VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [159]
“All right, I take it back. You can commit. You just can’t commit to me.”
“I am committed to you. I love you. It’s just that we’re … you know, different people. And I know what’s going to happen. You’re going to want me to stay home and putter around the house or something, and I’m going to want you to take off work and fly to the Keys or something and you’ll have some quarterly report that has to go out. And, you know what? We’ll be at each other’s throats.”
Amy felt tears welling up – because she knew there was truth in what he said.
“I won’t try to change you,” she said, fighting the urge to break down.
“I just don’t believe you,” he said.
“Well, I guess it’s over then,” she said.
“I guess it is. I want my flight jacket back.”
“You can have it back. No problem.”
She stood up.
“Good-bye.”
“Be seeing you,” he said.
“No, I don’t think so.”
Amy strode toward the door. She opened it. She hesitated. She almost looked back. Then she stepped outside into the rainy evening. And then she stopped.
His arms enveloped her from behind, lifted her in a bear hug, so she could not move. She kicked backward at his shins, but he just held her there.
“Just let me go,” she said.
“Not a chance,” said Tom, his lips on her hair, next to her ear. “Some way, some how.”
“Some way,” Amy allowed. “Some how.”
The wedding was three months later, a June wedding in a small chapel in the mountain foothills on a day blessed with gentle breezes and blue skies.
On the bride’s side of the aisle was of course Amy’s personal family. But everyone else was, well, the Hi-T family: Clarence “Murphy” Maguire, Wayne Reese, Elaine Eisenway, Jayro Pepps, and Garth Quincy – and their spouses: Coreen, Teresa, Bill, Ellie, and Fanny.
On the groom’s side, Tom’s family had come in from Alaska, and just about everyone else was from his other family, the United States Marine Corps, approximately evenly divided between active duty and retired.
As there were two cases of champagne on chill at the reception pavilion nearby – one a case of Dom Pérignon, courtesy of the Booles, who had sent their regrets; the other a case of Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin sent by Nigel Furst, who had sent it as a warm gesture of goodwill – it would prove to be a many-storied evening to come.
In the meantime, on that wedding day in June, the bride was as all brides are, beautiful and perfect. As the wedding march played, and Amy Cieolara – soon to be Amy Cieolara Dawson – in her white gown looked down the aisle, she saw in their places the members of the wedding party:
Linda, as matron of honor, and her daughter Michelle and Sarah Schwick as bridesmaids.
And there was Tom in his tuxedo, hands clasped, smiling patiently. Her own son Ben, asked by Tom to be the best man, looked serious and nervous. And as groomsman, Tom’s former squadron leader, still active, wearing at Tom’s request his dress blues.
Amy took her father’s hand, and said, “C’mon, Dad.”
In a few months’ time, her father would almost abruptly lose all interest in life, and in a matter of weeks he would be gone. But on this day, in his dark suit with the flowery outrageous tie he insisted upon wearing, Harry was high on the occasion, and he stepped forward with his daughter. He shuffled and shuffled and shuffled down the aisle, beaming proudly, and the wedding march ran out and the pianist had to start again – but they made it to the altar. Harry, now a man of ninety-one years, looked at Tom and said loudly:
“Here she is.”
And taking Amy’s hand, Tom whispered to him, “Thank you, sir. You and your wife, you’ve done a great job. Thank you.”
Acknowledgments
VELOCITY, as a concept and as a book, would not exist without the efforts of many brilliant people who came before us. W. Edwards Deming, Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, Walter Shewhart, and so many others built a wonderful framework of techniques and disciplines for the AGI-Goldratt Institute to build upon.
In particular, the authors would would like to express our deep appreciation to Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, who developed the Theory of Constraints,