A Time to Blossom

A mountain to climb

“Craig, come on downstairs, Mandy is here to see you.”

“Okay mom, I’ll be right down. Just putting some things away.”

Well, that is all I need. Mandy. She’s probably got loads of things she wants to ask about Nathan’s visit. It could have waited until tomorrow morning. She could have asked me on the way to school. It’s probably been niggling her all day that I didn’t walk to school with her this morning for the first day back. Not that I was avoiding her, just that I got the chance to swim for longer this morning in the training class because with dad still being home on leave he came along to swim too, then gave me a lift to school in the car.

“Hi Mandy, sorry to keep you waiting. Just tidying my sock drawer. Things tend to go astray in there if I don’t keep on top of it. Don’t they, mom? We still good for school tomorrow morning, Mandy? I can come across just before eight if you like. Walk in together.”

“Hi Craig. Yes, that’s fine.”

“Mandy has something else to ask you, Craig. Don’t let him side-track you, Mandy. It’s a favourite technique of his. Gets it from his dad.”

Like as if I could side-track Mandy. Once she has set her mind on something, she gets it.

“Yes, Craig, I’ve noticed that too. Anyway, it’s simple. I’ve popped over to see if you’ll invite me to the Leaving Ball at school at the end of this term. You know, the party they hold for the Upper Sixth Form students who are leaving this year to go to university or get jobs. We’re going to hold it as an American Prom type theme this year. You’ll be able to wear that dinner jacket you bought when you escort me in. My dad’s already promised he’ll look into hiring a posh car for the evening and be our chauffeur, Mrs Wright.”

“That’ll be wonderful, Mandy. Craig, are you going to invite Mandy to the ball? She can’t wait all night for you to ask her.”

“Err, I don’t think I can, Mandy. It’s a leaving party for the Sixth Form. I’m still a fourth former, remember. We don’t get to go, so I can’t invite you. Anyway, won’t Carl object? He should be inviting you. He’s your boyfriend, not me.”

“Craig, you really can be dense at times. Carl’s away at university, or else he would be taking me. So, you can invite me instead, and if you’re going as my partner of course they’ll let you in.”

“Mandy, it’s not as if you’ll be short of people inviting you. Every guy in the Sixth Form will want to take you as his partner.  I wouldn’t get a look in. Besides, me and American Prom parties aren’t a good mix…”

“Don’t be silly, Craig. I’m sorry about this Mandy, I can’t imagine what’s got into him tonight.”

“Nothing’s ‘got into me’ tonight, mom. I’m just pointing out the obvious. It’s not a party I’ve been invited to, and Carl might not want me taking Mandy anyway.”

“Mandy’s inviting you, Craig, all you have to do is ask her. And you taking her is ideal, Carl won’t feel threatened by you, will he Mandy? He knows the two of you are just like brother and sister. It’s an ideal solution. The two of you will be the perfect couple, you in your smart dinner jacket and Mandy in the new ball gown she’s just been telling me about.”

“Exactly that, Craig. It’s ideal, just as your mom said. So, are you going to ask me to be your partner or do I need to come over there and twist your arm up your back?”

“Craig? Don’t keep Mandy waiting.”

 

“Mom! It’s not that simple. Maybe I should check it out with Nathan first. Carl might not object to me inviting Mandy to the Leaving Ball but perhaps Natty might. If I take anyone to a ball I’m gate-crashing, perhaps it should be him…”

“Craig! Sorry about this, Mandy. He can be really difficult at times. You wouldn’t believe how he dragged poor Nathan all round York last week, and made him skin and gut some rabbits, not to mention getting him half drowned kayaking in the rain. I’ll make us a cup of tea and tell you all about it whilst we wait for Craig to come to his senses. You’d really like Nathan, ever so charming, and such talent on the piano. Come through into the sitting room, Mandy. Craig, go and put the kettle on.”

* * *

“Hi Nat, Will. Good to see you both again. Did you have a good Easter holiday, Will? Nat said you were off to Florida, Shane too?”

Will adjusted the volume on the speakers and settled back into one of the two armchairs facing the screen and camera. Nat was sitting alongside him in the second armchair. Will looked up and smiled.

“That’s sorted the volume, Craig. We have you clear now. You got us?”

“Yes, perfect, Will,” said Craig, sitting down on his bed and balancing his laptop on the edge of his desk opposite him.

Before Will or Nat could say anything more, Travis bounced into the field of view behind the armchairs and waved at Craig.

“Hi Craig, how’s things? We hear you and Nat had a great time. You and Nat have gotta come over to my place in Dakota, spend some time there with me this summer.  We’ve got matching horses that would suit you both just perfect. We could get you some cowboy shirts too, just like the ones Noah has. Say ‘Hi’ Noah, Will has Boots on the link.”

Noah leaned across his bed into view and smiled, then settled back out of sight again with his sketch pad and a handful of pencils.

“Hi Noah. Hi Travis. Hey, Travis, are those permanent stripes on your sleeve? Congratulations! How long have you been a proper Corporal?”

“Just two days, so far, Boots.”

“You might not make it to a third, Travis, if you keep interrupting,” said Will. “This is meant to be a board meeting of my company. That right, Nat?”

Nat smiled. “Yes, Will. But we can take a couple of minutes to catch up with Craig before we get down to business. Shane would be here too, Boots, getting ready to go over to the ante-room with us for tea, but he’s on a special mission tonight. We’ll tell him you said ‘Hi’”

“What’s he up to? What’s the mission? Sweet-talking the kitchen staff into giving you all the best Danish pastries for tea?”

“No, way harder than that,” grinned Nat. “We have our first golf match next week and, as Founding President, Jackson is going to tee off to start the match. Jackson’s not actually playing, just doing the formal opening thing. Shane will take over from that point and play the first round, paired with Sean Sullivan. Shane is giving Jackson some coaching out on the sports field though, making sure Jackson looks good and gets us off to a good solid start. There will be a tv crew present so everything has to look absolutely spot on. Plus, Shane doesn’t want to have to be playing out of the rough either if Jackson screws up, hence the lesson. He’s got Jackson out there until dinner for a few hours of intensive ‘whack the ball straight down the middle’ training.”

“Shane’ll be good. He managed to get me to play better when we were at your place and Jackson will be eager to learn if it makes him appear as if he‘s an expert. He’ll catch on quickly.”

“We’re banking on it, Boots,” said Nat. “And hoping you’ll give us some more tips on MilSkills. Once we’re done with the board meeting, we have something to tell you about the rest of this semester.”

“So, guys,” said Will eagerly, “If we can just get down to business. As President, I call the meeting to order. For the record, present are me, Will Brookes, President and Chief Technology Officer, Nat Bauer, Vice President of Legals and Commercial, and Craig Wright, Chief Imagineer.”

“Chief Imagineer?”

“Yes, Craig, that’s your official role title. You’re in charge of engineering stuff and thinking up new ideas for us. So, Chief Imagineer.”

“I like that, Will. It has a ring to it.”

“Okay, I’ve called the meeting because we have something important to discuss. I’ve fine-tuned the software to do line-of-sight and propagation calculations at VHF and UHF frequencies based on the math you set out, and Nathan has been talking to some cell phone companies. He has something to report. Over to you, Mr VP.”

* * *

Craig gently pushed open the door to his dad’s study and peered around.

“Hi, dad, I thought I heard you.”

“Come on in, Craig. How’s school been today?”

“Oh, things were good, dad. Did an extra hour at the garage too. You wouldn’t believe how much mess the storeroom was in; I’ve only been away on holiday for just over a week and it was chaos. Delivery of new spares last Friday and not one of them on the correct shelf. I’ll have it sorted within a couple of days though.”

“I hear you’ve invited Mandy to the end of term Leaving Ball. You two will look good together. Don’t tell Mandy, her dad wants it to be a surprise for her, but Scotty’s managed to hire a vintage Rolls-Royce to take her there in.”

“I didn’t invite her, dad, she just waltzed on in here earlier tonight and told me I was taking her, and mum backed her up. She could have gone with anybody.”

“Yes, I dare say she could, but she preferred to go with you. That says a lot about you, Craig. Think about it. Now, while you’re hovering around the cabinet there, why not pour us both a drink and tell me about Nathan?”

“Nathan?”

“Yes, Nathan. The American gingernut you spent all last week with. The guy you were on the phone to a few minutes ago when I passed your bedroom door. Remember him?”

“Oh, right. Err, yes. Nathan. We were just talking.”

“Maybe a little more ginger ale in those, Craig?”

Craig added a dash more ginger ale to both tumblers and passed one to his dad, then took the second for himself.

“It was a board meeting. Will was there too, he called the meeting. Wanted my thoughts on something.”

“A board meeting? Sounds impressive. When do you start the campaign for world dominance?”

 

“Maybe sooner than you think, dad. Nat has been talking to some mobile phone companies, well, maybe someone at his dad’s office has, on his behalf. Anyway, one of them is showing real interest in Will’s software. Nat has made a pitch to them, and they have come back with a counter offer. Will and Nat wanted my view on what we should do about it. Nat and Will, even Will just by himself, can out vote me, but they did actually want my views.”

“So, what’s the offer, Craig?”

“Three Rivers Telecom - that’s the interested company - is a small provider in Pittsburgh, trying to undercut the big players. I think that is why Nat targeted them, they are more likely to be interested in something that gives them an edge. They want to review Will’s software, see if they can get more coverage without needing to spend lots of money on loads of new cell transmission towers. Nat said the software would help them maximise the coverage from what towers they do build.”

“I’m with it so far, Craig.”

“Well, Three Rivers wanted to try the software for free, and then have an exclusive purchase if it works. Full rights to it. Nat and Will don’t want that. Nat says no free trials and Will says no exclusivity and no access to the underlying code. I think that makes sense. So, we talked it over and we’re sending Nat back with an offer. Something he calls “software as a service” and a suggestion I made too.”

“Oh? And what’s the master stroke of corporate strategy you’ve come up with?”

“Stop taking the pee, dad, this is serious. I said we could prove the software is good without letting them get their hands on it. We do them a demo. Identify where they have a handful of their transmission towers sited and map the coverage we predict for them. Will says he can do that easily enough from the survey data he got from Travis’s plane, and Three Rivers can verify that our predictions are accurate because they will already know their coverage.”

“That sounds straightforward, Craig.”

“The bit to get them on the hook is to show them that, by relocating one or two of the existing towers, they can maintain that coverage and also stretch it further. So, they get more potential customers without spending a lot more on hardware, just relocate some stuff they already have. But we don’t give then that for free. They have to pay for it. Nat can sort out the details. We sell them a service, analysing their network coverage and improving on it, step by step. Lots of small sales. They grow their customer base and keep costs low, we grow with them. And we keep the code to ourselves, they just get the output.”

“Sounds reasonable on the face of it. But who is going to do all the analysis?”

“Will says that is the easy bit. Just some scripts and Python and stuff like that. He can do it in his spare time. He probably can, he’s smart. Nat will love doing the sales negotiating.”

“And you? You shouldn’t let this divert you from your studies.”

“I’ve done my bit dad, earned my 5%. I suggested the demo and then getting Three Rivers to pay to see what a re-siting of a transmitter could do for them. That’s the Imagineering stuff Will has put me in charge of. Supplying ideas. Nat backed me on it, he says a continuous revenue stream and keeping the software to ourselves is the way to go. Better than a one-off sale.”

“Hmmm, well, if it’s that simple I guess you’ll be the one buying me a Porsche for Christmas. I don’t want mine in pink though…”

* * *

Incoming call. Swipe up to answer

“Hi Shane, how are you?”

“Hi Boots. I saw you online on the app and hoped you wouldn’t mind me calling. It’s not too late, is it?”

“No, you’re good Shane. I’m just about to go to bed but we can still chat. I was talking to Nat and Will earlier; they said you were giving a golf lesson to Jackson.”

“I did, Boots. We’re playing our first match soon and Jackson is doing a formal ‘tee off’. We wanted to make sure he looks good and doesn’t drop us a shot behind right from the get-go. He’s picked it up fast. He’ll be good. I just showed him to hit it straight and far, no frills.”

“Yeah, I guess he can do that.”

“He’ll be good, Boots. He listened and did what I said. He’s actually quite friendly when he’s not being Captain. He even asked about you. He knew Nathan had been to visit you for a vacation, asked quite a few questions. He said he tried to call Nat over Easter but he wasn’t home and got told he’d gone to England to see you.”

“I didn’t know Nat was coming to visit me, Shane. He turned up as a surprise at the airport with my dad.”

“Nathan’s been telling us about his trip. The Viking treasure, and the rabbit hunting and the land yacht racing. Oh, and the kayaking and mountain biking. He’s actually at the library right now, gone to get some stuff on archaeology.  Says he might try and take a class in it over summer. I think he liked doing that. Not just that. He liked being with you.”

“Yes, Shane. I like being with him.”

“Nathan kind of told us that, Boots. I think it’s good that you two are together. Even if you are apart. Do you think you’ll be able to come back to America?”

“I hope so, Shane. It’d be good to see you and the guys again, as well as Nat. I’m saving up for a ticket. I want to come back for a holiday at least. Anyway, I hear you went to Florida with Will for your holiday? That must have been good.”

“It was brilliant, Boots. Will’s pop took us to the launch centre to see a Delta V blast off. We got to go to Disneyland and stuff like that but actually going to the NASA control room and watching from the VIP viewing room as they did the count down and stuff was awesome. Will knew the exact launch sequence commands word for word. He was explaining it all to some Senators. They said he was doing a better job than the official NASA press team.”

“And Noah went back to Dakota with Travis? To see Ella-Marie again? He’s a dark horse.”

“Yeah, Noah went to Travis’s place. They had a great time too.  I think most days they were just on the farm, riding horses and visiting some of the Indian friends Travis has. I think Noah and Ella-Marie really like each other. Noah’s drawn a picture of her and put it in a frame on his desk. “

“Sounds like he does like her!”

“Yeah, you know Noah. Doesn’t say much but if he draws a picture and puts in a frame to look at that’s all he needs to say.”

“Travis was joking earlier about that new film that’s out about the two cowboys, saying he should get you and Nat some cowboy shirts and invite you both to Dakota and leave you alone together up in the mountains, see how things turn out.”

“I guess Nat did his wolf thing and took Travis’s new stripes off him!”

“No, Boots, Nat just laughed and said you and him would be just fine with it. I think you would too.”

“Thanks, Shane. So, you and the guys aren’t bothered about me and Nat being together?”

“We kind of suspected it, Boots. Noah mainly, but then pieces dropped into place. We just wished you hadn’t had to go back to England. It’d be good to have you with us still.”

“I plan to get back, Shane. I want to see you all again. And I don’t like being away from Nat. I didn’t realise I missed him so much until we were together again. Now he’s gone again, I miss him even more.”

* * *