When JLS gave me this cell phone, I put all my numbers into speed dial, but I haven’t used them once. I remembered the “3” was home. It would be early afternoon there.

3.

I cover my other ear.

“Hello?”

“Dad.”

“Hello?”

“Dad, it’s me.”

“Wow, it’s noisy there. Where are you?”

“I’m on the trading floor. You have a minute?”

“What?”

“You have a minute?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“You ever heard of 3Com?”

“What?”

“3Com?”

“What about it?”

“Nothing. Have you heard of Palm?”

“Bomb?”

“Palm!”

“What?”

“Do you know what a Palm Pilot is?”

“Oh. Yes. What is this all about?”

This is going nowhere.

“Dad, are you proud of me?”

“What?”

“Are you proud of me?”

“Still can’t hear you, son.”

“ARE. YOU. PROUD. OF. ME.”

He pauses.

“Son, I think we have a bad connection. You should get back to work.”

He hangs up.

* * * *

The spinoff is in a few minutes. I try to memorize the screen like Fred does but the stock is ripping all over the place. I am unsuccessful. I am going to have to just make a market the old-fashioned way. Like TRE taught me. Make your price. Think about where you want to be. Do you want to own it? The stock has moved twenty bucks in the last twenty minutes.

Suddenly, the wheel screen goes nuts and freezes. I look up. All the screens are frozen. Nobody knows where the stock is. Nobody knows where the options are. The screens jerk back to life, tick a few times, then freeze again. The stock is gapping five bucks at a clip. I think I hear the clerk yelling at me. I’m assuming I got auto-exed on a bunch of trades, but it’s pointless trying to figure it out. I’m just hoping everything evens out.

Now the guy in the Hawaiian shirt is arguing with another scab. The screens spring back into motion, for good this time. Fat Dave is getting wheeled on some 50-lots and loving it. He turns around and sells 10,000 COMS to the Bay Bridge guys, who for once, are paying attention. As I turn around to look, I see that the clerk is transfixed at something off to his left, completely oblivious to what is going on in the pit.

My smock is vibrating, and I reach in and pull out my phone. It’s a 415 area code, but not a number I recognize. I flip it open, hold it to my ear, and hear:

“3Com April 120 calls.”

He hangs up.

I stand on my tiptoes and I see T22 across the floor, with a phone at each ear. He removes the phone from his left ear, closes it, and puts it in his pocket.

I know what I have to do.

You only need to get rich once.

I stare up at the screen at COMS.

The stock is at 95.

98.

102.

105.

All I am looking at is the COMS Apr 120 calls. The screen says: