Dad was not happy to hear that I wasn’t going to college. When I got home, I told him all about my trip and about finding the gemstones. I was so excited about how much the find was worth and what it could mean for the foundation that I completely forgot that I hadn’t ever really talked to him about college or of my plans for a foundation.
“Dad, what did you image that I’d be doing in college?”
“You have a lot of interests, Abby. I imagined that you’d pick a few and see how you liked them as a profession. I also imagined that you’d try some courses in other subjects and see if they interested you.”
“I already found something that I’m interested in. I’m going to help people like mom. People who were ripped away from their families and had their lives ruined.”
“That’s a good thing and I wholeheartedly approve, but what about your life Abby. You should get to experience the good things in life as well and college is a very memorable time in people’s lives. They make new friends, learn new ideas, plan for their future and have a good time. You deserve that as much as anyone does. Your family was ripped away from you too. You’re one of the people that you want to help with your foundation. You have your whole life to run the foundation, it can wait a few years until you’re ready.”
“I thought that I’d have to wait years until I could build up the foundation and get enough money through investments or donations to truly help people, but if the gemstones sell for as much as Jake says they will, then I don’t have to wait. I can start helping people now, or as soon as the money comes in and I set up the foundation and organize it. There’s no reason to wait longer than that. People go to college for two reasons, dad. To learn about what they’ve chosen to do and to figure out what they want to do. I know what I want to do.”
“Then why not learn about it by taking business courses in how to run a charity or foundation? I can’t remember if Galt has any courses that are specific to not-for-profit companies, but those courses do exist in other colleges.” Mark had asked me the same question months ago and I’d brushed him off. I couldn’t do that with dad.
“Because I don’t want to wait four years to start helping people when I can make a difference now. I’ll probably make mistakes along the way that I could have avoided by going to college, but in four years, I can help a lot of people. Also, I’m not afraid to do research and take online courses.” I could see that he was starting to consider my side of this now.
“No, you’re not.”, dad said with resignation, “I saw that with the way you invested our money. You’ve always put in the time and effort to excel at what you want to do. If you do that with your foundation, I have no doubt that it’ll be successful. I suppose that college will still be there for you later, if you change your mind. It might even be more helpful after you’ve had some real-life experience. You’ll be able to associate your lessons with things that you’ve done and discover other, maybe better, solutions.”
I gave dad a big hug and said, “Thank you, dad, for understanding. And thank you for agreeing to talk to Harry about all this for me!”
“Nice try, Abby. This is your decision and talking to Harry will be one of the many consequences of that decision that you have to deal with. If I were you, I would stress the possibility of going to college later, in four or five years maybe. You might also think about asking him to be on your board of directors.”
Oh well, it was worth a try. Dad had a good idea with the board though. I was definitely going to do that and if that didn’t work, I could always distract Harry by asking about the time he and Jake fought off an alligator.
With dad mollified, I could concentrate on Serpentine Logistics and their next shipment of slaves this Saturday. I had a lot to do to be ready in time and I didn’t have much time left, as today was Thursday already. My to do list looked like this:
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
* Coordinate my flight times and buses
* Find an excuse to be gone from Friday afternoon until Saturday night
* Pick-up special-order cameras from Howie
* Modify my body type and appearance
* Find an all-black outfit to cover my new body type
* Choose a weapon
* Pack all the gear into the large camping backpack
* Bring a few duffel bags
* Tune up my bike
* Coordinate with the Wilmington police department
* Stop the bad guys, save the people
Checking the flights and buses only took a few minutes. The airport was only about a half hour from here and I’d only have to switch buses once to get there. After landing, I should be able to get to Serpentine by bus and bike in less that half an hour.
Before calling Eva, I texted Howie to see if the cameras were ready. I’d sent him an email with my requirements a few days ago when I realized that using my phone to take video wasn’t going to work. A set of ten tiny cube cameras, hooked up to the internet to provide a live feed of the victims as they were brought in, would be much more efficient. They needed to be untraceable to their source, as the cameras might end up being found by the police. Howie texted back that he’d meet me at the mall at 3pm.
Eva answered her phone on the first ring. “Hey Abby. Was your dad excited about the gemstones? My moms still flipping out about it. She’s so happy for you.”
“Well, he was happy for me, but we kind of got stuck at the ‘what do you mean you’re not going to college’ part.”
“Oh. You hadn’t discussed it him? You seemed pretty sure these last few months.”
“Yeah, but I figured that I had until Senior year, so there was no point in having to go through an extra six months of arguing. Anyways, we talked it out and he’ll support my decision, for now.”
“Wow! How’d you manage that?” Eva sounded impressed.
“I threw a tantrum and stomped my feet and begged and pleaded until I got what I wanted.”
“That so doesn’t sound like you. You probably had a bunch of really good sounding arguments ready for him and he’s a fair guy, so it all worked out.” Eva knew me and my dad too well.
“Basically. Eva, I need to ask you for a favor and you can’t ask me what it’s for.”
“Ok. Shoot!”
“I need you to be my alibi for tomorrow afternoon until Saturday night.”
“What’s if for?”, she asked.
“You’re not supposed to ask. You’re just supposed to say, “I got your back, girl. Whatever you need, I’m there for you.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Pretend I said all that. Now where are you really going?”. I’d expected this. I knew her just as well as she knew me and she’d die of curiosity if I didn’t tell her.
“I’m meeting up with a boy that I like and we’re going to spend the night together at his place in the mountains. I think he might be ‘The One’ and I might go all the way with him.” Never tell the truth when a perfectly good obvious lie will do.
“Abby, that is such a load of bull. You’re the least boy crazy girl I know. You’re not lesbian, but you don’t seem to care about boys either. Not that it would make a difference if you did care, since you’re so clueless about them.”
“Hey. I like boys and I’m not clueless. I just haven’t found any good ones yet.”
“See, that’s what I mean by clueless. You’re practically surrounded by perfectly good boys who are interested in you and you don’t even know it.”
“No, I’m not. Name one.” I challenged her, expecting silence or stammering. Instead she said, “I’ll name three. Bobby, Tyler, and Mark.”
“Are you out of your mind? Two of them are three or five years older than I am and are in college and Bobby doesn’t like me that way. He’s just a friend.” I didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“From your own words, you provide proof that you’re clueless. Mark invites you to spend a week with his family.”
“I saved his life. He was just being nice.”
“Tyler stopped by the hospital to see how you were doing. Twice.”
“I was in a fire. He knew me and wanted to make sure that I was ok.”
“Bobby took up Kung Fu to spend more time with you.”
“He wanted a winter sport to keep up his conditioning for football.”
“Wow. What reality are you living in, Abby? It’s like you’ve created some sort of alternate reality where the rules of this reality don’t apply.” Despite the topic of conversation, I almost laughed out loud at how close she was to the truth of my abilities.
“It doesn’t matter anyways. Will you cover for me? It’s very important to me”, I asked her pleadingly.
“Yeah. I got your back, girl. Whatever you need, I’m there for you. Will you at least tell me later on what this was all about?”
“Probably not. Thanks Eva. I’ll call you later and we’ll make a time for me to come over and drop off my bag.”
A few minutes later, I went to meet Howie for the cameras. He showed me how to connect them to a network and how to upload the video to a live feed. I thanked him again and paid him for the cameras. Now I just needed to find a good outfit and pick a weapon. Butterfly swords? Sabre? Baseball bat?