by J. F. Krause
July 31
Kevin, the kids and I just returned from a few days at Morro Bay. We decided we needed a vacation from our vacation. The community in Morro Bay is small but thriving. They are starting to get visitors who arrive via the navy. One interesting side development of having so few people is that the navy and air force are a big part of our transportation networks.
Our family was just another bunch of tourists. We went on a whale watching excursion, a real fishing boat adventure, a picnic and hike on their five-mile sand bar, and a canoeing trip. We went swimming in the ocean and took a nap on the sand. We also ate at all three of their restaurants. I can’t surf, but Kevin can and he, along with a couple of locals and Eric Bowersock started teaching, Jerry, Charlie, Chad, and Chanelle the basics. Eric only stayed a couple of days. He and Carl were going on a cameras only African animal safari up by Hearst Castle. And then he had to study for his Bar Mitzvah. I had no idea that took so much time, but Eric is determined and it’s obvious Carl was pleased as punch.
I finally came up with a plan to streamline all the reading I had to do just to keep up with the reports from the different Coalition Communities. We have over 500 of them now, and at first some of them were sending us a daily report. We finally got it down to once a month, and even that was a chore since very little happened. Several weeks ago, April Watanabe solved our problem. She developed a paperless form that self selects the urgency level. As the forms come in, April and Ellen Hansen review them and make notes on the ones that have significantly changed from the previous month. There were usually several of them that needed fast attention, and this often necessitated a phone call or two. Normally, I found myself just giving assurances and suggestions that they hold to their plan of action. Now and then, I needed to convene a ‘think tank’, especially if it was a problem that might involve more than one settlement or become more complicated and widespread if left alone.
I’ve also learned through personal experience which problem solving groups need my direct involvement and which ones don’t. Lately, any committee involving Irma, Carl, LaWanda Sharp, Avery, or Mary Truitt is probably not going to need my direct intervention and a simple visit now and then would suffice. On the other hand, the precollege education/child welfare group was forever getting bogged down. It had nothing to do with the leader, a woman from Toronto, and everything to do with the complexity and vulnerability of children. We weren’t looking at just the curriculum, something that could become a problem in itself, especially since we were updating some of the coursework due to our very changed circumstances, but also the teaching methods involved. Because we had the children for so much of the day while their guardians were at work or in school, we needed to provide a loving, nurturing environment, especially for the very young ones. We constantly had to rethink how to provide for all their needs, emotional as well as educational. And many of the children needed a lot of counseling. Heck, many of the adults needed counseling. PTSD is rampant in our communities. Fortunately, we had several very good programs to use as models. Educators from Finland, Poland, France, and South Korea were particularly important as we struggled to meet so many needs for so many newly orphaned children.
Another think tank I always enjoy, but have nothing useful of my own to contribute to, is the ecosystem committee. Clearly, we don’t need so many zoos and we certainly don’t have enough people, whether trained or not, to keep up with the almost overwhelming demands of a zoo. We’re making progress and doing good work, but some problems are just going to continue to be problems. Take Kudzu, for example. We weren’t doing great before the The Sickness, and we certainly aren’t now. Then there’s the problem of pythons in Florida. It’s like hearing about a horror movie every committee meeting.
Something we are doing well on is the restoration of American chestnut trees and forest restoration in general. Sometime around the year 1900, a blight wiped chestnut trees out of the North American forests. Billions of them died and by 1950s the American chestnut tree was almost extinct. However, prior to The Sickness, volunteers meticulously bred and crossbred resistant strains with surviving specimens until they were ready to finally be restored. Then The Sickness came and it was our turn to almost go extinct. Maybe that was the catalyst, but it has become a symbol of our triumph over adversity. This spring, thousands of our high school kids planted the new blight resistant American Chestnut seedlings all over the eastern part of the US and Canada on abandoned farms and parks from Georgia to Newfoundland and over to Ontario and Illinois. It was our first group project after the Battle of Indianapolis, of course, and as of right now, it looks like it will be an annual event, at least for a while. In a few years, we will have come a long way toward restoring this tree to its place in the North American forest canopy. Aside from chestnut restoration we have millions of acres of unused farmland we need to reforest. We can only hope we can do as well at restoring ourselves.
My first appointment on my first day back from our Morro Bay vacation was with Irma and Carl. I was a little baffled as to what they needed to talk about since I last saw them just a week ago. I almost never like surprises and this felt sort of like it might be.
As they both came into my office, I was hoping they were going to announce that they were engaged. That seemed to be happening a lot lately among my inner circle of friends. They had that expectant look about them. Carl was beaming; Irma looked happy if slightly uncomfortable. I could have been projecting since I would be a little uncomfortable if I were to announce I was engaged. Of course, that might make half the people in the country uncomfortable right along with me.
Irma hugged me and then Carl did that manly back-patting hug that seems to make it okay for men to hug each other. I asked them to sit and we got started. “Ok, what’s on your mind?”
“Irma and I wanted to let you know that we plan to be married next month. September 14th, to be exact. Rabbi Kim will be doing the honors at the Temple. Of course we want you and Kevin to be part of the wedding party, whichever side you want to stand on, groomsmen, bridesmen, whatever.”
“Congratulations to both of you. I’m thrilled for you. And I’m sure Kevin will be as happy as I am to be included. Maybe Kevin and I can switch places with each other during the ceremony, discretely of course.” I was so relieved I would have started babbling if Irma hadn’t interrupted me.
“We also wanted to let you know that I’m pregnant.”
I wasn’t expecting to hear that. The room seemed to disappear and time sort of stopped. “You’re pregnant? What happened? I mean, uh, how did that, uh? Uh, uh…” Normally, I handle surprises pretty well. I mean, I really look calm, but this was so not on my radar that I was speechless. Irma and Carl were, like, in their forties. I know women can have kids in their forties, but I’d not actually known anyone who did, at least not personally, or maybe not that I know of.
Irma laughed. “You’re so cute. I know how you feel. I was shocked, too. We didn’t think this would happen so we didn’t take any precautions, but we’re both very happy. Besides, we’re ready to do this, to raise a baby together. Eric and Cynthia are ecstatic. We just told them this morning. Actually, we just found out yesterday. We started talking about getting married with Shelly, uh, Rabbi Kim, when we got back from New York last month. She doesn’t know about this little wrinkle, yet, but it shouldn’t affect the wedding date.”
“When is the due date? Are you feeling well?”
“We think it’ll arrive in late February or early March. And I’m feeling great! Dr. Mary says there’s going to be a bumper crop of babies next January, and February, and it looks like March is going to be even bigger.”
“Oh my goodness! What’s happening?”
Now it was Carl’s turn to laugh. “I think a lot of people turned to ‘sexual therapy’ to cope with everything. No one expected to get pregnant so no one took precautions. Dr. Mary says it’s happening all over the world, at least as far as we know. Certainly, it’s happening in the Coalition.”
“Can we handle that many babies all at once?”
“Well, first of all, we have enough people to help get us through this. The senior citizen groups will be finished teaching us how to cook and garden by then, and of course, they’ll step in, and there are plenty of men available to take up the slack. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that our teenagers are getting pregnant. We’ve taken care to make sure they’re careful, so it’s just the adults. Who’d have thought? At least, most of the women have been through this before.” Irma seemed to have given a fair amount of thought to this already.
“That’s good to hear. What are your plans now?”
“I will still be available to assist you here in SLO, but I’d prefer not to be making trips away, at least for the foreseeable future. I hope that’s not too big a problem for you. I know you don’t like to fly, and you have a family, too. I’m sorry if I’m letting you down.” I could see she felt bad, and I didn’t want that.
“No. Don’t worry about me. Kevin and I will adjust, and I’m sure Dr. Mary will keep giving me pills to get me through the plane trips if I have to travel.” I sort of figured I was going to have to get used to the idea of traveling even before I got the news from Irma. And it wasn’t as if I hadn’t already been doing some traveling.
We chatted for a while, and then we said goodbye. I didn’t have any meetings to attend today, and no one had asked me to be on hand so I decided to catch up on my report reading.
About an hour before quitting time, April asked if I were available for a call from Hong Kong. I didn’t look forward to what I figured would be complicated news, but that’s the nature of our world right now. To be honest, with few exceptions, almost all the bad news I receive is relatively mild compared to the barrage of bad news I’d grown up with. Pretty much all we heard from the national news broadcasts before The Sickness was war or shootings or politicians criticizing each other. Regardless, it’s my job to deal with whatever needs attention so, of course, I told her I was available.
The voice on the phone introduced himself as Robert Chiang, the speaker for Hong Kong. He had a British accent, but there was also another accent present so I told myself this must be what a Hong Kong English accent sounded like. “Good morning, Mr. Caldwell. Thank you for taking my phone call. “
“Hello Mr. Chiang. Before we start, can we agree that you call me Bobby? Or Robert if Bobby feels awkward? But I suppose since we share that name it could get a little clumsy. Are you ok with calling me Bobby?”
“Certainly, and my friends call me Robert or Bob, if you prefer.”
“Let’s use Bobby for me and Robert for you, then. It’s a pleasure to speak with you in person, Robert. How may I be of assistance?” I don’t know why, but British accents make me feel like I should be on my best behavior.
“We’re hoping you can be. I should tell you that I have you on speakerphone here in my office. My counterparts from Guangzhou, Mr. Wen Hong, and from Macao, Ms. Yin Shan, are here with me. Our problem isn’t with each other, by the way, but rather with how we can interact among several of our communities, none of whom are present at this meeting. Actually, this phone call has grown out of a conversation we have been having just among the three of us.”
“It’s a pleasure to be able to speak to all of you, but what time is it there? It’s just after 4 PM here in San Luis Obispo.”
“Oh, don’t worry about us. It’s 7:10 AM here, so there is no problem about time for us. I hope we’ve caught you at a convenient time as well.”
“Of course, the time is just fine. I’ve seen you’re reports, of course, and I’m very interested in your progress in establishing your communities. Tell me about your situation.” I’ve learned the hard way not to assume everyone wants my help, so I’ve learned to tap dance until I have a better picture of what is going on.
“We are not coalescing as a region. We know you favor independence for each community, and that is fine with us, and, well, almost everyone else. We also know that you favor regional solutions wherever possible, and that is where we are breaking down.” Robert was being just as careful as I was, and I was getting a little concerned that there was a problem I wasn’t hearing about.
“Mr. Caldwell, this is Yin Shan. I’m sorry. I’ll remember to call you Bobby hereafter. One of our problems is language. Robert and I both feel comfortable in English, Wen is not so fluent in English and you are probably hearing us translate this into Cantonese, his first language. The problem isn’t that we don’t understand each other. Most of the elected Speakers in the Coalition Communities in the area speak Mandarin, and Cantonese, and, sometimes, English, at least rudimentarily. There is a sizable Coalition Community of Zhuang in the Guangdong region, as well. There are also some non-Coalition Communities in the vicinity that wish to return to preindustrial times, like the time before exposure to the West. Finally, there are some Coalition Communities that have become almost entirely Christian because Christians have moved there from other Communities. Right now, cooperation is just not happening. Fortunately, our advanced students have been able to relocate, temporarily we hope, to Coalition Communities outside the Guangdong region where schools are being reestablished, but we have enough trained people that we should be able to reestablish schools and training centers here in our own region if we can find a way to work with each other more closely. We are not hostile to each other, we just can’t find common ground, it seems.”
After that I could hear quite a bit of discussion taking place in the background so I was out of the loop until they came back to communicate with me.
“I’m sorry. We needed to make sure Wen was fully informed and in agreement about what I just told you. We have been unable to make progress with regional goals among all of our communities aside from establishing that we all want to remain part of the Coalition. We all agree to the Rights and Responsibilities, but we don’t seem to be able to make things work when it comes to practical local cooperation, perhaps because we don’t all understand the Rights and Responsibilities in the same way.”
We talked together for a little while longer, but, finally, I needed to ask what they wanted me to do.
“We know everyone agreed that you wouldn’t have to leave California if you took the job of Executive Director for the Coalition, but we know you do occasionally travel. We’re so sorry to ask this, but we need you to talk to our regional leadership, hopefully in person. We believe your presence may be what it takes for us to find some resolutions to our problems. We’re hoping that if you are here personally, it will demonstrate the seriousness of our problem.”
I felt my heart sink, but somehow I knew this was coming almost from the moment they began to describe their problems. “How soon would you like to have me there?”
“Tomorrow is probably too soon, but we would like it as soon as you can get here.” Now I knew why Yin seemed to be the boss; she was the boss.
“Well, then. How about we tentatively assume I leave here day after tomorrow. It’ll take at least a day to get there and for me to get rested. How about we plan on our first meeting on Friday afternoon? That’s our Friday. I think it will be Saturday for you. Is that doable?”
“We will be ready for you. Do you mind if we have the meeting in Guangzhou?”
“I’m at your service. I’ll have several people with me. Will that be a problem?”
“No problem at all. Thank you very much. We’ll see you then.” And the phone call was over.
My first day back and what a doozey of a day it turned out to be.
August 4
We flew to the airport in Guangzhou just like most people fly anywhere nowadays, aboard a repurposed FedEx jet. (Air Force 1 is in mothballs, by the way. Avery plans to turn it into a museum.) We had the entire passenger section to ourselves, which will probably be the norm when I travel on Coalition business, I suppose. Since there was seating for only 16, we didn’t inconvenience very many people, I hope. It made sense for us to have the cabin to ourselves since I needed to get to know my two interpreters a little better, and they would need to know how I do things. We’re all still pretty green at this type of thing.
Emily Wong, a lawyer that I knew of from her work defending the Hawkins’ Gang, and Roberto Lee, an economics professor from Chicago were traveling with us to provide language translation, cultural background, and emotional support for me. This type of thing can be a bit intimidating, and this is my first real foray into dealing with a problem cross culturally. Jovantha was there as my bodyguard even though I was pretty sure I didn’t need one. After I got myself shot last winter, I don’t really get much say in these things. April and Elaine were there to keep me organized. Finally, at the last minute, Kevin and the boys and Chanelle decided to join the trip. We thought it would be educational, and all three of the older kids are taking part in the Mandarin full immersion program at school. The kids were over the moon, and didn’t even mind having school work to keep up with. We decided to leave Dinah with Irma and Carl since she is very familiar with them and will hardly notice we’re gone. Thank goodness for extended families.
