This New Internet Thing, Chapter 32

In Chapter 31 (notes), Palm found a way to manufacture its prize handheld device, the Pilot: they got acquired. Len got what he didn’t quite realize he really wanted: a job investing in the Internet!

In this chapter, we pick up the thread of Cassie’s long-held dream of adopting a child on her own. She had made Len promise to be the godfather if she ever did it, and now she’s calling in her promise. The gang all gets together at the baptism

for little Janine, and catches up on what they’re all doing, now that Internet is officially The Thing.

Reading in serial form has a long and honorable history. My cover artist sent me this “Read Like a Victorian” website. Enjoy.

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Cassie had gone and done it! She’d adopted a kid, a two-year-old named Janine! Rather, she had “fost-adopted” Janine, which meant that she technically was just fostering her at first. After a year, when Cassie, Janine, and the agency all agreed that this was working, the adoption could proceed. Now it was finally a done deal: Cassie was a mom!

Janine was two when Cassie first took her home, which meant she was three now. It had been hell for Cassie at first. No matter how much she tried to prepare herself, read books, and talked to other mothers, there was nothing that could prepare her for this: a little kid who is always there. She always needed to be fed, clothed, washed, and watched to be sure she didn’t kill herself. “How does anyone do this?” she wondered. Her own mother, Elaine, was dubious about this single motherhood thing at first, but she melted when Cassie first showed her Janine. Now Cassie’s problem was more “how do I get rid of Mom?” than “how do I get some help with this?” Elaine had stayed in Cassie’s apartment with Janine at first, while Cassie was arranging day care for her. She was reluctant to leave, but she made Cassie promise that at the least little problem she could come back.

Cassie managed fine on her own, with Janine in daycare, except for when she had to fly to Singapore to visit Flextronics on an emergency visit. Some of the Palm Pilot units were dying, unpredictably, and this was an absolute showstopper. She ended up driving down to Simi Valley to leave Janine at her parents’ house and flying out of LAX. But other than that, she did OK, although none of her friends ever saw her.

Since Janine was finally hers, Cassie decided to have her baptized, and called in her promise from Len to be the godfather. He’d forgotten, but a promise was a promise, plus he lived nearby in Sunnyvale now anyway. So the baptism was set for a Sunday a month away. She invited the whole 3Com gang: Janet, Walt, Dan, and Matt, plus Pete and Barbara, her co-conspirators from the infamous boat trip that got Janet and Walt together.

Dan asked Matt at work if he was going.

“Well, I’m Jewish, as you know, but hey, if they don’t mind, I don’t mind. I’m not going to promise to serve Jesus, though.”

Dan thought of several jokes he could tell, but unusually for him, he resisted them.

“And here I thought I wasn’t going to see you in a suit again until someone died!”

“I think Janet’s wedding was the last time I wore it. Hope it still fits!”

Dan was a manager now, and finding out that you couldn’t hire people in a big company anymore. Everyone wanted to join a startup and get rich. Startups were springing up like kudzu in Alabama.

It was hell. He finally transferred a woman from Oracle Ireland, who was making $35,000 a year, and he wanted to pay her $50,000, a fairly modest salary in the Valley. Larry Ellison had to approve all engineering hires, and he scrawled a note on the request, “$15,000 is what percent raise??”

Nonetheless, it went through. Then he hired an Indian guy from a little company in Fremont whom he’d met in his IETF standards activities. The guy had an H1-B visa which restricted him to one company, but Oracle had an immigration lawyer who handled such things. It took a month and cost $10,000, and then when it came through and the guy turned in his notice, his company made him a counteroffer and he stayed.

Dan was so pissed he wrote to the guy’s company and demanded they pay back the $10,000 Oracle had spent on him. To his shock and amazement, they sent him a check. He wasn’t even sure what to do with it, since engineers never handle money like that.

Managing really sucked. This was the third time in his career he’d succumbed to it, and it’d probably be the third time he gave it up. On top of everything else, Oracle had bought one of those classic Vice President systems (meaning, no one but a Vice President would ever buy it), namely ClearCase, a source control system. It meant that when you looked at what files you had, it would only show you the “correct” versions of those source files, not the ones you actually had in your file system. Everyone had to use it.

If this sounds complicated, it was, meaning it didn’t really work. Yet, being the manager, Dan was still responsible for normal development, and all his people complained to him when the source control system didn’t work. Who was he going to complain to?

Matt was busy climbing the management ladder at Oracle. He got invited to a yard party with a whole bunch of top management, which he understood to be his debutante coming-out. He hoped he passed. There was no big promotion immediately following, but he could tell by the new looks of respect the other VP’s gave him that he was now a Made Man.

Janet had finally sold some of her Netscape stock, as soon as a year had passed since the IPO. Len told her not to just let it ride, but to take the money off the table as soon as she could. Working at Netscape had, if anything, gotten even harder since the IPO, not easier. She was getting tired of it and so was Walt, but at least they could mentally multiply 1/48 of her shares by the stock price every month, and figure out how much money she was really making.

The baptism took place at an Episcopal church in autumn, 1996, Len standing by the minister, Cassie, and Janine up near the front. Janine looked positively radiant in her little white dress. Cassie’s mother Elaine sat in the front row. Matt and Dan sat side by side, with Matt watching Dan to figure out when to stand up and sit down. Dan had never been to an Episcopal baptism before, either, so he had to watch the other people. There was an awful lot of “and also with you” responses when the minister said, “the Lord be with you,” which reminded Dan of the old Latin Mass “Dominus vobiscum / Et cum spiritu tuo” exchange.

Afterwards, the congregation filed outside for refreshments. Elaine said to Cassie, “I’ll take Janine home so you can talk to your friends, sweetie.” Janine very politely shook hands with all the grownups and thanked them for coming, which made Cassie more proud than she ever imagined she could be.

As she joined the group, all of them made a show of taking their Palm Pilots out of their pockets and crossing off their appointments for “Janine’s baptism,” which made Cassie laugh.

“So how are you all?” she said. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately, but I think you all know why.”

Janet said, “Before we get into that: how are you making out as a single mom? It must be exhausting!”

Cassie said, “Yeah, it is. But it’s so worth it.”

No one had an answer for that. She was the only one of them who’d actually had a kid, and they all felt like maybe they’d missed something. But there was nowhere to go with that topic.

Finally Janet took the lead. She held up her Palm Pilot. “This is really a great device, Cassie. I don’t know who’s the busiest at work, actually, you, me, or Dad!”

Cassie said, “Thanks. Mr. Saunders, we’re so glad to have you down here in the Valley full time now! How are you enjoying it? By the way, thanks for standing up for Janine.”

“Oh, I enjoyed it. Arranging all those murders took some time, but hey, it’s just settling the family business.”

Dan said, “Oh please, not those Godfather jokes again! That was a Catholic ceremony in the movie, anyway.”

He added, looking Len up and down, “Nice suit, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks. We do need to clean up for the bankers, once in a while.”

Janet put her arm around Len’s waist. “Dad’s a mutual fund manager now! Did you all know that?”

Matt did not. “Really? Wow, congratulations! Will we be seeing you on Wall Street Week sometime soon?”

“Don’t laugh. The producers and I are trying to set up a time.”

Len felt like changing the subject, so he asked Matt,

“Enough about me! How about you? What are you up to?”

“Me? Oh, same old same old. Working every day to make Larry Ellison richer.”

Dan said, “We like that as our goal. It’s nice and simple.”

Pete jumped, “I can tell I’ve missed a whole lot of news with you techie folks! I thought you were retired and living in Walt’s cabin in the Sierras, Len!”

Len looked stumped, but Dan answered for him. “Well, there was this money disappearing from a charity up there, and Len and I played detective, and… well, one thing led to another.”

“And here I am!” said Len. Everyone laughed. Walt said, “I’ll tell you the whole thing later, Pete.”

Cassie said, “Janet, what’s it like at Netscape these days? It seems like Bill Gates is trying to own the Internet for real now!”

Janet looked weary. Len felt protective and answered for her.

“Yeah, that’s what the little jerk thinks. It’s bigger than even him, though.”

Dan said, “Oracle is actually partnering with Netscape. Matt and I are a little bit involved with that.”

Len looked like he knew more than he could say. Walt put his arms around Dan and Matt and said, “Thanks for that, guys!” Everyone laughed.

Barbara said, “All this nerd talk! I think Pete and I will be taking off. Cassie, that was a beautiful ceremony and you have a beautiful little daughter!”

“Oh, thank you, Barbara. Thanks for coming, you two!”

Janet said, “Yeah, I think Walt and I will be leaving, too. Double what Barbara said, Cassie. I’m so happy for you!” They hugged.

Cassie’s phone rang. She picked it up and listened, and said, “OK, I’ll be home soon.” and hung up. She turned to the others and said, “I’d better be getting home to my daughter, too. Thanks for coming, you guys, and especially you, Mr. Saunders!”

Now it was just Dan, Matt, and Len. Len looked at his watch and said,

“I guess I’ll be getting along, too. You Oracle guys: you should know that you’re not alone. That’s all I’m saying for now.”

Dan looked at Matt.

“Well, that’s good to know. I guess. See you tomorrow.”