She pulled him toward her roughly, passionately, urgently.

The Bug could barely believe his luck. His heart was pounding like a sledgehammer. All he'd ever dreamed of was coming true, and in one swift moment he felt that his life would, at last, have Meaning.

The words of Marlon Brando, about a night spent with Marilyn Monroe, flashed through his head: "It wasn't long before every soldier's dream came true."

"I can't believe you took so long," she breathed at him, loosening his tie. "Couldn't you see how I've wanted you? Isn't it plain? I've had to hide it, and it's been hell. It's hell when I can't have you." She kissed him and bit his lip.

With strength he never knew he had, Charles (The Bug) Deatherage lifted Allison up into his arms and, biceps bulging, carried her toward the bed. She ripped his shirt off, and through clenched teeth, said, "Is this going to cost me a lot of money? How old are they?" And she then began madly ---

What? The Bed? How could that be? They were in the conference room. And 'how old are they?' What on earth was Allison talking about?

Charles, sweating, became suddenly aware that he knew that voice. It was not the voice of Allison -- it was a voice from the Bronx. It was Mrs. Petruno, on speakerphone. She was asking him about fixed assets. He shook his head and swallowed hard. On the computer screen in front of him, Allison stared, bug-eyed, as Arnold threw Rhonda roughly to the bed, and Rhonda ripped his shirt off just as surely and as violently as Mrs. Petruno had shredded the fabric of The Bug's fantasy.

"Don't sweat it, lady," said The Bug hoarsely. "Look at the PP&E section here."

Property, Plant, and Equipment

Original cost              $10,000,000 
Accumulated depreciation   $ 8,000,000
Net                        $ 2,000,000

He struggled to collect his thoughts. "The company needs $10,000,000 to replace the PP&E it now has, but it has already saved up $8,000,000 in cash to buy those new assets. So all it needs is another $2,000,000 which it can easily get from operations over the next couple of years."

We already know that The Bug is wrong about $10,000,000 being the amount needed to replace the fixed assets. What else is he wrong about? Which statement below is false?

1) Accumulated depreciation is not cash set aside to replace assets.

2) Accumulated depreciation might be invested in short-term securities, not in cash.

3) The company does not need to generate cash from operations to replace fixed assets because it can also borrow money to buy them.

4) Accumulated depreciation is simply the sum total of depreciation expense taken from the time the company bought its fixed assets.

The false answer is 2) Accumulated depreciation might be invested in short-term securities, not in cash.

Number 4 is correct and perfectly describes accumulated depreciation. It is not cash, or anything else, set aside to replace assets. While a company would like to be able to finance its asset purchases from operations, it might not be able to, and hence would have to borrow or issue new stock.

Depreciation expense and accumulated depreciation are widely misunderstood and we shall elaborate on them as Passion Swells.

The Bug was shaken. Usually imperturbable, he'd been badly thrown off balance by that tingling fantasy. Then he had a thought.

What if he could do the same sort of thing to his clients? What if he had the power to so disorient them that he could make them believe and accept whatever world he wanted to create for them? Would that not make him the world's greatest salesman, and a billionaire to boot?

He was determined to slip back into the fantasy.

What he had no way of knowing was that there was indeed a Power at work here, and, knowingly or not, he was in the throes of his first contact with it.

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