August 29, 2005
Week 18 - Impossible Dreams 5
Episode 1
Lucy leads Powell to the living room, where they both sit.
"My father and my uncle... his brother... started Lamont Energy together," Lucy says. "But my uncle died two years ago... in the same accident that... that killed my mother..."
"Uh... I'm sorry," Powell says.
"Ever since then... my father's been slipping away... He's been living more and more in a fantasy world... first he started to talk about how he was friends with all the comic book characters... Like you wrote in your article... And then he began to think that he was a superhero himself. Now he's putting on that ridiculous costume and going out looking for villains to fight every night. Even during the day sometimes..."
"Look... this is beyond... um... it's beyond a joke, you know? You have to get him help... he's going to get hurt."
Lucy shakes her head. "No! I can't get any one else involved. Listen to me... After my uncle died my cousin Mark inherited all his shares in the company, about forty percent. My dad owns another forty. The other twenty percent are all minor stockholders... They don't come to board meetings or anything... they let my dad vote for them, they give him their proxies. And since the accident, my dad's let me make all the decisions. That means I get to pick the CEO. I control the company."
Powell stares at her. "I don't understand why you're telling me any of this... Your father is a sick man... You should be thinking of how to help him!"
"That is what I'm thinking of!" Lucy shouts. Then she takes a deep breath and continues in a lower voice. "Listen to me... My cousin knows that my father's not... not quite right... He's been trying to use that to convince the minor shareholders to transfer their proxies to him. He's already gotten a bunch of them to switch. If he gets a few more, he'll gain control. The first thing he'll do is sell the whole company to a multinational! Before my father... before he got sick, he hated that idea. He always wanted to keep us independent. But now he won't even listen when I try to talk about it."
"Look... I... this has nothing to do with me! And... I'm a writer, remember... You were talking about suing me if I printed another word about Donald Lamont. Now you're... you're telling me all these intimate details... I don't understand why!"
"Because my father won't let me have anything to do with any of his games. He says it's too dangerous. But he likes you! He wants you to... to participate. You could help me!"
"Uh... help you, how?"
"By becoming Coyote Man's sidekick!"