Night Watch, Part 11

While the coffee dripped and gurgled in the coffee maker, David tried to finish the Post article he had started at the beginning of the evening, the one about Alan Greenspan's eight-million-dollar book deal. It occurred to David that being paid that much money to write a book would be a heck of a lot better than grinding away at a technology startup. It wasn't how he thought it would be. He was a programmer by background, and was happiest when buried in a thicket of computer code, composing elegant solutions to interesting problems.

David had lived the programmer's dream life for a while: he had been a well-paid senior software engineer for a government contractor. Although the work was boring, he had decent hours, good benefits, stock options, free coffee, a state-of-the-art lab in which to work, and it was all a ten-minute drive from his house. Yet, he had been unhappy. David knew that the owners of the company were making big money. The business model was simple: they put hundreds of programmers to work on federal government contracts, mostly military, and earn a few dollars of profit on each hour of work billed to the customer. It added up. Fast. It was known as a body shop, and David was one of the warm bodies that generated billable hours. He had found it unsatisfying; he wanted to be one of the owners earning the profits.

When David first discussed the idea of starting a company with Angela she was very cautious, too cautious, David thought. She didn't see any of the upside, she only saw the downside. And she accused David of only seeing rosy outcomes. He claimed he was being realistic.

"David, how are you going to recruit employees?" Angela had asked during one of their numerous conversations over a six month period. "I keep reading about how companies around here are scrambling for people."

"I know programmers," he had said. "They like small companies. It's more casual, more flexible."

"They like getting paid, too. And big companies can pay more."

"But there's more hassle. Look at my company. They yank people off projects all the time and put them on other projects that are behind schedule. Then the late project becomes even later because you have all these new people who don't know what's going on. It's a nightmare."

"But there's a little matter of security," Angela had replied. "Even if the customer doesn't pay up, the company still pays the employee, right?"

David had squirmed; he had heard the same logic from his boss. There was a particularly bad period of time when David was frustrated at work and thinking of quitting. He was ready to strike out on his own. On a whim, he mentioned it to his boss late one Friday afternoon when things were slow.

The boss, a retired military man in his fifties, had said, "David, think of your wife. What does she want? I'll tell you what she wants, and that's a steady paycheck. Am I right?" There was no fighting an argument like that. They used it on married, male employees all the time. David felt trapped.

But now, as David turned the pages of the business section of the Post and scanned the headlines, he thought about how he had finally made the leap, with Angela reluctantly agreeing to a "trial period." Her mother had talked her into it by explaining that Angela's father was never happy as a plumber until he had his own business, and then he loved it and became a big plumbing contractor. One day David heard Natalie say to Angela, "Some men have this independence hang up. It's kind of like an insecurity. Just give him a steak and it might go away. If it doesn't, then let him do it."

It was okay at first: David won a small task for three people from a large contractor. He decided he would do some of the work himself and hire two people to do the rest. He found them by networking with his professional contacts. But then he and Angela argued about money, mostly about costs: Angela was frugal by nature, David immediately bought new computer equipment for the office. And since David was doing programming, he didn't spend enough time finding new clients. When their initial task ended they had nothing to do. Angela tried to explain that David couldn't do technical work if he was going to own a business.

Their first child, Tony, was two at the time. He was a speeding bullet and had to be watched constantly, which wore Angela out. Meanwhile, they were trying to get pregnant again. They both wanted a girl, and Angela had read of a particular technique for increasing the chances of having a girl. She took her temperature every morning for months in order to identify the telltale pattern of body temperature fluctuation that indicated ovulation. When ovulation was about to occur, she explained, they had to have sex approximately twenty-four hours ahead of time and they had to employ a specific position that placed the sperm in the most advantageous location relative to the eggs. The timing was critical, she said, because sperm cells bearing X chromosomes, that is, female-producing sperm, lived longer than cells bearing Y chromosomes. On the other hand, the Y-chromosome-bearing sperm swam harder and faster. Therefore, Angela said, you want them to die out before ovulation occurred. The end result of this method was that, for several months, David and Angela had to drop what they were doing at odd hours of the day or night in order to make an attempt at pregnancy.

Eventually, Angela won a key concession regarding the business: David would seek web hosting clients in addition to government work. Angela reasoned that small companies signing up for a monthly service would generate at least some stable income while David searched for more profitable, but sporadic, government contracts. David became a reseller. He leased web server space from a big data center and sold web site packages. Jade was his first client. She had come into his office at seven o'clock in the morning wearing an evening gown and said she wanted to set up a web site for "lonely souls to find each other."

David was jolted out of his thoughts by a knock at the front door. He looked at his watch. It was almost two-thirty. As David approached the door, Olivia poked her head out of the bedroom. "Angela thought she heard a knock."

"She did. I'll get it."

"Is it Bud and Natalie?"

"I don't know who it is."

It was Graphite, and towering behind him in the porch light was Jade. Her dark face was thrown completely in shadow by the harsh light. Bugs that had been resting on the screen door now buzzed around them.

Graphite looked embarrassed. His orange hair turned a new tint in the yellowish light. "Hey, boss, I'm sorry to intrude like this, but Jade here needs to talk to you."

Then David saw a smile break across Jade's face and her perfect teeth glowed against the inky darkness of her face. "Hello, David. I heard your wife's having a baby tonight. Congratulations." At that moment David realized one of the drawbacks of having your office only three blocks from your house: it was too easy for employees to drop in.

Olivia came up behind him. "Who is it?"

"Tell Angela it's Graphite and Jade. They've come to visit."

Olivia looked confused as she returned to pass the information to Angela. David dreaded Angela's reaction at having work-related visitors at two-thirty in the morning while in labor. On the other hand, there they were, standing on the porch swatting bugs. He opened the door and invited them in, and spoke in a low voice. "We can talk in the back room for a few minutes. I'm sorry but this is really a bad time."

David could see they were relieved to enter the cool living room. Jade wore a halter top with beads and fringes. She had done some of her hair in cornrows. He didn't offer them anything to drink; his goal was to get them out before Angela threw a fit.

"How is your wife?" said Jade.

"She's been in labor all night. I'm afraid I won't be able to talk long..."

Then he heard a commotion behind him. "Hello, Graphite." It was Angela. She looked fresh and awake. "And you must be Jade. I've been wanting to meet you." David listened for a note of impatience in Angela's voice but heard none.

They shook hands. "Excuse my condition," said Angela.

Jade took one look at Angela's belly and then covered her mouth with her hands. "You're so beautiful. I can just imagine an adorable baby in there." Then she wiped tears from her eyes. "I had my baby in Haiti when I was seventeen and my grandmother raised him." She blew her nose into a tissue.

Olivia joined them. "Oh, that's terrible. Why did you have to give him up?"

"I got a modeling contract in New York."

David thought, I'm sure that was important.

As if reading his mind, Jade said, "It was my job. I had no husband and I needed money for the baby."

David clammed up.

"This one is taking her sweet time," said Angela. "I haven't had a contraction in half an hour."

"And she's not on medication," said David.

"Of course not. In Haiti I didn't have any drugs. You don't have time for drugs. You have the baby then you go back to work."

David cleared his throat, there were way too many people suddenly involved in Angela's labor. He tried to speak in a pleasant tone. "Jade stopped in for a moment to discuss a problem with her web site."

"David, she's telling us about her baby. Would you like some tea, Jade?"

"That would be wonderful. Thank you. Your home is so beautiful."

"David, could you be a dear and make some tea?"

David didn't move. "Wait a minute. It's two-thirty in the morning and you're in labor, and you want to sit down with company to have tea?"

"I see the problem here," said Jade. "Your husband is too tense. The baby won't come into a tense household."

"That's ridiculous. And I'm not tense."

"Too much coffee," said Olivia. "He's been drinking coffee ever since I got here."

"The contractions will start again when your husband relaxes," said Jade. "Have you tried yoga?"

"I don't need yoga," he said. "Look, Jade, I thought you came to discuss a problem?"

"I would have called, but I dropped my cell phone into a glass of champagne."

"That's a good place for a cell phone," said Angela. "Those things are a nuisance."

Victoria came into the room from the bathroom. "Would anyone like tea?"

"David's going to make it. Victoria, this is Jade. She had a baby in Haiti with no medication. Victoria's my doula."

"You are so intelligent, Angela, to surround yourself with the right people. I had my aunt. She was wise and very loving, and she made the baby come out nice and smooth."

"Did I hear someone mention yoga?" said Victoria. "I have my yoga mat in the car."

"I was going to show David a stress reducing position," said Jade.

"I thought you wanted tea?" said David.

"There's no need to shout, David," said Angela.

"I'm not shouting."

"I'll get the mat," said Victoria.