Leah and Benjy, while excused from school for four days, had been given class assignments, including one to write an essay on the convention itself; Benjy, planning his, expressed a wish to bear his father's speech tomorrow. It was unusual to admit a child to an NEI business session, but Nim managed to arrange it. There were other activities for families-a harbor cruise, museum visits, private movies-in which Ruth and the children would join.
After a while Ruth and Benjy returned to the suite, laughing happily, and reporting that it had been necessary to test two cones each before awarding the ice cream parlor a three-star rating.
* * *
The convention's second day.
It dawned bright and cloudless, sun streaming into the suite while Nim, Ruth and the children enjoyed the luxury of a room service breakfast.
Following breakfast, and for the last time before he would deliver it, Nim skimmed through his speech. It was on the program for 10 am A few minutes after nine he left the others and took an elevator to the lobby floor. He had a reason for going there first. From a window of the suite he had seen some kind of a demonstration taking place outside and was curious to know who was demonstrating, and why. As Nim emerged from the hotel's main doorway, he realized it was the same old crowd-power & light for people. About a hundred persons of varying ages were parading, chanting slogans. Didn't they ever get tired, he wondered, or see anything but their own narrow viewpoint?
The usual type placards were being waved.
2GSP & L
Cheats
Consumers
Let the People,
Not Fat Cat
Capitalists,
Own GSP & L
p & lfp Urges
Public Takeover of
The People's Utilities
Public Ownership
Would Ensure
Lower Electric Rates
What influence, Nim mused, did p & lfp expect to have on the National Electric Institute? He could tell them it would be nil. But of course, it was local attention they expected and, as usual, were receiving. He could see the ubiquitous TV cameras. Oh yes, and there was Davey Birdsong, looking cheerful and directing it all.
There appeared to be an attempt by the demonstrators to stop vehicular traffic from reaching the hotel. The front driveway was being blocked by a line of p & lfp-ers who had linked arms, preventing several waiting cars and taxis from moving in. Also cordoned off by a second contingent was an adjoining service entrance. Two trucks were held up there. One, Nim saw, was a milk delivery van, the other an open pickup with a load of fire extinguishers. The drivers of both trucks had got out of their vehicles and were protesting the delay.
Several city policemen now appeared. They moved among the demonstrators, cautioning them. A brief argument followed between police and demonstrators, in which Birdsong joined. Then the big, bearded man shrugged and motioned his supporters away from both entrances while the police, hastening the process, escorted the two trucks in, then the cars and taxis.
"Can you beat that for irresponsibility?" the speaker was another convention delegate, standing beside Nim and identifiable by his NEI lapel badge. "That dumb bunch would like to cut off the hotel's fire protection and milk. In God's name, why?"
Nim nodded. "Doesn't make a lot of sense."
Perhaps it didn't to the demonstrators either for they were now dispersing.
Nim returned inside the hotel and took an elevator to the mezzanine floor, the convention's headquarters.
Like any convention-that unique tribal ritual-the NEI gathering 2brought together several hundred businessmen, engineers and scientists, their purpose to chew over mutual problems, exchange news of developments, and mingle socially. The theory was that each delegate, afterward, would do his or her job better. It was hard to put a cash value on such occasions, though one existed.
In an anteroom outside the main convention ball, delegates were assembling for the informal coffee klatsch which preceded each day's business session.
Nim joined the earlier arrivals, meeting officials of other power companies, some of whom he knew, and some he didn't.
A good deal of the talk was about oil. An overnight news report revealed that the OPEC nations were standing firm in their demand that future payments for oil be in gold, not paper currencies whose value-particularly that of the dollar-diminished almost daily. Negotiations between the United States and OPEC were stalled, with the prospect of a new oil embargo becoming alarmingly real.
If it happened, the impact on public utilities producing electricity could be disastrous.
After a few minutes of sharing in the discussion, Nim felt a pressure on his arm. Turning, he saw 'Thurston Jones, his friend from Dewer. They shook hands warmly.
Thurston asked, "What news of Tunipah?"
Nim grimaced. "Building the Pyramids went faster."
"And the Pharaohs didn't need permits. Right?"
"Rightl How's Ursula?"
"Great." Thurston beamed. "We're having a baby."
"That's wonderful. Congratulations! When will the big day be?" Nim was using words to fill in time while marshaling his startled thoughts. He remembered vividly the weekend at Dewer and Ursula's arrival in his bed.
Ursula, who confided that she and her husband wanted children but couldn't have them, a statement Thurston confirmed. "We both had medical tests . .. my pistol will cock and fire, but I feed it only blanks. And I'll never have live bullets .
“The doctor says around the end of June."
Christi Nim didn't need a calculator to know it was his child. His emotions were whirling, as if in a blender, and what the bell was he supposed to say?
His friend supplied the answer by clapping an arm around Nim's shoulders
“There's just one thing Ursula and I would like. When the time comes, we want you to be godfather."
Nim started to say yes, he would, then found he could not get the words out. Instead he clasped Thurston's hand again, tightly, and nodded his agreement. The Jones kid, Nim vowed silently, would have-the best, most conscientious godfather there ever was.
They arranged to meet again before the convention ended.
Nim moved on, talking with more power people: from New York's Con Edison-in Nim's view one of the best-run utilities in North America, despite its enforced role as a New York City tax collector and the abuse heaped on it by opportunistic politicians-Florida Power & Light, Chicago's Commonwealth Edison, Houston Lighting & Power, Southern California Edison, Arizona Public Service, others.
There was also a contingent of a dozen delegates from Golden State Power & Light, actively mingling with out-of-towners since theirs was the host company. among the GSP & L group was Ray Paulsen; he and Nim greeted each other with their usual lack of cordiality. J. Eric Humphrey had not yet appeared at the convention but would do so later.
As he concluded a conversation, Nim observed a familiar face, moving nearer through the growing, increasingly noisy throng of delegates. It was the California Examiner reporter, Nancy Molineaux. To his surprise, she came directly to him.
"Hi!” Her manner was friendly and she was smiling, but Nim's memories were too close and sour for him to respond in kind. He had to admit though, the woman was damned attractive; those high cheekbones and the haughty manner were a part of it. She knew how to dress well; expensively, too, by the look of her clothes.
He answered coolly, "Good morning."
"Just picked up your speech in the pressroom," Ms. Molineaux said; she had a news release and a full-text copy in her hand. "Pretty dull stuff. You planning to say anything extra that isn't printed here?"