Perfect Little World(102)
“My grandmother was content to sit back and let you run the project as you saw fit. I loved my grandmother, but we have slightly different ways of managing our assets. I believe very strongly in the Infinite Family, and, as a result, I want to make sure that it’s proceeding in a way that best represents my grandmother’s wishes.”
“Absolutely,” Dr. Grind agreed, realizing, because he was an intelligent enough person and because he was attuned to the uncertainties of all things, that he had officially lost control of his own project. He had imagined, for so long that he had accepted it as gospel, that these people were his family. That he had, somehow, brought this family together. But how had he made it happen? With Brenda Acklen’s money, with her complete and utter belief in what he was doing, even if he himself didn’t always know what he was doing. Now that she was dead, that would all change. He was a researcher and he was conducting an experiment. And the findings, which were being funded at a considerable expense, were not his property. At any moment, he realized, the family could be taken from him, which was worse, he decided, than if the family slipped away from him by his own failures.
“God bless you, Preston,” Patricia said. “I’m going to be entirely honest with you, because I think you deserve it. Even if you didn’t believe that I deserved that same honesty.”
Preston didn’t respond, though he had immediately wanted to thank her; against his better nature, he would not be polite in this moment.
“I’m ending this particular study, Dr. Grind,” Patricia finally said, not smiling, but it was clear to Preston that she was happy to finally say it out loud.
“Patricia,” Dr. Grind said. “It’s been almost seven years of nearly flawless work, so I don’t think it’s so easy to just call it quits at the first sign of disruption.”
“You really have no idea what’s going on, do you?” she asked. She seemed genuinely curious, her head tilting to properly observe his reaction.
“What?” he asked.
“The work here is finished. I’ve got the legal power to do it; I’ve gone over this countless times with my lawyers.”
“I don’t understand why you’d want to end it,” Preston responded, suddenly angry. “It feels entirely selfish to shut down a project that could have a huge impact—”
“Dr. Grind, I am not shutting down The IFP. I am expanding it. I am doing more with it than you ever considered possible. What you’re confused about is that I’m doing this without you.”
“I made this family; I built the whole thing, Patricia.”
“With my grandmother’s money. With my money. And, regardless of my grandmother’s hopes for this project, we can’t just give away money to solve society’s ills. Why is that Acklen Super Stores’ responsibility? If the government wants to incorporate the findings of The IFP into their own initiative, then I won’t stop them. But I’m working to preserve the legacy of my grandmother. I’m working to preserve the legacy of the work that we’ve done. And you, frankly, are detrimental to that legacy.”
“So what are you going to do?” he asked.
“The project, our project, Preston, has been incredibly useful as a measure of how a communal structure can improve the development of children. You’ve gathered more than enough data to support that theory; allowing the project to continue would only jeopardize those findings. Once these defections occurred, the suicide attempt, it could only harm the brand, could reduce our claims of success. The key, what is truly important at this stage, is to move on to new families, to offer it to more people.”
“But that’s what I’d like to do, Patricia. We’re working toward the same goals.”
Again, she looked at him with curiosity. “I cannot read you at all, Preston,” she said. “No, we’re not working toward the same goals. You have some kind of social agenda that may or may not prove successful in a measurable way. My concern is to take the positive publicity that you have thus far generated for the project and begin to open IFPs all over the country, beautiful houses in gated communities with their own schools and playgrounds and whatnot. It will be an opportunity for new families to ensure that their child receives the kind of exemplary care that they deserve.”
“This is my family. Even if you want to expand, why not let me keep this family?”
“Dr. Grind, this is not your family. It never was. Ask those parents. You were a supervisor. You were not their father. It’s troubling that you continue to think otherwise.”
“You’re wrong.”
“The Infinite Family Project is going to be a paradigm shift in the way children are raised. It’s going to be revolutionary. We’re going to make a huge profit, yes, but, more important, we’re going to be at the forefront of something that will define our society from here on out. I can’t have you jeopardizing that.”
“You want to be the mother now,” Dr. Grind said. “To replace me.”
“No, I would never want that. You should never have wanted that. I’m going to be their CEO.”
“So this is all about money, then?” Dr. Grind asked.
“Lord, Dr. Grind, please give me a break. This is about more than money. It’s about ensuring that my grandmother is remembered for being the innovative, charitable, forward-thinking woman that she was. It’s about protecting her dream for childhood development from the obviously poor candidates that you chose to make up this project. You chose deficient people, Dr. Grind. You picked people who were accustomed to nothing and you overwhelmed them with so many possibilities that they sabotaged the project. We are not going to make that mistake again. Ever. We’re going to help people who have the means to help themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that. I won’t apologize for this. We’re going to make something special out of The Infinite Family Project.”