"Looks like you were right on the mark about the latex thing." He said, sliding a section of the newspaper over to me. "Take a look at this."
I picked up the section and looked where he was pointing.
FEAR OF AIDS LEADS TO NATIONWIDE GLOVE SHORTAGE read the headline. It was an Associated Press story, which meant that it had been printed in newspapers all over the country. The text of the story told of hospitals, fire departments, and ambulance companies all ordering large amounts of latex gloves in response to fear of disease and a federal OSHA mandate that all health care providers wear gloves on every patient contact. Every patient contact! This was exactly what I'd been waiting for.
"Out of sight." I said, grinning.
"So this is going to make you some money on those stocks, right?" Dad asked.
"This is going to be like hitting the lottery." I told him happily. "Actually like hitting it twice."
"Twice?" He enquired, putting his paper down.
I nodded. "There's two aspects of stock ownership in a case like this." I explained. "First of all there's profit. Selling all of those gloves is making a lot of money for the companies I've invested in. That allows me dividends because as a partial owner of the company, I'm entitled to a cut of the profits. The second aspect is the price of the stock itself. Now it's gone steadily upward since I first invested in it but not dramatically by any means. The increase merely reflects those wise investors who have taken the time to research the company and note the recent increase in profits. But now that this story has appeared in the paper, all that will change. Everybody and their mother will know that latex is going to go through the roof and they will all rush to buy stock in it. That is going to drive the price of the stocks through the roof, therefore making my holdings much more valuable."
Dad had long since learned not to question my wisdom on the workings of the stock market. After all he saw me researching it and studying it every day.
"So how much are we talking about here?" He asked.
"It would not surprise me," I said, "If the value of my stock doubled by the end of the year and tripled by the end of the following quarter. Plus I stand to receive a healthy dividend check."
"Amazing." He whispered. "And I thought you were throwing your money away."
"This also means that I need to start putting my income somewhere else, to find another trend that's about to take off."
He looked confused. "Why is that? Shouldn't you continue to invest in latex?"
"No." I told him. "As the stock goes up, putting further money in it will be futile. Remember that I now have to pay the inflated price for more of the stock. What I need to do is keep my assets in latex right where they are and let them go up. But my future income needs to be put into other places; places that are cheap now but that are likely to rise in the future.
That's what investing in the market is all about."
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked.
I smiled. "I've been planning this for quite a while now." I told him. "The money from the latex investment will probably peak about the time I'm ready for college. It should be enough to get me enrolled and carry me through the first year. From now on my paychecks will be invested in something with slower, but steady medium-term growth. Something that will rise considerably over the next few years instead of months. I'll continue to dump money into those until they rise to a point where they've reached their peak of growth. It'll build me up capital for the big move I'm planning to make in a few years."
He shook his head. "What do you mean? What are you going to invest in now?
And what big move are you talking about?"
"Right now I'm going to begin investing in the computer industry. Apple, IBM, and a chipmaker called Intel. Over the next few years I believe that computers are going to start appearing everywhere and they're all going to be made by a few companies."
Dad looked at me in amazement. "You think those three are going to make all of these computers and the chips? What about Atari and Commodore?"
"I think they'll be outmarketed." I said. "Just a prediction you understand, but they probably won't be able to hold their own when the computer revolution swings into full gear."
"I see." He nodded, looking at me strangely. "And this big move you're planning to make?"
"It's kind of complicated." I told him. "I'll know it when I see it though.
You see, every computer has to have something called an operating system; software that tells it what to do."
"Okay." He said, semi-following me so far.
"The company that gets in on that market will make billions, trillions even.
They'll quickly be able to dominate the software market if they make their move at the right time and in the right way." I grinned. "I imagine that there's someone out there who sees this as well as I do. I imagine that someone has probably got a company that makes software going right now, as we speak. And I imagine that someone is just waiting for the time to be right to introduce an operating system that will set the standard for all computers and make it damn near impossible to operate one without it."
"Bill, how do you know so much about this?" Dad asked me slowly.
I shrugged. "I read a lot Dad. And I'm blessed with above average reasoning ability."
He shook his head a little. "Right." He said. He considered for a few more minutes. "You know," He finally said. "I have some money from each paycheck that is just going into the credit union savings account."
I looked up at him. "Yeah?"
He nodded. "Maybe I should put some of that in the stock market."
"Maybe you should." I told him.
By late afternoon the worst of the blizzard was past, leaving only flurries drifting through the air. The snowplows caught up with their work, clearing the roads of the city to something approaching passable. About six o'clock, after being cooped up in the house all day I was getting restless. I needed to get out and do something. An idea occurred to me. An idea that I couldn't get out of my head once it was in there.
Maybe Nina would like to go out and catch a movie with me.
It was probably too early in our reconciliation for this. It might seem I was being too forceful, pushing too hard. I might lose some of the ground that I'd gained. I probably shouldn't chance it, I finally decided.
And so thinking I went to the living room and dug out the newspaper, flipping through to the movie section. Maybe I would just go by myself. Yes, that's what I would do. I frowned as I read through what was currently playing. One of the problems of traveling back in time was that you inevitably had seen all of the movies before. I had another fifteen years to wait before something new, from my perspective, came out. I sighed.
I put the newspaper down and then picked it up again. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ASK her. She wouldn't abandon me for that would she? But then again…
With a start I realized that I was acting like what I was; a teenager trying to work up the courage to ask a girl out on a date. I'd asked girls out on date a thousand times in my life. Chastising myself for being immature, I picked up the phone.
Thought I hadn't called it in a while, I knew Nina's number from memory. The phone rang more than eight times and I was about to hang up in frustration when it was finally picked up.
"Hello?" It was Nina. The very sound of her voice thrilled me inside.
"Hi Nina." I said. "It's Bill."
There was a very long pause. "Oh, hi." She said finally, in a voice that sounded decidedly weird.
"Nina?" I asked, "Are you okay?"
"Uh, sure." She told me. "Listen, can I call you back in a few minutes? I'm eating dinner right now."
"Sure." I said. "But…"
"Thanks." She said quickly and the phone clicked in my ear.
Slowly I put the receiver back in its cradle. What was that all about? Why had she sounded so weird?