Chapter 11: The Embarrassing Blunder.
With a squeal of brakes, the brand-new black Audi 90 came to a stop outside a small villa.
Ryan sat in the passenger seat, grimacing the whole time. In his opinion, Nicole's driving skills had reached a truly legendary level of awfulness. He seriously wondered whether the brand-new sedan would even survive until the end of its break-in period.
"Nicole, did you bribe the examiner when you took your driving test?"
"Shut up, Ryan." Nicole ground her snow-white teeth. "If you say one more word, after the visit you can walk back to Los Angeles from Santa Monica by yourself!"
Ryan stuck out his tongue and swallowed the next sarcastic remark. He unbuckled his seatbelt, got out first, and headed toward the small but extremely elegant villa.
It was the last day of August. He and Nicole had driven to the seaside town of Santa Monica specifically to visit the retired Director Katie. After all, back at the orphanage she had been the only person who truly cared for and helped him, and she had also been a big help during the later custody battle.
"Aunt Katie, it's so good to see you."
Even though they had exchanged letters occasionally, after two years apart the old director looked noticeably older, her hair now more than half gray.
"Ryan, you've grown taller… and older."
Director Katie sounded a little emotional.
After the nanny served juice and coffee, she turned to Nicole. "I can't believe two whole years have passed. Has the little guy been easy to look after? With that personality of his, he must have given you plenty of headaches."
"Mrs. Katie, we get along wonderfully. Adopting Ryan was the best decision I've ever made in my life." Nicole smiled and ruffled Ryan's hair. "Ryan is my only family in America."
"Then I can rest easy."
The old director asked about Ryan's recent life and chatted with Nicole for a while, but her energy was clearly fading. Ryan and Nicole had no choice but to say goodbye. Just before they left, however, Katie pulled Nicole aside.
"Ryan is the smartest and most talented child I've ever met. Take good care of him and let him grow up healthy. If you ever run into problems you can't solve, call me anytime. I may be old, but I still have plenty of relatives and friends."
After a quick drive along the Santa Monica beach and a seafood lunch, Nicole headed back toward downtown Los Angeles with Ryan. He had an appointment that afternoon at Lawyer Wilson's office.
Wilson was fairly well-known in the greater Los Angeles area. Although his law firm was only medium-sized, business was steady, and he rented an independent two-story building near City Hall.
Inside a small, private conference room, two white men were waiting for him. The slightly balding middle-aged man was Ryan's lawyer, Mr. Wilson. The other — a tall, sturdy, younger-looking man with brown hair — was the stock and investment broker Wilson had introduced to him the previous year.
"Nice to see you, Mr. Scott. We've spoken on the phone many times, but I never imagined you'd be this tall." In Ryan's estimation the man was at least six-foot-three.
"Ryan, I never imagined you'd really be under ten years old." Scott's expression was comically exaggerated.
The meeting was about investments. As a highly professional lawyer, Wilson excused himself from the room. After Nicole dropped Ryan off at the building, she headed to a fitness club and would pick him up before the office closed.
"Mr. Scott, I heard from Uncle Wilson that you're heading back to New York soon?"
"That's right. I plan to return to Merrill Lynch in a few days and may resign from my current position."
"Resign? Why?" Ryan scratched his head, thinking, Isn't this messing with me? I finally found a reliable investment broker and now he's quitting?
Scott gave a helpless but warm smile. "My wife is pregnant. I'm going to be a father in December. We're moving back to Montgomery, Pennsylvania, to wait for the baby."
"Oh, I see." Ryan muttered, then quickly added, "Congratulations, Mr. Scott."
This was getting complicated. He had finally convinced Nicole — was he supposed to give up now? Ryan's eyes darted around. "Mr. Scott, actually what I need you to do doesn't conflict with your plans at all. You only need to manage one fund for me and buy some stocks."
"In that case…"
After Ryan spent a few more minutes persuading him, and since the work really wouldn't take much time, Scott finally nodded in agreement.
"Wait, Ryan!"
Scott suddenly interrupted the boy, who had been talking nonstop with great enthusiasm. Ever since entering the room, this child had shown astonishing maturity and intelligence.
Only now did Scott realize he was still just a naïve kid.
"What?" Ryan had been showing off the pitiful amount of financial knowledge he remembered from the internet in his previous life. He didn't understand why Scott had cut him off.
"Ryan, the Cisco you mentioned — isn't that a network equipment supplier?" After Ryan confirmed, Scott suddenly laughed. "Cisco isn't publicly listed yet!"
Ryan's mouth twitched involuntarily. His face turned black with embarrassment. At that moment he wanted to run to the beach in Malibu, dig a hole, and bury himself. Oh God! He had just made a massive blunder.
"And Microsoft stock — right now almost every investor is bullish on Microsoft's upward trend. Buying a large amount on the open market is extremely difficult. As for Apple…"
Scott gave a simple analysis of the financial and investment market. The more he explained, the more cold sweat broke out on Ryan's forehead. In his heart he felt nothing but relief.
Thank goodness he had a little self-awareness. He had always known the financial knowledge he remembered might not be reliable, and he had never believed he could dominate the markets with it. If he had acted like those overconfident reborn geniuses and gone crazy shorting currencies or chasing bubbles, he would probably have been one more person jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Plaza Accord? The Japanese asset bubble? Profiting from the collapse of the Soviet Union? The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis? The subprime mortgage crisis? All of it could go to hell. He would just quietly make his movies.
Back home, Ryan sat at his desk and could only give a bitter smile. His greed had barely started to swell before a sharp spike mercilessly popped it.
After two lifetimes, how could he not know that his greatest talent was still in the arts — and in this life it was several times stronger than before? People just tended to be blinded by greed and unrealistic dreams. In a way, Mr. Scott Swift had been the club that came down on his head.
Still… why did that name suddenly sound a little familiar? Ryan scratched his head, tossed the thought aside, picked up his pen, and let it scratch across the paper.
The scorching summer finally came to an end. Ryan Jenkins, who had transferred from London, walked into an American school for the first time. Nicole had chosen a private elementary school for him called St. John's.
Don't get the wrong idea — it wasn't a religious school. Even after being reborn, Ryan was at most an agnostic. If they tried to send him to a strict Catholic school, he would rather die.
"Ryan, get along well with your classmates at school. Don't keep doing weird things. If the principal calls me in again, I swear I'll send you to boarding school!"
After dropping Ryan off at the campus, Nicole Kidman issued the warning in a very serious tone — even though she knew it probably wouldn't do much good.
"Come on, Nicole, do I seem like the kind of kid who causes trouble for no reason?" Ryan reflexively started arguing the moment she finished. "Just relax. As long as those little brats and weird teachers don't mess with me, I won't bother with them."