by Tom Corbett
“Meaning?” she asked, though knew the answer.
“I started to detach from him at that moment. It took a great while before the break was complete, but that image stayed with me.” Chris was aware she was looking at him with great intensity. “You know my favorite saying.”
“Ah, you have so many pearls.”
“Oh, the one about how you cannot throw away what God puts inside…well, He gave me a conscience, much to Father’s disgust.” Chris shifted in his seat, signaling a new topic. “Bev, I need to ask, and this is difficult. So, just tell me if I am getting too personal.”
“Yes,” she said simply.
“Okay, then, I will let it alone.”
“No, you don’t understand. I am saying yes, he did what you were about to ask. You were wondering if he abused me sexually, right?” Chris just nodded, wondering how she knew where he was going. “It started even before the marriage. At first, I was appalled and shocked. He said he wanted to get to know me better but then trapped me in a room. He simply took what he wanted as if I had no say in the matter. After, he dismissed me as if I were a piece of garbage but made sure I realized the price of mentioning this to anyone. No cooperation, no access to the family resources. Hell, I assumed it was simply part of the package, part of the price to get my reward. Want to hear something funny? Sad, really, sad beyond tears. I was positive that you would rape me as well. At first, I just assumed this, what shall we call it? – a tradition that just ran in the family. You were rich, entitled males who simply took what you wanted, and I would soon be added to your list of…conquests. That smile you saw painted on me in the beginning. A lot of it was merely a grim anticipation of the horrors that for sure would come from you as well. After all, Kay and Kat were always going on about you being the great womanizer.”
“But you must…”
“No, no, I figured things out after a bit. It quickly became apparent that you were safe, especially when you ignored me totally. Of course, then I went into a funk about not being attractive enough to get raped by the very same guy who, by wide reputation, would mount a coat rack. Now, I laugh when your sisters make that crack, then it was not so funny. Who first used that phrase? Everyone now describes you that way, at least the way you were before Amar. In the beginning, though, you made me very nervous, in fact.”
“My God,” Chris managed to utter.
Beverly continued. “After a while, I realized you were not so bad. All that playboy stuff was a façade, playacting. In fact, the more I saw of you, the more I came to admire who you were and what you represented. You were a bastard toward women but not a mean bastard by any means. I guess you were more of a casual and humorous bastard.”
“There is a difference?” Chris asked.
“There is a big difference, all the difference in the world. But listen, I now know the family skeletons. Your sisters and I have talked a lot recently, at least after they first opened up to you about the peculiar tastes of the family head. They approached me recently, I suppose expecting the worst. I don’t know what we were all thinking when it was happening. It must have been our fault, we couldn’t embarrass the family, and the ‘no one would believe us’ if we did open up. After all, he was a great man, courted by politicians and king-makers, seen on the media all the time. Who was I? Just a gold-digging blond bimbo out to score big through marriage. I was totally sure no one would have believed my story, that it would merely look like another effort to shake the family down for money. What kind of crap was that?”
“Bev, you could have come to me, to Kay.” He realized how stupid he sounded when she gave him a withering look. “Okay, that was way too dumb even by my low standards.”
“I never even told Chuck. I couldn’t. He was so fragile, had such a big heart. I remember, as things got worse between his father and he, I would plead for him to step away, to escape. We could run away, to Europe, where he could spend his time in the great museums and even find his own muse. I begged him to call you. We didn’t need more money or status. That was crap. All the things I had wanted, had schemed for, were just crap. I just wanted him and for him to be happy. I literally begged him to just turn his back on the family, the business at least. I didn’t need any of that any longer. Shit, by that time, I loved him so much I would have slept on a straw mattress in a cold water flat if he were next to me. I did, you know, love him.”
Chris reached over and took her hand. He thought she might pull it away, but she grasped it tightly. “I know that now, Bev.”
“That is what this trip was all about, by the way. Oh, I wanted to help, of course, and maybe see a few sights and thank you for the London tour by the way. Always nice when a native, and you are one by now, shows you around. But really, I wanted to share this. Funny, though, I had trouble getting started, this is not easy stuff. Then I realized we would be back in the States and I would have shared nothing. How ridiculous would that have been? But I had you on a pedestal. I could not escape the feeling that more whining from me would prove, at long last, that I was the brainless bimbo you thought I was. When we got on this plane, I realized it was now or never.”
“Beverly, there is one thing I have been meaning to say to you. This goes back to Chuck’s passing I think.”
“What?”
“Welcome to the family. I mean really welcome to this crazy family. Of course, being part of this clan proves the old saying about being careful of what you wish for. I am often reminded of the Oscar Wilde saying, ‘When the Gods wish to punish us, they grant our wishes’.”
“Clever boy, as always, you I mean, not Oscar. Your family is not so bad, I have finally gotten to know your sisters and you did not turn out to be a monster.” She smiled.
“Good point. You know, you are as much a sister to me now as Kay and Kat and, better still, you don’t beat me up like they do.”
She squeezed his hand. “Thank you. You have no idea what that means to me. One thing though, please treat me better than you treat them.” Then she smiled. “By the way, your sisters promised me lessons on where to hit you for maximum effect.”
Chris, however, didn’t absorb her final bit of wit. He suddenly wanted to scream but stuffed it in. “I feel like such a shit for not going back and dragging him across the pond, both of you.”
“For God’s sake, don’t beat yourself up,” she admonished him. “He would never have gone with you and physically kidnapping such a public man would have hardly worked. There was no way he was going to give up on pleasing your father, trying to that is.”
“Speaking of that bastard, you have stayed in touch with him, haven’t you? What is with that, after what he did to you?”
She did not respond right away. Rather, she segued in a slightly different direction. “What have you decided about seeing the patriarch while in the States?”
There was something about the sardonic tone in which she used his father’s honorific that drew his attention. “I was waiting to chat with Kat and Ricky before deciding on that.”
“Wise, I suspect.” She looked directly at him with level eyes. “I am going to recommend that you do so. Chris, I have not stayed in touch with your father out of any sense of affection or loyalty. No, indeed. I have a story to tell. Maybe you should get a drink before I start?”
Chris called an exceptionally attractive stewardess who smiled fetchingly at him until she concluded he was married and with his family. Chris ignored the brief drama and ordered drinks for both himself and Bev. After they arrived, he looked at his sister-in-law with increasing attention as she launched into her narrative.
Chris looked about as he arrived at the center of power for the Crawford business empire. It had been a while, but the feel was different. His sister had stamped her own style on the place. Instead of luxurious furniture and expensive paintings on the walls, she had imported functional pieces and wall hangings with a more socially conscious message. Chris examined one wall. The hangings were pictures from various sites around the world where
his people were working, blown-up and carefully framed. Most often, the shots were of children, sometimes whole families, either suffering from one atrocity or another. Interspersed were shots that communicated various emotions reflecting renewed hope in life and the future. In many were shots of Amar, Kay, Azita, Deena, other on-site staff and a couple with Karen and himself. He was touched.
“Has everyone gathered? I hope I am not late,” he asked an efficient looking receptionist.
“No, Doctor Crawford. You are the first. Ms. Crawford wants to speak to you privately before the meeting starts.” She then pushed a button and a door opened.
As Chris walked to the inner sanctum, he turned back to the receptionist. “And it is just Chris, by the way. Unfortunately, I am not the kind of doctor that can prescribe drugs, a disappointment to all of my friends.” The receptionist looked at him blankly.
“Chris,” Kat called out to him as he entered her inner sanctum. A middle-aged woman in a power suit who had been chatting with Chris’s younger sibling rose immediately and discretely exited through a side door.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“No, no. Everyone knew that my favorite brother was expected. They also were aware that the world would stop immediately upon the arrival of the prodigal sibling.”
“Well, I certainly would hope so.”
Kat suppressed a chuckle as she circled her desk and threw her arms about him, hugging him deeply. “You don’t know how good it is to see you.”
“Hell, I say the same thing to myself every morning.”
At this, she laughed out loud. “Oh, I keep hoping for some change but, as you have drummed into me so often, you cannot take out what God has put in.”
“No, you can’t, but I must come up with some new material, the usual stuff is getting stale. Everyone says they want me to change but I know they love me as I am. By the way, I tried my wit on the receptionist and got nothing.”
“They are my palace guard, there to protect me. They have seen all kinds of wiles and tricks from better than you. They are especially trained to ignore the common rabble and all forms of disingenuous charm and flattery. Besides, you are not that funny.”
Chris feigned being insulted. “Disingenuous, me? Just look at this honest face - and this crap about me not being funny?”
“Ah yes,” Kat tried unsuccessfully to look disapproving, “the face that seduced a thousand naïve and now suffering females.”
“Hey, they were not all naïve and only a few hundred were left suffering. That is my story and I am sticking with it.”
“Good that you keep deluding yourself.” Kat pulled herself away and walked to a pair of easy chairs that were used for informal one-on-one chats. “You won’t believe this, but you have no idea how hard I have practiced not to respond to your so-called wit. One of my few failures in life, I keep instinctively reacting to your pathetic attempts at humor, a genetic deficiency I presume. But you look good, Amar must be taking good care of you.”
“Yes, she is. And you and Ricky?”
“Well, it is not what I imagined marriage to be,” Kat deadpanned. When she saw the hoped-for expression of concern from her brother, she continued. “It is much better. As you might imagine, my role models as a girl were not the best. There was the disaster of a mother and a father, the less than inspiring example set by Chuck in the beginning, and two siblings who, for the longest time, seemed set on avoiding being ensnared within the web of marital bliss. Let’s just say I did not run out to order a subscription to Bride magazine.”
“But now you are happy, right?” He looked at her intently to seek out any subtle signs of deception or reservation.
“Depends of the day, but he is pretty much trained now.”
“Don’t joke on that, he knows I would take him on if he treated you poorly.” Chris assumed a pugilistic stance.
Kat laughed. “Now there is a fight I would pay to see. My money is on the black guy. But listen, how are your girls?”
“Good, growing like weeds. It is amazing to see them develop. I keep thinking no other child ever did such amazing things as these two.”
Kat continued to smile. “Oh my, you are a besotted parent. I have to see them.”
“You know they are with Beverly, go over anytime. After this, I will be running around to the East Coast foundations, using my famous charms on all those female program officers. There is a world of need out there and we always could use more money. Besides, I love flirting with women who hand out money.”
“Amazing you get a dime.” Then she shifted her body language, it was subtle, but Chris noticed. “Your schedule is good, I think. Here is your itinerary, all the arrangements have been made.”
“Thanks,” he said, looking at the papers she handed him. “I take back some of those nasty rumors I’ve been spreading about you.”
Kat ignored him. “I have greased the way with some new marks that even you cannot screw up. But, to the business at hand. I want to brief you first, the big picture, then get a couple of my team to brief you in more depth. Then you can mull over things on the road and we can chat further on your return.”
Chris evidenced a look of a man who had just experienced a minor epiphany. “Damn, now I get it. You sent Bev over to Oxford, so she could fill me in on Father and what she was doing with him. Interesting, she never got around to that topic until we were on the plane.”
Kat cocked her head but decided to let his last aside go. “See, you are not as dumb as you look. I plead guilty though she was wildly ecstatic about getting to play babysitter. But yeah, I wanted her to fill you in. She never visits here. She and I sometimes talk on burner phones or meet in dark alleys. Times are tense, Chris. We must be careful. That’s why I wanted to chat privately first. Some things are very sensitive.”
“Sounds a little paranoid.” Chris was torn between wanting to accept what he suspected was coming and not wanting to hear it at all. “Before you go any further, let me say something. I am here to listen and maybe to help where I can. And yes, Beverly told me an amazing story about…well, about spying on Father when she could. Some of the things she told me about him appall me and I know what a bastard he is. But what is new? He is an asshole. We all know that.”
“Oh, grow up!” Kat spit the words out and then relaxed. “He is not just bad. If he had merely cheated on mother, that would have been bad. What we are talking about here is way beyond bad. This monster is pure evil. Besides, there is far more at stake here than a family feud. We are talking the fate of the country, perhaps democracy as we know it, perhaps even the world order as we have come to know it. Not to get overly dramatic, but Western civilization might be at stake.”
“Glad you decided not to get dramatic.” Chris then realized humor would not work. That threw him off and he was not certain how to respond. For the first time, he saw the raw strength and passion that drove his younger sibling from family wallflower to a titan of capitalism. She really was tough as nails. “Alright, I know you are a serious person and I will listen carefully. But I will be brutally honest with you. I am finally happy with my life. Hell, I have a family I adore, am surrounded by interesting colleagues, function in a stimulating professional environment, and live in a country that, while quite imperfect, remains far ahead of this hellhole. At least English children are not gunned down simply for going to school. You are asking me to give all that up for some hopeless cause.”
“Yes, and without a smidgeon of reservation,” she responded coldly.
“Why, for God’s sake? Political battles and conflict in this country have been going on since the creation of organized parties in 1800. Things get better and then worse and then better again. The normative pendulum swings back and forth.”
“Absolutely correct.” Then Kat seemed to settle into a new mood, one of grim determination. “There are times in the past when we have had greater conflict in the streets and the same concentration of power among an economic elite. And we also had great ine
quality and suffering. But one thing was different back then. America was not such a world player nor was the globe so interdependent. My business world involves intimate connections with the far corners of the globe. And they, my business peers, are worried about what will happen in a post-Obama America, and many of these are traditional conservatives on economic matters at least. Here is what my associates see. The Republicans have been trying to hang on to their sanity but now are losing ground rapidly. They tried McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012. The base didn’t like either and both lost. So, that battle is over. This time around, it is feared they will go with some loose cannon and certified nut case.”
“Cruz maybe, but it increasingly looks like Trump, God forbid.”
“Yup, and what if it is Trump? He is a moron who has the most primitive understanding of world economics. The problem is that he has no freaking idea of just how dumb he is. He would start a trade war that would make the Smoot-Hawley fiasco look like a walk in the park. Ready for a worldwide meltdown, the fracture of the Western alliance? Fortunately, not even I, in my darker moments, believe that we are dumb enough to hand the country over to that total idiot. Increasingly, however, I have been experiencing even blacker moments in recent days.” She raised her eyes skyward as if in brief prayer. “In a few minutes, a couple of my top experts will fill you in on the global money laundering, particularly from Russian oligarchs through Deutsche Bank, Cyprus, and Geneva. Money, narcissism, greed, nepotism, and stupidity are a lethal combination. Perhaps more importantly, they are putting together a profile of the country’s mood, not necessarily overall but among those who would embrace a dictator in a heartbeat.”
