by Bob Blanton
“Was she upset?”
“No, not really, but she’s going to make me start going to church again.”
“You haven’t been going to church?” Simone stood to face Matthew, “Why not?”
“I haven’t been since my dad died.”
“I know that was hard, but you can’t let it destroy your faith in God.”
“I know, but we prayed and prayed for him.” Matthew’s eyes became damp with tears. “But he just kept getting sicker and then he died.” Matthew paused a second to regain his composure, he didn’t want to cry. “And now we’ve got all these medical bills to pay and we’re fighting with the insurance company. It doesn’t seem right.”
“I know it’s not fair, but you know God doesn’t work that way.”
“I know. My mom tried to explain it to me, but I was so mad I just couldn’t go to church.”
“Your minister should be able to help you deal with the anger.”
“I know he could. I kind of miss Reverend Bishop.”
“Your minister’s name is Bishop?” A wry smile crept across Simone’s face.
“Yeah, if he were a Catholic priest, he could become Bishop Bishop.” Matthew’s face lit up as he smiled. “Just like Major Major in Catch 22. I think he missed his calling.”
“That’s funny, and I’m sure he’s heard all the jokes. Now I hope you don’t make jokes about it at church.”
“No, it’s just a private joke,” Matthew chuckled. “I’d better get to work.” Matthew headed down the hall to his office.
He had the office to himself again. Larry had his screen saver informing everyone that he was at a customer site for the day. “Great,” Matthew thought, “I can use the peace and quiet.”
As he set his stuff down on his desk, he turned to his computer. While he read through his messages, he thought of the conversation he’d had with his mother after his father died.
“Matt, it doesn’t work that way,” she’d said. “God doesn’t choose. He didn’t say, make the Brandts suffer, make David sick and let him die.”
“Then why did Dad have to die?” Matthew had screamed back.
“Everything in the world can’t just be easy and wonderful. Or we…”
“Why not?” Matthew had interrupted his mother.
“If it were, we wouldn’t be able to recognize good. How would we appreciate the value of honesty and decency if there wasn’t dishonesty and corruption?”
“So why does that mean someone has to die?”
“I don’t understand it all. But bad things have to happen so people can rise up and show the good in them, show how to keep faith even against adversity.”
“That sounds stupid.”
“Just think about it.” His mother hadn’t lost her patience with Matthew even when he had yelled at her. “It’s like working steel, the more you pound it the stronger it gets. Your character is that way. The more you hold onto your faith, keep your character when bad things happen, the stronger your faith and character become. Does that make sense?”
“Maybe, but why Dad?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is your father kept his faith the whole time, and Reverend Bishop was there for him, just as much as we were.”
“But it’s not fair.”
“It’s not about being fair. It’s about life. There are so many wonderful things that happen every day; the birth of a child, love, or watching as your son grows into a man. But with the good we get the bad; it creates contrast. Death, disease, pain and suffering, they’re all part of life. They give us something on which to strengthen our faith. Without the bad things, your faith would dissolve into apathy.”
“But it hurts so much.” Tears had streamed down Matthew’s face. “I miss him.”
“I do too, honey; he was such an important part of our lives.” His mother pointed to her heart. “Without him there’s a big hole in here.”
Until then Matthew had never thought about how much his mother had lost. He’d only been angry at what he’d lost. “Sorry,” he said.
“I have to admit it has tested my faith,” Mrs. Brandt was crying with her son. “I’ve cried every night since he got sick. But life goes on, and your father would want us to go on.” She’d wiped the tears from her cheeks and hugged Matthew to herself, “I won’t make you go to church; you’re old enough to decide that for yourself. But don’t let it destroy your character. You can’t stay mad at God.”
They had held each other and cried for a long time. The next day Matt stayed home from church. It had been almost eight months, and he hadn’t been back since. But now the words made more sense to him. It would be nice to see Reverend Bishop; his sermons always spoke to real life. They were never preachy or high and mighty like some of the sermons he’d heard. So, going to church would be nice, and now Matthew knew he wasn’t mad anymore, just sad.
. . .
Matthew finished up his projects and decided to stay late and do some personal research. The office had a great web connection, way faster than the DSL line they had at home.
“Now what was the company that Mr. Winthrop had said was shopping for an acquisition? Consolidated Semiconductor, that’s it.” Matthew searched the web for articles about it. Quickly he discovered that it was common knowledge that they were looking to buy a telecommunications company to balance their design capabilities. There were several prospects, but the top four were AMMC, ATDC, ITIC and SSTC. All four had seen their stocks rise on the speculation that there would be a takeover fight. Some of the analysts said that they expected the stock of whomever Consolidated Semi decided on to almost double. It was rumored that the decision would be made at September’s board meeting in Houston. With a little research, Matt found that the board meeting would be held at the company headquarters in the Consolidated Towers on Congress Street. “Now, how do I get a peek at what they’re talking about?”
. . .
When he got home his mother pounced on him the second he walked into the house. “You didn’t tell me that I’d have to explain why I placed four separate bets on that horse.”
“Oh sorry, I forgot about that. We didn’t want to put too much money down at once or other people might have thought there was a good reason to bet on him.”
“Well I’m sure they would’ve loved to have heard that explanation. Instead I told them that I kept talking myself into going back and placing another bet. I batted my eyelashes at them and played the silly blond, so they bought it.”
“Sorry, I should have thought about that.”
“Don’t put me in that kind of position again.” She gave Matthew a hug. “Now what are we going to do with the money?”
“We use it to pay off the second, but I would like to have about ten thousand in our online trading account.”
“What for?” she asked.
“I figure that while I’m hanging around with Jason, I should be able to get some good investment advice from his dad. Maybe I can make some money. Is that okay?” Matthew looked at her with puppy dog eyes, hoping she’d give in.
“I don’t know, after this thing at the track, I’m not sure you should be playing the stock market.”
“I promise I won’t do any trading on margin. I’ll be real careful, but people are making a lot of money on the market, and we’ve had to sell all our stocks. We need to get back in.”
“Okay, but I’ll be watching it closely. I don’t want any funny business.” Mrs. Brandt held Matthew at arm length. “I must be crazy letting my fourteen-year old son invest our money.”
“I’m almost fifteen, and you know I’m a wiz with math and stuff. I’ll be careful, you just watch.”
“Oh, you can count on that. I’ll definitely be watching.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Matthew gave her a kiss on the cheek. “What’s for dinner?”
. . .
The next day at lunch, Matthew got Jason to go outside with him.
“Jason, if you had some good info on a company, how would you invest your
money to maximize the return?”
“Well, my dad would buy and sell options and puts. A call option is the right to buy a stock at a particular price and a put is the right to sell a stock at a particular price.”
“So how does that help you make money?”
“If you think a stock is going to go up, you buy options to buy it at a little over its current price and pay a small premium.”
“How much is the premium?”
“It usually costs you a buck a share or something like that. Now if the stock goes up twenty dollars, you make twenty times your investment.”
“That sounds pretty good.”
“Yeah, and if it really goes up, you can cash in big time. Now if you think a stock is going to go down, you buy a put.”
“Like the opposite of a call option.”
“Yes, the strike price, the price you can sell at is usually a little below the current stock price. Now if the stock tanks, you buy it at the low price and sell it at the put price which is higher.”
“Sounds like it takes a lot of money.”
“Not really. You don’t actually have to buy and sell; you can usually just cash in the put or call before it expires.”
“Is that all?”
“No, this is where it gets interesting. If you know some info is coming out on a stock that will affect its value significantly, but you don’t know which way, you can straddle it.”
“Straddle it?” Matthew looked puzzled.
“You buy both options and puts on the same stock. Now as long as it moves a lot, you make money and you don’t have to guess which way it’ll move.”
“That sounds too easy.”
“It is, but of course if it doesn’t move you lose all your money. It’s legalized gambling, but you get to research the odds.”
“Sounds great.”
“Why, what are you planning to do?”
“Oh, I was checking into that company your dad mentioned, Consolidated Semiconductor. It seems that they really are planning to buy another company. The analysts have it narrowed down to four companies. I was just trying to see how I might play it.”
“Well, good luck. My dad loves to play the market, thrives on the stress. Me, I’d rather let my broker worry about it and spend my energy on other things, like women.”
“Speaking of women, there’s Alex looking for you.”
“That’s right.” Jason slapped himself on the side of his head. “We’re going off campus to get some lunch. I’d better hurry or she’ll have my lunch. Are you set?”
“I’m fine.” Matthew grabbed his lunch bag. “Have fun.”
. . .
That night Matthew logged onto the online trading account. His mother had put the twenty thousand in it like she said she would. Matthew took five thousand and spread it around on various stocks that were highly recommended. Then he took the rest and straddled the four companies in the running for Consolidated’s buy-out target. He checked out the details on each of the companies. Two of them were headquartered right here in San Diego, which made sense since San Diego had become the telecom capital of the world. Qualcomm and Nokia were well established here and attracting startups and spin-off companies based on the concentration of engineering and management expertise in the area. AMMC was having a board meeting tomorrow and ATDC had theirs on Thursday. ITIC and SSTC who were both based in Boston, were having board meetings early next week. “That’s nice, all lined up before Consolidated’s meeting at the end of next week.”
. . .
The next day Matthew sat in the back of the classrooms all day, using his virtual camera to spy on the AMMC board meeting. A possible takeover by Consolidated was the topic of several agenda items and side discussions. The company was concerned that they couldn’t fight off a takeover attempt. They were considering whether it would be wise to become a willing partner if Consolidated made the overtures to them. Matthew figured that they looked like a great play.
. . .
On Thursday, Matthew checked out the board meeting for ATDC. Again, the topic of discussion was the possible takeover by Consolidated. The board seemed to welcome the possibility. They commented that possibly Consolidated could help finance the completion of one of their major design programs that was way over budget and behind schedule. They felt if they could sell the idea to Consolidated and keep the program looking promising that it might work out great for them. There were lots of recriminations about why the project was behind schedule and whether it would ever pan out. If Consolidated chose them, Matthew decided he might have to buy some puts on Consolidated. They would be getting a surprise bill in the mail after that marriage, but he definitely decided to sell the options on ATDC.
. . .
On Sunday Matthew went to church with his mom and Jessica. After the service, Reverend Bishop just said how nice it was to see him again and that he hoped to see him again next week. That was it, simple, no pressure.
. . .
On Tuesday morning, Matthew decided he would check in on the ITIC board meeting. First, he had to get his virtual camera there. Since he’d been to Boston with his grandma Brandt several times, he just thought of his favorite spot, the Boston Commons. Instantly he was seeing the cupola of the Parkman Bandstand. “Great, now all I have to do is find the directions from here to the headquarters.”
Matthew used Google maps to plot the course he needed to follow to the ITIC headquarters. He memorized them and headed off to school.
By the end of first period, he had located the boardroom and was waiting for the board meeting to start. When it did, the board indicated that they would fight the takeover tooth and nail. They weren’t about to be told how to run their company. They felt strongly that an alliance with Consolidated would duplicate too many assets and result in an inefficient operation. The result would be a selloff of parts of the business and a general break up of what they felt was a strong and viable company. They authorized the buyback of shares to force the stock price up and make it more difficult for Consolidated to pursue them. That night Matthew sold the puts he’d purchased earlier on ITIC, expecting the stock to rise when the board announced the stock buyback.
. . .
On Wednesday he tuned in the SSTC board meeting. Again, the potential merger/buy out by Consolidated was a major topic. The chairman indicated that it was potentially a strong alliance. He went into details about how their technologies and assets aligned well with those of Consolidated. He recommended that the board engage Consolidated in a constructive dialogue about whether a merger would be in the best interest of both companies. That night Matthew sold the puts on SSTC thinking that they were more likely to be the final choice than not.
By Thursday the ITIC stock had gone up 10 points with the company stock buyback. Matthew decided it was time to cash in those options. He took the money from the sale of those options and the puts he’d sold on ATDC and SSTC and bought options on SSTC, hoping that a willing buyout candidate would be the likely choice. That night he tracked down the location of the Consolidated board meeting. It was a little trickier since he’d never been to Houston.
His first attempt was to try and use the fact that he had been able to find an affinity with a particular person and eventually bring them up no matter where they were. So it seemed logical that he could just do that with someone heading to Houston. He checked out when flights were leaving for Houston from Lindbergh, the San Diego Airport, then just before the flight he took his virtual camera to the terminal and zeroed in on one of the flight attendants. He chose an especially attractive woman since he figured that would make it easier to visualize her later. Then he shut down his virtual camera. Visualizing the attendant, he opened up his virtual camera.
“Rats,” he was looking at his room. He tried several times, but couldn’t seem to make it work with the flight attendant. “Maybe I can’t create an affinity through the portal, but need to be in personal contact. Now what am I going to do?”
Matthew kept mullin
g over the problem while he did his homework. When he had finished, he leaned back in his chair reviewing the different ideas. “I guess I have to drive there,” he muttered to himself. “I wonder how fast I can move the portal?”
He brought Google maps up and got directions for a trip to Houston. The path was fairly straightforward, down to I-8, then east to Tucson, follow the I-10 all the way to Houston. “I wonder how fast I can make this thing go,” Matthew thought as he brought his camera up. He was familiar with San Diego State University, so that would get him to the I-8 and a good start. He positioned his virtual camera over the freeway with a view to the east. At night the cars made a continuous ribbon of light, which gave Matthew an idea. He took it up high into the sky then zoomed in on the farthest end of the ribbon of light that he could make out. Each time he would go higher, achieving a greater distance when he zoomed. As he climbed the mountains toward Alpine, he had to go higher to get a long enough view ahead. When he passed Alpine, his next pass at height, he noticed a bright glare ahead. Zooming into that glare, he saw he’d gone from Alpine to the Golden Acorn Casino on I-8 halfway to El Centro.
“Aha,” he thought, “maybe I can bounce from city to city.” He remembered how bright the city lights were of the bigger cities when he was looking out the window of an airplane flying at night. “The next city is El Centro.” So he pushed his virtual camera up until it was as high as a jet airliner. Immediately he saw two distinct glows of light, and picking the farthest one, he zoomed in. Checking the freeway signs to orient himself again, he saw that he was in Yuma, Arizona. “Yeah, that’s 100 miles!”
With his next jump, he saw two glows, the brightest one slightly to the north, and another smaller and farther away. “Must be Phoenix and Tucson,” Matthew thought. Zooming to the smaller light he confirmed his guess. “Over 200 miles, Yes!”
The next city of any consequence was Las Cruces in New Mexico. He climbed extra high since that was almost 300 miles. He could see what he assumed was the glow of Las Cruces, but it was overwhelmed by a double glow, a pair of cities side-by-side that dwarfed Las Cruces. “Ah, El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico,” Matthew surmised.
