“Newstars”
This is a Sample
from the Second Novel by Bob Foster.
The full text of this novel
or a bound paperback version, can be ordered from:
Chapter
1
Patrick awoke
with a start. His four month old God son was sleeping peacefully in his cot by
the side the bed. Patrick held his breath, listening...
After
some brief instructions from the nurse, several successful feeds and supervised
nappy changes, Patrick had begun to recognise the different sounds the baby
made to indicate each of his needs. However this time he'd not been woken by
any of those sounds. Dan was clearly fast asleep.
Nevertheless
Patrick did hear something unexpected. He turned his head towards the
window.
A
housefly was buzzing and banging its helpless little body against the window in
its repeated attempts to be free.. to fly out into the freezing air beyond the
inexplicable, infuriating barrier of the transparent window pane. The fly fell
slowly downwards on the inside of the window as it continued to beat itself up
trying to make progress. On reaching the bottom there was a time of quiet as it
crawled up to the top again, only to renew its futile attempt to escape.
Patrick
turned again to watch and listen to the baby's steady breathing. Then he felt
again the instinctive anger at an uncaring God which had coursed through him
after the doctors had first broken the news of his Godson's incurable deafness.
"There's
a complete absence of any inner ear development at all Mr Mahoney" the
doctor had reported. "... It's a very rare condition, and I'm afraid
there's no reliable treatment available to us. He is going to have to learn how
to live with permanent deafness"
Patrick
tried to relax. He knew that he should have been sleeping last night to get
himself ready for today's union negotiations, but of course Dan's needs came
first and anyway his anger and frustration with the world, gave him easy
empathy with the house fly. He had no chance of any sleep!
Two
hours later he rose unrested. He gave a full report
to the nurse who fluttered with excuses before even looking at him.
"I came as early as I could, but the
traffic was awful... Goodnes, Mr Mahoney, you look
really drained. Are you sure you can't take a few days off work.. Given the
exceptional circumstances?"
He shook
his head, pulled a regretful face to hide the anger she was unlikely to
understand, and pushed himself out into the street to get himself to work.
*****
Julian
held his head in his hands.
"How
can they be so stupid?"
He
surveyed the stony faces of the union
representatives glaring back at him across the negotiating table... a mass of non-communication.
How could
he hope to reach any kind of agreement with their leader Patrick Mahoney if
they didn't even speak?
That
morning he'd been sure his proposals would save the day. Every detail of the
union demands had been addressed and he'd received nothing but positive
feedback from private conversations with representatives from both sides. All
Patrick had to do was to either agree or make suggestions for improving the
plans and they could all get back to normal!
Why then
was he being so negative?
The only
non positive feedback had been from his wife Barbara. She'd married &
divorced Patrick before marrying Julian so she had a unique perspective. That
very morning she'd warned him to minimise the insecurity Patrick was bound to
feel from Julian's radical proposals for change.
"Make
sure Patrick is the centre of attention darling. He's always had a serious
'separation anxiety' buried in his subconscious. When I first met him he was
very dependant on his mother. Then when
we divorced he had the same problem. He doesn't cope with big changes in his
personal circumstances."
She
paused, then continued more gently:
"Anything
you suggest that he sees as forcing a change.. A 'separation' from a pattern of
life he's become accustomed to, is going to be met with his usual 'stony
stare'."
Julian
was looking at exactly that stoney stare as he
recalled her words and realised he should have listened more closely.
Finally Patrick
spoke
"We
will have to consult our members, of course, but it would seem that once again management have
not listened to us here today. Therefore I suspect this proposal will be treated in our ballot with the
contempt it deserves."
Another
dramatic pause:
"We're
prepared to offer one more chance to
bring to the negotiations a proposal which will enable us to settle this
dispute amicably. We'll hear your
revised proposal tomorrow morning at
9am".
Julian
opened his mouth, but there was nothing left to say. Every possible area of
manoeuvre had been included in the proposal and now it was rejected. Julian was
beaten.
*****
As soon
as he'd managed to escape the suffocating atmosphere of the negotiating room
and his fellow workers, Patrick made straight for his flat. He knew he must
relieve the hospital appointed babysitter who'd agreed to stay until Patrick
had made alternative arrangements .. and if he was honest, that was the only
topic that had received his full attention through the whole day of
negotiations. He'd hardly heard a word of the proposal from the management,
although he had noticed the lead negotiator becoming increasingly unreasonable
as the day had worn on.
"It'll
do them good to stew for a bit longer" he thought to himself.
When
Patrick arrived home the baby was fast asleep. He was reminded that the baby
still needed regular feeds and that he'd probably get very little sleep until
Dan settled into the new routine.
"Would
you mind helping for a few more days?"
Patrick's appeal was very hard for the nurse
to resist "I'll ask my employer for help of course, but it's going to
take a few days.. We're in the middle of a union dispute at the moment,
and..."
"Yes
of course" was the warm reply. "I understand how
difficult a new responsibility like this can be. I'll get in touch with social
services in the morning and explain the situation. They'll sort somethng out until you've been able to make your own more
permanent arrangements"
As she
left, Patrick felt once again the heavy responsibility of holding the baby.
With no family or neighbours to call upon, his first thought for finding help
was to try an internet search. However, as so often happens, the focus of his
search changed and he found himself looking at the website of a completely
different kind of organisation to the babysitting services he'd originally
intended to contact.
He
emailed 'Sebastian Newman', the main contact for listeners.com (a website
serving families with deaf children).
Sebastian
explained that he ran listeners.com in his spare time. His day job was a
researcher for MS inc. a technology company specialising in advanced hearing
aids.
He said
he'd read Patrick's description of Dan's 'special educational needs and
immediately asked if they could meet up. He suggested Patrick could learn more
about Seb's company and would then be better placed
to make a decision about how Dan might best be cared for..
*****
As
Julian left after the inexplicably unsuccessful negotiations with Patrick he
spoke to no one for fear of needlessly offending or upsetting them.
The next words
to pass his lips were spoken to his wife as she kissed
him 'hello' at the station.
"Did
you have a nice day at the office dear? How was Patrick?"
"No
I had a terrible day... and Patrick was the main cause. He just doesn't seem to listen to
reason!" the
exasperation spread right across Julian's face as he spoke.
Barbera wore a wry smile.
"I can just imagine him saying exactly the same
thing about you dear"
Barbara
was a celebrated psychologist. Her
research work for her employer at that time included development of some
'negotiation facilitation' tools
and so she'd
seen many other negotiators at work. Her husband's emotional
display showed he
was close to
breaking point and
as his description of the
day's events went on, her concern for
him deepened. She was sure there
was a simple resolution available and she was
equally sure she would be able to
spot it if only she
was permitted to join them in the negotiating room. However her
past relationship with Patrick before her marriage
to Julian seemed to stand in the way of this. She
realised Julian was unlikely to be impressed by any 'simple solutions' she
might put forward at this point. At that moment his bruised ego would probably
interpret them as accusations of stupidity. Nevertheless, she decided to try
one more time.
"Have
you thought any more about trying our company's
Diplomat?"
He
replied absent-mindedly..
"I've
all but given up on these negotiations darling, but if you really think he can
help us then by all means give me his
phone number. I'll try to call him in the morning and see if we can arrange a
meeting..."
"No
silly, it's one of our computer systems. I told you about it last week
when you first realised you
were going to
have to negotiate with
Patrick. I suppose you were
too engrossed in formulating your proposal to listen to me
but I felt it then and I feel it again now, I
think our new system could be really useful to you.
The lab
have introduced a few
interesting new features as
well. I'd love to see how they work in a
real life negotiation."
In the past when Barbara had suggested Julian
try one of what he
called her 'toys' at one of his 'very serious meetings', he had always rejected her suggestions out of
hand.
This
time he reacted differently. This showed Barbara just how
desperate he really was.
"You never give up do you?" he smiled
"That's what I love about you."
He
paused to think, but only for a short while. "Yes OK we'll try your precious system
tomorrow. Everything else has failed.
What can we lose?"
"Brilliant!"
Barbara was excited now. This was exactly what
the research project needed,
some real life applications to
help justify their claims for more funding from their sponsors. "If
you remember, the system
works by reading the
brainwaves of each person
wearing a headset connected to the central 'hub'. It can
quite easily read simple emotions (happy/sad, confident/vulnerable etc) but
recently we've introduced
features for actually suggesting problem
resolutions based upon our rapidly
growing database of mind
maps taken from particularly talented
problem solvers. I'm sure it's just what you need. "
"The lab
have also been working on some other new features. They need to expand the market for the technology
if the sponsors are going to
continue to come through with our research grant. Perhaps we could have a go tonight,
just to get you used to it? They say the 'telepathic intimacy mode' is
amazing!"
*****
Seb was almost running as he burst into the lab and exclaimed.
"I've
found him.. He's perfect!"
Max turned
his bleary eyes towards the door. He'd been working all night, preparing for
today's demonstration of their latest product idea to the board of directors..
Once
Customers understood the benefits of the Newstar
system it would sell itself . Max knew
that if he could just find a single 'power user' who would sing the praises of the system to a
novelty-hungry world media then the promotion oroblem
would be solved.. And he would keep his job.
He
knew the apparent barrier of the operation upon every customer's ears
would melt away as people flocked to get in on the action of this jaw dropping
product.
However,
no last minute solution had leapt into his mind , and he knew that no matter
how often he reassured them that "Newstar
overlaps several of our competitors'
strongest products, rendering them obsolete in a single stroke, the board were
sure to dwell upon this barrier. He was particularly concerned about the
miserly Chief executive, Gerald Lindley.
In
spite of all his worries he managed an indulgent smile for his enthusiastic and
completely dedicated research scientist.. Seb was
sometimes idealistic and mis-guided, but he was well
intentioned and therefore deserving of some attention.
"That's
amazing, Seb"
Max only managed to hold back some of the sarchasm.
"In a quest in which the entire resource of the world health organasation's patient databases has failed, You, Sebastian
Masters have managed to track down the parents of a clinically proven,
profoundly deaf baby, who is less than 4 months old and yet has conveniently
managed to grow sufficient nerve endings to allow us to make connections to our
prototype NEWSTAR .. Oh and of course you've also managed to overcome that
smallest of minor details, you've managed to
get their permission for us to use revolutionary, untested major
surgical techniques upon their baby!"
Seb smiled...
"I
couldn't believe it either... but it's true!"
*****
Gerald
stood stock still. He allowed his
suddenly rejeuvanated Midas instinct to grow from deep
inside. His mind was being bombarded by a gaggle of breathtaking. marketing
possibilities, wrestling with each other for his attention.
Max
delayed his approach to allow the full impact of the demonsation
to settle upon the chairman
"That
wretched operation is bound to hit our sales, Max. Is there really no other
way?"
The
recently appointed head of marketing turned his smile back to a serious frown.
This was it. Max knew his career depended on what happened in the next 45
seconds. Although things were definitely on an upward trend, he reminded
himself. Earlier that morning he'd been convinced he would be sacked today.
Max
shook his head slowly, rippling his long blond hair..
"It
is essential I'm afraid sir. but I feel now is the time for this product.
The benefits are just so profound ... they outweigh the costs.. Even a medical
procedure."
Both
men nodded slowly and fell silent, reflecting agreement over the stickiness of
this problem..
"We're
masters of the 'marketing push' when it comes to innovative communications. If
anyone can sell the necessity of an operation on our customers then it's
us"
"That's
exactly how I see ithings, sir."
Max was smiling again....
"There
are some in R&D who disagree, but I'm confident I can deal with them."
Max looked directly into Gerald's eyes, willing a confirmation from his new
boss.
The
old familiar passions for market domination and rapid company expansion grew
again at a rate that surprised even Gerald. He became increasingly sure this
was it! This was the breakthrough they'd
been waiting for. NS inc MUST be the first to bring this technology to market.
No cost would be too high.
He
allowed the silence to continue and gave no facial expression to the excitement
he was beginning to feel.
He was
waiting for that moment when the
momentum began to fade before he replied.
"How
soon could we be in the marketplace with this?"
Max
perked up again. This was even better than he'd hoped. He'd been ready to fight
for support... A whole string of arguements were carefully planned, ready to be brought nto the conversation if required. But Gerald had already
said 'yes' . Now he just had to deliver.
"Well
sir, Seb's following up an idea as we speak which
would get us to market a lot faster than you might expect. If this works sir,
then the first revenues should be in almost immediately"
"EXCELLENT.
Go ahead and keep me posted... And make sure Julian Lightly doesn't hear
anything about this until we go public.
I'm sure you understand?"
*****
Patrick
and Julian were both woke up feeling nervous about the last chance negotiations
that would be happening that day.
Patrick
left his house early before Dan and the night babysitter had a chance to wake
up. He wanted to be sure Julian wasn't trying any 'funny business'. However his attempt was in vain because when
he arrived, he found Julian was already there talking to the secretary who'd
been given responsibiliy for logistics at these
negotiations.
Patrick
overheard Julian finishing off his requests:
"If you manage to provide enough power sockets so each negotiating
team can have a headset then I'll be
delighted." he smiled, trying to encourage the relatively
inexperienced girl to
help him out.
She wasn't impressed by his fawning, but she realised
how much praise she would receive if these negotiations succeeded as a result
of her efforts, so she re-assured Julian that the existing 3 sockets would be
extended to 12 ready for the start of the meeting.
Then Julian looked up: "Ah Patrick! Nice
to see
you so bright and
early! I hope you don't
object to us
using these glasses? They're
part of my presentation of the new
proposal." Patrick was immediately suspicious but couldn't think of
any justifyable grounds for objecting... Anyway, no
matter what kind of trickery Julian was setting up, there was nothing to fear
because it would still be his own final decision whether or not to
accept any management proposals. He nodded his acceptance.
Once the
power sockets were in place, Julian suggested the three ofthem
try the specs out before everyone else arrived.
The secretary, Gwen, put on her glasses first, so when Patrick looked into
the lenses he saw one green
smiley face at the top of his field of vision, smiling happily back at
him.
Julian
explained what was happening "That's Gwen's 'icon'. It's green which tells you she's
feeling confident and relaxed and it's smiling which tells you she's
happy." Julian paused and then a
second face appeared in Patrick's
view. "That's my icon. It's red,
which tells you I'm quite worried about today's meeting, and its
mouth is 'neutral' which means I'm neither happy nor angry. I'm just
a bit nervous. You can tell which face is
which by looking directly at the icon. The sensors in the glasses
decide which face you're
looking at and respond by displaying
a text label with
their name on it." Julian seemed to
be enjoying explaining the
system.. Patrick allowed him to continue...
"Now, if you
push the 'mask' button on the left
side of the glasses you will be switching on your own
icon for us to see." Patrick reluctantly
pushed the button.
The third face
was green, reflecting Patrick's confidence since he was to make
the final decision on
the proposal, but the mouth was
showing a 'sad' shape, accurately reflecting his
assumption that management were unlikely to offer a sufficiently attractive
package to him in the forthcoming discussions.
As the
three of them continued to discuss the marvels of the technology the
colours and mouth
shapes changed regularly, accurately reflecting their changing moods. They found
it much easier than before
to conduct sensitive
and productive conversations due to their enhanced undersanding
of the feelings of their colleagues, and by the time the other negotiators arrived, the contrast in the atmosphere
compared to that of the previous evening could not have been greater.
Each new arrival was given a pair of glasses and
the system was explained to them. Soon the entire negotiating hall was a mass
of fast moving, heart-warming
communication as the details of the latest
proposal from the management were explained and discussed.
The
perceived impossibility of hiding anything from each other as they each
described and then discussed their visions for the future of
the company, allowed the
level of trust
between management of workforce to grow to heights never before seen in
the company. As a direct result of this unprecedented, high quality trust and
understanding of the other side's concerns, the new proposals were passed
without any objections first by the
union representatives and then by the entre
workforce.
*****
"Your
system has saved the company millions!" Julian was ecstatic as he
described the scene to his adoring wife that evening ".... not to
mention my job. Id have been sacked if there'd been a general strike.
You're a genius!" he kissed her
long and hard.
"Wait a minute, where
are those glasses?"....
Several hours
later as they lay side by side in the bed basking in satisfied
exhaustion, Barbara smiled and asked her husband: "I presume you didn't show the other
negotiators 'telepathic intimacy mode'?"
He
grinned back at her "No dear they
seemed happy enough with the basic functions of the system, although
I couldn't resist taking a peek at
Patrick's subconscious after we had passed the
critical point in the
negotiations." He suddenly looked seriously once more at his wife.
"The system seemed to be able to see nearly as
deeply into his mind
as it allows
me to see into yours in telepathic
intimacy mode. I thought you said that was only possible when
the person has voluntarily been included in the research
sample?" he paused and then
asked in a
quieter voice "You
haven't been seeing Patrick again behind my back have
you?" Julian's icon turned pink and Barbara saw the smile turn
neutral. "No dear..." Julian
was surprised to see her icon turn blue for compassion instead of the red he'd
expected. "You've no need to
fear, darling. There's actually a completely different
explanation to the one you expect." she looked more deeply into his e yes
t reassure him over the forthcoming revelation"I
didn't know myself until this
morning but it seems your own brainwave patterns were
added to the survey yesterday. " he didn't respond with hurt or anger as
she had feared and so, encouraged by his apparent fortitude she continued.
" Seb says you're the most creative problem
solver he's ever encountered!" she looked for the change of icon colour
that would indicate understanding and acceptance. "What you saw in Patrick's response
wasn't the consequnece of the system having a deeper
understanding of Patrick than you might expect. It was the consequence of
Patrick realising gaining a deeper
respect for how your mind works...
" Julian's icon returned to green and the smile also returned.
This is a Sample
from the Second Novel by Bob Foster.
The full text of this novel
or a bound paperback version, can be ordered from: