The following day, the kids chosen as the student mentors began arriving right after Kevin and Denise got to the school. Jeremy and Amelia had recruited a number of candidates and Denise had chosen those who she felt were the best for the role—eight sixth-formers to make four mentor teams. After everyone had assembled in the classroom and introductions were done, Denise reviewed the jobs which the mentors would be doing.
“Guys,” she said, “your jobs are very fluid, but fall into two areas. First, the teacher will use you to demonstrate how we want the kids to sit and work together; we’ll show you what you need to know. Second, you’ll work with kids who need individual attention and again we’ll show you this as well. You were chosen because you seem to be charismatic and empathic; both characteristics are essential for what you’ll be doing. Now, for the next hour, our teachers will lead you through the exercises where you’ll be assisting them. You’ll learn how we want the kids to sit and if they need to be shown, you’ll show them how. Now, pair off and sit on the mats here.”
The student-teacher group began leading the mentors through the bonding exercises while Amelia and Jeremy demonstrated the postures and positions they needed to learn.
“We don’t want you to get involved with the pupils unless a teacher asks you to,” Denise mentioned at one point. “We want the kids totally concentrating on their partners. I can tell you’re enjoying your own concentration on your partner now, right?”
She got a strong affirmative in reply.
“So don’t break their moods; just demonstrate the things the teacher asks you to do.”
At the end of the session, the mentors were very enthusiastic.
“That was brill,” one girl gushed. The others agreed.
Another girl asked, “So this lot is gonna replace that sodding Naked Program, you told us?”
“Yes, those exercises and a whole bunch more, too,” Denise said. “The other part of your job is the most critical, now. I think you’ve probably come across some kids who are reluctant to be touched or held like we just showed you.”
They all agreed that they knew of kids who were like that.
“Your jobs will be to take those kids away from the group, and in a more private setting, work with them to try to overcome their reluctance. Amelia and Jeremy have learned some of the methods to do that which we found work, based on past trials of this program, and they’ll take over your orientation now. I’m sure that I don’t have to remind you, but I will anyway, that for this project, they are to be considered your teachers too.”
Denise and the others left at that point and Amelia and Jeremy took over, showing the mentors how to use the project’s techniques of dealing with touch-shy children.
The next three days were spent in much the same way. Amelia and Jeremy worked with the mentors, role-playing a number of touch-shy situations and showing them the exercises for basic meditating and projecting emotion, while Kevin’s and Denise’s group brain-stormed the development of additional physical problem-solving activities which could be done indoors and ones which could be developed to be run outdoors. They devised role-playing activities to illustrate handling of moral dilemmas. They spent a lot of time on designing the classes where the massage techniques were to be used, trying to test the limits of how far the pupils could be allowed to go in intimate touching—doing that planning, which involved lots of touching, was particularly enjoyable for the group.
After several more days of work, the group had a term’s worth of classes programmed with classes to be given three days per week; two double periods and one single period. As they had planned, year eights and nines would take the classes first, and since the year nines were equivalent to the middle school groups that Kevin and Denise had worked with in the States, they would be able to gauge these students’ reaction to the program as compared to the students in Atlanta and adjust methods or content if needed.
Kevin and Denise were was amazed at how quickly the promised grant funds had been provided to the school and to her university; during the week that they were doing their project orientation, renovation work had began in the school to set up two classrooms for the project and included video-recording capability and an observation room with one-way mirrors set up between the rooms to be used for observing the classes.
Then within a week of the beginning of spring term classes, the Avery Program was started with the year eight children. For the first week, most of the university teacher education students were present for at least some of the class sessions and either Kevin or Denise were available or present on site as well, until the startup jitters had passed.
The teachers and Kevin and Denise were delighted to find that the children loved the classes and were so enthusiastic about them that they had the rest of the school children jealous and clamoring to be included too.
~~~~
By early March, the project was well underway with the year eight class and the project team had now turned their attention to starting the classes with the year nine class. Jeremy, together with Dr Dorothy Connors, one of the two university faculty program leaders, were watching Susan and Simon as they led one nine year class through the bonding exercises when a teacher came into the observation room.
“Mr Hanford asked me to tell you to expect some VIPs in a few minutes,” she whispered. “The PM is here with the education secretary and two others.”
“Oh, goodness, the prime minister?” Connors exclaimed. “Whatever are they here for?”
The teacher chuckled a little. “Haven’t you noticed that this project’s turned out to be a big deal? The year-eight pupils have been raving to their families about how brilliant it’s been for them and the word’s spread that something wonderful is happening at Norwich. You know we’ve already been visited by a number of MPs and Mr Hanford told the staff that they were impressed by what they saw.”
While she was speaking, Amelia, who had been in the classroom working with the two mentors, slipped into the observation room.
“They’re okay now; it’s been sorted,” she whispered to Jeremy.
The teacher looked at her curiously. “Something wrong?”
Jeremy explained, “There’s a really traditional Muslim girl in this group. We’re trying to see how we can help her to accept being touched by a boy during the bonding exercises. Amelia noticed that the mentors seemed to be pushing her a little too aggressively and had an idea so she went in to tell them. Say, Amelia, the PM’s at the school now and is coming here for a show.”
“Really? Oh my!” she exclaimed. “Are we that popular?” she giggled.
“Looks that way,” the teacher said. “As much as I’d love to stay, I have to go now.”
Five minutes later Mr Hanford entered the room, ushering in a distinguished-looking woman with graying hair, followed by three men.
Jeremy turned away from the one-way mirror and grinned at her. “Hallo, Mrs Grayson,” he said quietly. “Welcome, but please, everyone, keep your voices low.”
“Ah, Jamie—no Jeremy! Jeremy Porter, well, it’s certainly odd seeing you here and not at your embassy. My goodness, are you involved at this school too? I seem to recall an incident last spring with you at Central School ...”
“Yes ma’am. But I switched schools to come here. Dad told me that Mr Wixom had rung you, so you must remember what I thought of the Naked in School Program when I was at Central. I’m sure Mr Hanford filled you in about what we’re doing here at Norwich to replace the Program and I’m chuffed to be part of this project. My friend here is Amelia Hadad, a project co-leader, and this is Dr Dorothy Connors from the London Ed School faculty.”
“Hello, Dr Connors. I’ve heard a lot of very good things being done by your students here; you must be proud of them.”
“Thank you, Prime Minister. We are certainly proud of our student teachers, but the credit must go to Miss Roberts and her team. They’ve taught our students most admirably.”
“Indeed,” Grayson said. “So, Jeremy. You’re part of the project’s leadership? My curiosity is piqued; I’d love to hear more about how a sixth-form pupil became involved in such a major undertaking. We’re getting such good reports from all sides of how this project’s progressing, so much so that I had to come see for myself.”
“Ahem,” Hanford tried to interrupt politely. “Let’s introduce everyone, please. Then our guests can watch for a bit. We can resume the discussion later, I think. Do you agree, Prime Minister?”
“Certainly, Mr Hanford,” she said, smiling at Jeremy.
The prime minister’s companions were Mr Roderick Cassidy, MP, education secretary, and Dr Stuart Gardner and Mr Lionel Coventry of the Department for Education.
They turned to watch the class and spent about fifteen minutes with Jeremy or Amelia answering the group’s occasional questions.
Jeremy looked at his watch as the period-change bell rang; Dr Connors excused herself as she had to leave.
“Mrs Grayson, did you want to see one of the problem-solving classes too?” Jeremy asked. “There’s one starting now with the year eights. The kids really love those classes ‘cause they’re high activity.”
“Lead on, Jeremy; that is, if your head teacher concurs,” she told him, smiling at Hanford.
“By all means,” Hanford grinned. “Mr Porter all but runs this place now, it seems.”
They walked to the gym and up to its balcony and as they walked, Hanford whispered to Jeremy, “Son, please address her as ‘prime minister.’”
He whispered back, “I see her at embassy affairs and she’s told me to call her Mrs Grayson, sir.”
Hanford nodded, “That’s fine, then.”
As they reached the balcony, the class entered the room. Then they watched as the class was divided into teams and began working on their problem-solving exercises. The observing group chuckled and then laughed aloud as they watched when the kids’ initial frenzied movements died down when the children realized that speed or brute force wouldn’t solve their problem. Watching the children’s reactions when they finally grasped the problem’s solution was even more entertaining; even more so was seeing how the kids celebrated their successes.
“I can see now why the children report their love for these activities,” the prime minister laughed as she watched one exuberant celebratory display. “Watching them is actually making me feel like a kid. Jeremy, could your group put together a program like this for us older folks?” she chuckled.
“Ma’am, what an interesting idea,” Jeremy nodded. “Perhaps one of your ministers might be able to suggest a sponsoring agency?”
“Ha, ha, very good, son,” she laughed. “You came right back at me, turning my suggestion into a problem for me to solve—a true diplomat’s response. I’m impressed. Head teacher, is there somewhere where we can chat? I’d like to talk further with your two young school ambassadors here.”
“Yes ma’am, we can use our conference room. If you’ll follow me?”
After the group was settled in the conference room, the prime minister looked at Hanford.
“Mr Hanford, I agree with my sources; even from my quick visit I can see that this project is becoming a great success, particularly after seeing your pupils’ enthusiasm. I’ve looked over the project’s objectives and based on opinions of our experts in the Department for Education, all of the requirements of the Human Sexuality Promotion Act are met by this initiative. But I’m fascinated by young Mr Porter’s involvement here. Jeremy, how did you come to get involved here after what happened at Central School?”
Jeremy smiled. “A whole bunch of amazing coincidences, Mrs Grayson. Where can I start? Okay, I guess after the awful stuff that happened at Central, ending with the head teacher’s car being firebombed, my folks switched me to this school. Then the LEA decided that the Program had to be run here, and that’s how I met Amelia and learned that her guardians—that is, while she’s in London this year—were Kevin Coris and Denise Roberts, who are long-time friends of my family. Kevin’s mother was a U.S. diplomat and close friends with my father...”
“Wait, wait. My head is swimming. That’s the Miss Roberts who’s running this? Denise Roberts? And Kevin Coris.”
She looked at Mr Cassidy, her education secretary, who had his head buried in his hands, shaking it slowly in dismay.
“I see I’m not the only one who knows those names,” she said carefully, looking at Cassidy. “Tell me, they are Yanks, yes?” she asked Jeremy.
“Yes, ma’am...” Jeremy said uncertainly. “What’s wrong?”
“And they were involved with dismantling the Program in the Colonies... erm, the U.S.?”
“OH! Is that what you mean! Yes, that’s right, they did, but they also proposed this project—the Avery-Denison Program—to the National Program Committee. Amelia and I had been writing about human rights issues and they drafted us to help in the Program Committee presentation. Kevin’s known me for more than nine years; he was almost part of my family when I was growing. And I met Denise several years ago when she and Kevin were in South Korea on an educational exchange mission through the State Department.”
The prime minister was looking pained. “Jeremy, please slow down... I need to assimilate this... So we owe the success of this new project to two people who just happened to come to the U.K. after dismantling the Program in their home country and then came here to do the same. I see.” Then her mouth twitched into a smile. “It was reported to me that your friend Denise, in a half-hour meeting with her university dean, single-handedly wiped out eighteen months of work of the Department for Education on the development of the university curriculum for new teachers learning how to supervise the Naked in School Program.”
Now Mr Cassidy was looking even more pained but the two aides were trying to suppress grins.
The PM chuckled wryly. “All of that happened just before your president was in Europe for an economic summit, so when I was there with him, I gave him an earful about the Colonies exporting their rebellion to the homelands.”
“Yes, but Mrs Prime Minister,” Amelia broke in, “that Program was so awful, many kids were hurt in it, and Denise showed your Program Committee how high a social and economic cost England would have if you kept running it.”
“Yes, Amelia, I saw that report,” she smiled. “Several MPs descended on my office the day after they attended that meeting with the Committee at this school and demanded the reasoning behind the DfE deciding not to undertake a similar social and cost analysis before sending the Act up to Parliament for adoption. I was stunned when I saw the numbers from that study that the Committee was told about.
“Enough of that, now. Just how are you and Jeremy—you’re both in sixth form?—what makes you qualified to be co-leaders in a project of such potential importance? I’m not challenging you; I’m just very curious and amazed that secondary school pupils could contribute to such an endeavor, let alone help lead it.”
Amelia looked down at her hands. “Ma’am, Denise thought I would be perfect as a mentor trainer...”
She had to explain what the mentors did.
“...and she said that I had a lot of empathic feelings that my acting skills allowed me to project—I’m in this school for its theater program—and I know how to get other kids to relate to me too. Denise and Kevin created the mentor role when they were in high school and I guess they saw I had the same... um... personality type? And Jeremy is, well, he’s got this way of looking into your being and making you feel good about yourself, I guess... Jeremy? Help?”
Jeremy smiled at her. “You’re doing okay, Amelia. Yes, Mrs Grayson, actually Kevin taught me my Eastern meditation skills; he was my taekwondo instructor back in Korea and I learned how to use those skills to focus myself to project my—call it ‘aura’—to others.” He grinned. “It works well when I’m trying to convince someone that my point of view should be considered.”
Hanford snorted. “Is that how I find that I frequently let your cheeky behavior pass? No one other than you gets away with some of the things you persuade me to do.”
“I guess the secret’s out, sir,” Jeremy grinned. “But it was all to a good cause, don’t you agree?”
The prime minister was watching the exchange, then she shook her head.
“I see it. Jeremy, you’re so very self-assured and confident—very much like your father; I know he’s extremely proud of you. Amelia, you’re a simply charming young lady and I really do feel drawn to you in some way; you have a presence about you, a modest and endearing charisma, I’d describe it. The way you explain the mentor role, I can see exactly how you’d fit doing that. But trying to teach others to do that?”
Amelia shook her head. “No ma’am, not ‘teach.’ Jeremy—and Denise and Kevin—we can tell if people potentially have that skill and show them how to use the skill where it’s latent. That’s how we picked the mentors for this project. We worked with them first, so they could feel it on their own, and then watched while they worked with other kids. So we don’t ‘teach’ it; we bring it out of them instead.”
Mrs Grayson was listening raptly, then she turned to Dr Gardner. “Stuart, your educational psychologists in the DfE need some training in practical and applied psychology; these youngsters seem to have you way outclassed, don’t you think?”
“Prime Minister,” he answered, “Dr Seetis, the Program Committee psychologist, was telling me about how these four youngsters had so impressed the Committee at their meeting, and about what Mr Coris and Miss Roberts accomplished with their colleagues in the States in developing that Avery Program. We’ve gathered that they all appear to have an innate understanding of psychology; the fact that somehow they all coalesced into a group as they did and came up with practical ideas about teaching children about developing personal interactions, appears to have produced an unprecedented advance in education psychology. And from the references that Mr Coris provided to the Committee, it appears that a program similar to the one being tried here is succeeding in a few schools the U.S. too.”
“So where do we take it from here?” Grayson asked.
Coventry responded, “This is a pilot project that we funded with several emergency grants, but from the financial details we are collecting as the project progresses, we see that the costs to expand it would not be all that significant. The greatest cost would be in training teachers quickly; that could be done through the ed programs at the universities, funded by some grants if need be. This project’s purpose was two-fold; first, as a feasibility study and second, to develop a working curriculum. I think that the first purpose has been proven already and the second should be completed by the end of the term. Where next? There are eight student teachers working with classes in this school; they could form the core cadre to teach more students and teachers too.
“We shouldn’t rush, however; I think it’s more important that we stress quality of teaching over trying to push it out to many schools too quickly.”
Jeremy broke in, “Denise said that even after there’s a written curriculum, teachers need to personally experience how pupils react and behave in all of the program’s modules. This can’t be learned out of a book.”
“I agree,” Gardner said. “Mr Hanford, looks like the Norwich Academy will be the model school for the Avery Program for some time.”
Hanford nodded. “I’m delighted to accommodate that role. After all, we are a performing arts academy, and teaching is definitely a performing art.”
They all chuckled.
“What about that infamous Human Sexuality Act?” Grayson asked. “Do we need to ask Parliament to rescind it?”
Jeremy shook his head. “No... How about simply amending it? By changing its name and some of its wording very slightly, you’ll wind up with a prescription for the Avery-Denison Program, after all.”
Grayson broke out into a broad smile. “Son, spoken like a true statesman. That’s an outstanding suggestion. My goodness, it’s actually happened; the Yanks have truly exported their rebellion here. And the agents of rebellion turned out to be Mr Coris and Miss Roberts, just as President Gerston warned me. I think we’d better leave those two fine people to keep attending their uni classes before I lose another of my government agencies,” she chuckled wryly. “Thank you, head teacher, and many, many thanks, Amelia and Jeremy, for your extremely insightful and entertaining orientation about this project. I have yet to meet Mr Coris and Miss Roberts; I believe I shall have to have my office arrange for it soon. I’d love to meet that intrepid pair—perhaps it should be in neutral territory; don’t want them to get any untoward ideas about changes to other British offices,” she joked.
“Thank you for coming, Prime Minister,” Hanford replied. “We’re delighted you approve of what we’re doing here and we greatly appreciate the opportunity to have our school serve our country like this. Gentlemen, thank you too and we were glad to have you visit.”
They shook hands all around and Mrs Grayson winked at Jeremy. “You’ll hear further from me,” she said to him with a smile as her group left, joining her security detail, who had been discretely following her in the building.
Amelia heaved a sigh. “What a nice woman,” she smiled. “I like her.”
Jeremy laughed. “She can be really charming but don’t annoy her. The PM has a reputation for being really tough if you don’t satisfy her orders, but yeah, she’s cool. Dad thinks very highly of her.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you know her, Jeremy,” Hanford commented. “I knew your dad was at the American embassy. I didn’t know that he was that important there; the PM appears to know him well.”
“Yeah, Dad does have an important job. But we don’t talk about that, you know, because of security issues, specifically my safety.” He glanced at the clock. “Um, we need to get to our next class, sir. Our ‘training’ periods are ending in a few minutes.”
“Go ahead. And you handled your little session with our visitors nicely, young man, you too, Amelia, so thanks.”
~~~~
Amelia couldn’t wait to tell Denise and Kevin about the PM’s visit and was disappointed that it wasn’t a surprise to either of them. This term their university classes ended at about the same time so they generally returned to the flat together.
“You’ll never guess who visited the school today,” Amelia began when they came in.
“Hmmm. Not the Queen; I think she’s traveling,” grinned Kevin. “So it must be the PM.”
“KEVIN! How’d you know?” Amelia stamped her foot.
Denise hugged her. “Hanford texted me, darling, just before the PM’s group arrived. The PM’s office called Hanford only about twenty minutes before her impromptu visit; she had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go. Hanford wanted to know if either Kevin or I could get to the school quickly but we couldn’t, so I messaged back that Jeremy would be able to represent us with no trouble and that you could too.”
“Me? Really? You thought so? I liked her, Denise, and she said such nice things about me too, and Jeremy. She knew Jeremy.”
“So you need to tell us what happened, honey,” Kevin said. “Hanford texted us that the visit went well but gave no details.”
Amelia described the PM’s visit and then told them that she had said that she wanted to meet them.
“She knew your names immediately,” Amelia grinned, “and so did the others who came with her. The education secretary looked stunned when Jeremy mentioned that you were behind the project. Anyway, she said she wants to meet you and do it in a neutral place. It was ‘cuz she didn’t want you getting any ideas. What did that mean? I meant to ask Jeremy but forgot.”
Denise snorted. “I’ll bet she’s referring to how Kevin and I were involved in eliminating the Office of Social Awareness in the U.S. and stopping the Program there, and here in England, when they stop running the Program, that agency—the National Program Committee—will be history too. So it appears that we’ve gotten the reputation of shutting down government programs,” she chuckled.
“Oh, that’s funny,” Amelia laughed.
“So you observed one of the first year-nine classes today, right?” Kevin asked. “How was it?”
“Yeah, they were so pumped when they came in,” Amelia grinned. “All the buildup from hearing about the program from the year eights made them crazy. Simon and Susan had their hands full to get them sorted, but after they settled down, it went okay, really well. Oh, we had a girl in this group, she was a traditional Muslim; she was so anxious she was shivering. She didn’t want anyone to touch her...”
Kevin frowned, “We did cover that; remember the letters we sent to Muslim families explaining that Islamic jurist’s ruling? He ruled that the kind of touching we do in those classes, so long as its purpose isn’t to provoke desire or temptation, is permissible for young girls.”
Amelia nodded, “Yes; first the mentors took her aside and the girl worked with her, showing her the holding and touching but then tried to get her to accept doing it with the boy. I had to intervene ‘cuz I saw she was still very nervous and wouldn’t let him near. I went into the room and got her to accept a compromise—she was willing to have the boy touch and hold her if the girl mentor was also sitting right next to her, holding her too, and letting the boy touch both of them at the same time.”
“Did that work?” Denise asked, awed at Amelia’s resourcefulness.
“Oh yeah,” she said happily, “she liked that idea right from the beginning and went through all the exercises. As she did, I noticed after a while she was concentrating more on the boy. But at the end of the class session, she was totally relaxed and very comfortable with both mentors. I found the mentors later in the day and they told me that she was nervous about how she’d feel having a boy touch her and didn’t want to have any ‘impure’ thoughts, but she found that the only feelings she got were ones of, in the girl’s words, ‘kinship.’ Close feelings but not romantic ones.”
Kevin beamed at her, “Amelia, that was amazing! How did you come up with that idea?”
She blushed. “I’m not really sure, Kevin. Somehow doing that seemed right to me. I think it was like you did with Janet, remember? You let her come to you? I guess I tried to let that girl come to the boy in what she felt was a protected environment. On her own terms.”
“That was really brilliant, sweetie,” Denise agreed. “That’s a major breakthrough for a difficult situation. See, your contributions to this project are just as important as ours, you should be proud of yourself.”
“I guess. But I did tell the mentors to remember in the future not to push the reluctant kids like they seemed to be doing with her. That they should have plenty of patience, move in small steps, and watch the kid for clues about their personal limits,” Amelia explained.
“Perfect,” Kevin complimented her. “Great work, honey.”
“Thanks, Kevin. I love doing this project. I can’t wait till we can begin using the outdoor exercises.”
“Well, it’s time for some news of my own,” Denise smiled. “Dean Phillips called me to his office. The project faculty recommended to the ed school that I be awarded 12 credits of advanced research topics toward a master’s degree in educational psychology and that if I write a full paper on the project, the school would accept it as a master’s thesis.”
“Shit, darling, that’s incredible!” Kevin exclaimed, while Amelia squealed and hugged her.
She went on, “It appears that Dr Dunton, you know, from the Program Committee, has been in touch with the project faculty, and with Phillips too, and pointed out that the data derived from this project would be a major contribution to educational psychology. We’ll have to stay here a little longer, into the summer, if I’m to finish; there’s one additional class I would need to take. Can we do that?”
Kevin hugged her. “Certainly. Hell, two master’s degrees before your bachelor’s. Wotta girl!”
“Can we go celebrate?” Amelia giggled. “Go to our sushi restaurant?”
Kevin laughed. “Nope. For this news, nothing but the best. We’re going to the Dinings in Marylebone—it’s the best sushi house in London. I’ll ring them now to reserve.”
~~~~
The following week, during Amelia’s weekly tele-visit with her father, Hadad asked Amelia to get Kevin to Denise to join the conversation. When they came into view, Hadad greeted them with a big smile.
“Okay, everyone, Amelia’s been giving me all of the great news about your London life. Kevin, Denise, I fear for my country if you stay there much longer. If you do, just keep your activities limited to reforming the education system, okay?”
They all laughed.
“I’ve got some news of my own now. Remember why I couldn’t take off the time to come to London last fall? The big grants? Well, they came through, majorly. And this is bigger than we thought, much bigger; it will triple the reach of the Coris Foundation and means we’ll be expanding into Africa too.”
“Wow,” Kevin exclaimed, “that is huge.”
Hadad went on, “Indeed. So this means a major change for the Foundation, so I’ll give you the quick summary.”
Just then Kevin’s “Aunt” Janet walked into view. “Hi, all of you,” she called.
“Hi, Aunt Janet...” “Hi, Janet!” the others called.
Hadad put his arm around Janet. “So I’ve asked Janet to marry me and we’re moving the Coris Foundation headquarters to London.”
There was a chorus of gasps from everyone and then a great clamor as everyone began speaking at once.
“Oh my god, what amazing news!” Kevin shouted over the babble.
Everyone quieted down, and then Amelia spoke, eyes weeping. “Papa, that’s so wonderful... I really love Janet, how she looked after me and all... now she’ll be my mum! Oh, I wish I could hug you both now!”
Denise was smiling broadly. “That’s super news... but what about the Foundation’s staff?”
Janet nodded. “Most will stay on. Our clinical and legal directors will stay and the office will too, it’ll be our Jakarta branch. We’ll be opening a branch in Africa too, and our headquarters will be in London or a close-in suburb. Kevin, I didn’t consult with you about these plans because everything was moving so fast after we got the grants, but you told me that I could make any decisions for the Foundation...”
“Don’t explain, Aunt Janet,” Kevin broke in. “You did the right thing. I would have told you to use your judgment even had you asked. Anyway, this is incredible news. How did the staff take it?”
“Mostly fine. Nothing will really change for the field workers and case managers. The financial staff, most of them, are willing to move—you know, three are Brits anyway, and we need to keep some managers in Jakarta anyway, so there’ll be promotions and most everyone is happy for the recognition...”
“Hey,” called Denise, “just like a man to ask business questions and not the important one: when’s the wedding date?”
“Yeah, Papa, when’s the day?” Amelia chimed in.
Hadad answered, “Beginning of June; I have to let your grandparents know too. It’ll be in Jakarta so the staff can attend and I hope you can come as well.”
“Oh, yes,” Kevin answered. “We’ll make sure of it. When are you moving the office?”
“Right after the wedding; I’ve got real estate contacts in London who know the NGO industry. They’ll be looking at sites after we send them our requirements.”
“I’ll be glad to help if you need a local contact,” Kevin offered. “I don’t know much about real estate, but I did find and use some legal services here, people who are highly regarded, if you need legal work.”
“Oh, good,” Janet replied. “That’s a service we need to find too, but if you have a law firm contact, we’d be interested in talking to them.”
“It’ll be wonderful to see you, Papa,” Amelia said, “and I’ll send you a DVD of the spring play that I’m in; it’s next week and I’m excited about it.”
“What’s the play, dear?” Hadad asked.
“Hee hee, there was a push by some people to put on ‘Oh Calcutta’ ‘cuz it had a nude scene and we were supposed to have the Naked in School Program here. But we got the Program stopped. Anyway, we’re doing ‘Our Town,’ a real oldie, and I’m Emily; it’s a fantastic role for me and I can really relate to the character. I feel just like Emily; she realizes that human life is precious ‘cuz it’s fleeting.”
“That’s a leading role, isn’t it? I seem to recall the play,” Hadad replied.
“Yeah, Papa. I had a great audition ‘cuz we were teaching some kids here how to project their emotions to others, so I did that during the reading for the part. I was so thrilled; they picked me right away.”
“That’s my girl; I’m really proud of you. I wish I could be in the audience for your performance.”
Soon Hadad and Janet had to disconnect since it was approaching midnight, so they all said their good-byes.
“Wow,” Kevin exhaled, “things suddenly got really complicated again, but in a nice way. I look forward to seeing Janet again,” he said softly.
“I love weddings,” Denise sighed
“I’m getting a mama again,” Amelia whispered.
Copyright © 2016 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.