Jeff finds himself in Silicon Valley where he is asked to investigate claims by a gregarious Frenchman that his neural network electronic technology actually works. He meets up again with the enchanting Nancy, the FBI agent he had worked with in Atlanta where they fell in love while he was still married, and again in Washington DC Kathy puts romance back into Jeff’s life as he finds himself hounded by financially-desperate Europeans so determined to push their questionable technology―men so desperate that they will stop at nothing, even Jeff’s murder. The excitement will make the reader gasp, tragedy will make the reader cry, romance will make the reader sigh.
Chapter 31 of Silicon Gulch … Jeff gets coached by Uncle Mondo
Friday 12:48 PM: Uncle Mondo Gives Advice
Uncle Mondo knew
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST---------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday
12:48 PM: Uncle Mondo Gives Advice
They walked to the bar, taking a place on the far end with no other
customers around them. Jeff ordered a Sierra Nevada ,
Uncle Mondo ordered a Budweiser, a minute later they were set down in front of
them.
"You California
"Actually I am from Seattle
They both took long drinks, setting their bottles back down in thought.
"So I admired your courage in there. I mean you're just a regular
guy, right? You're not a cop like Nancy
Jeff turned to the man in the pork-pie hat sitting next to him with his
pleasant smile, "How did you know she was FBI?"
He laughed, "You're kidding right? She has cop written all over
her."
"Really?"
"Look, I have been around cops my whole life. There's a certain…I
don't know what you'd call it…a certain way they act. I can pick out FBI a mile
away. They carry themselves a certain way, the way they talk, the words they
use. It's like they train them to all act the same. Anyway, she sure is the
prettiest FBI agent I've come across in a long time, eh?"
They clinked their bottles together in toast to beautiful FBI agents.
"So what was that?" Mondo turned to Jeff.
"What was what?"
"What was that conscience I saw, you suddenly deciding that you put
the Swiss guy in front of the French idiot's gun?"
"Conscience. I don't know. It seems like a funny word coming from a
man who does what you do," Jeff suddenly dreading those word escaping his
lips.
Uncle Mondo smiled, "I have a very strong conscience. Look at me
here! Would a man without a conscience turn down two million dollars to pop a
couple sitting ducks?"
"No. No you wouldn't."
"Exactly. You'd be surprised, but many of the people in my line of
work, especially us older guys, are very
principled people. I told you about our code. It's true! But I do wish
sometimes that I was a cop. You know, they only ever have to shoot bad people."
"What kind of people do you shoot that aren't bad people?"
"How about people like you and Nancy? It's easy to shoot
extortionists and pimps and drug dealers or people that take other people's
money. But sometimes I get paid to pop nice people, I just take it as a
down-side of the job. You know, the cost of doing business. I have discovered
that a conscience is a good thing to have. It just needs to be used sparingly."
Jeff sat reflectively at how open this man was being with him, but
frankly he wasn't all that sure that he was really enjoying all this openness.
"So why were you so worried about that Swiss guy?"
Jeff thought for a second. "I thought it wasn't fair."
"Listen my friend, life isn't
fair." Uncle Mondo took a polite sip of his beer, turning back to
Jeff. "Life is random. Good people die, children die, our mothers get
cancer. We try to fit life into some nice little box where life is neat. But
life isn't neat."
He shook a finger at Jeff, "You struggle too much. I can see the
conflict in you. That scene in the lobby there, your getting all jumpy when you
really wanted them to kill each
other. Such a nice tidy ending, really." He sipped his beer again, Jeff
seeing those words flowing around him, begging him to be attentive, whispering
to him that there was more beyond just these few words. "My guess is that
you find yourself constantly in conflict, torn between things."
"I hadn't really thought about it."
"You look like a really smart man. I'll bet you make lots of money
in your business. Get lots of respect. But like I've told you, I am a very good
judge of character." He sipped from his beer again. "Like that woman,
what's her name?"
Jeff paused thinking what woman he could be talking about. "You
mean Nancy
"Yes, of course, Nancy
Jeff looked stunned at hearing these words. "How do you know this?"
Uncle Mondo laughed, "How old are you?"
"Forty-five."
"Well then, you're a grown up for sure. No man is a grown-up until
he turns forty. Women, they are smarter than us. They grow up when they turn
thirty, but men," shaking his head, "we live on the short-bus of life
so it takes us a little longer." Laughing, "Or maybe a lot longer!"
Uncle Mondo looked around the room, out into the lobby, back at Jeff. "Look,
I decided to take time with you today because you are good raw material, I think you can make an excellent man." Jeff
looked puzzled, "I mean you are, but until you let go of your struggles
you will never truly grow up." He shook his head, sipped his beer again, "And
it is such a shame to see how many men―I mean men who could be good men―don't get this. They never live
up to the men they could really be."
Jeff suddenly felt a surge of hunger for more words from this man. "And
so me. What do I need to do to become one of your good men?"
"You need to get the noise out of your life. That Nancy, god but
she is a beautiful woman. And I can see it in your eyes that you think you are
in love with her. But you're not. She is unattainable for you." He
laughed, "Actually she is unattainable for any of us mere mortals!" they
both laughed together.
"Listen, let me tell you a little joke, but it is relevant here. To
you. So here's the joke. These two men see each other, they exchange, you know,
little greetings, they ask each other how things are going. The first man says
fine. The other says that he lost his job, lost his house, his wife, and the
IRS wants to throw him in jail. The other man says, 'Wow, so how are you
sleeping?' The second man says, 'Like a baby!' The first man says, 'All that
and you tell me that you are sleeping like a baby?' so the second one says, 'Yes,
I wake up crying every two hours!'" Jeff laughed out loud at this joke. "My
guess is that you wake up nights with the conflicts, I can see it in you. I bet
you sit up at night wondering about the world."
Jeff looked at this man amazed that he somehow knew that Jeff had woken
up just last night in exactly the way
he described.
"So what can I do?"
The smile under the pork-pie hat said two simple words, "Let go."
"Let go," Jeff repeated thoughtfully.
"Find the one thing that
is important to you. You are struggling too much with love, that I can tell. I
could see it in your eyes when you were around Nancy
"Aura?"
"Yes, that's it. I can see that you already know who is the
right one. That you have already found her. Otherwise you would have no glow. I
know it's not Nancy
"Kathy ," Jeff
sighed.
"See! I knew it! Jeff, go grab her and don't you dare let her out
of your life. That's the first thing."
"The first thing?"
"Yes, and the second thing is to get this case out of your mind.
Get it out of your life. Go sit on the toilet and poop this all out of you."
"How do I do that?"
"Make something good come from it. Not something just for you, but
for someone else. Maybe someone who has been hurt by this whole mess."
Uncle Mondo took a sip of his beer.
"That is your freedom."
"My freedom," Jeff echoed almost to himself.
"But don't you dare do
anything for anyone associated with those bad guys. You helped them die, you
need to make sure they stay dead."
Jeff looked down at the envelope stuffed with two million dollars in
Bearer Bonds reflecting on Uncle Mondo's words, ignoring the help them die instead circling his mind
around Mondo's other words.
"Make something good come from this," Jeff echoed. "My
freedom."
"Yes. You need to let Nancy
"Well, yeah, technically."
Mondo raised his declarative hands, "Let it all go. All of it! Find
the one thing that you can do to make this nasty business matter. Do that
first."
"So if I took half of this…" looking down to the envelope.
"Yeah, now you're thinking. But for someone really special. Someone
who has been hurt by all this. Do that, then go after…what's her name?"
"Kathy ."
"Yes, Kathy .
Go after her with all your heart. Go after her like your life depends on it because if you don't, one
day you will wake up and it will be too
late! Let everything else go! Let everyone else go!"
Mondo looked to his watch. Jeff noticed for the first time that it was a
Timex, not some fancy gaudy watch. "Oh Christ," sipping the last of
his bottle, "all this talking made me miss the window to get back to Jersey tonight."
"So that's it?" Jeff asked puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
"You came out here, found out who was
responsible for your nephews killing, give me a bunch of money and just go back
home?"
"Nah, I got something out of it. I found my nephews hotel room, got
their bags. Nice little sum in Mondo's bag, half million dollars of the same
things in that envelope."
"Bearer bonds."
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'll give half to their mother and keep
the other half for my trouble."
"That's good pay for missing a flight. Sorry you can't make it home
tonight."
He shook his head looking up for a second
in thought. "Ah, it doesn't matter. This was time well spent. Maybe I'll
stop in Chicago
They both stood, Jeff picking up the large envelope, turning to him, "You
have an uncle in Chicago
"Yeah, can you believe my nephew was a third-generation Mondo?"
Jeff tried to figure out the family tree that had a third-generation
Mondo. "So you are going to visit…"
Uncle Mondo laughed, "Who do you think I'm going to visit in Chicago
Jeff shrugged, "Who?"
"My Uncle Mondo!"
NOW READ THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER OF
SILICON GULCH!
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