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The paleness of her cheeks had an eerie beauty. Dry leaves fell on her dead body once in a while, full of life. She looked like rain, not of sadness but of a strange joy when she shed tears for the unfair loss of her parents. There were poems that she had been writing for years and that she did not want for any reason to be read by anyone else except for me.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Title Page
The Exhilaration of Desires
Brief Sensation
Jeremy McHarry
The Exhilaration of Desires / 5th of series: Brief Sensation / By Jeremy McHarry
Published 2023 by Bentockiz
e-book Imprint: Calkden Norsh
e-book Registration: Stockholm, Sweden
e-book ISBN: 9789198826692
e-book editing: Athens, Greece
Cover Images created via AI art generators
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Introduction
Through books we come into contact with everything important that has happened in the past, analyzing also current events and putting our thoughts together to predict the future. The book is a window to the world, acquiring valuable knowledge and sparking our vivid imagination. It is a means of entertainment and is generally seen as a best friend, or as a slave that carries together all valuable information for us. The book is a friend who stays together without demands, a friend you call upon at every moment and abandon when you want.
It accompanies us in the hours of boredom and loneliness, while at the same time it entertains us. In general, a book does not ask anything from us, while it waits patiently on a dusty shelf to give us its information, to get us out of dead ends and to travel us to magical worlds.
This may be the travel mission of our books. Abstract narration, weird or unconscious thoughts difficult to be understood, but always genuine and full of life experiences, these are stories of life that can’t be overlooked easily.
This may be the start of something amazing!
Chapter One
“It’s really good,” chimes in Klara. “So where did you find this?”
“George made it,” Sharlene can’t stop herself from bragging.
Mariam and Klara stare at him.
He clarifies, “Well, I didn’t make the crust. I have a local baker do those for me. It’s just a good crust, a good sauce, and a lot of toppings.”
Klara asks, “Have you ever thought of opening a restaurant?”
George shakes his head as he answers, “Not really. I would have a hard time charging enough to cover the cost of the pizza and the overhead of a restaurant. Nor am I inclined to cater to the clientele who could afford to pay for it. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be tied down that way. This is something I can share with my friends and hope they’ll enjoy it.”
“Enjoy it?” Mariam looks at him in surprise then says, “I think this is the best pizza I’ve ever had. You’d better limber up your lips, old man, because now I’ve got another reason to kiss you in addition to demanding a replay after your lackluster performance when I arrived.”
Chapter Two
Even while he blushes, he laughs with them. The only sounds heard for the rest of the meal are chewing and an occasional “Mmm” or towards the end, small sighs of contented fullness.
Mariam suggests, “If we can’t get some good emotional recordings of contentment, we’ll feed the therapy patients some of George’s pizza.”
“Except that they won’t like the other element of the therapy which will be the exercise to work off the calories.”
“Well, George, nobody said there was such a thing as a therapy without some sort of side effects.”
Klara mentions, “I think I know someone who already has the clientele who might be inclined to pay for a pizza of this quality.”
Sharlene asks, “Are you thinking of Fuhleepay and Zhahk?”
“Yes.”
Mariam looks at Sharlene and asks, “Who are they?”
“Fuhleepay, most people call him Phil, is an engineer who works at my dad’s company. I met him when I did my engineering internship. His hobby was to collect recipes of native dishes wherever he was on an engineering project. A few years ago, he and his brother Zhahk opened a restaurant not far from dad’s company which has a very quiet gentle atmosphere and serves dishes from a wide range of cuisines.
“Dad took me there a couple of times during my visit and both meals I had were as good or better than what I had tasted within the culture. And they serve only the best dishes of those cuisines. They weren’t cheap either. It’s the kind of place business executives will take a major client to lunch to broker or seal a deal. I think in the evening, it would be a good place for a couple to splurge on a celebration.”
George clarifies, “There’s no secret to my pizza other than having quality ingredients and plenty of them.”
Klara nods her head as she responds, “Maybe so, but there are a lot of products which people have revised or improved upon and made a fortune while everyone else sat around scratching their heads and wondered why they never thought of that. Has anyone else suggested your pizza might have commercial value?”
“Paula thought there might be a small market for some of the tourists who swing through town, not enough to open a restaurant, but maybe enough to carry as an exclusive gourmet pizza at her store. Her idea was that if she could find someone to maintain the quality, it might be a way to provide some jobs in the community. I really don’t think she could sell enough to employ more than a single person part time. That was about three weeks ago and I don’t know if she’s given it any more thought or not.”
“I’d like to think about this for a little while.”
“Be my guest. If I remember, I’ll get you the recipe for you the next time I’m at home.”
Sharlene suggests, “I have a copy which you gave me the first time you served your pizza to me.”
“Okay, love. If you know where it is, I’ll write out another copy.”
“It would be easier to scan it and send it to her email.”
George shakes his head as he responds, “Humm, nothing like being behind the times technologically.”
“So, you’re way ahead of technology when it comes to the important things like hugs and kisses.” Sharlene slips out of her chair and onto his upper legs for a quick kiss and a cuddle.
Klara holds out her hand and Mariam puts a five credit bill in it. Sharlene and George look at them and Klara explains, “We had a bet. I said you would try to control yourself and not get on his lap before dinner. Mariam figured you wouldn’t make it until dinner.”
“I’m sorry, Mariam. You almost won. If George didn’t get up when he did to start dinner, I probably would have been on his lap before dinner. The more the discussion went on and the deeper the details went, the more overwhelmed I was feeling. Now that I’ve had a break, maybe I can manage awhile longer. What else needs to be covered?”
George suggests, “You ladies go ahead and get started while I clean up.”
Mariam’s eyes open wide as she asks, “Cooks dinner and cleans up? George, I’ve got a position open for house husband. Would you be interested?”
“No, he wouldn’t. He’s mine. I found him first.” Sharlene and Mariam mock glare at each other for a moment before they start to laugh.
Klara redirects the conversation, “I think we have the basics lined up. Mariam, do you have accounting software on your computer and some extra space?”
“No to the software and yes to the space. Why?”
“I would suggest that a new computer with accounting software be purchased for the company for handling the finances which we can do in the next few days. I know we purchased the computers from the Project, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at the Institute slipped an unwelcome gift into one or more of the computers which would cause problems with financial data. Odds are they didn’t, but I would rather not take that chance.”
“What about other programs?”
“That would be much more unlikely because it would be more obvious who was at fault. One of the fastest ways to cause a company to fail or at least come close, is to cause problems with their financial data, so that’s the area I would be most paranoid about.”
Mariam nods her head and says, “That makes sense. Besides, it’s not like we have that many bills and receipts to deal with right away that the finances couldn’t be handled by hand for a little while. Something we haven’t talked about in any detail which a new hire is going to be very interested in, is what is their salary, when do they get paid, and what are the benefits. I’ve received several quotes on medical insurance. When the coverage and deductibles are the same there’s very little difference in the rates, so it’ll probably be a matter of which insurance company people are familiar with or which is easier to deal with.”
After they discuss several options, they decide to present several possibilities of medical insurance to the ‘trainers’ as potential future employees and see if they have strong feelings one way or another. The discussion then moves on to other benefits and to compensation. As they had briefly discussed before, Sharlene reaffirms that at least for a beginning point they ought to offer the salary which the Institute paid to any employees who transfer to Digital Empathy.
George suggests they not offer ancillary benefits like vehicle, home, pet, legal, or life insurance, or health club memberships and leave that to the employee to take care of on their own. He explains that not everyone will want or need those kinds of benefits and why should their salary be reduced for the company to pay for and offer something not everyone will use, as well as taking up someone’s time to review the multiple offers of each supposed benefit.
They take a break then organize their ideas and decide on things which will be company policy or practice and leave other things open for further discussion. Although they’ve each put in a lot of hours in preparation for the company, they decide that the official beginning of the company, as far as salaries and related benefits are concerned will be tomorrow, the thirty-second of ninth month, except for those items, like health insurance, which are billed on a monthly basis and those will start on the first of tenth month. While Mariam had figured she would be getting a raise with her additional responsibilities compared to what she did at the Project, she’s surprised at how much the raise is which the others agree on, especially since Sharlene refuses to accept any more for herself.
Klara refuses a salary as company attorney and says it will be more fair for all concerned if she stays as a legal consultant at standard rates, since once the initial legal issues are dealt with, her services will seldom be needed. For at least the first week, the company only has two employees, Sharlene and Mariam. A few minutes later when George briefly steps out of the room, they ask each other, almost in stereo, what they can do to compensate George. Since they can’t think of any quick ideas, they decide to think about it for awhile longer.
They discuss a few other minor items then Sharlene pulls over the envelope which contains the company’s copies of the financial paperwork. She pulls out the bank draft signature card, hands it to Mariam and explains, “By signing this, you’ll be authorized to sign the bank drafts to pull funds out of the investment account for the company’s needs as I mentioned a few days ago. The restrictions are that only one withdrawal is allowed per calendar month and that two authorized signatures need to be on each draft.” Mariam signs it and hands it back to Sharlene who gives it to Klara and asks, “Can you give this to William and Winifred?”
“Sure.”
