Chapter 33 - The Free Lunch 

The invitation promised lunch and a brief presentation about ownership at the Olympic Village Inn. Focus Man read it while Claire was looking through the information they had collected about things to do around the lake.

“Lunch is included.”

She looked up. “Included in what?”

“The presentation.”

“How brief?”

“Ninety minutes.”

Claire took the invitation from him. “That’s a fairly substantial lunch.”

They were midway through the week their friends had given them. By then they liked the inn, liked the mountains, and had discovered that waking up without somewhere they needed to be agreed with them. Focus Man had also begun to feel that they ought to express their appreciation for the free accommodation by avoiding unnecessary expenses.

A free lunch appealed to that reasoning.

“We don’t have to buy anything,” he said.

“I would hope not.”

“We listen. We eat. We leave.”

Claire studied the small print.

“Have you done one of these before?”

“No. But I’ve been in plenty of sales meetings.”

“That’s what worries me.”

He explained that understanding how something was sold provided a considerable advantage when someone tried to sell it to you. Claire listened with the expression she used when he had offered an explanation that might become useful later as evidence.

“All right,” she said. “But we’re not buying a timeshare.”

“Of course not.”

They arrived a few minutes early. Focus Man considered this a courtesy. Claire pointed out that they had already added five minutes to the ninety.

A young man welcomed them, offered coffee, and asked them to complete a form. It wanted to know where they lived, what they did, how often they traveled, and what they usually spent on vacations.

Focus Man paused over the last question.

“Do they mean per vacation or per year?”

“Put down the cost of lunch,” Claire said.

He gave her a look and continued.

Their salesperson introduced himself as Gary. He had the agreeable manner of someone who was pleased to meet people for a living and had learned not to be discouraged when they began by explaining that they intended to buy nothing.

“We’re just here to learn about it,” Focus Man said.

“Absolutely.”

“We’re not looking to make a purchase.”

“Of course.”

Claire glanced at her husband. Gary had accepted both declarations without appearing to consider either a significant obstacle.

They sat in a room with several other couples while someone explained the pleasures of returning to a place you loved. There were photographs of the inn in different seasons, families enjoying themselves, and mountains looking more cooperative than mountains sometimes were. The presentation asked them to imagine setting aside a week every year before work and ordinary obligations used it up.

Focus Man could see the appeal. He could also see the method. The photographs were pleasant, the argument orderly, and the practical questions had not yet been discussed.

Beside him, Claire shifted in her chair.

He leaned toward her. “We’ll get to the details.”

“I was wondering about lunch.”

The presentation ended, but their ninety minutes did not. Gary took them to see a unit, explaining how the ownership worked as they walked. Focus Man recognized the furnishings from the place where they were staying. The kitchen was compact, the bedroom comfortable, and the windows looked toward the mountain.

Gary asked how they had enjoyed their visit.

“Very much,” Claire said.

“And you’d like to come back?”

“Yes.”

Focus Man felt this answer required clarification.

“Under the right circumstances.”

Gary nodded. “That’s what we’re here to discuss.”

They returned to a table where he had arranged papers and a calculator. Focus Man sat down prepared to examine the circumstances. Claire sat down prepared to eat.

Gary began with a week they were not particularly interested in at a price they were even less interested in. Focus Man asked about other seasons.

“What about the quieter weeks?”

Gary took out another sheet.

That was the first change in the conversation, though Focus Man didn't recognize it at the time. He had meant to discover the weakness in the offer. Instead, he had asked whether there was an offer he might like better.

Gary described an off-season week.

Focus Man asked which week.

Gary told him.

Claire looked at the windows, then at her husband.

“That’s about when we’re here.”

“Yes,” he said.

“And we like being here now.”

“Yes.”

Gary let them finish.

The price was lower. Focus Man asked why, although the answer was apparent enough: people wanted holidays, summer vacations, and skiing. He had gone to college in Salt Lake City partly because he wanted to ski, and he understood the attraction of winter better than Gary could have known. But this visit had given him something different. He liked the lake without crowds along every stretch of shore. He liked walking in shirtsleeves during the day and finding his sweater useful after dinner.

He began asking about annual charges.

Claire watched him pull the calculator closer.

“Are we still learning?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Gary waited while Focus Man worked through the figures. He asked what happened if they couldn't use their week, what the continuing obligations were, and whether the dates were fixed. Gary answered, pointing to the relevant places in the papers.

The figures were less attractive once everything was included, but they remained within reach. Focus Man recalculated them. Then he calculated what they might spend returning on their own.

Claire leaned back.

“You’re comparing it to a vacation we haven’t planned.”

“We would probably come back.”

“We probably would.”

That agreement ought to have reassured him. Instead, it left him with fewer reasons to stop looking at the numbers.

At some point Gary asked whether he could leave them alone for a few minutes. He went to speak with someone across the room, and Claire turned toward Focus Man.

“You’ve stopped trying to get us out of this.”

“I’m checking it.”

“I know. That’s how I can tell.”

He set down the calculator.

“It isn’t unreasonable.”

“Neither was buying lunch.”

He laughed. She smiled, then looked at the sheet between them.

“I do like it here.”

“So do I.”

“I don’t want to buy it because we’ve spent two hours talking about it.”

He looked at his watch.

They had passed two hours some time ago.

When Gary returned, Focus Man asked when lunch would be served.

Gary glanced toward the room behind them and said they could eat now if they liked.

Claire stood immediately.

Over lunch, they talked without a salesperson at the table. That helped. The food was perfectly adequate, though Focus Man suspected it would have acquired greater distinction if it had arrived an hour earlier. Claire asked whether they really wanted to return every year.

He said he thought they did.

“Even if something else comes up?”

“We wouldn’t have to spend every vacation here.”

“No. But we’d feel we should use the week.”

He considered that. They had become skilled at finding reasons not to take time away. A week already paid for might be an obligation he would welcome.

Claire ate for a while before speaking again.

“I’d like to come back.”

He nodded.

They returned to Gary’s table.

By late afternoon they owned an off-season week at the Olympic Village Inn.

There were signatures, explanations, copies to keep, and one final opportunity for Focus Man to ask a question everyone else had hoped was settled. When they finally stepped outside, Claire stood in the mountain air and looked at him.

“That was an expensive lunch.”

“We bought a week.”

“We were given a week. Then we went to lunch.”

He started to explain the distinction between the purchase price and its value over time. She raised a hand.

“I was there for the calculations.”

They walked back to their unit carrying a folder they had not brought with them. Focus Man put it on the table and went to open a window. Outside, the afternoon had continued quite successfully without them.

Claire stood beside the folder.

“What would have happened if we’d gone for dinner?”

“We might own the building.”

She laughed, and he was relieved to discover he could laugh with her. They had made a decision neither had expected to make that morning. It deserved more thought than the invitation had suggested, and he knew there were obligations attached to it that would remain after the pleasure of the week wore off. Still, when Claire suggested walking down to the river before the light went, he closed the folder and went with her.

They returned for their own week the following year. He recognized the turn into the inn before Claire pointed it out, and they carried their bags inside without needing anyone to explain much. Their first trip to the grocery store was shorter. They already knew what they would cook, which places they wanted to see again, and which outings could wait. For once, he felt no need to make a list.

On another stay, they spent an afternoon near the river and stopped for breakfast the next morning at a place they remembered. Focus Man told Claire more about his years in Salt Lake City, including the care with which he had once arranged classes around skiing. She observed that he had been quite capable of organizing his life around something other than work when sufficiently motivated.

He had no convincing answer to that.

Their week began to acquire familiar routines. They knew where the morning sun reached the windows and how soon the evening air would cool. They found themselves discussing the following visit before the current one was over.

One afternoon, returning from Tahoe City with groceries, Claire watched a woman carry shopping bags into a small house beside the road. A bicycle leaned against the porch. Someone inside opened the door for her.

“What would it be like to stay?” Claire asked.

“For another week?”

“Longer.”

Focus Man slowed for the turn toward the inn. He had an answer ready about work, but she hadn't asked how they would arrange it. He looked once more at the house as they passed, then drove on with the groceries in the back seat.