“Glad you came. Mom was worried you wouldn’t ‘cause of your ‘stupid pride.’ And do not touch my hair again, it takes a long time to get it to look like this.” Jonah smoothed his hair back and was about to say something else when their mother came to the door.
Behind her was Michael’s older sister Annie, with Judy, who was no longer so little, trailing behind. She had just turned seventeen and Michael couldn’t believe how much had changed since he saw her just last year when his came family visit him in New York. Judy had grown so tall since last Christmas! She was at least five foot ten and had long black hair and blue eyes. She was gorgeous. He was both proud and worried at that moment … he might need to beat up some boyfriends during this visit. He smiled at the thought. He always wished he and Judy could be closer. Maybe he could make some inroads toward that goal on this visit. He and Annie had also drifted somewhat apart through the years. He wasn’t as up-to-date as he should be on her children or her home.
The whole family was there, except for James Malone. That stubborn old goat, as Michael’s mother frequently called him, still hadn’t forgiven Michael. But that’s not why he wasn’t there. It wasn’t a choice James had made. Although Michael wondered if his father would be here to greet him if the circumstances were different. Now, he would never know.
“Mom! Jonah, Annie, Judy, I’m glad to be here.” Michael hugged his teary-eyed mother.
She was short, with graying hair, and the same pale blue eyes that Jonah, Michael, and Judy all had. She had a few more wrinkles than the last time Michael saw her, which was just last November, for his birthday. She seemed to have aged beyond her fifty-four years. It had been a tough year for her with all that had happened to Michael’s father.
“Come on in, Mikey, glad you’re here. I only wish you could have seen him before it happened.” Marty let out a cry and held Michael tighter.
Judy Malone touched her brother’s shoulder and said, “Good to see you, bro,” Then she looked to her mother. “Mom, why don’t we all go inside.”
Judy had a quiet maturity about her that was simultaneously comforting and disturbing. Having someone so young seem so together could be disarming. She steered them into the kitchen. It looked the same. Linoleum floors with a strange black octagon and white square pattern, oak cabinets with cast-iron pulls and 1970’s ‘modern’ olive green appliances. The best part of the room, the large country farm table with faded red legs, was still there, and the picnic bench seat—perfect for numerous children to hang out on—was there, too. Michael, Annie, and Jesse had sat there all the time while growing up. It was there that they did their homework together, played Monopoly, shared after-school snacks, and just talked. He also remembered Jonah and Judy coloring and doing their art projects there when they were small children.
Michael remembered the time Jesse and he had carved their initials into the table top with their Dad’s Swiss Army knife and they gotten so many lashes that their bottoms matched the table legs. He smiled at the memory. James Malone wasn’t a violent man, but when they were small, he hadn’t shied away from disciplining his children. Michael had been just eight years old at the time and Jesse twelve.
“Jesse.” Michael sighed. Michael hadn’t thought about Jesse and the night he died in a long time. The football team had just won the state championship so Jesse got to go to all of the victory parties and took Michael along with him. There was a lot of beer at the parties, and drugs. Jesse wasn’t a big drinker… but that night he was drinking... he was drinking a lot. Michael had never seen anything like it. For the first time in his life, Jesse had decided to cut loose. He took shots, drank from a funnel, danced, and sang at the top of his lungs. Then the cops came and Jesse had to get out of there, and he and his girlfriend Jen headed for the car. Jen’s little sister Beth had tried to convince both Jesse and Jen not to drive. Jen told Beth to back off and she got in the car. Just a few miles from the party, they ran into a tree. The car flipped over and neither survived.
Michael shook his head and looked beyond the kitchen into the dining room. He struggled with the memories of Jesse and that day with his dad over and over again in his head. Sometimes he wished he’d done it differently. Other times he wished his Dad hadn’t been such a stubborn jerk. He couldn’t change the past, but he was hoping there would still be time to change the future.
Michael walked towards the dining room. It still looked like a mess, even in the distance. He guessed they were still using it as an office, even though Jesse’s room had been empty for years.
His mother’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “So honey, are you hungry? I made a carrot cake just the other day, your favorite. And we have chocolate milk. I even bought that sparkling water you like so much. Dang, what’s it called... San Pelican? Oh, well, whatever it is, what would you like to have?”
She was speaking so quickly, Michael didn’t even know what to say.
“Okay, mom, let the man breathe, he just got here,” said Annie. Michael shot her a look of appreciation. He thought to himself had it not been for Annie, growing up would have been a lot harder than it had been, even if she was a rat sometimes. Even though Annie was five years older, she and Michael had always had a connection. She’d always come over and ‘save’ him when things got bad. He was a bookish teenager with only a few friends and was often the butt of people’s jokes. Sometimes Michael had felt really alone, especially after Jesse died, but then Annie would be there with popcorn and videos.
“Oh, I’m fine, Mom. A sparkling water would be great. No carrot cake for me right now, though. But I will try some later, if that’s all right.”
Marty got his water and then sat down at the table. They all sat there in silence for a few minutes but it didn’t last long. Annie never could stand the quiet.
“Guess I’ll just come right out and say it. We’re really glad you came home, Mikey. Dad’s in bad shape. We know things haven’t been the greatest between you two...”
“Oh, hell, Annie. Michael, your Dad hasn’t been doing so hot for a while now and we think this has been a long time coming. I didn’t want to burden you with it but we’re in a bit of trouble now that he’s gone and had a stroke.” Marty let it all out in what seemed like one breath.
“I don’t understand — did something else happen? Before the stroke? When? Where? Why didn’t you tell me? I don’t understand.” Michael’s words came out in a rush. Even though he hadn’t been home in all this time, it wasn’t like he hadn’t spoken with his family. They spoke every week, sometimes more frequently, and no one had said a word about his father having any health issues. And now a stroke, he knew that part. But had Michael known about his father being sick he might have come back sooner, he might have been able to help. Maybe he could have stopped this from happening. Who knows what could be different now, had he known.
He had to stop himself, his thoughts were racing.
Marty paused and took another deep breath. “Well, remember when you were graduating from your MBA? You were furious we couldn’t come down to see you for graduation because we had to ‘take care of inventory’? You had that crazy internship at that Goldfarb place they always talk about on the TV and you were so concerned about getting a good job that I couldn’t do that to you. You were just twenty-five, and your father had his first scare... a heart attack... and I just didn’t want to burden you, and neither did your father. It happened the day before you asked to speak to him...”
Burden him? What did they think of him? That he was some kind of unfeeling monster? Sure, he had been mad at his father all that time, but he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Although he sometimes hated to admit it, he still loved his father.
Annie interrupted. “I told you he didn’t want to speak to you ‘cause I didn’t know what else to say...he didn’t want us to tell you...”
“He didn’t want you to miss your graduation... I guess he was also afraid you wouldn’t choose him... that you wouldn’t come see him,” said Marty with t
ears in her eyes. “He never said that, but it’s the sense I got.”
Michael was taken aback — he didn’t know what to say. He remembered that day. He was so upset they wouldn’t come see him and because of inventory of all things, he had thought. He thought to himself that the market was all anyone cared about and he promised himself that that would never happen to him — that he would never become so consumed by something. It all made sense now. The house’s complete disrepair, Jonah’s decision to go to a University of Maine instead of Stanford. Michael felt ashamed that they didn’t think they could ask him for help before... but he also felt angry that they had hid this from him. Despite all their issues, he was still family. And despite his Dad’s pushy nature, there had been good times too.
Michael remembered that when he and Jesse were children, their dad would take them fishing. Michael was a little scared at first, especially of the bait — of all the things to be scared of! Jesse made fun of him terribly, but his dad didn’t. He just explained gently that there was nothing to be afraid of — the bait wasn’t going to bite and hooking them was simple. Despite his temper, his dad could be oddly gentle sometimes, which was strange for such a big, burly kind of a guy. His dad was right about fishing. Since that first trip, fishing had become one of Michael’s favorite pastimes.
It’s funny, for a guy who didn’t want to spend his life filleting fish, he sure spent a lot of his free time fishing. Even in New York. His only vacations were to go out to the Hudson Valley and fish. It was always a trek but afterwards, Michael always felt relaxed and somehow more balanced, something he seemed to be lacking in the other parts of his life. Maybe life wasn’t all bad in Gray Harbor. Michael had some good times in the past, but maybe the sadness of Jesse’s death clouded things a bit — that and Michael’s blow-out with his father over moving to New York.
New York. New York was great… or it would be if Michael ever got to enjoy it. Michael had been burning the candle at both ends ever since he finished his MBA. Life wasn’t the same anymore. And taking a “vacation” or a leave had been something he never did before. Sure he went away, but always just for a weekend, and often he was fielding calls, even when he was out fishing on a boat. But he knew his time at his company was coming to an end soon, so he figured why not take a break. He decided to help the family on the Goldfarb Funds’ dime, while he was still employed by the company. He had so much vacation time built up that if they did let him go, they’d not only have to pay him a severance but they’d have to pay him for seven years of missed vacations, he thought.
With the economic downturn, things had taken a turn for the worse… and Michael was on the high end of the pay scale as a Managing Director and on the low-end of bringing in the money lately. Although he was in charge of his group, he didn’t always have the final say on the decisions these days, which is why he was concerned. It may seem ridiculous to get rid of one of your most senior people… but he seemed to have lost his touch, his pulse on the market, at least according to them. Or maybe the money just didn’t matter anymore.
He had a nice nest egg saved now… but he didn’t want to permanently leave until he figured things out. He also didn’t want to make it easy on them. He had to remind himself how he came to be the director when he was only twenty-six years old. He replaced the last director and turned things around at the hedge fund. Within two years, they had become one of the most well-known hedge funds in the country. Michael had appeared on the cover of Trader Magazine annually for being so successful.
But enough of that for now — he had to focus. The next three weeks he hoped to help his family, reconnect with his father, figure out his next steps, and then go back to New York, hopefully with a plan of action. When he listed it all like that it seemed unrealistic... but he needed to make it happen. Maybe he’d take a completely different direction with his life, while he was at it. Maybe he’d do something that mattered, something that would do good for a change. He chuckled to himself. Of course he knew things might not happen quite that neatly. That was always hard for him, since he was an organizer and a planner. He loved making to-do lists and checking things off. Perhaps not the personality one would expect for a top trader. He wasn’t a risk taker, but a calculated decision maker.
“Hey buddy, you still there?!” Jonah was waving a hand in front of Michael’s face. “Mom just asked you something.”
“Huh, oh yeah, I’m sorry. I was thinking that things have changed so much since I’ve been here last,” said Michael.
“What, like all your gray hairs and Jonah’s voice,” Judy said, as she let out a laugh.
Michael reached over and gave her one of his signature noogies. “Hey stop it, you’re going to mess it all up.”
What was it with his siblings and their hair? Geez.
“Okay, kids, settle down,” said Marty. “What I was saying, Mikey, is I am so glad they let you get away at work. Will you have to take a lot of calls while you are here?”
“A few,” he lied. “But hopefully not too many. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a break—“ Michael was cut off by Annie’s snide tone.
“So, how long do we have the pleasure of your presence… one day, two days?”
Michael made a face at his older sister. “Three weeks.”
When did she get so resentful? All through high school, Annie was off being irresponsible with Tom while Michael was stuck at home helping. He understood he had been gone for a long time, but he just didn’t get it.
His mother perked up a little, “Three weeks! Well, that’s great. I mean, of course we wish you could be here even longer, but three weeks will be a great help. As you can see, we’ve let a few things slide around the house, since your father got sick.” She made a gesture with her hands and looked around the room before saying, “And the bills have been stacking up. With me running the market and the household, it’s been a lot to take on. And Annie helps as much as she can but with the kids and her husband, it’s a lot.”
Michael hadn’t seen the kids in a long while, or Tom, for that matter. Come to think of it, he hadn’t received one of their traditional Christmas cards with the awful matching sweaters in a few years. Michael looked around then and saw that his mother’s statement was … well, it was an understatement. He looked up at the ceilings and saw some water damage. The place needed a fresh coat of paint, and frankly… well, a good dusting. His mother had never let the house get this out of hand when they were growing up, and they were a rowdy crew. He’d never been terribly handy like his brother Jesse, but he was sure he could help somehow. He started to feel a little guilty all of the sudden. How could he have let this happen? He was making millions and he let his parents’ home get to this point. He felt awful. He would help: he’d do whatever it took to make things right.
At that moment, Annie said, “You know, Michael, we could most use your help at the market. You know math was never my strong point and Mom and I haven’t been able to keep up with everything there. I just feel like we’re so behind on things there. Maybe you can help us get on track?”
His mother added, “Oh, and the bills for the house, too. You know where everything is—the dining room table, as usual. The checkbook, everything is there. We should have enough to cover things, but to be honest, since your father’s stroke, I haven’t really done much with it all.”
Bills, organizing, now that sounded like something he could handle, and maybe he could pay someone to do the repairs or enlist his younger siblings. Not much of a vacation, but since when did he enjoy vacationing?
“That sounds great, I’d be happy to help take care of all that. And maybe Judy, Jonah, and I can make a plan for how we can maybe tackle some of the repairs around the house, too. How about it, Mom?”
At that moment, Marty got up from her seat and went around the table to give Michael a squeeze.
“I knew you’d come help us out if we really needed it, Mikey. We’re so glad to have you here… and you know what? I think your Dad will be h
appy to see you came back to help us out.”
Marty looked at Michael and seemed a bit choked up and had a faraway look in her eyes.
“Mom?” Michael said. He repeated himself. “Mom?”
“Oh, yes, I’m sorry dear, I was lost in thought. Why don’t we get you settled? Judy, come now, chop chop! Why don’t you walk Mikey up to his room and make sure you grab him some towels from the linen closet so he can wash up before dinner. It’s going to be simple tonight, just some clam chowder.”
That odd look on her face worried Michael. He got up and let Judy lead the way. They walked out into the main hall and walked up the long staircase. It still had the same faded green carpet that had been there when Michael was in high school. As they walked up the stairs to the room Michael would be sharing with Jonah for the next three weeks, it hit him. Michael could pay to get work done on the house, maybe a renovation was in order — it wouldn’t make up for all the years he had lost with his family, but maybe it would make things just a little bit easier for them. Besides, what was a few thousand dollars anyway?
Chapter 2
What was a few thousand dollars indeed. After a night of catching up with the family over his mother’s New England Clam Chowder, a salad, and delicious carrot cake, Michael went to bed not really knowing what the next day would hold. His mother suggested he check out the ‘home office’ in the morning and maybe take care of some of the bills for her while she headed over to Malone’s Market, and then later, they could both go to the hospital to see his father. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.
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