Alternatively, if he appeared oblivious for the time being, he could always divulge any or all of what he knew at some point down the road. Plus, he thought, he had to find out if he could trust these people. The one guy he did trust had to have known at least something about this. J.R. had somehow known he was going to be adopted this week. He’d try to talk to him first.
A loud creak from the frame of the bed interrupted his thoughts as the mattress sagged in the middle, lowering the springs close to his face. He turned his head to the right and then quickly to the left, but he couldn’t see anyone.
“Hi!” came a woman’s voice from his right.
Startled, he yanked his head back to the right and saw the upside down smiling visage of a woman who appeared to be in her early 30s hanging her head off the bed, her sandy blonde hair just sweeping the floor next to him.
“Hi,” he said, blushing behind a guilty smile, suddenly much less anxious.
“I’m Sara. Wanna come up and talk?”
James Prescott sat in the armchair opposite his host and casually crossed his right leg over his left. A stagehand deftly slipped her arm over his shoulder, affixed a small microphone to his lapel, and scurried away.
“And we’re on in 3, 2, 1…” came the producer’s voice from off set.
“Welcome back to A.M. America. I’m Blake Everton,” the host crooned with a voice like silk, resting an empty mug on a homey coffee table in front of them. “With me today is James Prescott, founder and CEO of Avillage, Incorporated.” He turned toward his guest, and the two exchanged cordial smiles.
Prescott, without any pretense of confrontation, maintained an unbroken eye contact with Blake — just long enough to effect the slightest unease in his host, quickly establishing that although he was the interviewee, he was the one in charge.
“Yesterday was a big day for you and your exchange,” Blake continued. “Now, for those of us who may not be familiar with what you do, could you give us the ‘Avillage Exchange for Dummies,’ if you will?”
“I’ll try,” Prescott said with a chuckle. “Blake, we all know that America has been suffering from an ever-widening wealth disparity — for decades now. And with that wealth disparity has come an opportunity disparity. What we’re attempting to do at Avillage is funnel some of that all-too-plentiful Wall Street money down to Main Street by allowing investors to put some of their savings behind some really special, but disadvantaged, young children. Now, that’s not to say investors don’t have a chance to benefit financially — of course they do. That’s what really makes this the quintessential win-win situation.”
“And how exactly do investors profit from these… these children? Last I checked, raising a kid ain’t only unprofitable, it can put you in the poor house!” Blake joked to the camera, trying to inject some levity into the vapid morning show.
“Well, any profitable company is built on capital, as you know. Now, that capital could be cash reserves or, more commonly, it can come in the form of credit. Many companies, especially young ones, operate at a loss for several years but still have plenty of money to spend on operations, development and research — so long as investors continue to see an opportunity for profit in the future. I’m sure you’ve seen the occasional stock whose price soars after announcing a quarterly loss because it has strong forward-looking projections?”
Blake nodded dutifully.
“So, these children initially benefit from the capital that shareholders have invested in them — or, they’re costing a fortune, as you put it. But because of their strong ‘projections’, if you will, for profitability later in life, they represent value to the investor,” Prescott explained. He tried not to sound as if he were reading from a script, but he’d gone over this so many times, it was difficult.
“So the profit comes when the shareholder sells the stock?” Blake asked, furrowing his brow and continuing to nod, reaching back for his empty coffee mug.
“That’s one way to make a profit, but that’s more of a trading strategy than the strategy that I hope people will choose to employ, which is investment. Once these children are grown and enter the workforce, a portion of their income will be appropriated to the board of directors, similar to a tax. The board, which will be chaired, at least initially, by an Avillage executive and will also include some of the larger-volume shareholders, will then direct how much of that money is reinvested in the child — well, at that point, man or woman — and how much is paid out to shareholders in the form of dividends.”
“My head is spinning. Folks, this is why I let professionals handle my finances!” Blake exclaimed to the camera. Then he turned back to Prescott with a playful smirk, “Now, I know that you probably won’t tell us, but the question on everyone’s minds is, ‘Who is RTJ?’”
Prescott raised one eyebrow and held up an emphatic index finger. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he said sternly before finally cracking a smile. They both shared a boisterous laugh over the hackneyed turn of phrase. The inanity of the morning show, along with the wide reach of its viewership, was precisely the reason Prescott had picked this as his first post-opening interview. Low risk; high reward.
“But seriously,” Prescott continued. “The SEC has outlined very rigid privacy laws for our children, similar to the HIPAA laws that govern a patient’s right to privacy in the medical arena.”
“I notice you’re very careful not to refer to these children as ‘commodities.’ Why is that?” Blake asked, lobbing Prescott a softball.
“Thank you for noticing that, Blake. As you know, I’m a dad to an adopted child myself, and these kids — without a home, without role models, without a family — are my number one priority. They’re the reason I’ve been able to keep going, pushing for the massive policy changes that have had to take place over the last 2 decades to get this market off the ground.”
“Alright, so we don’t know who RTJ is,” Blake whined with a fabricated frown. “But what’s going to happen to him next? Where does he go from here?”
“We’ve placed him with a highly qualified mother and father, chosen specifically for him, to help maximize his strengths, develop his weaknesses, and raise him to be the productive — no — the exceptional man he has the potential to be.
“RTJ’s new mother has a masters degree in child psychology and has almost a decade’s experience teaching gifted children of all ages at a prominent, nationally-rated magnet school. Her husband is a financial executive with a remarkable educational background and, shall we say, more than a stable income.”
“Pardon me for interrupting, but how would one of our viewers at home become a parent to one of these extraordinary children?” Blake asked.
Well Blake, your lobotomized viewers at home would never stand a chance of even being introduced to one of these kids, and they’re exactly what we’re trying to prevent these kids from becoming, Prescott thought before answering. “We have access to prospective parent profiles from all of the reputable adoption agencies. So all of these parents were looking to become parents before they considered becoming an Avillage parent. And we have a division of full-time employees whose only job is to match each orphan up with the perfect parents for that individual. Don’t call us. We’ll call you,” Prescott said, turning to the live camera with a grin and eliciting a hearty guffaw from Blake.