This is a tricky chapter to write. I am describing four weeks of discussions between Faith and myself over what to do next. I have condensed the dialogue and edited it to address issues in a logical order. Let me say that the time was much more chaotic and frustrating than I am capable of describing. The result was a most unusual family configuration.
We arranged for furniture, books, and some household items to be put into storage. Jennie was not interested in a lot of items in the house. I tried to save anything that I thought was useful. It was exhausting to take trip after trip to various storage locations.
My final goodbye to Jennie was not my finest moment. I told her, “I hope you find happiness. I hope at some point you can come to understand the pain that you have caused me. Right now, it feels like you have destroyed everything in my life. I do not have the people, money, or technology to start my own company. It will take decades to get to where I was before I got your demand letter. When you can tell me that you understand this, we will be brother and sister again. Until then, I wish you well on your journey in life. I hope you can understand that I will not be there to rescue you or be by your side. We may never speak again for the rest of our lives.”
I know that few readers know what the tax situation was in the Portland area in 2033. As a result of the sale of my parents' business, Faith and I had a bank draft for about $800,000. We talked to Scott Secovich, the lawyer retained by my parents for advice. He said, “Set up a joint account and deposit the check. The account will get taxed at the rate of 15% each and every year so that after eight years, virtually none will be left. There are two ways to avoid taxation. One way is to spend the money within a year. The other way is to purchase twenty-year government bonds. The government bonds lock in your money without interest or taxation. The catch is you can only withdraw the money for approved purposes. Approved uses include starting a business, medical expenses, senior care for a close relative, and tuition fees for your children. You can purchase a house by paying a 40% tax on a withdrawal. You cannot withdraw the money for another purpose, even if you want to pay the tax. If you do not withdraw enough money, it is taxed at the 15% rate. You end up with about 4% of your original money if you wait the full twenty years. I do not recommend this.”
The advice was confusing. We asked many questions. We got clarification that any money from whatever sources (the estate, our future salaries, and money we had in our liquid account) was to be taxed at the rate of 15% a year. Tax days were roughly a year apart. The tax days were slightly randomized to avoid manipulation. A day before tax day, we might have $100,000 in our account. The next day it would be $85,000. There were no tax forms, no accountants, just an automatic withdrawal of funds by the government. Since cash, bulk precious metals, or bulk jewelry were contraband; there were few ways to avoid taxation. You could buy real estate, slaves, stocks or bonds, but when you sold, the full amount was subject to a 20% per year tax unless you spent the proceeds on similar assets quickly. So buying some valuables to avoid taxation was not a good idea. You could try to pass money back and forth between individuals. But if you were caught, the entire amount was subject to complete confiscation.
Buying government bonds was a good solution, but only if one could anticipate one's tax-free spending precisely. Since we needed a significant sum for our future business, we were going to buy a lot of government bonds. But we would be screwed if we did not save enough for our immediate needs. How much would we need to set aside for a gap in employment? What were we going to do for childcare?
In case you are wondering, the tax system was designed to collect a lot of money, force people to spend money, and discourage savings, except for a few narrow uses. The obvious consequence is that we needed to work out our housing, child spacing, childcare, education, and business plans as soon as possible. We needed to make a roadmap for the next twenty years while we were both still in shock. I cannot speak for Faith, but I was in no shape to be rational in my decision-making.
There was one detail that had nothing to do with taxes and planning for the future. I showed Scott Secovich the demand letter I got from Jennie and her lawyer, Glenn Sears. Scott said, “This is just too strange. Three weeks before your parents died, some arrogant people tried to purchase your parents' company for a ridiculously low price, perhaps a third of its true value. Your parents refused the offer. The lawyer for those jerks is the same lawyer who drafted this demand letter for Jennie.”
I was stunned. I said, “Are you saying that some criminal group tried to buy my parents' business with an ‘offer that should not be refused’? Were my parents murdered because they said ‘no’? Are you saying that Jennie is in some danger? What is going on here?”
Scott said, “Hold on, I am not making any claim. I am saying to be skeptical and not to trust anyone. I am saying that I have looked at the police report of your parents' car accident. I was able to notice something obvious that showed to me that the police report is not correct. I think you can spot it in seconds. For a variety of reasons, I am not going to speak clearly about the problem I saw in the police report. It is my opinion that the police will not offer any assistance investigating this affair. Be careful with this lawyer Glenn Sears. He is working with the worst kind of persons. I do not think that you or Jennie is in any other danger since this group got what it wanted. Ignore them, and they will ignore you.”
We talked for just a little while longer. I knew there was a limit to what Scott could tell me. In the end, Scott was right. All I could do was to concentrate on our other problems. But I did learn what he was saying about the police report. I could see photos that showed that the rear end of my parents' car was hit by a large truck. It was supposed to be a single vehicle accident. I no longer wondered why my parents' car went off the road and into a tree. That mystery had been solved.
We had to decide whether to start a business now or wait fifteen years. This decision was easy to make. We did not have enough money to develop a technology that filled a need and to deploy a company to execute the opportunity fully. Our best chance was to work for other companies and to keep track of any new areas we could exploit.
Faith and I went round and round on housing and kids. It was an endless circular argument. Did we want kids; if so how many? She said, “There are four different answers to the question about the number of children: none, one, 2-4, and greater than 4. Which do you want?” I said, “I was 2-4 kids. Five is too many, one is too few, and why are we discussing the number of children to have if we do not want any? So that leaves 2-4 as the only possibility.” Faith said, “See how easy that is once the question is framed properly. I agree with you. With five or six kids, we would not be able to make any headway on any professional goals.”
Faith added, “We could save a fortune in childcare costs by buying a slave. We have enough capital to buy a slave and then sell him or her after we do no longer have any need for the additional staffing.” I hit the roof on this. I said, “Are you crazy? Slaves make terrible childcare workers! They usually have a very poor education. Do you want to have your babies spending the day with someone with limited vocabulary and lousy child-rearing skills? Seriously, what are you thinking?” Faith answered, “Well, I figure we could use a slave for about eight years. The usual price for a slave is about eight times the equivalent salary, making the direct costs would be equal. But we could probably resell her for about 75% of the purchase price. I figure we would get eight years of work for the cost of only two years. With so much money to be saved, I am sure we could find a flipping novelist, art professor, and dancer who would be able to teach with an excellent vocabulary and still save a load of money.”
I could not believe what I was hearing. I thought black people hated slavery. I asked her about the historical association between black people and slavery. Hell, at one time, black people were the definition of enslavement. Yes, there were free black people 200 years ago, but they had to watch their place to avoid being kidnapped into slavery as well. I put this issue to Faith. She said, “Typical of white people to keep the black person down by not letting them buy slaves. Why should I have to pay more for labor just because of the color of my skin? Seriously, I understand your concern. I am not interested in exploiting anyone. Be aware that women have been exploited for years under the wage labor system. While the opportunity for exploitation is obviously greater for those who are enslaved, the critical factor is the decency of the employer, not the nature of the employment.”
I argued, “I do not want to help support the slavery system at all. It is easy to say that you will be a good employer. I get that. But a slave is required to wear a steel collar. There are rules and regulations about slaves. They need to be restrained in ugly and cruel ways. Remember, even Terry was chained up in your dorm room. I do not want someone chained up in my house. I also do not like the idea of someone trapped in our house doing childcare with no thought about their social life, their own destiny as a human being.” Faith responded, “We are not in control of our own destiny either. Our hearts' desires were crushed when your parents died and your sister's brain was poisoned. I just wish we could live in a big house with Connie and Terry.”
I answered, “We are talking about childcare, not your college roommates. What are you talking about?” Faith said, “No, wouldn't it be great if we could find a slave couple for sale who shared our desires and aspirations, our mirror images? They would want to be part of our family unit and share our human aspirations. If we had that, you could not complain about thwarting someone's destiny and ambitions. We would all be in this together struggling for the same goals.”
I just yelled, “What the fuck, Faith, are you crazy? We have many problems right now. How do we solve them by purchasing, with our limited supply of money, a couple, who, if free, would have the same problems we have; only they are dirt poor. So they bring negative money to the table, and they want to have kids, so we double the childcare problems, double the education bills, and double the housing and food bills. I call this the no solution but double our problems idea.”
Faith said, “I am going to brush aside the insults. I love your passion. You are missing a key idea. Big houses in good shape are often slightly cheaper than regular sized houses. So we save there. With four adults, we can swap childcare duties so that three adults get to work full-time. Here is the fun part. If we train them to work as computer programmers, we get four jobs instead of two. Remember your point about slaves being imperfect childcare providers? All childcare would be done by an educated parent who lives with the kids, no strangers. We just need two people who we can trust to the ends of the earth, and have them trust us. And we need to train them to be excellent computer programmers.”
I answered, “So you just solved the problem that has plagued women for over one hundred years in one stroke? I am referring to the problem of getting a college education, having a professional career, and having a house and kids. The solution in the 1920s was to have a lot of servants. The solution in the 1970s was to let the kids go to hell and get divorced. The solution in the 2030s is to buy a slave couple and experience childrearing as a foursome? Tell me, do we all sleep together too?”
Faith said, “Look, run the numbers. Set up some budgets side by side comparing living as a single couple and a double couple. I suspect you will find the advantages of a blended family. You are the one who asked me to think about the type of person that I wanted to raise my child. I am going to ask you the same question. Now let's not talk about this for a day while you do some solid thinking.”
I did spend a lot of time working on the numbers. Faith was right. The initial expense for a house for a dozen people was cheaper than a house for a single family. Four adults could manage the maintenance easier than two adults. With a house with more land area, we could grow some food and possibly raise some chickens. Yes, having four incomes is a big plus. The real bonus in Faith's idea was in the quality of childcare. We would be raising our kids. There would be no temporary workers involved. But no matter how attractive this was in my numbers or my imagination, I still was not sold on this idea.
I asked Faith, “How do you plan to have this perfect commune with two classes of people: masters and slaves?” She answered, “How did we plan to have a balanced marriage that united two kinds of people, male and female? How does any small group of humans live together for a common goal? We ignore these artificial labels and live as a unit. The rest of the world can call us what they want. They can call you a half-breed and me a monkey from Africa, but right now we are a married unit that will not be broken by anything humans toss at us. Together, we are the strongest thing God could have ever imagined. Our job is to find a couple that shares our vision and build a unity of four adults and all our children. I have no idea what to call such a grouping, a blended family, a double marriage, but we need to locate two people with the brains, wits, character, and drive to pull this off.”
I said, “How can you purchase some slaves and then say, pretend you are free? That makes no sense. No one is truly free unless they are fully free. This is all a sham, a figment of your imagination. You want something that is free and unfree all at the same time.” Faith answered, “Yes, we do have to set some basic limits. If we grant freedom, we should be prepared for our potential partners walking out the door. That would be their legal right. But you are correct; we need to offer freedom at some point. How about offering freedom on the 21st birthday of the first child born in our foursome? We should have a business launched by then. We offer full freedom to our partners and their children for staying with us that long. We offer full equity in everything we share together if we all stay together for another seven years. But we arrange it so that we do not get torn away from a business a second time. The business needs to stay intact through any dissolution of our partnership agreement.”
I replied, “You are saying that the purchased slaves would be free, as long as we all stay together until a specified time. Once we have been together for enough time, they have upheld their side of the bargain. This is an interesting idea. So as long as they ignore their status now, they potentially end up free and rich.” Faith chimed in quickly, “And their children are free as well. Think about that. We would be offering a route for a slave couple to have kids, who are raised as if they are free, and they become free.”
I said, “OK, I am warming up to this. I see where we are going. We are looking for three things. We need the right demographic, a young married slave couple interested in having kids in a safe environment, natural math/science geeks, who did well in high school and can be totally committed to our own goals and desires. I know that we can look for a young couple. I see how we could check their school record, but how do we check their aspirations?”
Faith was silent for a minute. Then she said, “Well, we need to be very careful about showing our hand. We sit down with a pair of candidates and ask questions about their education, background, and work experience. We ask about their experiences with computers and computer programing. Then we shift gears. I give a brief outline of our relationship, explaining how we met in college and got married, and all that. Then you tell your story about your parents and their business. Describe the horrible events of this spring. While you do that, I will be watching our candidates closely. I will ask, ‘What would you do if you were us?’ If they do not want to answer, I will explain that they need to come up with a choice that is meaningful to them. I will tell them that I am not interested at all if they guess what we are planning to do. I want to hear what they would do if they were in our exact position. Then we listen. I cannot imagine what the right or wrong answers are, but we get to hear from their hearts. That is what we want. I would imagine that once we have a winning candidate, we then open up to what we are planning, and still see if they are onboard. If all signs are positive, we take the steps necessary to add them to our family unit.”
I asked, “Do we buy a big house first or buy slaves first?” Faith said, “Well, if we cannot find the right candidates, we do not need a big house. I say we locate suitable candidates first. Our first joint project will be to pick out the best house for us.”
I started with the three national slave dealers: MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. I asked them for candidates in the Portland area who were in our age range, married, with a strong background in math and science. We requested that both of them have a high school diploma, with a school record showing exceptional talent/ability in math and science. We asked to examine the school records before we even got started. After a week, I received documentation on five candidates from the major companies. There was one set of duplicates since one pair of candidates was cross-listed by two companies. A close reading showed that three candidate pairs were average high school students. So we were left with only one legitimate set of candidates.
To salvage this, I contacted two local slave brokers. Each one identified a legitimate pair of candidates with strong educational backgrounds. I now had a much better appreciation of how local businesses can do a better job than a large company with branches all across the FUSA. We decided to pay an extra fee to hold the interviews at a location of our choosing. We rented a small office suite for three days of interviews. We arranged for a security officer to watch the interviews on a screen in an adjacent room. We were able to ask our questions in a room with just the four of us. We were able to avoid any restraints, so we were all very relaxed. We had plates of food and snacks on the table and made it clear that our guests could eat their fill as we carried on our conversation.
Our first set of candidates was challenging. While having a strong high school transcripts, they did not seem to be able to show us examples of work which they did on their own initiative. We felt that a good candidate would show initiative and be able to express this clearly. When I explained our painful situation, both of them seemed not to get the point. They seemed to say, “If I were in this situation, I would use the cash to make a comfortable life and work when we had to work.” They did not feel the pain that we felt or see that the formation of a business was a good idea.
The second set of candidates was entirely different. They came across as genuine math/science nerds. At the current time, they were working as temporary math teachers at a middle school. Their owner needed cash. She was frustrated at the difficulty she was having with selling them. They both had learned the very basics of computer programming in high school. The amazing thing was that they aced our test about aspirations. They grasped the idea of what we were asking. They knew they needed to respond as if they were experiencing our real-life problems. So they asked many questions about us. By questioning me, they learned that I wanted to work for my parents' company ever since I was in middle school. One of them asked me, “Can you start a new business now?” Faith answered, “That does not seem possible; we lack money, equipment, staffing, and unique technology.” The response from the enslaved man astonished me. He said, “We would dedicate our lives to starting a business. We would put all other issues aside, since only people who owned their own business ever get rich.”
We were all smiles at this answer. We all got along very well. I was worried that Faith would not like them since they were both ethnically Chinese. I figured she would not want to be surrounded by Chinese people all the time. That night she told me that was not a concern at all. We told our candidates that we still had one more couple to interview. Both of them wondered aloud, “What kind of job do you want us to do?” Faith said, “We will cover that in our next meeting. We are done for today. Thank you very much. I can say that you did very well.” We opened the conference door, and the security guard for the slave company put them in chains and marched them out of the office. I had difficulty watching, but I knew it was part of the reality of their lives.
The third set of candidates was a bit frustrating. They had a solid math and science background, but they blew the aspiration question. They just said, “One of us would work full-time, and the other one would work part time while starting a business.” They acted like starting a business was something someone could accomplish in a few hours a week. We tried to steer them away from that point of view, but they were set in that belief. Faith and I went back and forth about whether it was a fair interview or not. Faith argued, “It was a fair interview since we did try to set them straight. Their inability to accept a correction is a very bad sign. Since we were counting on this question, we tried our best to set them on a path to answer it. Their inability to even come close to answering our special question is totally disqualifying.”
Faith and I decided to go ahead with the second set of candidates. We contacted the company and were able to get all the paperwork settled in a week's time. We were amazed at how cheap they were. It was clear that the owner had been frustrated at trying to sell them for a long time. The fact that they were a married couple meant that they could not be separated. That was a point of law. I came to appreciate why so many slave owners were opposed to slave marriage. A marriage changed the value of the newlyweds. No one but us wanted two math/science teachers as a unit. So it cost us only $157,000 to purchase them. On August 23, 2033, Faith and I picked up Ruth and Quincy Lo at the slavery office. They had a few bags of clothing and possessions. To me, it looked like what a middle school student would carry if they were told they were staying with their grandparents for the summer. We just had one car, and we drove to our cramped apartment. Faith and I said we would move into a bigger unit tomorrow. We dumped the possessions and the physical restraints and drove to a modest hotel nearby with a nice restaurant. We told Ruth and Quincy that they could order multiple meals until they were full. Faith and I both brought out cameras. We told them that this was the point when we would start a new blended household.
Bit by bit, we revealed the cards in our hand. We told them of our joint plans. We explained our idea of living with another couple who needed to be “our mirror image.” We laid out the route by which they and their children would be free, and they would gain full equity into the joint project. Ruth wept. Quincy was silent. We explained that our basic rule was that among the four of us, we would all be treated equally. We explained that all the children would be treated equally, that we would function as four parents to a large household. Quincy asked, “But you do not have this big house yet?” I replied, “No, we were waiting until you joined our household. Our first job together as a group is to choose a large house for ourselves and our children.” Ruth said, “This will not work. No real estate agent will take our opinion seriously.” Faith answered, “Then we will get a different real estate agent. We will do this as a group.” Ruth asked, “Do we do everything as a group? Do we all sleep together?” Faith answered, “I like to have a personal relationship with one person at a time. I do not ever want to impose my personal habits on anyone else. But I have discovered that a little bit of exploration with other people can make life more interesting.”
Ruth said, “Let me see if I understand this. We all live and work together. A few times I sleep with your husband. In exchange we have fun together, go on vacations together, and get rich together. And my children are free and will inherit real wealth. Do I have to sign any paperwork to show that I agree?” Faith said, “No, we do not need your signature. We all need to trust each other in very profound ways. Tomorrow, we will find a bigger apartment, and we will also get each of your own phones so you can stay in contact. I think very soon, all of us will need our own cars so that we can all go to our own jobs. Do you know how to drive?” Ruth shook her head. Quincy said, “I had some lessons many years ago. But I do not think I know enough to drive a car.” Faith said, “No matter. We will make sure you both get good lessons and get a car. Your first car will probably be an old junker. I hope you do not mind.” Ruth had never heard of a slave who had their own car and was able to drive anywhere they wanted. It was unreal. Ruth just said, “You do trust us. This is real. This is not a dream.” I said, “We trust you since you are our mirror image. Since we trust each other (I pointed to Faith), we naturally trust you.” We all drank a toast to our future.
I told Ruth and Quincy that we had booked a large room in the hotel with two double beds. We all laughed when we were all taking off our clothes in the same room at the same time. We were full of food and drink. In the middle of the night, I heard Ruth ask “Faith, do you want to switch so you can sleep with my husband?” Faith answered, “That's OK. I am sure he is the nicest person ever. There will be other times to enjoy each other. This is not the night to do this. I very much appreciate the offer. Sleep well.”