Rationality and the Ethical Life-Aristotle and Kant

What is rationality and the ethical life? According to Aristotle and Kant, they have different views on what these two things mean. Aristotle explained that a virtuous activity has an intermediate position of excess and deficiency and also a mean relative to us. The definition of virtue is a mean, insofar, as it aims at what is intermediate. Aristotle listed ten virtues in his book that he saw as being most important in becoming a virtuous human being. Aristotle also explained that we must become who we are on our own. Kant explained that humanity is defined as being rational. It is our duty by nature to act morally because we are rational. We have absolute worth because we are human beings. Aristotle and Kant have many similarities and differences in their understandings of the ethical life. Aristotle explained that the virtuous life is the excellent life, which is the happy life, which is the rational life. To be rational, we must practice the ten virtues. Rationality is rooted in our actions. If we see someone doing something out of the norm, we usually conclude that they are irrational. Our actions play a huge role on what we believe in society to be rational or irrational. Aristotle’s understanding of the rational person is someone who practices the ten virtues in a public life because you cannot lead an excellent life if it is a private life. I agree with Aristotle because in order to become rational, you must practice these virtues while interacting with others. Aristotle also believes that the highest good is happiness. Happiness is the human function Happiness is the ultimate end for human beings and happiness alone makes life worth living. However, we must achieve our own happiness by doing something with excellence. Aristotle explains that in order to lead an ethical life, we must leada rational life. Humans are born with the capabilityof becoming virtuous. We must become who we are. Kant explains that because we are human we are rational. All human beings are rational so it is universally shared. Categorical imperative explains tat we must act morally. Our intensions are to be moral when acing and it is our duty, by nature, to act morally. When we act, our intentions are always for goodwill. Kant understood that with rationality comes freedom. When one is rational and free, then one is moral, which explains moral law. Because we are humans, we have absolute worth. I cannot use someone as a means to my ends. Slavery is an example of using humans as a means to some sort of ends. The law of humanity explains that we have absolute worth because we are humans and you cannot put a price on human beings. Kant believes that human beings have absolute dignity and worth because we are human. While studying both the philosophers, I found more differences than similarities in their works. I believe that both philosophers make interesting arguments in what it really means to lead the ethical life. While Aristotle explained that we must become virtuous throughout our lives by interacting with others and leading an excellent life to find happiness. Kant explained that we are born with absolute dignity and worth because we are human. Aristotle and Kant both argue that because we are human, we are rational people. They both believe that because we are human, we have the capability of becoming rational.

Aloha Case Essay

1. What should be Aloha’s competitive strategy? Low cost? It is difficult for Aloha to compete with the industry giants like Nestle, P&G and Phillips Morris on low cost. The reason is simple – volume. These industry giants have much higher volume than Aloha and enjoy a tremendous advantage in economies of scale. It is probably suicidal for Aloha to try to adopt a low cost strategy. It will probably be crushed like an ant, unless the giants play â€Å"oligopolists† and charge high prices to maximize profits. Differentiation; i.e., selling gourmet coffee a la. Starbuck? It is probably easier for Aloha to position itself as a gourmet coffee maker, catering to the yuppie type and charging a premium price for a coffee experience different from that offered by â€Å"regular† brands. Differentiation seems to be the choice strategy for small companies in that its success does not rely on size or volume; anyone with little resources but a great idea can be the David that slays the industry Goliaths. Examples abound: Ben & Jerry in ice cream and Paul Newman in spaghetti source. In fact, while the case tells us little in this regard, I suspect that Aloha has been able to survive in this competitive industry for all these years and seems to be thriving entirely because it started out occupying a special market niche and positioning its coffee as a gourmet brand. 2. How should the roasting plants, and marketing and purchasing departments be evaluated? Roasting Plants Given the differentiation strategy, the roasting plants should be treated as a profit center, as it is already now. That is because the differentiation strategy can be successfully implemented only if the quality of the coffee lives up to its image as a gourmet brand, and evaluating plant managers on profit, rather on cost alone, motivates the managers to constantly improve the quality of the coffee and maintain it at high levels. In contrast with plant managers evaluated on cost alone, plant managers evaluated on profit are penalized if they sacrifice quality on the altar of cost minimization; when quality declines, so will revenue and profit. On the other hand, if Aloha pursues a low cost strategy, then the plant managers should be evaluated on cost control alone. For a firm adopting a low cost strategy, volume is the king in order to achieve economies of scale and the customers targeted are less conscious of the quality of the coffee brands they drink. Thus, keeping cost down would be the primary objective for the plant managers. Marketing Department Since Aloha positions itself as a gourmet coffee maker, the objective for the marketing department is to keep both the price and gross margins high. Volume would not be very important as the firm knows that it only appeals to a limited group of coffee connoisseurs. Thus, the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center and annual evaluation of its performance should be based on a comparison of actual prices with target prices. Alternatively, marketing could be treated as a â€Å"pseudo† profit center with its â€Å"profit† defined as sales minus standard cost of coffee sold. If a low cost strategy is pursued, then the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center as well. But the focus now is on volume, or more precisely, volume growth. Thus, the marketing manager and his lieutenants should be constantly reminded of the importance of sales growth over time and be rewarded for good sales growth. Purchasing Department The purchasing department currently purchases coffee on both the spot and forwards markets. The policy is to make purchase commitments (forward contracts) based on maximum potential plant requirements and sell the rest on the spot market. That sounds like speculation. One may argue Aloha should meet its need for coffee beans only on the spot market and refrain from the speculation business, which is distracting attention from is main business – grinding and selling gourmet coffee. A counter argument is that good coffee traders probably can spot market trends others cannot and are able to reduce the cost of coffee beans by purchasing forward contracts. I question that argument because it is doubtful that any market participants can â€Å"beat the market† and consistently purchase coffee beans on the forwards market at a lower cost than on the spot market. One drawback of the policy of buying forward contracts is it allows the purchasing department to transfer the most costly coffee beans to the plants and make the plants shoulder losses from their trading mistakes. Buying on the spot markets means that the purchased amount is equal to the need of the plants for coffee beans, and thus the purchasing department would not be able to burden the plants with high-cost beans and keep low-cost beans for themselves to boost trading profit. If the purchasing department is forbidden to play the forwards market, performance evaluation for the department is easy. It would be treated as a cost center, and the cost it incurs for coffee bean purchases will be compared with market price averages in the periods that the purchases take place.

The Burning Giraffe – Salvador Dali

2 â€Å"The Burning Giraffe† is a surrealistic painting by the artist Salvador Dali, done circa 1936. Using a variety of blues, blacks and browns, the piece depicts a bleak, sad, and cold scene. Scenery such as this was very popular amongst modernist painters. The painting, through color choice, showcases the futile, dark, and dreamy feeling epitomized by modern art. Beyond the color scheme, subjects of the painting, also, are clear representations of what modern art is. The two female figures fall in line with the rest of the painting, giving off a sense of loss, despair, and once again, a dream-like quality.The very definition of surreal is â€Å"marked by the intense  irrational  reality of a dream. † There’s no possibility that the images depicted in the painting would ever take place in reality. There’s no clear rational for what’s present in the painting. Both of the figures have unclear oblong objects sticking out of their backs. These ob jects are propped by what look like crutches. The first female figure seems to be missing a layer of flesh on her arms and face, revealing muscle beneath.Farther back into the painting, the second figure is holding something looking similar to meat or muscle tissue. In the distance of the painting is a giraffe on fire. Even the stance and figure of the two females shows the dreaminess. The lines are very fluid and relaxed as in the overall scenery of the painting. There’s a very ominous feeling to it all. Surreal artists and  viewed their work as an expression of the philosophical movement,  inspired by psychologist Sigmund Freud, and placed much emphasize on the unconscious.This particular painting was inspired by this thought process as Dali took much interest in it. The movement was centered on the idea that there were certain thoughts and emotions only accessible though psychotherapy. The drawers protruding from the first female figure’s chest and legs represen t the opening to deeper subconscious thought and feeling. The draws show a literal representation of this. All are characteristics of a surreal piece, found in modernistic art.

Cause and Effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Cause and Effect - Essay Example Moreover, they are affected by new experiences such as conflicts with roommates due to difference in personality, new social life changes and values exploration, which consequently may lead to development of stress. Likewise, the new students face steep competition from their peers, and similarly, most find themselves under peer pressure to try out new habits such as sex, drugs along with drinking. As a result, the freshmen face a number of consequences. Landow purports that stress in first year college students is highly associated to generalized anxiety (231). More importantly, it causes depression, and irritability, together with insomnia and nightmares. Besides this, some college freshmen complain of frequent fatigue that is accompanied by loss of appetite which is believed to originate from stress. More importantly, stress often leads to a decrease in productivity of the students, subsequently aggravating the stress and therefore influencing a downward spiral. It is therefore important for the college first-year students to maintain a balanced lifestyle ensuring that they receive enough sleep, exercise, food and

How has culture and society influenced the way women's breasts have Essay

How has culture and society influenced the way women's breasts have been viewed throughout history - Essay Example Women breasts were still seen as being sacred in the 16th century. In the painting â€Å"The Origin of the Milky Way†, the interpretation of the painting follows closely to a story in the Roman mythology. Jupitor, the father of gods who wished to immortalise the infant Hercules whose mother was the mortal Alcmene, held him to the breasts of the sleeping Juno. The milk, which spurted upwards, formed the Milky Way in the space while some flowed down to have lilies on the ground. The sketch of the painting started in the year 15383. Juno was the sister of Jupiter and important Roman goddesses. She was known to be a protector of the Roman people and especially women, being the goddess of marriage, fertility and childbirth.4 As such, it proved that the belief in Juno was strong during the 16th century. It can also be interpreted that at that time, they knew that breast milk is nutritious and because of wars and food storage, breast milk was the best alternative for the baby. Theref ore, breasts were seen as sacred due to the main source of food provided by the women for the baby. Without breast milk, the baby might not survive. As a result, we can also say that during times of turmoil, the war changes the society which in turn, views breasts as source of milk for their children compared to sacred originally. As the society became more open-minded and comfortable with discussions about body issues, breasts were also starting to be seen as being erotic by the man. This could be evidenced from a comment made by early 16th century Clemant Marot, a French poet who once compared breasts to "lawns of milk."5 From his opinion, it implies that breasts stimulated the male sexual desire. As the society and culture becomes more open-minded, the painting, "Eva Prima Pandora" (1540) by Jean Cousin, is one of the first few paintings that have hints of lust and eroticism. According to references, the passive pose of Eve in the painting was similar to Cleopatra who was labelled as a cruel and lustful woman during that period.6 In addition, from the painting, Eve was depicted to have physical characteristics such as having long bodies and legs and round breasts. Coincidentally, most men during that period saw the characteristics she has in the painting as desirable and erotic. However, these physical characteristics of Eve were also seen as evil and lustful under the Judaism and Christianity religion due to the association with Pandora who was responsible for bringing evil into the world. Therefore, in the eye of the society during that era, desirable physical attributes like round breasts equates to evil. Unlike modern times when there is physical contact between the doctor and patient, Holland during the 17th century showed an opposite situation. From the painting, "The Doctor and his Patient" by Jan Steen, it could be interpreted that breasts were considered a private area of a woman in Holland and there should not be any physical contact

The Immigration Experience of Vietnamese Americans Essay

The Immigration Experience of Vietnamese Americans - Essay Example However these people have strongly come back and made their place in the United States of America. This article would further discuss the Vietnamese Americans in detail. In 1975 Vietnam was undergoing a war which came to an end. This war even after ending left its effect on the Vietnamese people. The government which was supporting the people of Vietnam was now about to change and this created an atmosphere of insecurity for the Vietnamese people. In 1975 the first group of immigrants of Vietnamese people left their country. These people at first migrated to the refugee centers developed by the government of United States. However after some legislations were introduced these refugees were allowed to properly live in America. The era of immigrants did not end here as the new government started taking strict actions against the people of Vietnam. This further encouraged the Vietnamese people to leave their own land and migrate to America. As more and more immigrants were fleeing to United States the state restricted the entry of these people after a certain limit. However this step taken by the government of America harmed the people of Vietnam and f urther helped the new government in Vietnam to take proper actions against them. The journey of immigration for the Vietnamese people did not end here as living on the soil of America was more difficult then expected by them. The people belonging to Vietnam were equipped with a strong culture which was to be followed. This culture had rules which were not seen by the Americans previously. And this culture only made their immigration and the settling journey harder. The culture of Vietnamese people did not allow their women to work but after coming to America the men had to let go off their culture and let their women work to earn a living. This was another blow to the Vietnamese people for settling. However the people of Vietnam did not lose hope and kept on with their struggle. These people not only faced hardships economically but also socially. The children belonging to Vietnam were not able to properly talk in English and found it difficult when conversing with a native. On the other hand the education given in America was through the medium of English and this factor made the children of Vietnam leave behind in the education sector also. The people of Vietnam had strong differences in culture to that of the natives and this posed another difficulty for these Vietnams to settle in America. The people of Vietnam were not only faced by the problem of differing cultures but also with the problem of discrimination. The natives did not like the arrival of these immigrants from Vietnam and this made it even more difficult for the Vietnamese people to settle in America. The natives did not like the Vietnamese people due to the fact that they were taking over the economics and the industrial unit of America. Thus this posed another problem to the Vietnamese people. However after a series of hardships the Vietnamese people grew in numbers and took over America. These people after a long time started to settle properly on the soil of America. The children of Vietnamese people were given special instructions by their parents to learn English. They have even arranged special classes of English for their children. This has helped the children of Vietnam to increase their knowledge and enhance their educational level.

Critical Thinking Skills, Emotional Intelligence, and Employee Essay

Critical Thinking Skills, Emotional Intelligence, and Employee Engagement - Essay Example The process of critical thinking involves evaluating, analyzing or synthesizing the data that has been gathered through observation, reflection, communication, experience or reasoning (Foundations for Critical Thinking 1). The process is guided by the information gathered, a set of beliefs and the intellectual commitment to apply such skills to shape behavior in an organization. Critical thinking is very applicable in the daily running of the organization and can be applied in decision-making, yielding very positive results. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability of to handle one’s emotions and control them, in order to relate well with other people in the organization (Cherry 1). Emotional intelligence entails perceiving emotions, reasoning with them, understanding them and managing the emotions. The concept of emotional intelligence is very essential in the management of an organization. It enables a manager to relate well with the employees, and apply the concept of diversity. A manager who exercises emotional intelligence works with the understanding that, all people are different. Thus, each should be listened to, and understood. Employee engagement is another very pivotal element in the running of the organization. Employee engagement refers to the emotional commitment that the workers of an organization attach to the organization and its aims (Kruse 2). In essence, employee engagement means that the workers care about the services they deliver to an organization. The concept is very relevant to the organization. An engaged employee contributes immensely to the positive growth of the organization. The three concepts of employee engagement, critical thinking and emotional intelligence are almost equally important in an organization. Without each of them, there will be dire consequences for the management of the

Short paper-Communication Skills in the Practice of Medicine Essay

Short paper-Communication Skills in the Practice of Medicine - Essay Example The ability to communicate effectively has an implication in patient care. Some medical organizations has determined that the most frequent reason for complaints among patients against physicians is poor communication. Thereby, certain community groups have identified communication skills as essential component in medical practice and medical training. In order to provide a systematic approach and continuity to effective communication. The following information are recommended: 2. Case Models through Independent Community Based Inputs: Case presentations and teaching models should be critically examined to rule our unrecognized personal, cultural and professional biases and barriers. There are so many factors and skills that a medical professional and a patient can use to communicate with each other. One thing that a patient is looking at to most doctors is the trust they can acquire through effective explanation of all procedures and the trust they could get from the nurses on how effective they could deliver the health care services necessary for them to feel good from any diseases. Effective communication involves continuous process between doctors and doctors; doctors and nurses; doctors and patients; patients and nurses. Set skills are essential in order to implement it with confidence. Normally, the process starts with interviewing the patient by introducing self (doctor) and by simply doing an interactive line of questioning to the patient and assessment of the nature of complaint. At times, doctors can depend on facilitation movements specially for patients whos language is not the doctors language but the danger of merely relying on facilitation could be detrimental as this may cause incorrect diagnosis. Facilitations are done through eye contact, posture, gesture or even silence. Doctor to doctor communication varies from one another depending on the nature of the patients disease.

The New International Economic Order within the United Nations Essay

The New International Economic Order within the United Nations - Essay Example In the past 65 years the international flow of capital has grown rapidly as a result of the removal of the trade barriers. The trade barriers had completely disappeared in the Northern side of the world and the developing countries of the world were gradually embracing the open market notions especially in the East Asia and the former Soviet Alliance (Rose, 2010, p. 169). But the aftermath of the Great Recession in the years 2007- 2009 has marked the reversal of these trends. And at an initial glance it seems as if the economic environment is headed towards a stunning reversal of the globalization. The reversal in the trend frightened the traders and the respected institutions started referring to the acts as â€Å"the protectionist juggernaut† and â€Å"widespread harm done by discriminatory state measures†. (Rose, 2010, p. 170) Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman is of the opinion that â€Å"when it comes to international trade, actually it’s not the Great d epression, it’s worse.† (Rose, 2010, p. 170; Armstrong, Lloyd and Redmond, 2004, pp. ... Hence in an attempt to change the present scenario it set a group of 77 to coordinate their position and demands by the help of the developed countries. This was highly criticized by the economists who were of the opinion that the underdevelopment in any country is completely and endogenously internal problem of the economy which is a result of some inadequacies and deficiency of the country itself. They opined that in order to address the inadequacy and the deficiency in the underdeveloped economy truly the nation has to analyze the root causes which were present in the imbalance of the international economic relations where the developed countries dominated with its established orders. Hence to break the vicious circle of underdevelopment the prime concern will be to address the relationship of dependence- domination which has restricted the countries of South from creating a true development strategy. This is the time when the debate on the prevailing economic order originated the reby implying a need to reshape the principles by disapproving the old ones. While the economists were engaged in the debate the jurist had a new approach to address the issue that is they brought in the concept of international development law which would take into considerations the rights and interest of the countries of South. This was a diversion from the conventional analysis of development issues but the third world countries viewed the approach as new and interesting but they were of the opinion that the approach did not consider the changes required to meet the demands. The analysis was carried forward by a series of proposals concerning the changes that are required in the aspect of international relations and

Strategic Management and Business Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Management and Business Policy - Essay Example In 1995 Fortune magazine began to include service companies in its Fortune 500 list and by doing so Wal-Mart entered in at a ranking of fourth. Since then the company has remained on the list, climbing the ranks until it reached number one in 2002, where it remains today, with a growth rate of about 15%. "The revenues reflect domestic and international expansion and an increase in same store sales. Net income also benefited from reduced inventory shrinkage, improved merchandising, and a decrease in interest costs of capital leases." (Reuters) Wal-Mart does not formally spend time and resources on developing a corporate mission statement. Nor do they commit resources to research and development. The company follows a 'down home' approach to business woven into the corporate culture by its founder, Sam Walton. His approach to business was personal, with a high amount of resources devoted to community relationship. The retail giant has settled on the market segment which looks for low prices as the most important factor influencing the buying decision. The result is that Wal-Mart is perceived as a friendly place to purchase goods at low prices. This marketing approach has served the retail giant well. The corporation has a board which consists of internal membe... The internal members are concerned with the day to day of the organization, and the external members can take a wider view of the company's overall image, and influence in the community it serves. This approach to ongoing corporate governance keeps the organization grounded to the community, and allows it to function without the formal mission statement. The board serves as a rudder in the crosscurrents of today's business environment. III. External Environment. Wal-Mart employs a Buy American program, and stocks its shelves with many American goods. Wal-Mart has gained a lot of popularity through this program, and many Americans applaud Wal-Mart for its commitment to domestic manufacturers instead of catering to cheap foreign suppliers. But suppliers have complained that this has shut out non-Americans companies and suppliers from distributing through the Wal-Mart chain. This approach to business carries with it both positive and negative consequences. The company has wide product selection at deep discounts, but a slowing national economy could limit product diversity, as well as price flexibility. The company has a strong position in discount retail market but is not engaged in research and development for future market positioning. Wal-Mart is increasing market share, but faces potential market saturation and decreased profit margin without availing itself of increased product diversity. Within the communities it serves, Wal-Mart provides new jobs, often in rural areas which have limited employment potential. But the consequences of which are that many small businesses are often forced to close as a result of the price competition within a limited market. The unintended results can be development of customer loyalty, or a

A Good Man is Hard to Find in Bel Kaufman’s “Sunday in the Park” Essay Example for Free

A Good Man is Hard to Find in Bel Kaufman’s â€Å"Sunday in the Park† Essay The story â€Å"Sunday in the Park† by Bel Kaufman presents both characters of man according to a woman’s point of view negatively, thus stating that a woman could never find a â€Å"good man†. The setting which the narrator paints as a common Sunday afternoon sets up the mood wherein she expresses her desire to have a good life with a good man by her side. It has built a surrounding of peace and calmness which the narrator proudly states to herself. Unfortunately, such expectations are easily defeated by the upturn of events when her son is suddenly bullied by another child and the surrounding suddenly emits a certain tension wherein a mother is poised to protect her child. But the worst scenario that the woman encounters is when her expectation from her husband does not materialize. The character of Morton is shown as an educated family man bound to his books and his social role. He portrays a weak and frail man who cannot defend himself; therefore instead of facing problems, he runs or avoids them. His evasive character creates an impact wherein the woman feels that no one will be able to defend neither her nor her child. Faced with the arrogant father, Morton says â€Å"Come on, let’s get out of here† (Kaufman). His character is a disappointment because of her earlier realization that she wants her child to learn to fight for himself. The narrator mentions, â€Å"She always said that she wanted Larry to learn to fight his own battles† (Kaufman). She also expects that her son would not be running from problems, but what Morton has showed is cowardice and a total contradiction to what she wants Larry to learn. A woman wants her husband to be the protector, one who would show courage or great strength, but in the story the character of the guy is that of a loser which is also shown by some men who are very good in earning money but poor in facing problems. The narrator does not really want a fight to happen just as a woman who wants peace in her everyday life. But as a wife, she has her own expectations from her husband; thus when a man runs away from his own problems the woman is there to gather greater strength from within. The narrator expects herself as dictated by the society to be the weaker one and backs off when she sees her husband: â€Å"She felt a sudden weakness in her knees as she glanced at Morton† (Kaufman). He has become aware of what is happening, which shows that she gets weak as expected of a woman to be and the man to fight for his family as he is expected to. There is a major dent in that certain role of expectations as when a man is with a woman. He should be able to protect her and to show off what he is capable of doing, but Morton is not that kind of man. Thus in this story, a woman learns to live life struggling alone knowing that she has only herself. The reality that the woman has learned to defend herself has taken step to the point that she finds security in herself rather than in the shadow of a man. She has pulled herself to the point that certain roles in the society are put aside. A woman wants something more than someone to support her but also give her the sense of security and the feeling of being protected, — â€Å"She felt dimly it had something to do with her and Morton, something acutely personal, familiar, and important† (Kaufman). This statement points to the implication to the woman of the confrontation episode she just witnessed. To her, what happened is bigger than what is seems because it affects both her and her son’s capability to stand up for himself. She then takes every aspect into consideration after everything that has happened not only in the physical and financial aspect but also the moral and emotional part of the family. The character of the antagonist who is the bully of a father portrays a very negative aspect of a man pointing out the fact that there are physically endowed men who are shallow yet daring and bold enough to show courage only in their physical aspects. The arrogant father shows protection to his child in the wrong way. His being uneducated is shown by how he deals with the situation that happens between his son and Larry: â€Å"You go right ahead, Joe,† he says loudly (Kaufman). â€Å"Throw all you want. This here is a public sandbox. † His arrogance was supposedly a means of self-defense, hiding his idiocy. The character also shows the lack of proper behavior by some men who would fight even for the wrong reasons. He has showed a justification of his child’s wrong actions and the implication that even it is wrong he teaches his child that he should fight for his so-called rights: â€Å"My kid’s got just as good right here as yours, and if he feels like throwing sand, he’ll throw it, and if you don’t like it, you can take your kid the hell out of here† (Kaufman). The point of view of the narrator which is limited omniscient describes the story as something personal and something the reader should ponder upon with his or her own opinion and add it up with his or her own point of view. The narrator’s point of view wherein she does not fully understand the character of her own husband, Morton and the part wherein what she expected of him is not what he did, would bring the reader to think about the partner in life that he or she is with or is about to be with. The point of view also reveals how the woman assesses the situation and reveals the real dilemma in the story. In the story it is strongly emphasized that neither characters portrayed a good man. It proves the truth behind those superficially strong guys who are actually weak intellectually and are just arrogant in the outside but shallow in the inside and the truth behind those men who are very successful in business or have professional status but are weak in terms of facing reality. The story demonstrates that a woman could never find a â€Å"good man†, or someone who would fit all the qualifications and expectations that a woman wants a certain man to be. It tells that no man would be capable of doing everything that a woman expects him to do that is why a woman should choose carefully and properly who she should spend her life with. This is not a matter of finding a â€Å"good man† but in finding the â€Å"best man† for a certain woman. A man should compliment what a woman doesn’t have and a woman should be what that man is not. Finding a man doesn’t have to be dictated by social rules nor by social status because there will never be such a thing as a â€Å"good man†. Work Cited Kaufman, Bel. â€Å"Sunday in the Park. † Professor Emeritus Bruce Taylor Page. University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. 2009. 12 March 2009 www. uwec. edu/taylorb/Short%20Fiction%20Eng%20274/274%20files/Sunday%20in%20the%20Park. doc

Unethical Business Research Essay Example for Free

Unethical Business Research Essay Research is important in any business to interpret data being collected to improve or make new discoveries. The article read was about Dr. Woo Suk Hwang who used unethical research to enhance his career in the world of science. Hwang hurt everyone who was involved in his work. Leading people to believe that his research was real he provided false hope into his new discoveries. Trying to figure out why he would want to ruin his career and how this could have been avoided is important to why he used fabricated research. Looking into the unethical decisions made by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang will help people see what could be possible consequences for using false results in research material. Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University (SNU), began his work in 1999 when he told how he could clone an animal (Logan, Park, amp; Jeon, 2010). People began to treat Hwang like a hero after publishing two papers about stem cells in 2004 and 2005 in Science and later a paper in Nature where it was talking of how he cloned the first dog (Logan, Park, amp; Jeon, 2010). In late December 2005, Hwang was found to have falsified data by an internal investigation at SNU (Logan, Park, amp; Jeon, 2010). SNU formed a panel to investigate the charges and within about four weeks they compiled a fifty page report (Kukak, 2009). The results of SNU’s investigation released in late December 2005 which was followed by the withdrawal of Hwang’s work by Science in January 2006 and Hwang’s acknowledgement of scientific fraud in March 2006 (Logan, Park, amp; Jeon, 2010). While conducting his research Hwang falsified his results by not citing accurate results and not providing the participants with information on the serious risks of egg donation. South Korean’s National Board of Bioethics indicated that not all the donors received information on the serious health risks of egg donation, furthermore, sixteen donors required treatment for effects from the procedure( Kukak, 2009). By not providing people accurate risks Hwang failed to protect his research participants. Hwang also falsified the papers in Science which were illed with false research that has never been accurately recorded. This could lead to people going off research that had never been tried and cause harm to new researchers. Hwang hurt several people by the inappropriate research that was acquired. Before the results of SNU’s results of the internal investigation Hwang was considered to be Korea’s most important scientist (Logan, Park, amp; Jeon, 2010). When it was uncovered to be false data and that the research was not real it hurt everyone who believed in him. This helped the community to see that further actions needed to be taken to see that this could no longer negatively impact the entire scientific community. The society saw that wanting to push further in stem cell research was important but making up false information was not the way intended to achieve this important landmark. The first reactions to the scandal focused on the case: the detrimental effects on public trust toward science and stem cell research, the economic damages in the field’s funding, the loss in the market value of the biotech industry, and also the negative effects on the policy debate (Kakuk, 2009). The unethical behavior committed by Hwang has caused scientific magazines and the press to be careful when publishing information for their articles (Kakuk, 2009). After the scandal the journal decided to establish an independent panel to evaluate the publication process (Kakuk, 2009). Dr. Hwang was affected by having his papers editorially retracted form the Journal after the huge amount of fabricated data was found (Kakuk, 2009). Hwang later admitted to various deceptions and was fired form the university on March 20, 2006 (Kakuk, 2009). The society was also negatively impacted because now further movement in this field may not be researched. This in turn can take away form the funding and jobs that might of developed upon successful results of the correctly gathered data. Unethical behavior used by Hwang could have been avoided by correctly reporting the gathered data. This case helped to highlight a need for internationally accepted guidelines for the conduct of research (Kakuk, 2009). If Hwang would have valued his coworkers and his own abilities as a scientist this case would have failed to exist. Hwang became pushed by the society to produce results and ended up letting everyone down. Trying to please others led to the dismissal of Hwang’s job and the respect of his believers. Dr. Hwang’s case showed how unethical research can lead to the dismissal of your livelihood and career. A highly talented individual is now living a life of what ethics can do when you decide to abuse them. Looking at his research people were amazed to hear what was being accomplished and saw him as a hero. Shortly after Hwang was dishonored and made to show the consequences of not using strong ethics to make positive decisions. Hwang affected his coworkers, scientists, and his society by using governmental funding to create false data that people used before the realization that what they thought to be true was only determined to be a lie.

Effects of Teaching Methods on Accelerated Learning

Effects of Teaching Methods on Accelerated Learning Teaching techniques and their effectiveness in developing accelerated learning within UK schools and colleges Table of Contents (Jump to) 1. Research Background 2. Literature Review 3. Aims Objectives 4. Research Methodology Analysis References and Bibliography 1. Research Background The author of this report was taught using the traditional methods of teaching throughout the student life. The author came to know about a technique known as brain gym through an acquaintance and became aware of such techniques. This encouraged the author at a later stage to develop an understanding of accelerated learning and to see if it was considered effective by practitioners. Consequently, the author decided to base the dissertation on this topic within the context of English primary schools and colleges. After initiating the research the author realised that there was so much more to the topic of accelerated learning, and that there were numerous techniques associated with it that claimed to improve students learning. Hence the idea was to base the work on finding out how popular these teaching techniques were in relation to others and whether traditional teachers considered them effective. 2. Literature Review There is a huge amount of literature surrounding accelerated learning theory and different teaching techniques that claim to help develop students learning. In this section the author will make reference to a variety of techniques that are linked to accelerated learning theory but will discuss their perceived effectiveness in different situations while conducting the detailed literature review. While doing the complete literature review he author will also explore the current literature that describes the brains structure and how learning occurs, in order to help the readers understanding of how these various teaching technique help learning. Student centered education allow student to develop their real abilities by not distorting learning: this philosophy does not support traditional teaching techniques. The idea was originally conceived by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762. It was thought that we should not focus on what information to teach students (primarily student’s), but teach subjects and skills in accordance to what natural talents a student possesses. The student will then develop in to a life long learner as each of them develops through stages (Sutherland, 1988). This idea has been associated with current educational policy that encourages us to become life long learners. Learning is not just about academic knowledge but is an experience that should be positive if it is to be effective. The author will now cite some of the techniques that were identified during the preliminary literature review. Brain gym is one such technique that is used to promote learning and is supposed to be effective when used with academic skills. Brain gym is used in educational kinesiology (Edu-k). There are three main types of activity that promote different processes: Crossing the midline essential for writing and reading, Lengthening activities helps in expression of stored memory, skills such as test taking, speech and writing, Energy exercises helps to decrease stress and fatigue, increases the flow of energy around the body (Magidson, 2004, p.2). The ability to cross the midline refers to an individual being able to cross and use both hemispheres at once, where different types of information can be processed and moved from left to right and right to left. Some scientists suggest that this process is a key skill required for academic success (Dennison et al 1994). Brain gym activities have been created to help learners cross the midline in order to help improve co-ordination, breathing and stamina, enhance vision and hearing and improve spatial awareness (Cohen et al 2002). Skills that may improve include short-term memory and concentration (Drabben-Thiemann et al, 2001). There is some criticism of the technique because any form of physical activity seems to create a relaxed state (Adey et al, 2002). Target setting has been used to help individuals learn more effectively by organising information in to sections in the form of a target to be achieved. It is supposed to help the learner make sense of information and feel as if the task can be achieved in small steps. The brain stores information, and then retrieves it when appropriate in the form of memory. The short-term or working memory has limited capacity, compared to our long-term memory that is much greater (Prashnig, 1998). Learning tends to be more effective when spread out over a period of time with numerous revisits (Long, 2000). Target setting should review work regularly and be connected with other work if it is to enhance long-term memory; this requires consistency and the allocation of time to ensure the technique is effective. Like a placebo, if success is created in learning it is likely to be recreated in a similar experience (Stockwell, 1992). Target setting is suggested to be difficult to use in practice because the system is time consuming to set up (Naughton et al, 2001). VAK input technique uses different methods to present information and various activities to engage the students attention; depending on the way they prefer to process information. There are allegedly different types of learners: visual, auditory and kina-esthetic (Smith 1996). Neuro-lingusitic programming research has implied that in a class there are a certain percentage of learners who prefer one of the three types of input. Approximately 29% of learners prefer visual input methods, 34% auditory and 37% are kinaesthetic learners; teachers also subconsciously teach using their preferred method of input (IAL 2000). The traditional assumption that learning is more effective in a quiet atmosphere has been challenged by research conducted in to the effects of music on learning. Research in New Zealand implied that 40% of high school students preferred noisy environments to silent ones (Prashnig, 1998). When this technique is used in lessons it appears to stimulate activity in both hemispheres (Schuster el al, 1986). Educators need to be trained on what type of music has different effects on the state created in learners, if this technique is to be used (Northumberland LEA, 2004). Teachers tend to use a mixture of approaches depending on the situation in which they teach. Some are considered more effective than others, although each technique usually derives from a specific theory. There is an increasing amount of research being conducted on how we learn and what techniques may help. However one must remain cautious about how we apply these finding, because each one is dependent on the circumstances in which it was created. 3. Aims Objectives The primary aim of the research is to find out the different teaching techniques that are used and to determine if those associated with accelerated learning theory are popular, together with how effective they are in developing students learning. Additionally this dissertation will also provide with accurate, up-to-date, research-based information about possible future trends in accelerated learning techniques. And lastly, this research will try to provide possible suggestions and recommendations to be considered for the improvement of such techniques to develop ideas for further research in this context. To summarize some of the questions that will be addressed through this research are as follows: What teaching techniques are used to develop students learning? The need for such techniques to be used? Effectiveness and implications of such techniques? What are the possible alternatives? Student involvement in the use of such techniques? 4. Research Methodology Analysis A collection of methodologies will be used to carry out this research. Both primary and secondary data will be collected for this purpose. The secondary data will comprise of data from literature reviewed from books, journals, Internet and the annual reports of the institutions while the primary data will take the form of information/results collected from the case study and questionnaire. The researcher has chosen the Case study and Survey strategies for the research. Both of them are common and popular strategy in educational research. â€Å"A case study is a detailed examination of one setting, or one single subject, or one single repository of documents, or one particular event [Bogdan and Biklen, 1982].† Case study approach is categorized as ‘Non-Participant’ qualitative research. Therefore, the first stage of research will comprise of short listing of the educational institutions where the case studies will be carried out. The first criteria will be selecting those institutions that employ accelerated learning techniques. Educational institutions with traditional setting will also be included in the case study for comparative analysis. Survey research is one of the most widely used forms of research among the educational researchers. It involves researchers asking a large group of people questions about a particular topic. All surveys possess three basic characteristics: (1) the collection of information (2) from a sample (3) by asking a question. A survey can be carried out by conducting interviews with individuals or groups and use of questionnaires. In the second stage of the research the researcher will use a detailed questionnaire, testing quantitatively a much larger sample of teachers. Based on the initial literature review the author will prepare a preliminary questionnaire which be circulated to a small sample. Based on the results of the initial response the questionnaire will be refined and will be sent to a much larger sample. Research analysis will be done based on the method proposed by Hycner (1985). According to him, the analysis requires the researcher to read the transcripts; identify themes; confirm the accuracy of the interpretation and produce a final summary. Thus the information will be analyzed accordingly and a brief summary will be prepared. References Adey, P. Robertson, A. Venville, G. (2002) Effects of a cognitive acceleration programme on Year 1 pupils British Journal of Educational Psychology 72 (1) pp.1-25 Bogdan, R. and Biklen, S. (1982). Qualitative Research for education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Brain Gym International (ONLINE www.braingym.org). Burns, N., Grove, S. K. (1997). The practice of nursing research. Conduct, critique and utilization. Philadelphia: W.B.Saunders. Cannell, C. Fowler, F. J. Kalton, G. Oksenberg, E. Bischoping, K. (2004) New quantitative techniques for presenting survey questions in Bulmer M (ed) Questionnaires Volume IV Eondon: SAGE Publications Etd. Cohen, I. Goldsmith, M. (2002) Hands on how to use brain gym in the classroom Ventura: Edu-Kinesthetics Inc. Dennison, D. Dennison, G. (1994) Brain gym teachers edition revised 2 ed. Califonia: Edu-Kinesthetics Inc. Dennison, G. (2001) Brain gym for preschoolers in a Headstart Program USA: Brain Gym International (ONEINE http://www.braingym.org/). Drabben-Thiemann G Hedwig D Kenklies M Yon Blomberg A Marahrens G Marahrens A Hager K (2001) The effects of brain gym on the cognitive performance of Alzheimers patients Brain Gym Journal XVI (1) pp.10, USA: Brain Gym International (ONLINE www.braingym.org). Hycner, R H (1985) Some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of interview data, Human Studies 8, 279-303 International Alliance for Learning (IAL) (2000) Spirit of accelerated learning; unity, self systems and society Atlanta: Teach America Cooperation. Long M (2000) The psychology of education London: RoutledgeFalmer, Magidson E L (2004) Educational kinesiology and brain gym. Creative Counseling Consulting (ONLINE http://members.aol.com/braingym/bg.htmr). Naughton G M Rolfe S A Siraj-Blatchford I (2001) International Perspectives on theory and practice Buckingham: Open University Press Northumberland LEA (2004) The thinking classroom Northumberland: LEA (ONLINE http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/). Prashnig B (1998) The power of diversity new ways of learning and teaching Stafford: Network Educational Press Ltd. Schuster D H Gritton C E (1986) Suggestive accelerative learning techniques London: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. Smith A (1996) Accelerated learning in the classroom Stafford: Network Educational Press Stockwell T (1992) Accelerated learning in theory and practice Liechtenstein: Druckerei Gutenburg AG Sutherland M (1988) Theory of education Harlow: Longman

Maslow Essays -- essays research papers

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Introduction Like in sports, in business the performance of team is not just based on the individual talents. It is also, and maybe even more, based on the global efficiency of the team. To be efficient, a team leader needs to ensure that all the team players are pulling at the same rope, towards the same direction. That first step ensures that all the energy that is spent, is used in favor of the objective and not against it. A second step is to set the team organization, in a way that each team member is in the position to deliver its maximum performance. To make this possible, a team leader has to understand the individuals’ and interpersonal dynamics of the team. Personality tests and concepts such as the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are two of the most used tools used by leaders to understand and manage these dynamics. Criteria to use when selecting a team member   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An individual’s resume will tell what one can do, but it will not tell how well one will be able to do it, in a given team and situation. Team leaders have to select team members for skills but also for their potential to fit and perform well in the team. As Kris Frieswick says â€Å"companies are increasingly taking steps to ensure that the hires they make are a good fit, not only with the job description but also with the people whom they will be working† (Frieswick, 2004). While making sure that one will fit well in a work environment, it is also important to ensure that one will be motivated to perform well. â€Å"Since management is all about getting things done through others, knowing [what motivates] and how to motivate others can improve the effectiveness of the managers†. (Buhler, 2003). The selection process used in the simulation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The members selected in the simulation are Daniel Nichols, Lisa Stafford, Nicola Minelli and John Connor. They all are good performers at work, which demonstrate that put in the right situation they can achieve and exceed their objectives. They all have different levels of aptitudes in areas such as manage conflicts, communicate with others, meet a deadline, analyze and report on a situation or take the appropriate actions to solve a problem. All these aptitudes were required at different levels to complete the... ...while â€Å"Perceivers† will keep their mind opened for new discussion and analysis. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As George Hayhoe says, â€Å"Abraham Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs holds that much of human behavior is motivated by unsatisfied needs and the lower-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs can be addressed.† (Hayhoe, 2004). Maslow defines the human needs in five categories, often represented as a pyramid. From the bottom, one can find the â€Å"physiological† need such as food and water. The second level is the need for â€Å"safety†, which includes physical and emotional needs for safety. The third level is the â€Å"social† need, the need to belong to a group such as family or friends. The fourth level is the need for â€Å"esteem† such as being appreciated and being confident. The fifth and last level is the need for â€Å"self-actualization†. In this highest category, the objective is to achieve a level of competency in a certain activity or mastery of a skill (Jones, 2004). It is not for in dividuals to feel being better than others are, is to â€Å"have peace and satisfaction in who they are and what they are capable of doing† (Jones, 2004).

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay -- Essays Papers

Their Eyes Were Watching God In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie battles to find Individualism within herself. Janie, all her life, had been pushed around and told what to do and how to live her life. She searched and searched high and low to find a peace that makes her whole and makes her feel like a complete person. To make her feel like she is in fact an individual and that she’s not like everyone else around her. During the time of ‘Their Eyes’, the correct way to treat women was to show them who was in charge and who was inferior. Men were looked to as the superior being, the one who women were supposed to look up to and serve. Especially in the fact that Janie was an African American women during these oppressed times. Throughout this book, it looks as though Janie makes many mistakes in trying to find who she really is, and achieving the respect that she deserves. Living with her Grandmother and theWashburns’, Janie was surrounded and raised with white children. She always believed that she was white herself, and that she was no different than anybody else. As she was growing up, she was told what to do and how to live by her grandmother. Janie’s grandmother planned her life out for her. She told her that she must get married right away. â€Å"Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin’ up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.† Janie’s grandmother did want what was best for Janie, but she basically told her what to do instead of letting her know what she wanted for her. Janie’s grandmother told her exactly who she was going to marry and who she wasn’t even to think about. â€Å"Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don’t want no trashy negro, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usinâ€⠄¢ yo’ body to wipe his foots on. Brother Logan Killicks, he’s a good man.......You answer me when Ah speak. Don’t you set dere poutin’ wid me after all Ah done went through for you!† She is basically telling Janie that she can’t marry Johnny Taylor, the one she is exploring her womanhood with, the one she wants, and that she must marry Logan, for protection. Towards the end of the book, Janie resents her grandmother for â€Å"living† her life for her and planning her future. To find out what will happen in a persons future, they need to live their life on their own an... ... and scratching the dandruff from her scalp.† Tea Cake and Janie obviously shared a special love between them as their relationship grew. The things he did for her made her feel unbelievable. They did things she had never even thought of. Tea Cake took her places she had never been. â€Å"To Janie’s strange eyes, everything in the Everglades was big and new.† Janie went to many new places and met many new people that she would’ve never met had she stayed with Logan or stayed in Eatonville with Joe. She would’ve just kept on living the same life...never doing anything new with the same boring people. With Tea Cake, Janie began to work, and to feel a certain freedom she had never felt before. Janie found what she was looking for. She searched all her life to find what was within herself, and one special person was all that was needed to bring it out in her. Even though her and Tea Cake’s relationship ended in a tragedy, she knew that he really loved her for who she was. She didn’t need to be with him for protection, or she didn’t need to be the leading lady of a town or a mayor’s wife, she just needed the right kind of love and affection to bring out what was best in her.

Suffer The Little Children - S :: essays research papers

In this paper, Im going to take a formalist approach to look at language, tone and structure of Suffer the Little Children by Stephen King. This story is not just about a particular teacher or a particular student; it is more about a disturbed ladys state of mind, and my work will give emphasis to the characterization the author uses through the text. The first thing I would like to talk about is Kings use of language in this story. He begins by describing Miss Sidley as a small, constantly suffering, gimlet-eyed woman. He also mentioned that she knows she is getting old, and the word Miss before her name allowed us to know that she is not married. She is an unhappy woman. We can gather what kind of person she is from her reference to the children as monsters, bitches, evils, who have nasty little games. The diction of the story emphasizes wickedness. King uses metaphors, and almost every one of them suggests a likeness with something evil, taking for example the giggling, like the laughter of demons...or they were ringed in a tight little circle, like mourners around an open grave. Irony also exists in this story. Sidley seems to be the ideal teacher, who is efficient at her job and knows how to keep her students quite in class, when actually she is the one who has a disturbing behavior and ends up surprising her colleague in sch ool when she is found about to kill one more child. King also used an interesting style to introduce a new character to the story: Buddy Jenkins was his name, psychiatry was his game. As soon as we read it, we immeadiately know he will have a destiny such as Sidleys because that was exactly the way she was introduced (Miss Sidley was her name, teaching was her game). The writer also uses italic writing to emphasize the teachers toughts. However, the presence of one or two loose words in the middle of sentences will contribute to cause an eye effect, to catch the readers attention to those words, such as admit, change and she. King gave this story a dark tone about which theres nothing cheerful. No colors. Anyone who reads the story will be able to see an obscure atmosphere. I would like to mention that the author uses expressions such as unrestful night and solitary dinner througout the text, and the word darkness appears many times.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY

I didn't see them at first, which wasn't surprising; it seemed that half of Castle Rock was on the town common as that sultry Saturday afternoon edged on toward evening. The air was bright with hazy midsummer light, and in it kids swarmed over the playground equipment, a number of old men in bright red vests some sort of club, I assumed played chess, and a group of young people lay on the grass listening to a teenager in a headband playing the guitar and singing one I remembered from an old Ian and Sylvia record, a cheery tune that went ‘Ella Speed was havin her lovin fun, John Martin shot Ella with a Colt forty-one . . . ‘ I saw no joggers, and no dogs chasing Frisbees. It was just too goddam hot. I was turning to look at the bandshell, where an eight-man combo called The Castle Rockers was setting up (I had an idea ‘In the Mood' was about as close as they got to rock and roll), when a small person hit me from behind, grabbing me just above the knees and almost dumping me on the grass. ‘Gotcha!' the small person cried gleefully. ‘Kyra Devore!' Mattie called, sounding both amused and irritated. ‘You'll knock him down!' I turned, dropped the grease-spotted McDonald's bag I had been carrying, and lifted the kid up. It felt natural, and it felt wonderful. You don't realize the weight of a healthy child until you hold one, nor do you fully comprehend the life that runs through them like a bright wire. I didn't get choked up (‘Don't go all corny on me, Mike,' Siddy would sometimes whisper when we were kids at the movies and I got wet-eyed at a sad part), but I thought of Jo, yes. And the child she had been carrying when she fell down in that stupid parking lot, yes to that, too. Ki was squealing and laughing, her arms outspread and her hair hanging down in two amusing clumps accented by Raggedy Ann and Andy barrettes. ‘Don't tackle your own quarterback!' I yelled, grinning, and to my delight she yelled it right back at me: ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack! Don't taggle yer own quartermack!' I set her on her feet, both of us laughing. Ki took a step backward, tripped herself, and sat down on the grass, laughing harder than ever. I had a mean thought, then, brief but oh so clear: if only the old lizard could see how much he was missed. How sad we were at his passing. Mattie walked over, and tonight she looked as I'd half-imagined her when I first met her like one of those lovely children of privilege you see at the country club, either goofing with their friends or sitting seriously at dinner with their parents. She was in a white sleeveless dress and low heels, her hair falling loose around her shoulders, a touch of lipstick on her mouth. Her eyes had a brilliance in them that hadn't been there before. When she hugged me I could smell her perfume and feel the press of her firm little breasts. I kissed her cheek; she kissed me high up on the jaw, making a smack in my ear that I felt all the way down my back. ‘Say things are going to be better now,' she whispered, still holding me. ‘Lots better now,' I said, and she hugged me again, tight. Then she stepped away ‘You better have brought plenty food, big boy, because we plenty hungry womens. Right, Kyra?' ‘I taggled my own quartermack,' Ki said, then leaned back on her elbows, giggling deliciously at the bright and hazy sky. ‘Come on,' I said, and grabbed her by the middle I toted her that way to a nearby picnic table, Ki kicking her legs and waving her arms and laughing I set her down on the bench; she slid off it and beneath the table, boneless as an eel and still laughing. ‘All right, Kyra Elizabeth,' Mattie said. ‘Sit up and show the other side' ‘Good girl, good girl,' she said, clambering up beside me. ‘That's the other side to me, Mike' ‘I'm sure,' I said. Inside the bag there were Big Macs and fries for Mattie and me. For Ki there was a colorful box upon which Ronald McDonald and his unindicted co-conspirators capered. ‘Mattie, I got a Happy Meal! Mike got me a Happy Meal! They have toys!' ‘Well see what yours is.' Kyra opened the box, poked around, then smiled It lit up her whole face She brought out something that I at first thought was a big dust-ball For one horrible second I was back in my dream, the one of Jo under the bed with the book over her face Give me that, she had snarled It's my dust-catcher. And something else, too some other association, perhaps from some other dream I couldn't get hold of it. ‘Mike?' Mattie asked. Curiosity in her voice, and maybe borderline concern. ‘It's a doggy!' Ki said ‘I won a doggy in my Happy Meal!' Yes; of course A dog. A little stuffed dog. And it was gray, not black . . . although why I'd care about the color either way I didn't know. ‘That's a pretty good prize,' I said, taking it. It was soft, which was good, and it was gray, which was better Being gray made it all right, somehow Crazy but true I handed it back to her and smiled. ‘What's his name?' Ki asked, jumping the little dog back and forth across her Happy Meal box. ‘What doggy's name, Mike?' And, without thinking, I said, ‘Strickland.' I thought she'd look puzzled, but she didn't. She looked delighted. ‘Stricken!' she said, bouncing the dog back and forth in ever-higher leaps over the box. ‘Stricken! Stricken! My dog Stricken!' ‘Who's this guy Strickland?' Mattie asked, smiling a little. She had begun to unwrap her hamburger. ‘A character in a book I read once,' I said, watching Ki play with the little puffball dog. ‘No one real.' ‘My grampa died,' she said five minutes later. We were still at the picnic table but the food was mostly gone. Strickland the stuffed puffball had been set to guard the remaining french fries. I had been scanning the ebb and flow of people, wondering who was here from the TR observing our tryst and simply burning to carry the news back home. I saw no one I knew, but that didn't mean a whole tot, considering how long I'd been away from this part of the world. Mattie put down her burger and looked at Ki with some anxiety, but I thought the kid was okay she had been giving news, not expressing grief. ‘I know he did,' I said. ‘Grampa was awful old.' Ki pinched a couple of french fries between her pudgy little fingers. They rose to her mouth, then gloop, all gone. ‘He's with Lord Jesus now. We had all about Lord Jesus in VBS.' Yes, Ki, I thought, right now Grampy's probably teaching Lord Jesus how to use Pixel Easel and asking if there might be a whore handy. ‘Lord Jesus walked on water and also changed the wine into macaroni.' ‘Yes, something like that,' I said. ‘It's sad when people die, isn't it?' ‘It would be sad if Mattie died, and it would be sad if you died, but Grampy was old.' She said it as though I hadn't quite grasped this concept the first time. ‘In heaven he'll get all fixed up.' ‘That's a good way to look at it, hon,' I said. Mattie did maintenance on Ki's drooping barrettes, working carefully and with a kind of absent love. I thought she glowed in the summer light, her skin in smooth, tanned contrast to the white dress she had probably bought at one of the discount stores, and I understood that I loved her. Maybe that was all right. ‘I miss the white nana, though,' Ki said, and this time she did look sad. She picked up the stuffed dog, tried to feed him a french fry, then put him down again. Her small, pretty face looked pensive now, and I could see a whisper of her grandfather in it. It was far back but it was there, perceptible, another ghost. ‘Mom says white nana went back to California with Grampy's early remains.' ‘Earthly remains, Ki-bird,' Mattie said. ‘That means his body.' ‘Will white nana come back and see me, Mike?' ‘I don't know.' ‘We had a game. It was all rhymes.' She looked more pensive than ever. ‘Your mom told me about that game,' I said. ‘She won't be back,' Ki said, answering her own question. One very large tear rolled down her right cheek. She picked up ‘Stricken,' stood him on his back legs for a second, then put him back on guard-duty. Mattie slipped an arm around her, but Ki didn't seem to notice. ‘White nana didn't really like me. She was just pretending to like me. That was her job.' Mattie and I exchanged a glance. ‘What makes you say that?' I asked. ‘Don't know,' Ki said. Over by where the kid was playing the guitar, a juggler in whiteface had started up, working with half a dozen colored balls. Kyra brightened a little. ‘Mommy-bommy, may I go watch that funny white man?' ‘Are you done eating?' ‘Yeah, I'm full.' ‘Thank Mike.' ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack,' she said, then laughed kindly to show she was just pulling my leg. ‘Thanks, Mike.' ‘Not a problem,' I said, and then, because that sounded a little old-fashioned: ‘Kickin.' ‘You can go as far as that tree, but no farther,' Mattie said. ‘And you know why.' ‘So you can see me. I will.' She grabbed Strickland and started to run off, then stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. ‘I guess it was the fridgeafator people,' she said, then corrected herself very carefully and seriously. ‘The ree fridge-a-rator people.' My heart took a hard double beat in my chest. ‘It was the refrigerator people what, Ki?' I asked. ‘That said white nana didn't really like me.' Then she ran off toward the juggler, oblivious to the heat. Mattie watched her go, then turned back to me. ‘I haven't talked to anybody about Ki's fridgeafator people. Neither has she, until now. Not that there are any real people, but the letters seem to move around by themselves. It's like a Ouija board.' ‘Do they spell things?' For a long time she said nothing. Then she nodded. ‘Not always, but sometimes.' Another pause. ‘Most times, actually. Ki calls it mail from the people in the refrigerator.' She smiled, but her eyes were a little scared. ‘Are they special magnetic letters, do you think? Or have we got a poltergeist working the lakefront?' ‘I don't know. I'm sorry I brought them, if they're a problem.' ‘Don't be silly. You gave them to her, and you're a tremendously big deal to her right now. She talks about you all the time. She was much more interested in picking out something pretty to wear for you tonight than she was in her grandfather's death. I was supposed to wear something pretty, too, Kyra insisted. She's not that way about people, usually she takes them when they're there and leaves them when they're gone. That's not such a bad way for a little girl to grow up, I sometimes think.' ‘You both dressed pretty,' I said. ‘That much I'm sure of.' ‘Thanks.' She looked fondly at Ki, who stood by the tree watching the juggler. He had put his rubber balls aside and moved on to Indian clubs. Then she looked back at me. ‘Are we done eating?' I nodded, and Mattie began to pick up the trash and stuff it back into the take-out bag. I helped, and when our fingers touched, she gripped my hand and squeezed. ‘Thank you,' she said. ‘For everything you've done. Thank you so damn much.' I squeezed back, then let go. ‘You know,' she said, ‘it's crossed my mind that Kyra's moving the letters around herself. Mentally.' ‘Telekinesis?' ‘I guess that's the technical term. Only Ki can't spell much more than â€Å"dog† and â€Å"cat.† ‘What's showing up on the fridge?' ‘Names, mostly. Once it was yours. Once it was your wife's.' ‘Jo?' ‘The whole thing JOANNA. And NANA. Rogette, I presume. JARED shows up sometimes, and BRIDGET. Once there was KITO.' She spelled it. ‘Kito,' I said, and thought: Kyra, Kia, Kito. What is this? ‘A boy's name, do you think?' ‘I know it is. It's Swahili, and means precious child. I looked it up in my baby-name book.' She glanced toward her own precious child as we walked across the grass to the nearest trash barrel. ‘Any others that you can remember?' She thought. ‘REG has showed up a couple of times. And once there was CARLA. You understand that Ki can't even read these names as a rule, don't you? She has to ask me what they say.' ‘Has it occurred to you that Kyra might be copying them out of a book or a magazine? That she's learning to write using the magnetic letters on the fridge instead of paper and pencil?' ‘I suppose that's possible . . . ‘ She didn't look as if she believed it, though. Not surprising. I didn't believe it myself. ‘I mean, you've never actually seen the letters moving around by themselves on the front of the fridge, have you?' I hoped I sounded as unconcerned asking this question as I wanted to. She laughed a bit nervously. ‘God, no!' ‘Anything else?' ‘Sometimes the fridgeafator people leave messages like HI and BYE and GOOD GIRL. There was one yesterday that I wrote down to show you. Kyra asked me to. It's really weird.' ‘What is it?' ‘I'd rather show you, but I left it in the glove compartment of the Scout. Remind me when we go.' Yes. I would. ‘This is some spooky shit, se?or,' she said. ‘Like the writing in the flour that time.' I thought about telling her I had my own fridgeafator people, then didn't. She had enough to worry about without that . . . or so I told myself. We stood side-by-side on the grass, watching Ki watch the juggler. ‘Did you call John?' I asked. ‘You bet.' ‘His reaction?' She turned to me, laughing with her eyes. ‘He actually sang a verse of â€Å"Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead.† ‘Wrong sex, right sentiment.' She nodded, her eyes going back to Kyra. I thought again how beautiful she looked, her body slim in the white dress, her features clean and perfectly made. ‘Was he pissed at me inviting myself to lunch?' I asked. ‘Nope, he loved the idea of having a party.' A party. He loved the idea. I began to feel rather small. ‘He even suggested we invite your lawyer from last Friday. Mr. Bissonette? Plus the private detective John hired on Mr. Bissonette's recommendation. Is that okay with you?' ‘Fine. How about you, Mattie? Doing okay?' ‘Doing okay,' she agreed, turning to me. ‘I did have several more calls than usual today. I'm suddenly quite popular.' ‘Uh-oh.' ‘Most were hangups, but one gentleman took time enough to call me a cunt, and there was a lady with a very strong Yankee accent who said, ‘Theah, you bitch, you've killed him. Aaa you satisfied?' She hung up before I could tell her yes, very satisfied, thanks.' But Mattie didn't look satisfied; she looked unhappy and guilty, as if she had literally wished him dead. ‘I'm sorry.' ‘It's okay. Really. Kyra and I have been alone for a long time, and I've been scared for most of it. Now I've made a couple of friends. If a few anonymous phone calls are the price I have to pay, I'll pay it.' She was very close, looking up at me, and I couldn't stop myself. I put the blame on summer, her perfume, and four years without a woman. In that order, i slipped my arms around her waist, and remember perfectly the texture of her dress beneath my hands; the slight pucker at the back where the zipper hid in its sleeve. I remember the sensation of the cloth moving against the bare skin beneath. Then I was kissing her, very gently but very thoroughly anything worth doing is worth doing right and she was kissing me back in exactly the same spirit, her mouth curious but not afraid. Her lips were warm and smooth and held some faint sweet taste. Peaches, I think. We stopped at the same time and pulled back a little from each other. Her hands were still on my shoulders. Mine were on the sides of her waist, just above her hips. Her face was composed enough, but her eyes were more brilliant than ever, and there were slants of color in her cheeks, rising along the cheekbones. ‘Oh boy,' she said. ‘I really wanted that. Ever since Ki tackled you and you picked her up I've wanted it.' ‘John wouldn't think much of us kissing in public,' I said. My voice wasn't quite even, and my heart was racing. Seven seconds, one kiss, and every system in my body was red-lining. ‘In fact, John wouldn't think much of us kissing at all. He fancies you, you know.' ‘I know, but I fancy you.' She turned to check on Ki, who was still standing obediently by the tree, watching the juggler. Who might be watching us? Someone who had come over from the TR on a hot summer evening to get ice cream at Frank's Tas-T-Freeze and enjoy a little music and society on the common? Someone who traded for fresh vegetables and fresh gossip at the Lakeview General? A regular at the All-Purpose Garage? This was insanity, and it stayed insanity no matter how you cut it. I dropped my hands from her waist. ‘Mattie, they could put our picture next to â€Å"indiscreet† in the dictionary.' She took her hands off my shoulders and stepped back a pace, but her brilliant eyes never left mine. ‘I know that. I'm young but not entirely stupid.' ‘I didn't mean ‘ She held up a hand to stop me. ‘Ki goes to bed around nine she can't seem to sleep until it's mostly dark. I stay up later. Come and visit me, if you want to. You can park around back.' She smiled a little. It was a sweet smile; it was also incredibly sexy. ‘Once the moon's down, that's an area of discretion.' ‘Mattie, you're young enough to be my daughter.' ‘Maybe, but I'm not. And sometimes people can be too discreet for their own good.' My body knew so emphatically what it wanted. If we had been in her trailer at that moment it would have been no contest. It was almost no contest anyway. Then something recurred to me, something I'd thought about Devore's ancestors and my own: the generations didn't match up. Wasn't the same thing true here? And I don't believe that people automatically have a right to what they want, no matter how badly they want it. Not every thirst should be slaked. Some things are just wrong I guess that's what I'm trying to say. But I wasn't sure this was one of them, and I wanted her, all right. So much. I kept thinking about how her dress had slid when I put my arms around her waist, the warm feel of her skin just beneath. And no, she wasn't my daughter. ‘You said your thanks,' I told her in a dry voice. ‘And that's enough. Really.' ‘You think this is gratitude?' She voiced a low, tense laugh. ‘You're forty, Mike, not eighty. You're not Harrison Ford, but you're a good-looking man. Talented and interesting, too. And I like you such an awful lot. I want you to be with me. Do you want me to say please? Fine. Please be with me.' Yes, this was about more than gratitude I suppose I'd known that even when I was using the word. I'd known she was wearing white shorts and a halter top when she called on the phone the day I went back to work. Had she also known what I was wearing? Had she dreamed she was in bed with me, the two of us screwing our brains out while the party lights shone and Sara Tidwell played her version of the white nana rhyming game, all that crazy Manderley-sanderley-canderley stuff?. Had Mattie dreamed of telling me to do what she wanted? And there were the fridgeafator people. They were another kind of sharing, an even spookier kind. I hadn't quite had nerve enough to tell Mattie about mine, but she might know anyway. Down low in her mind. Down below in her mind, where the blue-collar guys moved around in the zone. Her guys and my guys, all part of the same strange labor union. And maybe it wasn't an issue of morality per se at all. Some thing about it about us just felt dangerous. And oh so attractive. ‘I need time to think,' I said. ‘This isn't about what you think. What do you feel for me?' ‘So much it scares me.' Before I could say anything else, my ears caught a familiar series of chord-changes. I turned toward the kid with the guitar. He had been working through a repertoire of early Dylan, but now he swung into something chuggy and up-tempo, something that made you want to grin and pat your hands together. ‘Do you want to go fishin here in my fishin hole? Said do you want to fish some, honey, here in my fishin hole? You want to fish in my pond, baby, you better have a big long pole.' ‘Fishin Blues.' Written by Sara Tidwell, originally performed by Sara and the Red-Top Boys, covered by everyone from Ma Rainey to the Lovin' Spoonful. The raunchy ones had been her specialty, double-entendre so thin you could read a newspaper through it . . . although reading hadn't been Sara's main interest, judging by her lyrics. Before the kid could go on to the next verse, something about how you got to wiggle when you wobble and get that big one way down deep, The Castle Rockers ran off a brass flourish that said ‘Shut up, everybody, we're comin atcha.' The kid quit playing his guitar; the juggler began catching his Indian clubs and dropping them swiftly onto the grass in a line. The Rockers launched themselves into an extremely evil Sousa march, music to commit serial murders by, and Kyra came running back to us. ‘The jugster's done. Will you tell me the story, Mike? Hansel and Panzel?' ‘It's Hansel and Gretel,' I said, ‘and I'll be happy to. But let's go where it's a little quieter, okay? The band is giving me a headache.' ‘Music hurt your headie?' ‘A little bit.' ‘We'll go by Mattie's car, then.' ‘Good thought.' Kyra ran ahead to stake out a bench on the edge of the common. Mattie gave me a long warm look, then her hand. I took it. Our fingers folded together as if they had been doing it for years. I thought, I'd like it to be slow, both of us hardly moving at all. At first, anyway. And would I bring my nicest, longest pole? I think you could count on that. And then, afterward, we'd talk. Maybe until we could see the furniture in the first early light. When you're in bed with someone you love, particularly for the first time, five o'clock seems almost holy. ‘You need a vacation from your own thoughts,' Mattie said. ‘I bet most writers do from time to time.' ‘That's probably true.' ‘I wish we were home,' she said, and I couldn't tell if her fierceness was real or pretend. ‘I'd kiss you until this whole conversation became irrelevant. And if there were second thoughts, at least you'd be having them in my bed.' I turned my face into the red light of the westering sun. ‘Here or there, at this hour Ki would still be up.' ‘True,' she said, sounding uncharacteristically glum. ‘True.' Kyra reached a bench near the sign reading TOWN COMMON PARKING and climbed up on it, holding the little stuffed dog from Mickey D's in one hand. I tried to pull my hand away as we approached her and Mattie held it firm. ‘It's all right, Mike. At VBS they hold hands with their friends everywhere they go. It's big people who make it into a big deal.' She stopped, looked at me. ‘I want you to know something. Maybe it won't matter to you, but it does to me. There wasn't anyone before Lance and no one after. If you come to me, you'll be my second. I'm not going to talk with you about this again, either. Saying please is all right, but I won't beg.' ‘I don't ‘ ‘There's a pot with tomato plants in it by the trailer steps. I'll leave a key under it. Don't think. Just come.' ‘Not tonight, Mattie. I can't.' ‘You can,' she replied. ‘Hurry up, slowpokes!' Kyra cried, bouncing on the bench. ‘He's the slow one!' Mattie called back, and poked me in the ribs. Then, in a much lower voice: ‘You are, too.' She unwound her hand from mine and ran toward her daughter, her brown legs scissoring below the hem of the white dress. In my version of ‘Hansel and Gretel' the witch was named Depravia. Kyra stared at me with huge eyes when I got to the part where Depravia asks Hansel to poke out his finger so she can see how plump he's getting. ‘Is it too scary?' I asked. Ki shook her head emphatically. I glanced at Mattie to make sure. She nodded and waved a hand for me to go on, so I finished the story. Depravia went into the oven and Gretel found her secret stash of winning lottery tickets. The kids bought a Jet Ski and lived happily ever after on the eastern side of Dark Score Lake. By then The Castle Rockers were slaughtering Gershwin and sunset was nigh. I carried Kyra to Scoutie and strapped her in. I remembered the first time I'd helped put the kid into her car-seat, and the inadvertent press of Mattie's breast. ‘I hope there isn't a bad dream for you in that story,' I said. Until I heard it coming out of my own mouth, I hadn't realized how fundamentally awful that one is. ‘I won't have bad dreams,' Kyra said matter-of-factly. ‘The fridgeafator people will keep them away.' Then, carefully, reminding herself: ‘Ree-fridge-a-rator.' She turned to Mattie. ‘Show him the crosspatch, Mommy-bommy.' ‘Crossword. But thanks, I would've forgotten.' She thumbed open the glove compartment and took out a folded sheet of paper. ‘It was on the fridge this morning. I copied it down because Ki said you'd know what it meant. She said you do crossword puzzles. Well, she said crosspatches, but I got the idea.' Had I told Kyra that I did crosswords? Almost certainly not. Did it surprise me that she knew? Not at all. I took the sheet of paper, unfolded it, and looked at what was printed there: d go w ninety2 ‘Is it a crosspatch puzzle, Mike?' Kyra asked. ‘I guess so a very simple one. But if it means something, I don't know what it is. May I keep this?' ‘Yes,' Mattie said. I walked her around to the driver's side of the Scout, reaching for her hand again as we went. ‘Just give me a little time. I know that's supposed to be the girl's line, but ‘ ‘Take the time,' she said. ‘Just don't take too much.' I didn't want to take any, which was just the problem. The sex would be great, I knew that. But after? There might be an after, though. I knew it and she did, too. With Mattie, ‘after' was a real possibility. The idea was a little scary, a little wonderful. I kissed the corner of her mouth. She laughed and grabbed me by the earlobe. ‘You can do better,' she said, then looked at Ki, who was sitting in her car-seat and gazing at us interestedly. ‘But I'll let you off this time.' ‘Kiss Ki!' Kyra called, holding out her arms, so I went around and kissed Ki. Driving home, wearing my dark glasses to cut the glare of the setting sun, it occurred to me that maybe I could be Kyra Devore's father. That seemed almost as attractive to me as going to bed with her mother, which was a measure of how deep I was in. And going deeper, maybe. Deeper still. Sara Laughs seemed very empty after having Mattie in my arms a sleeping head without dreams. I checked the letters on the fridge, saw nothing there but the normal scatter, and got a beer. I went out on the deck to drink it while I watched the last of the sunset. I tried to think about the refrigerator people and crosspatches that had appeared on both refrigerators: ‘go down nineteen' on Lane Forty-two and ‘go down ninety-two' on Wasp Hill Road. Different vectors from the land to the lake? Different spots on The Street? Shit, who knew? I tried to think about John Storrow and how unhappy he was apt to be if he found out there was to quote Sara Laughs, who got to the line long before John Mellencamp another mule kicking in Mattie Devore's stall. But mostly what I thought about was holding her for the first time, kissing her for the first time. No human instinct is more powerful than the sex-drive when it is fully aroused, and its awakening images are emotional tattoos that never leave us. For me, it was feeling the soft bare skin of her waist just beneath her dress. The slippery feel of the fabric . . . I turned abruptly and hurried through the house to the north wing, almost running and shedding clothes as I went. I turned the shower on to full cold and stood under it for five minutes, shivering. When I got out I felt a little more like an actual human being and a little less like a twitching bundle of nerve endings. And as I toweled dry, something else recurred to me. At some point I had thought of Jo's brother Frank, had thought that if anyone besides myself would be able to feel Jo's presence in Sara Laughs, it would be him. I hadn't gotten around to inviting him down yet, and now wasn't sure I wanted to. I had come to feel oddly possessive, almost jealous, about what was happening here. And yet if Jo had been writing something on the quiet, Frank might know. Of course she hadn't confided in him about the pregnancy, but I looked at my watch. Quarter past nine. In the trailer near the intersection of Wasp Hill Road and Route 68, Kyra was probably already asleep . . . and her mother might already have put her extra key under the pot near the steps. I thought of her in the white dress, the swell of her hips just below my hands and the smell of her perfume, then pushed the images away. I couldn't spend the whole night taking cold showers. Quarter past nine was still early enough to call Frank Arlen. He picked up on the second ring, sounding both happy to hear from me and as if he'd gotten three or four cans further into the six-pack than I had so far done. We passed the usual pleasantries back and forth most of my own almost entirely fictional, I was dismayed to find and he mentioned that a famous neighbor of mine had kicked the bucket, according to the news. Had I met him? Yes, I said, remembering how Max Devore had run his wheelchair at me. Yes, I'd met him. Frank wanted to know what he was like. That was hard to say, I told him. Poor old guy was stuck in a wheelchair and suffering from emphysema. ‘Pretty frail, huh?' Frank asked sympathetically. ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Listen, Frank, I called about Jo. I was out in her studio looking around, and I found my typewriter. Since then I've kind of gotten the idea she was writing something. It might have started as a little piece about our house, then widened. The place is named after Sara Tidwell, you know. The blues singer.' A long pause. Then Frank said, ‘I know.' His voice sounded heavy, grave. ‘What else do you know, Frank?' ‘That she was scared. I think she found out something that scared her. I think that mostly because ‘ That was when the light finally broke. I probably should have known from Mattie's description, would have known if I hadn't been so upset. ‘You were down here with her, weren't you? In July of 1994. You went to the softball game, then you went back up The Street to the house.' ‘How do you know that?' he almost barked. ‘Someone saw you. A friend of mine.' I was trying not to sound mad and not succeeding. I was mad, but it was a relieved anger, the kind you feel when your kid comes dragging into the house with a shamefaced grin just as you're getting ready to call the cops. ‘I almost told you a day or two before we buried her. We were in that pub, do you remember?' Jack's Pub, right after Frank had beaten the funeral director down on the price of Jo's coffin. Sure I remembered. I even remembered the look in his eyes when I'd told him Jo had been pregnant when she died. He must have felt the silence spinning out, because he came back sounding anxious. ‘Mike, I hope you didn't get any ‘ ‘What? Wrong ideas? I thought maybe she was having an affair, how's that for a wrong idea? You can call that ignoble if you want, but I had my reasons. There was a lot she wasn't telling me. What did she tell you?' ‘Next to nothing.' ‘Did you know she quit all her boards and committees? Quit and never said a word to me?' ‘No.' I didn't think he was lying. Why would he, at this late date? ‘Jesus, Mike, if I'd known that ‘ ‘What happened the day you came down here? Tell me.' ‘I was at the printshop in Sanford. Jo called me from . . . I don't remember, I think a rest area on the turnpike.' ‘Between Derry and the TR?' ‘Yeah. She was on her way to Sara Laughs and wanted me to meet her there. She told me to park in the driveway if I got there first, not to go in the house . . . which I could have; I know where you keep the spare key.' Sure he did, in a Sucrets tin under the deck. I had shown him myself. ‘Did she say why she didn't want you to go inside?' ‘It'll sound crazy.' ‘No it won't. Believe me.' ‘She said the house was dangerous.' For a moment the words just hung there. Then I asked, ‘Did you get here first?' ‘Uh-huh.' ‘And waited outside?' ‘Yes.' ‘Did you see or sense anything dangerous?' There was a long pause. At last he said, ‘There were lots of people out on the lake speedboaters, water-skiers, you know how it is but all the engine-noise and the laughter seemed to kind of . . . stop dead when it got near the house. Have you ever noticed that it seems quiet there even when it's not?' Of course I had; Sara seemed to exist in its own zone of silence. ‘Did it feel dangerous, though?' ‘No,' he said, almost reluctantly. ‘Not to me, anyway. But it didn't feel exactly empty, either. I felt . . . fuck, I felt watched. I sat on one of those railroad-tie steps and waited for my sis. Finally she came. She parked behind my car and hugged me . . . but she never took her eyes off the house. I asked her what she was up to and she said she couldn't tell me, and that I couldn't tell you we'd been there. She said something like, â€Å"If he finds out on his own, then it's meant to be. I'll have to tell him sooner or later, anyway. But I can't now, because I need his whole attention. I can't get that while he's working.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ I felt a flush crawl across my skin. ‘She said that, huh?' ‘Yeah. Then she said she had to go in the house and do something. She wanted me to wait outside. She said if she called, I should come on the run. Otherwise I should just stay where I was.' ‘She wanted someone there in case she got in trouble.' ‘Yeah, but it had to be someone who wouldn't ask a lot of questions she didn't want to answer. That was me. I guess that was always me.' ‘And?' ‘She went inside. I sat on the hood of my car, smoking cigarettes. I was still smoking then. And you know, I did start to feel something then that wasn't right. As if there might be someone in the house who'd been waiting for her, someone who didn't like her. Maybe someone who wanted to hurt her. Probably I just picked that up from Jo the way her nerves seemed all strung up, the way she kept looking over my shoulder at the house even while she was hugging me but it seemed like something else. Like a . . . I don't know . . . ‘ ‘Like a vibe.' ‘Yes!' he almost shouted. ‘A vibration. But not a good vibration, like in the Beach Boys song. A bad vibration.' ‘What happened?' ‘I sat and waited. I only smoked two cigarettes so I don't guess it could have been longer than twenty minutes or half an hour, but it seemed longer. I kept noticing how the sounds from the lake seemed to make it most of the way up the hill and then just kind of . . . quit. And how there didn't seem to be any birds, except far off in the distance. ‘Once, she came out. I heard the deck door bang, and then her footsteps on the stairs over on that side. I called to her, asked if she was okay, and she said fine. She said for me to stay where I was. She sounded a little short of breath, as if she was carrying something or had been doing some chore.' ‘Did she go to her studio or down to the lake?' ‘I don't know. She was gone another fifteen minutes or so time enough for me to smoke another butt and then she came back out the front door. She checked to make sure it was locked, and then she came up to me. She looked a lot better. Relieved. The way people look when they do some dirty job they've been putting off, finally get it behind them. She suggested we walk down that path she called The Street to the resort that's down there ‘ ‘Warrington's.' ‘Right, right. She said she'd buy me a beer and a sandwich. Which she did, out at the end of this long floating dock.' The Sunset Bar, where I had first glimpsed Rogette. ‘Then you went to have a look at the softball game.' ‘That was Jo's idea. She had three beers to my one, and she insisted. Said someone was going to hit a longshot homer into the trees, she just knew it.' Now I had a clear picture of the part Mattie had seen and told me about. Whatever Jo had done, it had left her almost giddy with relief. She had ventured into the house, for one thing. Had dared the spirits in order to do her business and survived. She'd had three beers to celebrate and her discretion had slipped . . . not that she had behaved with any great stealth on her previous trips down to the TR. Frank remembered her saying if I found out on my own then it was meant to be que ser, ser. It wasn't the attitude of someone hiding an affair, and I realized now that all her behavior suggested a woman keeping a short-term secret. She would have told me when I finished my stupid book, if she had lived. If. ‘You watched the game for awhile, then went back to the house along The Street.' ‘Yes,' he said. ‘Did either of you go in?' ‘No. By the time we got there, her buzz had worn off and I trusted her to drive. She was laughing while we were at the softball game, but she wasn't laughing by the time we got back to the house. She looked at it and said, â€Å"I'm done with her. I'll never go through that door again, Frank.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ My skin first chilled, then prickled. ‘I asked her what was wrong, what she'd found out. I knew she was writing something, she'd told me that much ‘ ‘She told everyone but me,' I said . . . but without much bitterness. I knew who the man in the brown sportcoat had been, and any bitterness or anger anger at Jo, anger at myself paled before the relief of that. I hadn't realized how much that fellow had been on my mind until now. ‘She must have had her reasons,' Frank said. ‘You know that, don't you?' ‘But she didn't tell you what they were.' ‘All I know is that it started whatever it was with her doing research for an article. It was a lark, Jo playing Nancy Drew. I'm pretty sure that at first not telling you was just to keep it a surprise. She read books but mostly she talked to people listened to their stories of the old days and teased them into looking for old letters . . . diaries . . . she was good at that part of it, I think. Damned good. You don't know any of this?' ‘No,' I said heavily. Jo hadn't been having an affair, but she could have had one, if she'd wanted. She could have had an. affair with Tom Selleck and been written up in Inside View and I would have gone on tapping away at the keys of my Powerbook, blissfully unaware. ‘Whatever she found out,' Frank said, ‘I think she just stumbled over it.' ‘And you never told me. Four years and you never told me any of it.' ‘That was the last time I was with her,' Frank said, and now he didn't sound apologetic or embarrassed at all. ‘And the last thing she asked of me was that I not tell you we'd been to the lake house. She said she'd tell you everything when she was ready, but then she died. After that I didn't think it mattered. Mike, she was my sister. She was my sister and I promised.' ‘All right. I understand.' And I did just not enough. What had Jo discovered? That Normal Auster had drowned his infant son under a handpump? That back around the turn of the century an animal trap had been left in a place where a young Negro boy would be apt to come along and step into it? That another boy, perhaps the incestuous child of Son and Sara Tidwell, had been drowned by his mother in the lake, she maybe laughing that smoke-broken, lunatic laugh as she held him down? You gotta wiggle when you wobble, honey, and hold that young ‘un way down deep. ‘If you need me to apologize, Mike, consider it done.' ‘I don't. Frank, do you remember anything else she might have said that night? Anything at all?' ‘She said she knew how you found the house.' ‘She said what?' ‘She said that when it wanted you, it called you.' At first I couldn't reply, because Frank Arlen had completely demolished one of the assumptions I'd made about my married life one of the biggies, one of those that seem so basic you don't even think about questioning them. Gravity holds you down. Light allows you to see. The compass needle points north. Stuff like that. This assumption was that Jo was the one who had wanted to buy Sara Laughs back when we saw the first real money from my writing career, because Jo was the ‘house person' in our marriage, just as I was the ‘car person.' Jo was the one who had picked our apartments when apartments were all we could afford, Jo who hung a picture here and asked me to put up a shelf there. Jo was the one who had fallen in love with the Derry house and had finally worn down my resistance to the idea that it was too big, too busy, and too broken to take on. Jo had been the nest-builder. She said that when it wanted you, it called you. And it was probably true. No, I could do better than that, if I was willing to set aside the lazy thinking and selective remembering. It was certainly true. I was the one who had first broached the idea of a place in western Maine. I was the one who collected stacks of real-estate brochures and hauled them home. I'd started buying regional magazines like Down East and always began at the back, where the real-estate ads were. It was I who had first seen a picture of Sara Laughs in a glossy handout called Maine Retreats, and it was I who had made the call first to the agent named in the ad, and then to Marie Hingerman after badgering Marie's name out of the Realtor. Johanna had also been charmed by Sara Laughs I think anyone would have been charmed by it, seeing it for the first time in autumn sunshine with the trees blazing all around it and drifts of colored leaves blowing up The Street but it was I who had actively sought the place out. Except that was more lazy thinking and selective remembering. Wasn't it? Sara had sought me out. Then how could I not have known it until now? And how was I led here in the first place, full of unknowing happy ignorance? The answer to both questions was the same. It was also the answer to the question of how Jo could have discovered something distressing about the house, the lake, maybe the whole TR, and then gotten away with not telling me. I'd been gone, that's all. I'd been zoning, tranced out, writing one of my stupid little books. I'd been hypnotized by the fantasies going on in my head, and a hypnotized man is easy to lead. ‘Mike? Are you still there?' ‘I'm here, Frank. But I'll be goddamned if I know what could have scared her so.' ‘She mentioned one other name I remember: Royce Merrill. She said he was the one who remembered the most, because he was so old. And she said, â€Å"I don't want Mike to talk to him. I'm afraid that old man might let the cat out of the bag and tell him more than he should know.† Any idea what she meant?' ‘Well . . . it's been suggested that a splinter from the old family tree wound up here, but my mother's people are from Memphis. The Noonans are from Maine, but not from this part.' Yet I no longer entirely believed this. ‘Mike, you sound almost sick.' ‘I'm okay. Better than I was, actually.' ‘And you understand why I didn't tell you any of this until now? I mean, if I'd known the ideas you were getting . . . if I'd had any clue . . . ‘ ‘I think I understand. The ideas didn't belong in my head to begin with, but once that shit starts to creep in . . . ‘ ‘When I got back to Sanford that night and it was over, I guess I thought it was just more of Jo's â€Å"Oh fuck, there's a shadow on the moon, nobody go out until tomorrow.† She was always the superstitious one, you know knocking on wood, tossing a pinch of salt over her shoulder if she spilled some, those four-leaf-clover earrings she used to have . . . ‘ ‘Or the way she wouldn't wear a pullover if she put it on backward by mistake,' I said. ‘She claimed doing that would turn around your whole day.' ‘Well? Doesn't it?' Frank asked, and I could hear a little smile in his voice. All at once I remembered Jo completely, right down to the small gold flecks in her left eye, and wanted nobody else. Nobody else would do. ‘She thought there was something bad about the house,' Frank said. ‘That much I do know.' I drew a piece of paper to me and jotted Kia on it. ‘Yes. And by then she may have suspected she was pregnant. She might have been afraid of . . . influences.' There were influences here, all right. ‘You think she got most of this from Royce Merrill?' ‘No, that was just a name she mentioned. She probably talked to dozens of people. Do you know a guy named Kloster? Gloster? Something like that?' ‘Skuster,' I said. Below Kia my pencil was making a series of fat loops that might have been cursive letter l's or hair ribbons. ‘Kenny Auster. Was that it?' ‘It sounds right. In any case, you know how she was once she really got going on a thing.' Yes. Like a terrier after rats. ‘Mike? Should I come up there?' No. Now I was sure. Not Harold Oblowski, not Frank, either. There was a process going on in Sara, something as delicate and as organic as rising bread in a warm room. Frank might interrupt that process . . . or be hurt by it. ‘No, I just wanted to get it cleared up. Besides, I'm writing. It's hard for me to have people around when I'm writing.' ‘Will you call if I can help?' ‘You bet,' I said. I hung up the telephone, thumbed through the book, and found a listing for R. MERRILL on the Deep Bay Road. I called the number, listened to it ring a dozen times, then hung up. No newfangled answering machine for Royce. I wondered idly where he was. Ninety-five seemed a little too old to go dancing at the Country Barn in Harrison, especially on a close night like this one. I looked at the paper with Kia written on it. Below the fat l-shapes I wrote Kyra, and remembered how, the first time I'd heard Ki say her name, I'd thought it was ‘Kia' she was saying. Below Kyra I wrote Kito, hesitated, then wrote Carla. I put these names in a box. Beside them I jotted Johanna, Bridget, and Jared. The fridgeafator people. Folks who wanted me to go down nineteen and go down ninety-two. ‘Go down, Moses, you bound for the Promised Land,' I told the empty house. I looked around. Just me and Bunter and the waggy clock . . . except it wasn't. When it wanted you, it called you. I got up to get another beer. The fruits and vegetables were in a circle again. In the middle, the letters now spelled: lye stille As on some old tombstones God grant she lye stille. I looked at these letters for a long time. Then I remembered the IBM was still out on the deck. I brought it in, plonked it on the dining-room table, and began to work on my current stupid little book. Fifteen minutes and I was lost, only faintly aware of thunder someplace over the lake, only faintly aware of Bunter's bell shivering from time to time. When I went back to the fridge an hour or so later for another beer and saw that the words in the circle now said ony lye stille I hardly noticed. At that moment I didn't care if they lay stille or danced the hucklebuck by the light of the silvery moon. John Shackleford had begun to remember his past, and the child whose only friend he, John, had been. Little neglected Ray Garraty. I wrote until midnight came. By then the thunder had faded away but the heat held on, as oppressive as a blanket. I turned off the IBM and went to bed . . . thinking, so far as I can remember, nothing at all not even about Mattie, lying in her own bed not so many miles away. The writing had burned off all thoughts of the real world, at least temporarily. I think that, in the end, that's what it's for. Good or bad, it passes the time.