worries is that we will come up to July 2022 and Cindy will volunteer to start service early so we can go to the school and then we’ll find out they didn’t have the ability or authority to make the offers they made. We’ll end up split, doing roadwork, or typing reports instead of playing in an orchestra or on a deputation team.” Ray jotted down some notes as he nodded and then indicated for me to continue.
“It’s beginning to feel like we’ve already joined the service. The National School is managing three more performances before we ever get to DC. They are getting the audience, providing the tech, paying us to perform, putting out the stream, and paying all our expenses. Donna has been working with them on the schedule and it looks like they want us to perform the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Southern California for the corps personnel who are working the fields. And we’re not talking about a single performance. We can do the same program, but they want it performed every day for a different live audience. One of them will be live streamed.”
“Wow! That is really pushing you,” Ray said. “We’ll talk about that a lot.”
“Okay, next. We were all under the impression you simply couldn’t negotiate with the National Service. One of the things that has people chafing about it is the lack of choice or influence on where an individual serves or what he does. But we’ve got some significant issues to deal with when we join up. Like, ‘What happens to our 5,000 patrons and ability to provide music for them and collect their money once we enter service?’ We could lose a significant amount of income if we have to suspend our patron service in exchange for the wage the National Service offers us. And trying to gain that audience back after a two-year suspension might be near impossible.”
“So, I take it you want to double dip and draw your service wages at the same time that you support your private endeavor. That could be tricky,” Ray said. “What’s next?”
“DC is expensive. It would be one thing if Cindy and I were living in a dormitory and eating meals in the school cafeteria while we did service. But we need to consider housing and employment for all of us. They’ve made offers to Cindy, me, Desi, and Brittany. But it looks like they have arranged for Rachel to stay in the DC area even if we don’t move there. And they are looking at opportunities for Beca that would train her for some kind of management—but will that require her to sign on for an extra six years? And then we have five who will be beyond or out of service. Donna, Nanette, Sophie, Emily, and Joan. We need employment for them and housing for all of us. And I can’t see any way that the National School of the Arts can influence the placement of Livy on the athletic track. We still need to care for that relationship, no matter where she is stationed.”
“Some of these things are concerns you would need to face even if the National Service suddenly dissolved. With a pod of twelve people, you have limited the places and possibilities for staying together. I think that one is going to come down to the pod having a strategy session—or more likely a long series of them—so that everyone gets a say in what they want to do and where they want to live. It’s not fair for you to assume that ten people want to support the blossoming careers of two. I can get you some advice for that, but you’ll need to work on it outside of your concerns about the National Service. What’s next?”
“So much of what we fear is the unknown. The National Service by way of the National School of the Arts seems to be investing a lot in our pod and in Cindy and me as performers. I’m worried they’ll suddenly spring a trap on us and say, ‘All this can be yours if you sign on for eight years.’ Or something equally ridiculous, like signing over ownership of our performance rights and videos. Anything like that. We don’t know how to get the information that will enlighten us enough to be confident in our decisions.”
“I might be able to help with that. Our investigation of the testing software has led us into a lot of other areas on the periphery. Part of it looks like an increasing nationalization of private concerns. We’ve seen it in the infrastructure, for example. Road crews were formerly all private contractors. Enter the National Service with a new labor force and mandate to improve infrastructure. Now a large percentage of those private contractors are drawing from the service labor pool. It isn’t quite the same as taking over the company, but it is making the company dependent on the service. We’ll investigate the likely paths your offer might take and see if we can at least come up with probable scenarios that reduce the level of uncertainty.”
“Thank you, Ray. You know, we built our pod kind of organically. We were friends, partners, relatives,” I said. “I think we need to cap it and formalize it. We’ve got two issues that prevent that. Cindy, who is definitely part of the pod, is still only sixteen. And Brittany won’t turn eighteen until after we have to make the decision to join the National School. We can’t formalize the pod in one of the new plural domestic partnerships that are legal in Massachusetts and Washington now until all members are eighteen or have parental permission. I think we’ll get Cindy’s parents to sign off on joining the service, but I’m not sure we’d ever get them to give their permission for her to marry us.”
“And the other issue?”
“It looks like we might have another pod member who comes from outside our little community in Indiana. She’s great—don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of her becoming one of us. Everyone in the pod who’s met her—which is everyone but Joan and Livy—have fallen in love with her. But I worry about what it would mean to bring in an outsider bound to us by common interest rather than history. I certainly wouldn’t want to do it again but that also relates to the plural domestic partnership. Once one is formed, it is very difficult to add a person and dropping a person is tantamount to divorce.”
Ray scratched some more notes and then looked up at me to continue.
“I guess that’s everything I’ve thought of so far. I just felt like… You’ve been a champion for us and taught us so much about the service—more than we’d ever learn in school—that I felt like I could talk to you about all this. Thank you.”
“I’m going to add one more thing to your list before we start dealing with the things already on it. I know, you don’t want to think about even more,” he laughed. “What about your role as an adviser to the National Service Review Commission? I know from Joan that you are disbelieving about having any great influence there but the evidence is contrary to that. The president is aware enough of you that she’s quoting and referring to your memes. Hashtag RaisingTheBar is now used almost as frequently as #shehasaprettylowbarforsuccess. I believe you shouldn’t take your role lightly. You need to plan a strategy for the kind of influence you want to have on this and be proactive in promoting it. This is both a great opportunity and, potentially, a great liability.”
“Geez! I felt like they were putting us through a meatgrinder the first time we met with them. I’ll have to talk to the rest of the pod before I start making any big commitments there.”
As you might expect, our day was filled with more questions than answers. I wasn’t really expecting that Ray would have an easy one-step solution that would put all the issues to rest. He showed, though, what had led to his rise as CEO of a high-tech company. One of the things I loved about his approach was that he treated it seriously and treated us in the pod as adults who had legitimate concerns and issues to deal with. He was able to deal with both the business aspects of our pod and the relational aspects. The first thing he did was call Beca and Joan into the conversation and lay out his interpretation of what I said to get their opinion of it. How many people do you know who just happen to have a flipchart available in their condo and a selection of colored markers?
Beca and Joan agreed with most of the points. Beca was concerned that she didn’t have a strong enough aptitude in anything to influence her placement with the rest of us. She needed to develop something before she had to take the NSAT in January. For me, that was coming up sooner and I mentioned Desi and I planned to take the test in mid-November. We were the first two of our class. And Cindy had to take the PNSAT in two weeks. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in her scoring high in the right aptitude or interest.
We tapped out the list of issues and sent it out to all our pod mates for review. Since it was Saturday, even Livy and Rachel were able to respond. Then we conferenced in different pod mates during the day to talk about issues that affected them most.
Debbie was involved with the process as well. Joan’s stepmom had a keen eye for the social and relational issues. But she was no slouch in the area of business and professional issues as well. She had some very pointed questions for both Donna and Sophie regarding their career options and what they wanted to do in the long run. Sophie had been acting as our agent in negotiating contracts when we did performances. Donna was our producer and focused on making sure everything was set for successful appearances. But at heart, they were a dancer and an English teacher. What did they want to be when they grew up?
Ray listed professionals we needed to consult with and get on our team, though not in our pod. They included a lawyer, an accountant, a business adviser, and a psychologist or counselor experienced in group dynamics and relationships. By the end of the day, we all realized that the next few months were going to be even busier and more intense than we anticipated with Cindy’s and my performances.
Joan, Beca, and I lay in the afterglow of slow, caring lovemaking later that night. When the three of us are together, sex is often energetic and adventurous but we all needed to be held and reassured Saturday night. Beca and I held Joan between us and continued petting and giving little kisses as we wound down.
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me,” Joan sighed. I assumed she meant Beca, but she kissed both of us to make sure we knew it was a package deal. “I want you both to know I’m in. Wherever we go and whatever we decide to do, I’m with you. The websites, Patreon, product sales, live streams, YouTube releases, and all could almost be enough to keep me busy without finding any other job. I could take on freelance work like I did in high school to fill in the gaps. Whatever you decide, I love you and I’ll be with you.”
I saw my own emotions reflected in Beca’s eyes as we looked at our lover. For a few minutes, I didn’t care about music, running, the National Service, or school of any kind. Our real accomplishment, if you could call it that, was building a loving family together, committed to supporting each other. No matter what else we did, that was what was most important for us to maintain.
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