Sandra walked around the table placing folders in front of William, Lucy, and Barbara. Holding the last one, she took a seat beside Barbara. The two women had changed their appearance significantly. Rather than wearing their hair pulled back and dressing in business clothes that were tight fitting, their hair was down and their clothes were loose. It was hard to tell what they looked like under their clothes.
Across the table from Barbara, Lucy watched the woman trying to determine what she was thinking. She still wasn't sure what she thought about the woman desiring her in a sexual way. She still found it hard to believe that they had such strong feelings for her without her knowing it despite what had happened. She understood a little better how William felt when she pointed out that some woman desired him.
Looking up from the folder, Barbara said, "We've got the initial poll results for the candidates you've put up for office."
"How are they?" Lucy asked turning her attention to the business at hand.
"The numbers are pretty bad except for May Erl. The only numbers we have for her are a general approval rating," Barbara answered. She had been shocked when assembling the report thinking that William was wasting his time with this project.
"Bad in what way?" William asked without bothering to open the folder.
"None of your candidates stands a chance of getting elected," Barbara declared running a finger down the page of data.
"They are exactly what I predicted," William said after looking over the numbers.
Lucy glanced down at the numbers and then said, "That's not bad. That confirms what we thought."
"Look at Dan Colson's numbers," William said gesturing to an entry on the second page.
"Excellent," Lucy said tapping the column associated with name recognition.
Frowning, Barbara couldn't understand why they were pleased with the results. She expected all of the candidates to drop out of the race based on the polling numbers. She said, "Dan Colson's numbers are in the gutter."
"It isn't the starting positions in the race that are important, but the positions at the end of the race. I told all of the candidates exactly what they could expect," William said.
"It still looks pretty bad," Sandra said with a frown. Dan Colson had an approval rating of less than nine percent. He was virtually unknown in eighty percent of his district.
William shrugged his shoulders and said, "We've got it under control."
"I'll put the numbers in the model," Lucy said picking up the folder. She glanced over at William and then jerked her head in the direction of the two women across the table.
William nodded his head and watched Lucy leave the room. Once the door closed behind her, he turned to the women. He asked, "Is everything okay?"
"Yes," Barbara said after looking over at Sandra.
"Yes," Sandra said.
"Good," William said. "Have you gotten your feelings for Lucy under control?"
"Yes," Sandra answered. Getting past the reactions of men to their appearance had involved understanding themselves and their feelings a little better. Being appreciated for their abilities had been such a rare occurrence in the past that they had desperately clung to William and Lucy. That desperation had manifested itself as sexual desire.
Facing what had been a bitter truth, Barbara said, "We discovered that we were more than a little responsible for the reactions we were getting from men."
"You might have noticed that we've toned down our clothes," Sandra said. The interactions with others had significantly changed for the better once they had started wearing clothes that were much less sexy. Men noticed them, but still managed to treat them with respect.
Puzzled, William said, "I never noticed that you wore particularly bright clothes in the past."
"I wasn't talking about the colors of our clothes," Sandra said shaking her head. There were times when she was sure that he was from another planet.
Barbara rolled her eyes and said, "We aren't wearing sexy clothes."
"I don't remember you wearing anything particularly sexy," William said with a frown. He was pretty confident that he knew what sexy clothing looked like. He had seen a lot of examples of explicit clothing as a result of traveling around with Happy Harry. Happy Harry dealt with all kinds of people including street hookers and high-end prostitutes.
"Believe us, the clothes we used to wear are sexy. There are a lot of men who really go for the austere business woman look," Barbara said.
"Oh," William said thinking that he must have missed something important. He licked his lips and said, "The sexiest outfit Lucy wears is my shirt."
Sandra burst out laughing. Looking over at Barbara, she said, "He's hopeless."
"It is hard to believe that we missed that one," Barbara said shaking her head.
"Well, I'm glad that you've resolved your problem," William said. It was time to get to the real subject that concerned him. He asked, "Will you be staying?"
"Yes, we'll be staying," Sandra said. Her hand slipped under the table and she stroked Barbara's thigh. They had come to the realization that they were a couple and that if they were going to bring a man into their relationship that it would have to be a package deal.
William relaxed and sat back in his seat. He said, "Good. I don't know what we would have done if you had left."
Barbara slipped a hand under the table and took Sandra's hand in hers. She looked at the other woman and whispered, "Should we?"
Sandra nodded her head. She pointed a finger at Barbara to let her know that she should be the one who asked.
"Could we ask a favor?" Barbara asked licking her lips nervously.
"Sure," William said wondering what they wanted. He couldn't recall seeing them act this nervous.
Sandra bit her lower lip, shivered, and then said, "Would you join the two of us in my room?"
"Is there something wrong with your room?" William asked sitting up. There had been only a few problems with the house and most of those had been corrected during the first few months there.
"No," Sandra answered. Not for the first time, she wondered how someone so brilliant could be so clueless.
"We want you to make love to both of us at the same time," Barbara said knowing that they were going to have to spell it out for him.
"Oh," William said. Puzzled, he asked, "Together?"
"Yes," Barbara answered knowing that there were men who would have murdered to have the two of them in bed.
"Wow," William said bringing smiles to the faces of the two women.
"I'm glad that you like the idea," Barbara said.
William didn't really know what to make of the request. He wasn't going to mention that his reaction was more one of surprise than interest. He asked, "Did you talk to Lucy about this?"
"No," Sandra answered having anticipated the question. She was pretty sure that any other man on the planet would have answered yes to their request without worrying about how their significant other would react.
Barbara said, "We were going to talk to her first, but we haven't had the chance."
"Oh," William said. Shaking his head, he said, "I'm going to have to make sure that it is alright with Lucy first."
"We know," Sandra said glancing over at Barbara. She wondered if they would ever find a man that would be so concerned about their feelings.
Barbara said, "Why don't you go talk to Lucy and then let us know."
"Okay," William said thinking that the answer was probably going to be no. Looking at the pair of women, William asked, "Is there anything else?"
"No," Barbara said.
"No," Sandra said.
William left the room to return to his workroom. He wanted to see how the model was tracking. It still suffered from numerical instabilities and he couldn't wait to have an expert programmer arrive and take on the job of fixing the program. It took too long to project the current state into the future for him to try exploring the consequences of various actions.
Entering the workroom, he paused to watch Lucy hard at work on the computer. Her fingers flew over the keyboard entering data. He smiled when she paused to run a finger across her hair to settle it behind her ear. She glanced over at him and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"You," William answered.
"So how did the talk go?" she asked nervously. She knew that losing them would really create a lot of problems around the household. It seemed that the two women were involved in just about every aspect of their lives.
Moving to where he stood behind her, William answered, "It went okay. They said that they have their feelings for you under control."
"That's good," she said feeling relieved.
"They asked me to sleep with them," William said.
Lucy wasn't surprised that they wanted to sleep with him, but she was surprised that they had actually asked him directly. She tried to remember when they had done that before and couldn't recall a single time. She turned around to face William and asked, "So which one wanted to go first?"
"They want to be together with me," William answered.
Surprised by that, Lucy said, "That's something I'd like to see."
"What?" William asked confused by her comment.
Shrugging her shoulder, Lucy said, "I think it would be rather interesting to watch two women making love to one man. I mean, there's one guy for two women. What is the second woman going to do while the guy is busy with the first?"
"I don't know," William answered. He hadn't even thought of that problem.
"I was thinking about what Ed said to us in Texas," Lucy said.
"When?" William asked not quite sure what Lucy was trying to say.
"When he was saying that we both needed to learn a bit more about loving," Lucy said.
"Oh," William said.
"I think he's right," Lucy said licking her lips. After thinking about the events with Barbara and Sandra, Lucy couldn't help but wonder if she had contributed to the problem.
"Are you telling me that you're willing to sleep with the two of them?" William asked.
Shaking her head, Lucy answered, "No."
"Okay," William said wondering what she wanted to say.
Lucy said, "I was just thinking that we needed to be a little more careful in how we deal with people. We don't really notice how people feel about us."
"You might be right," William said. He moved over to his chair and took a seat. Sometimes being aware of all of the consequences of his actions was tiring. He wished that he could relax and take things as they came along, but that wasn't possible.
Lucy gave him a worried smile and said, "You look tired."
"I am," William replied.
"Maybe you and Spirit of Desert Rock should take a little stroll out in the desert," Lucy said.
William stared off into the distance for a moment. The new programmer was going to show up in six weeks, there were the campaigns to monitor, some significant world events would occur in the next few weeks, and he had a week's worth of meetings with the rest of the staff on his various projects. He sighed and said, "There's no time."
"Yes there is," Lucy said.
"When?" William asked with a frown.
"You can make the time," Lucy said.
"When?" William asked.
Lucy sat back in her seat and said, "You've got the campaigns mapped out for the next six months. Your plans were detailed enough that I'll know if there is any kind of major deviation from what we predicted.
"Rudy is busy in the library. He's updating the server software, the displays, and acquiring additional content. I can buy anything he suggests without you having to be involved.
"Victoria is gathering the research material you've requested, but it will take time to assemble. It will be a few more months before the data on the sex industry will be available. She's been pretty good about making sure that the data for the rest of the model is being updated monthly.
"Dave is managing all of the polling activity. He's got four polling outfits tracking the campaign numbers. He's also overseeing the collection of data concerning the attitudes of the people in three dozen geographic areas. You know that is running like a well-oiled machine.
"Sandra and Barbara will run everything just like they always have. They can handle just about any problem that will arise. If they can't handle it, they can talk to me.
"I can monitor the investments using the model to make short term predictions of pretty good quality. Judging by what I've seen in the model, nothing too unexpected is going to happen anytime soon."
William shook his head and said, "There's going to be a rather spectacular murder that will cause a minor fluctuation in the stock market."
"Who?" Lucy asked.
"A rather powerful businessman in Europe," William answered.
Frowning, Lucy asked, "Can you stop it?"
"I don't know," William answered rubbing his chin. He said, "I'm not sure of all of the consequences of his death."
"When will it happen?"
"In about two weeks," William answered. He looked into the possible futures. One of them was very dark and the other left the world unchanged in any significant way. The dark future followed from the man getting saved.
The room disappeared around William to be replaced by a city street. After taking stock of his surroundings, William watched a man crossing the street. He was walking towards a kid playing with some toy cars in a miniscule front yard of a brownstone house. A car came roaring down the street towards the man.
Seeing that the car would hit the man, William called out, "Watch out."
The man looked around and backed out of the way of the car. He waved at William and shouted, "Thanks."
William turned to walk away. He hadn't taken more than three steps when a gunshot rang out. He spun around to find the man he had just rescued standing over the kid. The man was holding a gun in his hand. Even from a distance it was obvious that the kid was dead. The man turned to look at William and grinned.
The scene shifted back to where it had started with the man crossing the street while a car raced towards him. Heading in the direction of the man, William shouted, "Watch out."
The man looked around and backed out of the way of the car. He waved at William and shouted, "Thanks."
William ran to catch the guy before he crossed the street. He was too late and had to watch while the man stood over the kid and pulled the trigger. The man turned and smiled at William even as William reached him.
The scene shifted back to where it had been. Without taking a moment to look around, William started running towards the man. As he ran, he shouted, "Watch out."
The man saw the car headed towards him and ran forward. The car swerved in William's directions. He was forced to stop to avoid getting hit by the car. The man shouted, "Thanks."
William headed across the street as soon as it was safe. Once again he was too late. He watched the man reach the kid and pull the trigger on his gun. Even as the kid crumpled at his feet, the man turned and smiled at William.
The scene shifted back to where it had been. William watched the man cross the street while the car barreled down on him. Shaking his head, he watched the car strike the man. The man was thrown thirty feet down the street.
The kid looked up and headed across the street. He shouted to William, "We need to get an ambulance here."
William headed over to where the man was lying on the ground. From the way the man was sprawled out on the cement, it was obvious that he was dead. William grabbed the kid and asked, "Do you know him?"
"No," the kid answered.
The scene shifted back to where it had been. William watched the man cross the street while the car barreled down on him. Shaking his head, he watched the car strike the man. The man was thrown thirty feet down the road.
The kid looked up and headed to William. With each step, the kid got fatter and fatter. The features turned a weird mix of male and female. The Two-Sided One asked, "Why did you let him die?"
"I could find no way to save him and the kid. I chose not to act," William answered.
The Two-Sided One asked, "Why let the kid live?"
"He did nothing wrong that I could see," William answered.
"Sometimes the best action is doing nothing," the Two-Sided One said.
The street scene disappeared leaving William back in his room. He shook his head remembering the test that had occurred in the glade when he had begun his service. He wondered how many tests had taken place that he wouldn't remember until it was time for the lesson to be applied. He blinked his eyes.
Lucy had seen his eyes glaze over. Worried, she asked, "What's the matter?"
"I just remembered a lesson," William answered not really wanting to talk about it. He wondered why the lessons he had learned all revolved around life and death.
"Oh," Lucy said understanding that there were some things that William could know that she would never be able to learn until they happened. She leaned forward and asked, "Will this require you to do anything to prevent the murder?"
"I won't prevent it," William answered after giving a moment of thought.
Surprised by his answer, Lucy decided to change the subject to something a little safer. She asked, "Will there be any attacks against the house anytime soon?"
"No," William asked.
"So what requires you to be here?" Lucy asked.
"Not much, I guess," William answered.
Lucy said, "Call Dale and see if he's interested in spending a week or two out in the desert."
"Would you like to come with me?" William asked.
"Not this time," Lucy answered. She gestured to the whiteboard and said, "I've got to finish finding the transform functions that will simplify the calculations. I had a couple of insights into the problem while we were visiting Georgia and Debbie. I'd like to spend some time investigating them."
"Okay," William said with a sigh. He would have liked to watch her work.
Lucy brushed her long hair back behind her ear and said, "See, the world doesn't revolve around you."
"Maybe," William said. He looked in the distance and saw the trends play out. The world was such a large place that disaster presented itself on almost a daily basis. Most of the problems would resolve themselves without his interference. Only a few would require him to act. She was right, but that didn't lessen his worries any.
"Let me get back to work," Lucy said.
"Okay. What about Sandra and Barbara?" William asked.
Lucy smiled as an idea crossed her mind. She said, "Let them know that it is okay with me."
"You're sure?" William asked.
"I'm sure," she answered. Watching him for his reaction, she added, "Ask if I can watch."
Puzzled by the request, William said, "Okay."
"Good," Lucy said turning to work on the computer.
William stared at her back wondering if he was going to be able to perform with her in the room with them. Shaking his head, he decided that it would be a good time to call Dale to arrange for a little trip out into the desert. He wished that Patrick was around, but it wouldn't be until the end of December that he would return to Arizona.
Barbara went into her office and sat behind her desk. She had just gotten out her notepad of to-do items when Juanita knocked on the door. Looking up, she said, "Come in."
"How did it go?" Juanita asked.
"He said that he would talk to Lucy about it," Barbara answered.
Nodding her head, Juanita said, "Like there was any doubt that he'd say that."
Barbara said, "You've known the Carters a lot longer than I have. There are a lot of things that I don't understand them. Could you explain what it means to be a Carter to me?"
Juanita burst out in laughter at the suggestion that she could explain the Carter Clan. She said, "I don't think anyone can do that."
"Try," Barbara said giving voice to her frustration.
Juanita was silent for a moment while thinking about it. Finally, she said, "Each member of the Carter Clan is a strong independent individual. No two of them are alike. It isn't as if their individuality compliments each other. They have different interests, different passions, and even different beliefs. That family is a hodge-podge of religious beliefs despite the fact that John was the Grand Druid. You'd think that they would fight, but the fact is that they enjoy their differences.
"Each of them pursues their passion individually, but the others support them the best that they can. They strive for excellence rather than perfection. When they do work together for a common cause, the results can be overwhelming."
"I know that," Barbara said feeling frustrated that she couldn't phrase her question better.
Juanita could see that Barbara was frustrated and said, "I sometimes forget that you grew up in a toxic environment."
"Toxic environment?" Barbara asked.
Juanita nodded her head and said, "There weren't many individuals where you came from. Everyone was trying to be like everyone else. You never saw an entire community of people who worked for their individual growth and supported those around them in growing to be better people.
"You only saw people competing with each other, never truly working together. You never experienced having a problem and then having a dozen people show up to help you. You don't know many people for whom giving is everything and receiving is viewed as the greatest gift you can get. You still don't know what it is like being surrounded by people who will give you their full unfettered attention."
"I guess. I'm not really sure what you mean by getting their full attention," Barbara said.
Juanita said, "What is it like when you make love with William?"
"I feel like I'm the center of the universe," Barbara answered.
"Is that the only time you feel that way?" Juanita asked.
Shaking her head, Barbara said, "No. It is that way when I'm working with him, too."
"That's what I mean. In my home town, every time you interact with someone on a personal level you feel like you are the center of their universe. I must admit that I miss being around home," Juanita said.
Barbara was about to reply when William knocked on the door. He stuck his head in the office and said, "Lucy said that it was okay for me to join you and Sandra tonight. She'd like to watch."
Barbara didn't know how to answer. She nodded her head. Much to her relief, William accepted that as an okay and left. Turning to Juanita, she said, "I didn't see that one coming."
"You never will," Juanita said with a smile.
"Why would she want to watch?" Barbara asked.
Juanita answered, "Maybe she thinks that she'll learn something by watching,"
"What?"
"I don't know. I don't think she knows," Juanita answered.