Free Rubout by Elaine Viets

sharing and caring environment where creativity can be nurtured. These kinds of conflicts can sink a corporation.”
    Way to go, Captain. Everything you said would float my boat.
    “It’s going to take a lot of work to get the Good Ship
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back on course,” he said. “It’s going to take the cooperation of you.” He pointed dramatically at our publisher.
    “And you and you,” he said, pointing at the two money men, Tucker and Simpson.
    “And you and you and you and . . .” He made sure we all got the point.
    “We need the high Cs here—Cooperation and Creativity.And to help develop these two vital life-enhancing and business-building qualities, we are going to have our first exercise in teamwork. Francesca, what do you think would be a good, fun learning game for
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people to play? Choose a popular game, now.”
    Game? I didn’t play games. Wait a minute, what was that game I used to play with my suburban cousins? It was about buying and selling. Was it Scrabble? No, it was . . .
    “Monopoly!” I said brightly. There was an awkward silence. Shit. Bad choice. Some said the
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already played Monopoly. The city’s two other daily newspapers were dead.
    Georgia came to my rescue. “Poker is a good learning game,” she said. “I learned it when I covered city hall, and it taught me everything I needed to know about people.”
    It was just the right thing to say. “I heard the mayor lost his shirt playing with you,” Tucker said, smiling.
    “Not true, it wasn’t strip poker,” said Georgia, and everyone laughed. I hoped my Monopoly remark was forgotten.
    “Those are good games,” said Jason, sounding like he was talking to a gifted kindergarten class. “But I was thinking of something a little more basic. A way of going back to our beginnings, when we first learned to play.” He reached again under the table skirt and pulled out a giant box of . . . Tinkertoys.
    “I’m going to divide you into teams of four. Each team will build something that represents their concept of the
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You’ll have twenty minutes. Siton the floor now. We need to start building from the ground up. I realize some of you must be thinking ‘What does that silly man have in mind? These are kids’ toys!’”
    I was thinking something similar, only not so clean.
    “I promise you. This only looks like a childish exercise. It is actually a childlike activity. That is an important difference. This is the best way I know to teach you teamwork,” Jason said.

    “I swear to God, Lyle, we actually sat on a conference room floor and played with Tinkertoys for two hours yesterday. What was that idiot thinking?”
    “Which idiot?” asked Lyle.
    “Good question. I meant Voyage Captain Jason, but the publisher sat there and lapped up that foolishness. That’s one emperor who doesn’t realize he’s running around naked.”
    Naked. Yes. I was distracted by the hunky young man who ran past us in Tower Grove Park, with teeny shorts and tons of muscles. I’d always loved St. Louis’s fall days, and this one was particularly beautiful, even without the nearly naked jogger. Most of the trees still had their leaves, and this year they were a blaze of fiery red and gold. Tower Grove was a nineteenth-century Victorian walking park, a perfect place for lovers to stroll and talk on a warm Sunday afternoon. We passed the lily ponds, paused to watch a giggling bride and groom pose for pictures near the fake Roman ruins, and then walked up to a little gazebo with a roof like a Chinese pagoda.
    And all the while we sampled this sun-drenched beauty, I griped about the Voyage Committee. It was one reason I’d agreed to see Lyle when he called. I missed talking to him after I flounced out of his place last Saturday. He was so smart, and he listened.
    “I can see why you’re discouraged,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like this group is going to solve the
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problems. And the paper does have problems. Do you know my