Prologue:
(Mother S. Sayer always has things on her mind. Whether it is the issues her associates are struggling to address in the workplace, or the issues her people must address in their private lives. Mother Sayer never wishes she had less trouble; she wishes for more time to adequately determine who needs her help more. Mother Sayer wishes she could keep at bay anything that would drive her people asunder because she has created her business, ‘The ARC, INC’, not to be a place where people come to do some work and collect a paycheck.
Mother Sayer created her business to move humanity away from the pernicious tendencies present in us all. Mother knows that one pronouncement labeling homosexuality destructive to society, leads the less thoughtful among us to lash out foolishly against people who don’t behave like them.
Mother knows with means (money and influence) comes responsibility and she emphatically embraces her duty. Let’s enjoy a moment of her life when she had to make a choice over what was right and wrong.)
Mother Sayer: (The events of the day and past week have highlighted the fragility of humankind. Many tornadoes in the Midwest and a plane crash have claimed the lives of many people. Families are hurting now and the losses to these units of strength will be hard to restore.)
Mother Sayer: (She calls to the Chief of her staff, Ntare Bolder). Ntare, are the preparations ready for Wednesday’s gathering?
Ntare Bolder: Mother, the assortment of beverages is set, but the vendor has not set a date to deliver them as of our conversation. The menu and the seating arrangements are per your instructions, and the children’s dining area will be adequately staffed with chaperones.
Mother Sayer: Lock down that beverage delivery no later than 1500 on Monday. Everything else is fine as you always perform your duties in excellence Mr. Bolder.
(The phone rings and a beautiful teenager on her staff, Eloisa, directs the caller to hold as she tells Mother it is Justus waiting on the line.)
Mother Sayer: Justus, what a pleasure it is to hear from you on this fine Saturday afternoon.
Justus I. Order: It is good to hear your voice as well Mother. I am sorry to be short, but you wanted an immediate update concerning the project.
Mother Sayer: Is it feasible?
Justus I. Order: Yes Mother, it is surprisingly adaptable in scale to every plane flying the skies now.
Mother Sayer: (Mother smiles with giddiness that people falsely believes children are its’ sole possessors). Good when can we begin to field test a prototype? Oh, let me back up Justus. Did the computer models deploy upon the plane crashing?
Justus: It is okay Mother. I am giddy too. If we can’t prevent a plane from falling out of the sky, then we can certainly locate it quickly with this new technology.
Mother Sayer: Make sure our engineers understand that the chemical must be lighter than water if the plane crashes at sea.
Justus: Yes Mother. The sensors on the device are designed to detect a difference in pressure as it sinks. We’ve set it to deploy at 100 feet below the surface of the water.
Mother Sayer: The color?
Justus: We are still perfecting the color, as seawater tends to distort light along the ultraviolet spectrum. We will lock it down and match the volatile nature of the conditions to each situation over land or water.
Mother Sayer: Good good. Now what about a secondary system to enhance the effective nature of the primary device?
Justus: We’ve developed a beacon that activates upon crash with a GPS locator that in the event of water crash it floats in a sonar buoy type platform. The device upon deployment records its’ first position, and as it floats it records it’s trail so there is no doubt where it came from.
Mother Sayer: Like Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs to find their way back home.
Justus: Precisely Mother!
Mother Sayer: Are you grabbing the magnitude of this project to the aviation industry? We could provide immediate location for rescue operations to begin for fallen aircraft!
Justus: Yes Mother. It will bring swift attention and resources to an exact location instead of search and rescue assets being diluted across vast areas along an aircrafts’ last known path.
Mother Sayer: I have kept you long enough. Please proceed with the upmost expediency.
Justus: Thank you Mother. I will keep you updated.
(Mother Sayer takes a moment to relish the accomplishment. She presses the intercom and speaks into it.)
Mother Sayer: Ntare, please have the car brought around to the front.
(The car is waiting out front as Mother grabs her electronic devices. She will alert her daughter when she is on her way to office.)
Mother Sayer: Doyenne, are you close to completion?
Daughter Doyenne: Yes Mother, a few more calculations and the press release will be available and at your disposal to be released according to your timetable.
Mother Sayer: Good. I will be there shortly.
(Mother’s thoughts again fall back to a time when her daughter was obsessed with the approval of people that didn’t mean her any good. Mother remembers her approach to Doyenne as she was confounded and off course was to let her navigate her way back to the right path on her own.
Mother knew that Doyenne had to learn these lessons herself. Valuable insight comes from being in the situation and figuring things out in solitude. Mother knew she couldn’t come to the rescue because it would teach her daughter that her Mother would be there to solve all her problems.
Mother thinks back now and sees presently that her daughter came through those trials with a few scars. ‘Scars are good if the wearer knows how they got there’. Mother knows that people who ignore their trials will still have the scars, but they will never understand why they wear them.)
Mother Sayer: (mumbles under her voice). How did I come out on top? My tour in Afghanistan in 2007 was not without pitfalls or outright traps.
(Being a nurse in a warzone was not an easy tour of duty. Being a female assigned to convoy duty that last week of duty was the worse of my life.
The images of blood and carnage are still fresh as if it was happening right now. American soldiers along with Afghans were laying everywhere in the road. Mother knew the security situation was tense if not downright a free for all. Work quickly she thought in her head as the Americans and Afghans readied their soldiers for a hasty withdrawal.
Mother knew that care was not going to be ‘do no harm’ in that moment. The point was to get everybody inside his or her armored vehicles and get back to the FOB.
The FOB she thought. How did I come to yearn for a place so bad in the midst of all this death and sorrow?
Mother immediately corralled those thoughts and focused on the situation. She yelled orders to her team as her internal clock was ticking like crazy signaling danger is coming.
Mother was almost in her armored vehicle when a round pierced the tricep muscle of her right arm. She did everything in the world to muffle the pain, but her verbal skills failed as she let out a silent scream of shit while she slammed the door of her vehicle.
Mother yelled to the driver, go! It wasn’t bad the wound she thought. She was fortunate.)
Mother Sayer: Doyenne, meet me downstairs so we can discuss the press release as we head toward the office.
Daughter Doyenne: Yes Mother.
(Mother Sayer arrives and the greetings with her daughter are brisk but purposeful.)
Mother Sayer: Let me see the press release.
Daughter Doyenne: (Hands her Mother the paper and waits silently as she reads it.) Is it to your satisfaction Mother?
Mother Sayer: Yes, Daughter with a few more action words it will be. Let’s finish upstairs.
(As Mother Sayer talks with her daughter and some of her associates, she knows that her company is poised for a major breakthrough in an industry dominated by white men who don’t value diversity as much as they profess they do.
That’s a story to be told at a time when it matters to my associates she thinks.)
Mother Sayer: Doyenne, I appreciate everything you do here. Do you know that?
Daughter Doyenne: Yes, Mother I do.
Mother Sayer: Good. Go and enjoy the rest of your weekend and I will see you Monday.
Daughter Doyenne: I’m going to go to dinner with a couple of the ladies on my staff.
Mother Sayer: Very good. Don’t stay out too late.
Epilogue:
(The day ended with promise as many projects were successfully rounded off to their enclosure. Mother is careful not to display many emotions in front of her children, staff or her associates. She prefers to allow her emotions space to roam like air filling up a room. ‘No one cares it’s there, but they all need it to stay alive.’
Mother thinks this new invention will bring that emotion back to the families who mourn the unfortunate lives claimed when tragedy strikes with little or no warning.)