Out of Touch

by Leia Howard

  “Hey, Gray. How’s it been this morning?” asked Soon Yee. She was in the kitchen making a cup of matcha green tea.

  I went to fill up my water bottle, “Pretty steady. Has Ms. Spenser told you if Spenser Collectibles will continue to use our services after she retires? I know her son and daughter will be jointly running the business, but I don’t know if they’ll still need us. Also, have you put in the vacation request for the Spring Festival yet? My brother told me about a big celebration in the DFW area. They’re celebrating 38 years of Asian culture and growth to coincide with the festival. Since your family in San Francisco won’t be there this year, maybe you want to travel closer to home?”

  “It still amuses me that you don’t call it Chinese New Year like everyone else. Kyle and I haven’t decided what we are doing yet. We spent this past New Year with Kyle’s family in Vietnam, and although Zhengli loved it, another international trip is not feasible this year. We still have extended family and friends in San Francisco, but we both know some people in DFW too. 38 is a lucky number, so that may be a deciding factor. Ms. Spenser hasn’t said anything yet that I know of, and I’ve no dealings with her children. I’ll get with Dani to make sure she hasn’t heard anything. I’ll also check with Ms. Spenser and provide an update during Thursday’s staff meeting.”

  “Thanks. Zhengli is growing up so fast, I can’t believe she is six years old. How is she liking school? And say hello to Kyle for me, does he still like being a stay-at-home dad?” I asked.

  “Kyle loves it. Since Zhengli started school, he has more time to work with Tewow and the animals. While I drop Zhengli off at school in the morning, he picks her up. Kyle feels it is important for him to continue to be there for her. Zhengli loves school, they’re rehearsing for an upcoming play celebrating Harvest and Día de los Muertos. You’re all coming, by the way. I’ll have the date at Thursday’s meeting.”

  “They’re combining Harvest and Día de los Muertos into one play? Okay, sounds…interesting. I’m glad Kyle is working with the animals more. That reminds me, I think I’m ready for a pair of new dogs. It’s been almost a year since first Keller, then Soekja, died. Can you ask him to keep an eye and ear out for possibilities? He knows what to look for. I would look myself, but then I’d want them all. Must stay away from puppy and dog photos, too cute.”

  Soon Yee chuckled, “I’ve been known to lose hours looking at kitty pictures, so I understand. I’ll let Kyle know you are looking. Or, more accurately, that you wish Kyle to look for you. Weak sauce, bosslady, I’m disappointed. Talk to you later.”

  I was cautiously optimistic and looking forward to getting new dogs. When I first moved to SWACon, my dog, Poe, came with me. Poe’d been with me since I was eight and was of great comfort the first year I was on the conservatorship before he died. It took a year to mourn his passing, then I got Soekja, a Black Lab mix and Keller, a sesame colored Kishu Ken-like dog. Keller was slightly older when I got her, almost a year, and put up a lot with Soekja’s puppy antics. Keller was the first to pass of old age. I think Soekja’s grief was his demise a few months later. I would continue to miss them but was ready for two new lovelies.

  I first met Kyle Ngo shortly after Soon Yee started working for me. Kyle was a fauna PsySapient and they moved to SWACon when Soon Yee was pregnant with Zhengli. I don’t know what prompted the move from Canada, but Kyle loved it on SWACon. He apprenticed with Tewow, a community vet and spiritual leader. Kyle brought Zhengli with him to work with Tewow as she seemed to have inherited some of her father’s abilities. However, since the apprenticeship was part of the resident agreement, it was unpaid. When Zhengli turned one, they decided that Kyle would become the primary caregiver, and Soon Yee would find work. My business had grown beyond my ability to manage by myself and I was very happy to hire her.

  Kyle remarked on how well-trained, but joyful my dogs were when he met them. I like to run and ride my bike on my five acres as well as hike on the uninhabited land around me, but I do not enjoy having to put up with leashed dogs. So, I trained Keller and Soekja to run and walk off-leash when we are not around other people. Me and my dogs hanging outdoors was one of my favorite activities. I love dogs because I can be as affectionate as I want with them and not fear being bombarded with memories. Many times, their hair protects me from direct contact. Or, if I do touch their skin, their memories are not well-formed and are different enough to make it easy for me to retain my distinct self. My dad first got me a dog when I was a baby. My mom had prepared them both and they knew that touch could be painful for me, and them, until I developed better control as I grew older. He wanted to prevent me from being touch starved, so he found a three-year old dog patient enough to put up with my baby and toddler foibles.

  I returned to my office after lunch and prepared for that afternoon’s reading. I repeated my usual set up and routine, this time for a much simpler petition. Señor Llorca had updated his will shortly before passing away but his lawyer could not find the copy in Sr. Llorca’s papers, nor knew if it was even signed. The bufete, or law office, submitted a petition to see if the will could be located. I performed the reading and determined that the one-page amendment was folded in half and used as a bookmark in War and Peace, which he was trying to read before his death. Sr. Llorca felt that Tolstoy’s novel was a literary achievement that should be read at least once before passing. But he confessed to himself that it was something he was forcing himself to slog through. Which is why the classic was intentionally forgotten in a little-used guest bedroom well away from the rooms he normally frequented. The amendment was signed, though.

  I finished my report, leaving out Sr. Llorca’s thoughts on War and Peace and other classic literature. I don’t know if the bufete would appreciate his views, but I found myself agreeing with them. Life is too short to force yourself to read or watch something because you are supposed to. If you like it, well enough. But if not, move on. Since this afternoon’s reading was brief, I quickly returned to my projects. My client had approved the presentation from this morning and I sent it off to a local copy shop to be printed, bound, and shipped to the Toronto hotel the conference would take place at. I previously arranged for marketing goodies to be packaged and sent to the hotel. I enjoy presentation projects like this, but don’t tell anyone. They may expect me to do it for free.

  My office line rang. “Gray’s Agency, Gray speaking.” I answer, while my attention was focused on the first wave of divisional reports that O’ke uploaded.

  “Isn’t it conceited to call your business after your name? You ever thought about changing it?”

  “Liaison Lowell, good to hear from you. I thought about calling it Personal Touch but figured people would think it was a different kind of business. Besides, I had to do something to counteract the MT Graham labels on the mail carriers you keep sending my way. You know, make sure to represent my proper name.”

  “As long as I have anything to do with Psycepts here in Albuquerque, MT Graham will be on all your mail bags. I never did figure out how you changed your name in the database to read Gray Graham. I chuckle every time we train a case package sorter, it takes them a few days to link the Gray Graham on the computer to the MT Graham on the carriers. We have collected over $500 from people asking what MT stands for.”

  Hah, I knew it. “Do I get a cut of the money? I’ll be getting some new puppies soon and need to think of their expenses. And you’ll never find out how I corrected my name in the database, so I suggest you just accept it and move on. What can I do for you this afternoon?”

  “The money is being raised for new breakroom furniture, so no, you don’t get a cut. Mark is working on getting you the data for the reports you requested, he said he would upload it to the usual spot. I heard you have a meeting with Helki on Thursday. Do you mind if I get in on that? Helki said he was fine with it.”

  “The call is scheduled for 30 minutes, but I don’t know if it’ll take that long. I need to speak with Sheriff Helki alone for a bit, but w
e’ll be glad to have you join us for the rest of the call. I’ll bring you in fifteen minutes or so into the call. Will that work for you?”

  “Sounds good, Gray. Have you ever told me why you are so formal? You always call me Liaison Lowell and Helki Sheriff Helki. I’ve given you permission to call me Lowell, my whole team does. You call Detective Randolph, Sully.”

  “I guess it’s a sign of respect for your position. You went from Sheriff Lowell to a different position. It didn’t seem right to just call you by your last name. I knew Sully before he became an officer, so it would have seemed weird to call him Officer Randolph after calling him Sully first. And I can never call Sheriff Helki just Helki, he’s the sheriff and has earned the title. I don’t call Mr. Thomas at the Exchange Post plain Thomas. Or Miss Sonia of the Psycept Council just Sonia. The very idea. Must be a Texas or Southern thing. I think I remember my mom watching a TV show that had a character named Miss Ellie.”

  “Miss Ellie. You make me feel old. Well, think about calling me Lowell, it’s less of a mouthful. I’ll talk with you Thursday. And I look forward to meeting your new dogs soon.”

  After hanging up with Lowell, so weird, I returned to O’ke’s reports. Bosque region’s contribution to the report consisted of the number of incidents investigated and the officers that worked in conjunction with the military for border watch. It also included boring things like hours and budget. But it was only for the first four months. O’ke would send me last month’s numbers tomorrow, and I would have to wait a bit to get this month’s reports. I began to import the information into the custom report template. I left the previous presentations charts and tables for comparison. Each semi-annual conference has rolling thirteen months of data.

  Yes, that is correct, we use a 13-month calendar. Each month is 28 days, plus a Day of Ceremony at the end of the year. That makes 365 days. When the various tribes first began meeting with each other in the early 1800s to determine if they could form The Tribal Collaboration, they agreed to some basics that would apply to all members, like English being the common language and the territory they would try to consolidate and defend. They used a map from the mid-1820s to determine where they could make some stands and perhaps gain inroads. Unfortunately, due to over two centuries of white settlers coming to North America and the recent forced relocation of many tribes of the Southeastern United States, they felt that they would be unable to reclaim much of the Eastern Woodlands, either north or south. To partially offset the blow to affected tribes, The Tribal Collaboration agreed to adopt the concept of a 13-month calendar used by many Eastern Woodland tribes. Rhea once told me that it took a year of negotiation to agree to the names of the months. All are named after animals and there was great back and forth to include specific animals sacred to certain tribes. I’m impressed it only took a year. I’ve handled some events where deciding what type of steak to offer took the client days, let alone how long it took to select the side dishes. And that is using instant communication technology.

  I also can’t imagine how difficult it was to decide on which land to try and save. The Spanish explorers and missionaries were in the west-southwest since the 16th century but were less populous and more vulnerable as Mexico had recently won independence from Spain. It took almost two decades to get the collaboration together and, in that time, settlers had been steadily skipping through the west and establishing towns along the west coast. In the end, The Tribal Collaboration focused their attention on the plains and central west and tried to push out as far out from there as they could. In the early days, it was merely the vaccination against smallpox that was offered to all tribes that agreed to unite that kept the fledgling Tribal Collaboration together. Slowly, the banishment of alcohol from their collective, the adoption of a common language, having a multitude of their children educated in American-English law and commerce to avoid being taken advantage of, the fortuitous American Civil War, and invoking the aid of Mother Nature were all advantageous events that ultimately led to the triumph of the Tribal Collaboration and the formation of their new nation.

  As for me, I’m just glad that there is software that converts the 13-month calendar to the 12-month calendar used by most of the world as it makes my job much easier. But the 13-month calendar makes more sense, honestly, being based on a lunar month cycle. I wonder how the computer-less settlers who stayed on the Tribal Collaboration lands handled changing to a 13-month calendar. The US can’t even change to the metric system, so I do not imagine that it was easy.

  It was getting to the end of my day, so I came to a stopping point on the projects I was working on. I looked at Wednesday’s calendar to see if anything popped out. Nothing noteworthy, so I shut down my computer. I stored and swapped out my guns, grabbed my laptop and carrying case, and headed out the door of my office. It was 5 p.m., so Soon Yee and Dani were also leaving. Rhea left an hour ago. I locked the office and set the security code behind us, waved good-bye, hopped on my bicycle then headed home for the night. One of my favorite comedy shows dropped a new season on the streaming service recently and I was looking forward to watching a few episodes.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Wednesday morning dawned, too early as usual. I got ready and headed into the office. More repeats of my morning routine, information from both O’ke and Mark added to the Bosque Police presentation, and suddenly it was lunchtime. I brought a moderate portion of cold pasta salad and a plum to eat for lunch. Rhea joined me fifteen minutes later, then Dani fifteen minutes after that. After finishing lunch, I returned to my office to continue working and to cover the front office phones. Soon Yee, Rhea, and I juggle covering the phones when Dani’s at lunch. Thank goodness, we don’t have too many incoming calls.

  The front door opens into the central area of the trailer via an entry hallway, which shared a wall with the conference room on the right. On the other side of the conference room was the kitchen. Prior to the remodel, the kitchen had a pantry room next to the utility room which housed the washer and dryer units. Since this was for work, not home use, I had the pantry and utility room walls knocked down to create a space for our big round kitchen table to fit comfortably. Facing the conference room and kitchen was the former living room, now Dani’s area. Down a short hallway to the right of the central office was my office. I had a slightly odd set up for the bathroom. I had double sinks along one wall, and the opposite wall had a large walk-in closet area. On the other side of the sinks was a doorway that lead to the toilet and large shower. At the remodel, I knocked out the door separating the sinks from the office and opened the closet area but left the door that separated the toilet and shower from the rest of the room. The open-closet was now used to store the large file cabinets as well as my gun safe.

  On the opposite side of the mobile home, to the left of the entryway hall, lay Soon Yee and Rhea’s offices and the shared bathroom. The entryway closet was left for our coats and jackets, and their hall closet housed our cleaning supplies and equipment. The original bedrooms were roughly the same size, but Soon Yee’s original closet space was larger. This added a little dimension to her office once the closet walls of both rooms were knocked down. I think my plan of action will be to make each office house two cubicles, and they could decide how they would arrange themselves once the new assistant joined us. Creating the fourth cubicle now allowed us room to expand the business and it was easier and more cost effective to redesign both office spaces at the same time. Office expansion was on the list of things to talk about at Thursday’s staff meeting.

  I wait until everyone returns from lunch before I make outgoing calls, which today is to the Toronto hotel hosting the conference on Friday. Hopefully, confirming all the details of the meeting requirements would not take too long. In the middle of the phone call, I received an instant message from Dani.

  Dad, Detective Tamez, and two guests from the Plateau Conservatorship are here to see you. Do you have a minute?

  Will you take them into the conference room and supply th
em with beverages? It will be five to ten minutes until I can join them. And I can only spare about fifteen minutes to meet with them. I typed back.

  Sure. I’ll let them know you will be there shortly, and for a limited time. Anything else?

  No. I’ll bring my tablet in case I need to take notes or schedule a longer meeting time. Thanks, Dani!

  I quickly wrapped up the phone call and pulled up my recently completed cases. I don’t remember any cases that would be near the Plateau Conservatorship. PlateauCon is located north and west, encompassing parts of the former territories of Idaho, Montana, and the old British Columbia province of Canada. Much of the original plateau lands were given over to Canada during the agreement, and some Plateau tribes chose to stay in Canada. Other tribes moved east to the Tribal Collaboration lands. The tribes were gifted with portions from surrounding conservatorships, so they could form their own conservatorship and they kept the name Plateau, even though only a small portion of the plateau was left in their territory. It was unusual for other conservatorship representatives to come in person to a consultant, especially since Plateau did not have a Psycept presence and would not normally interact with nearby petitioners unless our Psycept Police asked them to.

  Seven conservatorships have Psycepts in residence, and with over 25,000 of us, PsyTown-Albuquerque is the largest concentration of Psycepts. ABQ was one of the largest former settler towns in the Greater Tribe nations and was cushioned from the US by Llano Estacado to the east, from Mexico by CoCon, and was on the opposite side of the conservatorship from Canada. Auraria in the former territory of western Kansas, was the first Psycept town. Some land speculators in the 1850s wanted to establish a settlement opposite Auraria and name it Denver, after the Kansas territorial governor to curry favor. But, The Tribal Collaboration, led by Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, pushed back in that area and managed to boot the prospectors and miners out. They kept the settlement as a good base of operations to monitor the region, and then allowed the few settlers who remained to stay near Auraria after the nation was formed.