“Of-course, he will.”
Her face scowled a little and she rolled her eyes.
“And what is that all about?”
Taking a deep breath Denise folded her thin arms over her chest and looked at me from beneath her heavily eye-shadowed eyes.
“You’ve been trying to get a meeting with him for how long? You, the fifth wealthiest man in the country and now he can meet with you because you’ve got game seats on the floor. He’s got to be able to smell their jocks…”
“Denise!” I said pretending to be shocked.
“Oh please.” She waved me off with her hand. “You know how I am, Marty. I have to call it as I see it and I’m just not sure much good will come from cozying up with Carson.”
“It’s the nature of the beast, Denise, you know that.”
“That doesn’t make it right, Marty. What would your mother think of a guy like Carson?”
I smiled as I let Denise’s words sink in. My mother was a tough old broad. She had to be. From the beginning my father probably had to work hardest for my mother. Not because she was mean or ungrateful. But because she always reminded him of what was really important and made him pay attention. In between business meetings he came to the hospital for me to be born and every baby afterward.
He made it to a handful of school plays, a couple of dances and of course high school graduations. He may not have been around for everything but he made his presence known.
When it came to business deals my father would run almost everything past my mother. Especially if it was going to require he put in extra hours or travel anywhere.
And as the bank account continued to grow so did the schools of barracudas that circled the old man in an attempt to get their hands on some of it. And some of those barracudas were of the female persuasion to which my mother made it very clear. My father only got one chance. If he screwed that up his stuff would be packed and on the stoop before he could say “honey please”. There was no gray area.
She told me a story about one of my father’s uncle’s who had a girlfriend in Palm Springs that he would visit once a month.
Uncle Charlie thought no one knew a thing about this other woman and for years would talk about Palm Springs as if it were the breathtaking pyramids of Egypt or Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
“He was always so serious as if trips to Arkansas made him worldly and a cut above the rest of us.” Mom would say. “But the truth was Aunt Colleen knew all about it.”
“Why didn’t she say anything to him? Why didn’t she kick him out?” I remember asking.
“Because she didn’t want to be on her own. She’d rather be made to look like a fool than to go without. Charlie was a good provider. Of course he was. He was paying off his conscience. Aunt Colleen could always have a new mink every year, a new car, the newest appliances because she knew Charlie would give it to her out of guilt.”
“Isn’t that smart, though? I mean, she wasn’t being a total chump, right?”
I’ll never forget the look my mother gave me when I said that.
“How old do you think Aunt Colleen is?” She asked me. In my teenage brain everyone over twenty looked old so I just shrugged my shoulders.
“Your Aunt Colleen is fifteen years younger than me.” Mom said.
“What?” I shouted in shock. Aunt Colleen had a face that was so wrinkled and so gray it was like a faded piece of wooden lawn furniture that had been left in the elements over a particularly cruel winter.
“That is what she traded for a few mink coats. Her youth is gone, wasted trying to stay one up on a man who should have had the shit beat out of him and then tossed out with the garbage.”
My mother never cussed. So you can imagine I was very interested in seeing how she acted toward both Uncle Charlie and Aunt Colleen at the next family gathering.
My parents set a good example for me but it was definitely a hard act to follow.
“I’d love your father whether he had all the money in the world or not even two nickels to rub together.” I remember her telling me when I was just starting to take an interest in girls.
“How come?” I asked.
“Because your father makes me laugh.”
Both my parents had passed away. First my mother died four years ago and then my father almost