Storm Surge

Chapter Six

"DAR?"

Dar opened her eyes, to see Alastair standing in front of her chair, holding out a glass. "What is that?" she asked, eyeing the dark liquid with some suspicion.

"Irish coffee," he said. "I figured you could use it."

Coffee. Dar took the offered mug without further preamble, and sipped gingerly from it. "Thanks. Time lag's still kicking my ass."

Alastair took a seat next to her. They were in a quiet lounge off the main meeting space, the soft buzz of conversation trickling in through the adjoining door. "Well, lady, it's late in anyone's time zone." He glanced at the door. "But I think we're close."

Dar checked her watch, and winced. "1:00 a.m. I sure as hell hope so." She stretched her legs out and crossed them. "Is he done asking me questions?"

Her boss brought one foot up onto its opposite knee and rested his hands on his ankle. "I think so. Actually I think he's more tired of getting your answers so I think he's decided to beat me over the head with the terms again."

"He's tough."

Alastair chuckled. "They all are. No one in there wants to give money to anyone, least of all a bunch of smartass Yanks. I think our boys here are starting to piddle."

Dar snorted.

"McLean!"

"Ah," Alastair sighed. "Hey, they're bringing in some dinner. C'mon, maybe if we go in there together he'll settle down some." He patted Dar on the arm.

"Sure." Dar obligingly got up. "I was out here because I was bored listening to all the sales crap," she said, as she followed the older man toward the double doors. She kept her coffee with her, though, sipping it as they entered the big conference room where Sir Melthon and his team, and their sales reps were going at it.

At this point, she figured, it was a chest beating contest. She had no intention of bruising her own infrastructure, so she'd been sitting around merely waiting for a technical question to come up since she'd already gone over their plan four times and had no intention of doing it a fifth.

"Right." Sir Melthon looked up as they entered. "Ah, there you are, and your little girl too."

Alastair stopped in his tracks, turned, and looked Dar up and down. He then turned back to the magnate. "Sir Melthon? I know this lady's father, and let me tell you neither you, nor I want to make that statement even in jest."

"None of that now, just get over here." Melthon waved a hand at them. "I want--"

"I mean that!" Alastair suddenly raised his voice in a loud bark, cutting off all other conversation and making himself the sudden, startling center of attention. After a moment of silence, "I expect my staff to be treated with the same respect we show to yours."

Sir Melthon leaned back in his chair and studied him. "You do say?"

Alastair stared back at him. "Damned right I do say."

Dar stood quietly, sipping her coffee, not wanting to do anything to either escalate or downplay the moment. It went against her instincts to allow anyone to take her part the way her boss was doing, but she was smart enough to know there were dynamics here her usual bull-in-a-china shop style would not mesh with.

Sir Melthon pondered a moment. "Well, then all right." He shrugged. "Sorry about that. Didn't think you were the sensitive type." He directed the last comment at Dar.

"I'm not." Dar put her cup down and settled into a soft leather seat across from him. "But Alastair is right. I'm the Chief Information Officer of the company. If you sign on, I hold your family jewels right here." She held up her hand and crooked the fingers. "If you don't respect me, how can you trust me not to send your business to hell, or get bored someday and reroute your data stream to Iran?"

Melthon and his team stared at her, as Alastair took a seat next to Dar. "Is that a threat?" the magnate asked, in a splutter. "McLean, what is this?"

"Now, I am sure," Francois started to break in hurriedly, stopping when Alastair held his hand up.

"This is who we are." Alastair folded his hands on the table. "So let me tell you now, if you can't deal with my people being anything other than white bread old men like me tell me now, and we'll just cut the deck and go home. I'm not making us both miserable signing a contract with you." He gazed steadily across at the magnate, his blue eyes open and guileless. "I do mean that."

Melthon actually gaped at him.

"You are one fish, in my very, very big ocean," Alastair went on placidly.

Even Dar was hard pressed not to react, keeping her eyebrows in their customary places and concentrating on not letting her eyes widen. She leaned back in her chair and laced her fingers together instead, appreciating for, perhaps, the first time how hardball her boss was willing to be when he felt he needed to.

Hans was watching both men, with a fascinated expression as he tapped his fingers on the table, everyone else in the room was seemingly frozen in place.

Finally Melthon turned and looked at Dar. "I don't like women in business!" He thumped his fist on the table.

Dar cocked her head, looking down at herself before she looked back up at him. "Too bad," she said. "I'm not going to change into a man anytime soon. Sorry."

"Hah!" Melthon turned back to Alastair. "She'll get married on you. See if she doesn't, McLean! Then what?"

Alastair smiled. "Dar's already married," he said. "Hasn't been an issue."

"And have brats! You know how they are!" Melthon shot right back.

Alastair turned and looked at Dar, one brow edging up a trifle.

"We have a dog," Dar could see the twinkle in his eyes. "The mainframe will have kids before I will." She leaned forward and picked up her cup. "Besides, can you imagine there being two of me?"

"No," her boss replied instantly. "I can't afford two of you. My heart would give out." He turned back to Sir Melthon. "So what's it to be? It's late, you know. We can call it off now and I can get my people some rest before we move on to the next opportunity."

Melthon eyed him shrewdly. "You've got brass ones," he said. "This is not a small contract."

"It isn't," Alastair agreed. "It's got huge potential for us, and I think we can do a good job for you. But I'm not interested if it exposes my people, especially one of our single most valuable resources to being treated like an afterthought. It's not worth it to me."

"Indeed."

"Yup."

The magnate leaned back, most of his irascible attitude fading. "Valuing people is very old fashioned, you know. In this day and age, we are all expendable, or so they say."

"People who say that are the only expendable ones," Alastair replied quietly. "I've lived long enough in this business to have learned that the hard way."

After a moment's silence, Melthon nodded. "All right then. Fair enough," he said. "I have long been accused by many--" he turned and deliberately looked at Hans, who smiled, "of being old fashioned myself. I didn't think I'd find an American who had any interest in anything but the dollar. You surprise me, McLean."

"The missus says that on occasion to me too," Alastair replied. "But that usually involves tacky Mexican jewelry and never comes with good brandy like this." He held up his glass, tipping it slightly in Sir Melthon's direction.

The magnate burst into laughter. He lifted his own cup and inclined it. "We will do business, McLean. I like a man who knows how to stand up for himself." He glanced aside. "And for a woman!"

The sales execs relaxed and so did Sir Methon's minions, as nicely tuxedoed servers entered from the far door with mahogany serving trays. The first one of them paused and looked at the table, timidly eyeing the magnate before moving any further.

"Bring that in." Their host waved a hand. "Bring that, and bring me a couple bottles of that rotgut my godson forced on me the other week. Might as well get rid of it with this lot."

Dar eased back into her chair and drank her cooling coffee, the rich taste of the liquor in it burning her stomach as it settled. She watched the servers bustle around putting out plates and dishes and only after the noise in the room dispelled some of the tension did she glance over at Alastair.

Solemnly, he winked at her.

Dar lifted her mug up and behind it, poked the tip of her tongue out at him. She then glanced at her watch, and unclipped her PDA, opening it and tapping on the screen with the stylus.

Hey Ker.

You missed an eyeball busting moment here. It's possible I might not leave this place tonight without kissing Alastair.

Hope your speech is knocking them dead. Buy your family a beer for me when it's all over with and make sure someone took pictures.

DD

"So."

Dar closed the Palm and turned to find Sir Melthon now sitting in the seat right next to her. "So," she repeated.

"My godson there," the magnate spoke conversationally, as though the preceding standoff with Alastair had never happened. "Tells me you can do some very tricky stuff. Is that on the up and up?"

Dar peered over at Hans, who studiously avoided her gaze. "Maybe. We have some very proprietary technology that I developed, to help us provide the best services to our customers. If that's what he meant, then yes. "

Her PDA beeped. Dar resisted the urge to look at it while she waited for the magnate to continue, aware of someone putting a plate down in front of her on the table.

"You own it then, eh?" Melthon asked.

"He owns it." Dar indicated Alastair, who was sitting by quietly watching and listening. "Or, more to the point, ILS owns it because I developed it on their time and their gear."

"Ah hah." Melthon got up and went back around the table. "All right, let's get a bite to eat, and then we'll carry on," he said. "Hope none of you enlightened Americans are vegetarians." He looked around the table, his bushy eyebrows hiking.

Dar studied the slab of beef in front of her. "Looks good to me." She put the PDA down on the table and casually flipped it open. "Got any catsup?"

The men across the table stopped, and stared at her.

"Just kidding." Dar smiled. She waited for them to start working on their plates again before she looked down at the Palm.

Get pictures. What the heck, give him a kiss for me too. I am about to go on stage and I've already had two confrontations with women older than my mother, and just about kept my brother from kicking one of them in the shins. If I end up in jail, will you come home and bail me out?

Wish you were here. I have a headache.

K.

"Excuse me." Dar got up and tucked the PDA into her hand. "I need to make a phone call." She ducked past the chair next to her and headed for the small antechamber, pulling her cell phone out as she cleared the door and keying the speed dial without looking.

It rang twice, then picked up. "Hey."

"Hey." Kerry's voice sounded stressed, but also wry. "Was the whining that loud?"

"Tell me some old witch gave you a hard time. What's her name? I'll hack into her pension and send it to the ASPCA," Dar said. "I knew I should have coopted you out of this."

After a brief pause, Kerry chuckled. "Nah, it's not that bad really," she demurred. "I ran into a few of my old teachers, that's all." She paused. "And..."

Ah.

"I don't know. I just want to get out of here," Kerry admitted, in a quieter voice. "It's weirding me out. Too many memories."

Dar exhaled, sensing the turmoil. "Hang in there," she said. "One more day, Ker. Just blow through this and go have a plate of wings and a beer. I'll be there with you in spirit."

There was a brief pause on the other end. "Know something?" Kerry finally said. "When I get to Europe, I'm going to buy you a tiara."

Dar's nostrils flared and her eyes widened. "Huh?"

"You rule my world. Gotta go, sweetie. Love you." Kerry hung up, leaving a faint echo behind her.

Dar tapped her cell phone against her jaw before she turned to head back into the meeting room. "I'd look stupid as hell in one of those," she sighed. "But I'd love to see her try it."

"WAS THAT DAR?" Angie asked, leaning against an unused podium as they waited behind the small stage.

"Yeah." Kerry tucked her cell phone away. "How'd you know?" She glanced up in question.

"You're smiling," her sister replied. "I haven't seen you do that all night." She put a sympathetic hand on Kerry's back. "Listen, I'm really sorry I got you into this," she added, softly. "I didn't think it would be such a big deal."

"Neither did I, but I probably should have." Kerry admitted. "Anyway, we're here now. I just want to get it done."

Angie patted her shoulder. "Just think about the brewpub. If it gets too obnoxious out there, I'll call Mike and have him moon the crowd and we can escape out the back."

The thought was startlingly appealing. Kerry smothered a grin, and ran her fingers through her hair again, feeling the dryness in the back of her mouth and wishing she had a tall glass of ice tea. "We're a family full of scandal, huh?"

"Hey, it beats reading about the flower show in tomorrow's paper."

"Yeah, well." Kerry sighed, as she spotted one of the event organizers heading her way through the small backstage area. She straightened up and twitched her sleeves out a little, taking a deep breath and exhaling it as she'd often seen Dar do before she presented. "Are we ready?"

The woman hesitated, glancing over her shoulder. "I think we are. Everyone's seated."

Kerry felt her nerves settle, as the waiting was over and now, at least, she could do it and get it over with. "Okay, let's go then," she said. "Hope I don't cause a riot."

The organizer's face twitched. "Let me go introduce you and--oh."

Kerry brushed by her. "You don't need to. I'll take it from here." She unabashedly stole a page from Dar's 'do the unexpected' book and slipped past the curtains, emerging into a pool of typically wishywashy school auditorium lighting.

She crossed to the small podium, mahogany wood and long worn with the forearms of decades of speakers before her, and rested her hands on it, simply standing there and waiting to be noticed.

It gave her a long few seconds to look out over the room. She'd last been in it for graduation, and her mind flashed back to long hours spent there listening to religious instruction and lectures on morality and her place in the world.

The sudden absurdity of the contrast made her smile, and she felt her shoulders relax as she let her eyes scan the crowd as they began to realize she was standing there. It was a full house, a mixture of current students, her old classmates, and teachers, and she allowed herself a moment of surprised gratification that at least someone wanted to hear whatever it was she had to say.

The buzz settled down quickly, as all eyes turned to her. Unlike Dar, however, Kerry didn't find this intimidating. "Good evening." She injected her voice into the room, making sure to project a quiet confidence she almost actually felt.

"My name is Kerrison Stuart." She hadn't consciously intended to use her real name, but as it came off her tongue, it sounded right. "Some of you know me. Some of you only know of me, and some of you wish you'd never heard of me, but since you asked me to speak here, you get what you get so let's get started."

She paused, and after a long moment of startled silence, the crowd applauded. "Mph," she muttered under her breath. "Can't be worse than that women in business seminar last year, now could it?"

Kerry waited for the noise to die down, and studied the crowd for a few beats. Then she removed the microphone from the podium and came around from behind it. "Putting aside what's mostly public knowledge about me, I'm going to take a minute to briefly introduce myself for the benefit of those of you who are wondering who the heck I am."

Angie watched from behind the curtain, bemused at the confident figure that had so recently been nervous and withdrawn back stage with her. She could see Kerry's profile, and her sister had seemingly transformed herself now that the moment was on her.

Kerry had always been funny that way. Shy and reserved, Angie remembered her keeping her own council when they were teenagers. Part of that had been their parents, of course. By then Kerry had gone through the early stages of questioning their father and suffered the consequences.

Part of it hadn't been though. Kerry had once told her that it was too bad she understood as much as she did. That she'd have been a happier person if she'd been dumber. At the time Angie had thought she was being dissed, but now, knowing her sister a little better, she'd come to realize that it was just the truth.

Just the truth, that Kerry was smart, and though she didn't want to see or admit it, she had their father's calculating shrewdness and a certain toughness that she could hear echoing in Kerry's voice when she probably wasn't even aware of it.

Angie sighed. She and Michael had been 'the children', but Kerry had always been something special to their father. Aside from being smart, and good looking, girl or not, she'd been his firstborn and no matter how rough he'd made it on her, and no matter how awful things had gotten at the end, there were parts of him that had been proud of her.

Seeing her here, now-in front of this crowd--Angie knew he'd be proud of her again.

"So now that we're past the fact that I went to school here, and lived in town most of my life, let me tell you what it is I do now." Kerry paused and considered, aware of all the eyes on her. "The company I work for is ILS. We're the largest IT services company in the world."

Angie blinked a little. She hadn't known that, though she knew Kerry's company was large and she'd spent a few minutes reading about it on ILS's website when she'd hunted down their public filings. Seeing Kerry's name in them had seemed very weird, almost like she was reading about a stranger.

With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the stage.

"I'm glad I've gotten a chance to use the education I started here, and continued in college in the work I do now. " Kerry was saying. "As Operations Vice President, I've had the opportunity to take what I learned and apply it in an industry that engages me mentally, and provides me with an exciting work environment that I'm happy to go back to every day."

Kerry paused, evaluating the crowd. "So now that I got that far, any questions?" she prompted, seeing the startled reaction from her old instructors. The crowd didn't respond at first, and she felt a wry grin trying to appear. "C'mon," she said. "I can think of one question I know someone out there wants to ask."

Angie stifled a laugh, covering her mouth with one hand as she heard the audience react, and a low hoot, definitively male, she knew was their brother.

Kerry heard it too. She managed to suppress a grin, then she turned as she saw first one, then a few hesitant hands go up. Questions were a risk. She figured she'd probably get at least one that would make her wish she hadn't done it, but Dar had been right. The crowd knew more about her than she did about them, and she wasn't in the mood to preach the IT line tonight. "All right, go on."

One of the current students, a dark haired girl stood up. "What made you pick high tech?"

Delightful surprise. "Why did I pick high tech?" Kerry repeated the question into the microphone. "Well." She thought about it. "It was a lot sexier than law and it was like being on the frontier of something really new."

Another hand went up. "How much money is there in that?"

Even more delightful. Kerry smiled. "In my job specifically or in the tech industry?" she replied. "As I was telling my mother the other night, my compensation is public knowledge." She felt the slightly startled reaction. "Our executive salary structure is equal or better than the industry average." Her eyes twinkled a little. "But in terms of high technology, our lowest entry level is at least twice what the minimum wage is."

"Not really something you find listed in exciting careers though," the girl suggested.

Kerry shrugged one shoulder. "Depends on how you look at it. We usually call the line teams button down blue collar staff because they do things like set up machines and run cabling, but they also qualify for mortgages and drive nice cars."

Another figure lifted a hand, this time older, one of her classmates. Kerry recognized her and almost ignored the motion. Fairness overcame her though, and she turned and acknowledged it.

"Do you ever get tired of people making comments about you sleeping your way to the top?" the woman asked, making heads turn toward her in surprise.

Ah, yes. Kerry resisted the urge to throw the microphone at her. "C'mon, Stacey. Do you really think people say that to my face?" she asked, above the sudden murmur in the room. "Let me tell you something about what I do, and who I do it for. You can get a job like mine by sleeping with the boss, but you can't keep it that way in a competitive business like ours. "

One of the event organizers was heading purposefully down the aisle toward her old classmate. Kerry caught her eye and lifted a hand, waving her off. "Please, I've had tougher questions over croissants in Vermont."

The woman slowed, and hesitated, as the crowd looked around, and then back at Kerry with gathering interest. "We expect people to be respectful." She glared at the woman who had asked the question. "Or else we'll ask them to leave."

Kerry's heckler took a breath to answer, then the older woman's eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips and Stacey subsided. "Sorry about that. I was just asking a question," she apologized. "It's not like it's a deep dark secret," she paused, "these days."

Kerry's right brow lifted a little. She wondered what that was supposed to mean, then she saw her old teacher's face tighten in anger and realized the jibe possibly wasn't pointed at her.

Ah huh. She heard the crowd buzz, some of the current students snickering a little and it occurred to her that there might be some drama in the room that had nothing at all to do with her presence. Something Dar once said popped into her mind and she scanned the crowd thoughtfully.

Hm.

"It's always nice to see how our students mature," the organizer said. "Or not, as the case may be." She gave the room a severe look, before she returned to a small group of the older teachers and resumed her seat.

The murmurs died down. "You have to walk the walk," Kerry added, as her old adversary finally sat down and the attention swung back to her. "Besides, if it wasn't people saying that, they'd be saying my father got me the job. What's the difference?" she added, looking right at Stacey. "In the end, it doesn't matter how you get there, what matters is if you succeed," she said. "And I have."

Stacey looked away casually, ignoring her.

Another current student raised their hand. Kerry nodded at her. "Go on."

The blond girl stood. "Do you face a lot of bias when you deal with men in your same position?'

Kerry felt pretty good about this class, a lot better than she had about her own. "Sometimes," she answered candidly. "When I go out to consolidate a new account, I have to deal with that sometimes because that's usually an adversarial circumstance anyway and some people, both men and women, think they can take advantage of me."

She strolled around back to the podium. "If you decide to pursue a career though, you're going to face that pretty much anywhere. It's something you learn to deal with, and if you're smart you use it to your advantage."

"How?" the girl asked. "If people treat you without respect, how do you use that?"

Kerry leaned on the podium. "Let me tell you a little story," she said. "Maybe that will answer your question, because I wondered about that too, when I first started out."

"PENNY FOR YOUR thoughts, Dar?"

Dar looked up from her plate of beef. "Kerry's worth more than that," she answered Alastair candidly. "She's at her high school reunion tonight giving a speech."

Alastair's face squiggled between surprise and consternation. "Ah. Oh," he murmured. "Well, I'm sure she's having a good time."

Dar looked at him.

"Or maybe not," he said. "Did she have a tough time in school? I wasn't that fond of mine, now that I think of it."

"Christian all girls school," Dar said. "Actually, she's never spoken badly of it, but she's not that comfortable going back to her hometown after the last couple of times there, and she got roped into this speech at the last minute."

"Ahh." Alastair picked up his glass of red wine and swirled it a bit before he took a sip. "Yeah, she's had a tough time up there from what you said. Surprised you didn't go with her."

Dar paused in mid bite. She swallowed the bit of potato and cocked her head at him. "And miss this meeting?" she asked, in a quizzical tone. "I offered. Kerry told me to stop talking crazy."

Alastair smiled. "You know, I never figured you for a family woman, Dar, but you make a damn fine one," he said, putting his glass down and checking his watch. "Well, damn it all. Does this guy think people don't need to sleep? It's 2:00 a.m.!"

"Uh huh." Dar ate another bit of potato. "On the other hand, I'll be sick to my stomach if I fall asleep after I eat this so maybe staying up is better." She glanced across the table, where Sir Melthon was in consultation with his minions. "By the way, thanks for kicking him in the ass for me."

Her boss smiled as he neatly cut his steak into squares. "Figured I owed it to you," he said, in a conversational tone. "But you know, even if I didn't, I would have done it. Man was giving me an itch."

Dar frowned, her dark brows contracting across her forehead. "You owed me what?" she asked, puzzled. "Did I miss something?" She looked around, but the rest of the group was busy with their own dinners or talking amongst themselves--even Hans was leaning over talking to Sir Melthon in a low mutter.

"Ah well." Alastair chuckled softly. "Remember when that crazy feller Ankow was in our shorts?"

Dar snorted, and rolled her eyes. "Jackass."

"Mm," Alastair agreed. "But you know, I felt like I was the jackass in all that, Dar," he said. "I look back and I know I sat back and let you take heat you didn't deserve."

Dar blinked. "Well--"

Her boss looked over at her. "He was after me. And the only thing standing in his way was you."

Dar blinked again, caught utterly by surprise, and unsure of how to react.

"You could have given him what he wanted, Dar, and done well by it," Alastair said, his eyes watching her curiously. "Any particular reason you walked into a bear trap on my behalf?"

Was there? Dar felt a little bewildered by the question. "Alastair, it never occurred to me to do anything else," she muttered. "Besides, you asked me to help."

"I did. So you know, when I look back at that, and how you were treated at that meeting, I kick myself every single time."

Well. Dar ate a few pieces of her steak, and recalled that tense, angry few days when she'd been torn between the stress of the board's being prodded to fire her and her anxiety about Kerry, testifying at her father's hearing.

She paused, putting her fork down and taking a swallow of the wine that had been untouched in her glass. "You know, I almost walked away from it all in that meeting." She tasted the unfamiliar tang of the tannins on her tongue. "There was one minute there, when I almost said to hell with it."

"Glad you didn't," Alastair remarked.

"Me too." Dar smiled, and raised her glass toward him. "Alastair, you don't owe me anything. I just did what comes naturally to me."

Alastair lifted his glass and touched it to Dar's. "Exactly," he said. "I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it's been the last year or so getting to actually know you."

Unsure if that was a compliment or not, Dar decided to smile anyway. "Likewise." She covered her bases. "I just wish I'd seen my father kick his ass. I was incredibly pissed off that I missed that."

"Security cameras caught it," her boss said. "I'll send you copy." He winked at her, and went back to his steak.

Dar took another swallow of wine, deciding that her life was enduring an evening of new experiences. She only hoped Kerry's would turn out as pleasantly interesting.

"YOU KNOW, THE truth is that people don't get respect." Kerry moved around in front of the podium, taking her microphone with her as she closed in on the audience again. "Especially, if you grow up in the spotlight like I did. Everyone assumes the worst of you because in a quirky kind of way, that makes people feel better about themselves if they do, doesn't it?"

She scanned the crowd, finding a lot of very curious eyes mixed with those very full of disapproval. "So I knew that even before I started working for ILS," Kerry paused, and made eye contact with a few people, "I knew that before I left here."

Kerry walked over to one side of the stage. "I knew that, even though I was a good, smart student, and even though I went to college and got a degree, that no matter what I achieved, everyone would assume someone handed it to me on a plate."

The room had settled into silence.

"So I eventually decided that I couldn't worry about what other people thought. What mattered is what I thought about myself, and that's why I decided to leave here, leave my home and my family to try and achieve what would be success in my own eyes."

A hand lifted. Kerry pointed at the girl. "Go ahead."

"Couldn't you have done that here? Wouldn't it have been more impressive, if you had?"

Good question. "I might have been able to," Kerry conceded. "It would have been harder, staying here and being so close to everything that I felt was boxing me in. But the fact is I didn't."

She paused, and then continued. "What I did was take a job in the field of my major, in a city far away from home. It was scary," she said. "But the people who hired me had no idea who I was, only that I could speak English and construct compound sentences, so it was like starting from scratch in a way."

Another hand. "What job was it?"

"Manager of an IT department," Kerry said. "It was a small company, and I actually did well there until one day a much bigger company bought us."

She nibbled her lower lip. "When that happened, the person in charge of their IT department came in and told me that we weren't wanted or needed, and we'd be getting pink slips in very short order."

The audience reacted, murmuring a little.

"In a way, that was pretty horrific," Kerry said. "But in a way, it's just reality. That's what it's like out there." She made eye contact again with a few of the watchers. "That does happen, every day. It's business. And one thing it meant to me was that I was being treated just like any other unwanted worker would have been. There was nothing personal about it."

It was hard not to smile as she said it, seeing she knew just how much of a lie they were both telling themselves at the time. "When you grow up in privilege like I did, like a lot of you did--" She paused meaningfully. "You don't expect that. You expect someone to come in and fix things don't you?'

She could tell at least some of them were thinking about it. It had taken her a long time to be able to. "So for me, it was a learning experience because I hadn't faced that kind of situation before."

"What did you do?" the same girl asked. "Go to another company?"

"Well." Kerry smothered a grin. "Not exactly. I worked hard to make the transition less painful for the people working for me. I wasn't worried about myself, but there were people there who really were depending week to week on that job to survive."

"Wait, wait." Her old friend stood up again, glancing behind her at the headmistress, before she continued. "You can't have it both ways, Kerry. Either you were on your own there, or you were just posing, in which case you're right, you had nothing to worry about."

Kerry smiled. "I was on my own," she clarified. "But I knew I was unattached, and I could get a job again fairly easily. Most of the people working for me had families and mortgages they had to worry about, which I didn't," she said. "But it was a very tough time for me, because the last thing I wanted was to have to come home, having failed."

Several of the girls in the front nodded.

"So then I had my second big learning experience," Kerry went on. "That same person in charge from the bigger company came to see me, and, not knowing me from Adam's housecat, told me 'Hey. You've got talent. We'll keep you'."

The crowd laughed, a bit hesitantly.

"Honestly," Kerry said. "It was the first time in my life that I'd been taken at face value and been told I was competent--by a virtual stranger," she added. "So the lesson there was you never know where your inspiration in life is going to come from. It could come at you from unexpected places."

"So you stayed," the blond girl in the front called out.

"The bigger company was ILS. So yes, I did." Kerry smiled. "And as you can see, it worked out very much in my favor, which is another lesson--sometimes bad things can lead to good results."

"Would you do the same thing again?"

Kerry's smile broadened. "In a heartbeat," she said. "Do yourselves a favor--whatever you do, wherever you choose to do it, follow your heart. Do what feels right to you and you'll end up being grateful for it."

She stepped back to the podium, and put the microphone back in its holder. "Now I think it's time to get this party started," she said. "Thanks for inviting me to speak, but this is about old friends getting together, and rediscovering what they left here, so let's let everyone get at it."

There was a brief pause, and then applause sounded. Kerry lifted a hand in acknowledgement, then turned and headed back to where Angie was waiting, resisting the urge to wipe her palms on her skirt.

"Wow," Angie greeted her. "That was impressive."

"Gag." Kerry made a face. "I wish I could have just kicked Stacey in the teeth. Now that would have been impressive in these heels." Privately though, she felt good about her presentation. It hadn't been her best, but it hadn't been her worst, and at least no one had tossed a balled up program at her.

"C'mon." Her sister gave her a hug. "Stop dissing yourself Ker. You were great."

"I'm just glad it's over. Let's get out of here." Her sister exhaled, rocking her head to either side to loosen up tense shoulders. "Boy am I looking forward to that beer."

Angie chuckled and turned to lead Kerry out from behind the stage. They'd only gotten three or four steps though, before a tall figure intercepted them. "Ah, Ms. Strickfield."

"Girls," the older woman said. "A word with you please."

Angie pulled up uncertaintly. Kerry, however, didn't hesitate.

"Sorry, Ms. Strickfield," Kerry said. "My brother and sister and I have a previous engagement. Thanks for your hospitality, but we need to be going."

The older woman seemed surprised. "You won't be staying for the reception then?" she asked. "I thought perhaps you would enjoy meeting with your classmates. I think your speech was very well received."

"No," Kerry said firmly. "I appreciate that, and I'm sure the reception will be just lovely, but unfortunately I have prior family commitments."

"Of course." The woman recovered. "I'm sure you want to spend time with your loved ones while you are here. Forgive me, and thank you for coming, Ms. Stuart. It really was a pleasure to listen to you speak."

Kerry blinked, caught a little off guard. "Thanks," she said. "Bit of a tough crowd, but I did my best."

Ms. Strickfield smiled at her. "Ms. Stuart, I had no fear of that. Your grace under pressure is very well recorded in recent years. At any rate, since we won't have the pleasure of your company at the reception, have a good evening, and enjoy your time with your family." She gave Angie a brief nod, and slipped out a side door to the auditorium.

"Wow," Angie murmured. "Who'd have guessed?"

Kerry scratched her nose. "Dar, actually," she muttered. "But that's another long story best told over lager. Let's get Mike before he starts kissing someone, and get out of here." She resumed her course for the door, straightening her jacket again before she put her hand on the knob to turn it.

"Why do I get a feeling I'm going to get more of an education tonight than I bargained for?" Angie followed her with a wry grin. "You know, Ker, life around you must never be boring."

"Hah."