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and pragmatism, why, Nash Enterprises would have disintegrated in the wake of old Charlie’s retirement.
    Of course Ted had to admit that his rationalization was aided and supported by the spiritual direction of Father Art.
    Good old Father Art.
    In the beginning there was Father Charles E. Coughlin, controversial Detroit radio priest of the thirties.
    Little Teddy Nash was a teenager during the years of the Second Vatican Council. Looking back at that event now, Ted realized that his dad had paid absolutely no attention to the council—which had been a considerable media happening, even for the secular media.
    Charlie Nash’s parish church was lucky if he darkened its door even twice a year. So Charlie had been mildly surprised one Christmas when the service was held totally in English. The priest was no longer muttering in Latin. But the mild surprise was quickly displaced in his mind by plans to acquire land in Bloomfield Hills.
    It was left to Teddy’s mother to plant the seeds of religious conservatism in Ted’s psyche. Mother also led him to the hero worship of Father Coughlin, who never did release his hold on the preconciliar Church.
    With the passing of Coughlin in 1979, the mantle of leadership fell on the willing shoulders of Father Arthur Deutsch.
    Later, Father Art had been able to retire to Boca Raton in a splendid place he had prepared for himself. He would probably have joined Opus Dei, a reactionary conservative subculture of the Catholic Church, except for Teddy Nash’s having made him an offer he could scarcely refuse.
    As virtual court chaplain for Teddy, Father Art could stay in harness and be far more influential by the continuing formation of the young man’s conscience than ever he could have been in retirement.
    Ford Park was a case in point. Instinctively, Ted Nash had known that it was financially imperative that the animals inhabiting the park be ousted for the sake of progress. After all, there were plenty of other habitats to which they could migrate. Besides, relocation to a pristine environment in some other state would be good for them. Breathe cleaner air. And if those ground animals that couldn’t fly away got run over by cars and trucks, that was just part of the “dominion” that God wanted man to exercise over nature.
    The latter argument had been supplied by Father Art.
    Of course, none of these arguments came close to influencing the crazy environmentalists. But then again, they did have their own interpretation of Scripture.
    What mattered was that Nash Enterprises had won. It had cost the company under the table, but that’s the way things moved along in the real world. The company had Ford Park. All was right with the world.
    Thus Teddy, even mired in crawling traffic, was a happy man.
    Adding to his euphoria was the anticipation of a leisurely weekend with Brenda. His wife and children were off to Palm Springs, so he was relieved of having to concoct some excuse for spending yet more time away from home.
    Ted had never regretted marrying Melissa Dwyer. She had been just what the doctor ordered. Her family was yin to his family’s yang. Hers was Old Money. His was nouveau riche. While his parents had been invited to most of high society’s doings after Charlie had struck it rich, they had never really been accepted into anything resembling the elite …
    Melissa’s family, on the other hand, went back to the original families that had settled Detroit. In marrying Melissa, he had wed respectability. God was good.
    Teddy didn’t even mind the children. It was difficult to be bothered by them. He hardly ever saw them.
    Ted and Melissa had three children in four years. As far as Ted was concerned, it would have been very acceptable to have ten in ten years—or twenty in twenty. However, Melissa was not amused. Eventually, one night several years ago, she had announced, “We’ve got to talk!”
    To Ted’s surprise, Melissa didn’t want to have a baby every year for the