by Joe Corso
“The Queen’s sister, dear Princess Krystina, is with child.”
The King’s stared at his wife for a moment, tilted his head slightly and turned toward the Princess.
“A child, Princess Krystina? Well, astonishment fills me, but joy overtakes me.” The Princess smiled at the King.
“Yes, King Robert, it is true. My body sighs in relief at your affection.”
The Queen then proceeded to express her desire to visit Richard of Wallingford.
“Why the need to visit Richard of Wallingford?” the King asked.
“Ah, I see,” the King responded. “The stars and their ways are important regarding this child. You do know that it is a three day journey, my Queen?”
“Yes,” she answered, “but it is better to journey now in early weeks.”
King Robert found it difficult to ever refuse a request from his Queen. As a matter of fact, he almost never had except for the one time where her life could have been endangered. It was when angry mobs had secured the gates of a neighbor city demanding increases in their work wages. The Queen wanted to visit her father but the journey was one that took days. Sadly, the King denied her because he feared for her safety. It was rare. She simply held the key to his heart. She never abused his generosity. He smiled at the two of them.
“What time shall you depart?”
“Tomorrow morning, if it meets with your approval,” the Queen answered.
The King ordered one of his guards to summon his sergeant. The Sergeant appeared shortly and knelt before the throne.
“Rise Sergeant,” the King said. “I require a courier to the cathedral of Richard of Wallingford informing him that the Queen is journeying to visit him. She departs tomorrow morning. Select six men to escort the Queen and the Princess Krystina. The Queen and the Princess will be your charge. Ensure their safety and the safety of your men. Do you have any questions?”
“No, Your Majesty,” the Sergeant replied.
The King nodded. The Sergeant knelt once again, rose and saluted. The King nodded once again, this time signaling his approval for dismissal. The Sergeant turned quickly on his heels and exited the Great Room. On his way down the hallway, he could be heard shouting orders to guardsmen lining the halls and suddenly, the palace was abuzz, each staff member running in a different direction, busying himself and herself for the Queen’s travels.
“Thank you dear King,” the Princess said. “Your heart is most generous.”
“My heart, dear Princess,” he said, “is blessed. Your sister brings joy to my heart . . . as do you, Princess.”
The ladies quickly returned to their rooms in order to prepare for the trip. There were maidens-in-waiting positioned all throughout each of the women’s rooms – four for the Queen, four for the Princess. One stood next to the closet, one at the bed, one at the chest of drawers and one at the door, ready to run errands if so required. On each bed sat an open, empty trunk. There was a defined order to things. The ladies chose their garments from the closet. The closet maiden carried the items to the bed where an attendant, waiting patiently, began her meticulous and studied manner of packing. The drawers’ maiden poured through undergarments and submitted them to each woman for approval. What may have taken most travelers a couple of hours was completed in thirty minutes. Ah, it was nice to be Queen.
Krystina watched as her maidens put the finishing touches on her packing. Oh how she wished Lucky was with her now.
Chapter Five
After considering a number of brokerage houses, Lucky opted for Paine Webber. They had been in business since the 1800’s and in 1963, had relocated from Boston to their present day New York facility on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Lucky changed his mind about making Microsoft his first buy and instead chose Apple.
Lucky created a portal that took Mickey, Nicky, Duce and himself right into New York City into the year 1980. Their first stop was H. Herzfeld on Madison Avenue. There, Mickey and Lucky purchased two custom made suits, silk shirts and Italian ties along with chic Italian leather shoes. The staff there was most accommodating and within a couple of hours, they were tailored and outfitted, every inch of them screaming class and wealth.
Something else was located at the same 57th and Fifth location. Lucky and Mickey made their way over to Tiffany’s, famed international jeweler to royalty and to the stars, while Nicky and Duce waited at a coffee shop on the corner. Inside Tiffany’s, Lucky and Mickey were immediately greeted by a well dressed gentleman who approached and asked if he could be of assistance. Lucky looked at the man and smiled.
“Yes, as a matter of fact you can,” he answered. “Could you please take us to your store manager?”
The man, clearly curious, yet trained to handle matters himself while protecting the manager and his time, responded, “I’m afraid he’s busy, but I’m sure I can assist you.”
“I’m afraid that this matter requires the manager and his approval,” Lucky said in a nice, but authoritative voice.
“Excuse me for a moment,” the man said. Moments later, he returned. “Will you please follow me?” he asked. The man then led Lucky and Mickey to a door. At that moment two armed guards emerged. One of the guards announced that he would have to search them.
“Sure,” said Lucky.
After a thorough pat down of both men and satisfied with their search, the guards escorted the men into an office. They then asked Lucky to open the attaché case that Mickey was holding.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Lucky said, “until the store manager arrives. You are welcome to stand here as I do, but I simply cannot do that.”
“Sir,” the guard said politely, “I’m afraid that the case must be opened in order for us to examine its contents.”
“But, I will not do that . . . .” Lucky said before he was interrupted by a voice at the door.
“It’s okay, Roger,” the man said – a man of about forty years of age, rather tall and lean, dressed in a navy blue suit, perfectly crisp and tailored. He extended his hand. “John Ganty. I am the manager of Tiffany’s New York. How can I help you?”
Lucky shook his hand as did Mickey. Each man introduced himself.
“I’ll get right to the point,” Lucky said. “I have some rather high quality diamonds that I must convert to cash in order to purchase stock.” Lucky reached toward the attaché and was about to open it when the guards moved in close and hovered over him.
“Slowly sir,” one of the guards said.
Lucky did as instructed. He slowly opened the case and turned it to face Ganty. Ganty’s eyes glared at its contents. He was staring at eight large plastic bags of twinkling stones.
“Diamonds? Real diamonds?” he asked.
“Yes,” Lucky answered, “the real thing.”
“I’ve been in the business for twenty-five years, Mr. Campo, and rarely do we ever see a quantity of diamonds as large as this, but when we do, it is never from a single, private owner.”
Lucky just smiled. Mickey said nothing.
“What . . . . what do you want me to do with these?”
“Well first, Mr. Ganty, why don’t you take a look at them, make sure that what you’re seeing is the real deal before we continue?”
Ganty reached for his jeweler’s loupe, lifted a large diamond between his fingers and studied it, turning it over and over. He lightly shook his head, as if in disbelief, and put the stone back into the plastic bag. He did the same with the other two diamonds, each time shaking his head as he put them back. He looked at Lucky.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Need I ask where you got them, Mr. Campo?”
Lucky smiled.
“Mr. Ganty, I am a man of great wealth. That is not intended to be braggadocious, but I need one hundred million in cash or credit to purchase a large block of stock. In order to do that, I will need to sell a portion of my diamonds. I came to you, to Tiffany’s, first.”
Ganty took a deep breath as if to clear his mind.
“This
is a large sum of money – one that will require approval and negotiation. What is your price?”
“I expect to be paid a fair wholesale price. That’s all. Nothing more. Nothing less,” Lucky said.
Ganty reached for the phone on his desk and began to dial. Lucky and Mickey sat patiently as the two guards studied their every move. He finished his conversation, placed down the phone and turned to Lucky.
“Corporate is interested. They have given me the go-ahead to see if we might come to some sort of agreement. I have a team of accountants and jewelers on their way here. First, we’ll need to separate the different grades of diamonds – their color and clarity. Then, we have to separate them by size before assigning a value to each carat. This is going to take a while to complete so please make yourselves comfortable. I’ll have coffee and sandwiches brought in for lunch so that you never have to leave the stones.”
“That sounds great,” Mickey, quiet until now, said. Leave it to Mickey. He was always thinking about food. His day revolved around the next coffee shop or deli. It was just one of those pleasures in life.
“I could use coffee,” Mickey continued, “and now that you mention it, sandwiches would hit the spot. My stomach has just reminded me that we haven’t eaten in a while.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ganty,” Lucky chimed in, “but I have to correct you on one thing. You will shortly see that each diamond is perfect in color and brightness and almost ‘flawless’ as you gemologists say. Why not randomly select a few from each bag, examine those, and perhaps save yourself some time?”
Ganty answered quickly.
“Mr. Campo, while I would like to take you at your word, there is no room for error in our business. We simply must study each stone and validate what we are seeing. We must know its every detail, its grade and color. I’m sure you understand. We will do our best to make the process as painless as possible, with the least amount of inconvenience to you.”
Ganty’s team arrived and immediately got down to business. Ganty assigned a combination of at least two men or women to each of the six bags of stones.
“Mr. Campo,” Ganty said, “has informed me that each of the diamonds is of the utmost quality and perfect by jeweler standards. He has also suggested that we sample a few from each bag to confirm this.”
One man, who appeared to be the team leader of sorts nodded and looked toward Lucky.
“No offense, but we do have to check each diamond if we’re going to buy them,” the man said.
“No offense taken,” Lucky replied. “Just trying to save you some time.”
The floor salesman, the greeter, brought some quite comfortable chairs into the manager’s large, private office as the team busied themselves with the stones. Lucky and Mickey settled into the soft leather with their coffee in one hand and a sandwich in the other. The two old friends chatted amiably while never taking their eyes off the diamonds. Had there been only one jeweler examining the diamonds, it might take days to complete this task. But with twelve certified gemologists, their laborious examinations were completed in six hours. And finally, with each diamond now carefully documented, the accountants were free to tabulate their value. At the end of the day, the final report was handed to Ganty. He studied it for a long while. Satisfied, he then handed it to Lucky who also took his time reading it. Ganty spoke.
“The diamonds are as you stated earlier. They’re as perfect as any diamond can be and they certainly meet Tiffany’s impeccable standards. Having said that, Tiffany’s simply cannot purchase all of them. We are willing to make an offer for half of them, based on today’s current wholesale prices.”
“And what might that be, Mr. Ganty?” Lucky asked.
“Twenty-five million,” Ganty answered.
Lucky had already done his research and realizing that given the year, 1980, it was a fair price, Lucky extended his hand.
“Looks like we have a deal, Mr. Ganty,” Lucky said as Ganty reciprocated with a handshake.
Ganty once again made a call to his corporate office. “A courier is on his way with a certified check,” he stated.
“Good,” Mickey shot back. “Well now, I feel a Texas size steak and an old vintage bottle of Caymus coming on.”
All three men chuckled.
“Mickey, pick the place, but first wait here for the check while I head out for a while,” Lucky shot back.
Lucky shook Ganty’s hand, thanked him and headed for the diamond district just ten short blocks away. What a history, the diamond district. Now on its third location, this was the place for diamonds and jewelry. There, Lucky did a little better on the remaining diamonds as he bounced around, vendor to vendor, selling them off piece meal until nothing was left. At the end of the day, Lucky had collected a total of fifty–seven million dollars, far short of the one hundred million he was expecting but . . . it would have to do.
The next day, cashier checks in hand, Mickey and Lucky visited Paine Webber. Lucky immediately asked to see the floor manager and was escorted to a Mr. Flackstein, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He held out his hand.
“What may I do for you sir?”
Lucky took out two checks totaling thirty–seven million dollars and handed them to Flackstein. The young man glanced at the checks and looked back up at Lucky.
“Is that all?” he said, half-heartedly as a joke, as he handed the checks back to Lucky. Lucky appreciated his sense of humor – pretty ballsy for a kid that age.
“Oh hell,” Lucky said as he reached into an inside pocket, plucked out another check and handed him another twenty million.
Flackenstein couldn’t resist. “Are we finished now? Wanna check that other pocket?” he said with a laugh.
Lucky shook his head and said, “I like you Flackstein. We’re gonna get along just fine. So here’s the deal – Apple is going public,” he said, not wasting any time, “and I want you to buy as many shares of their stock as possible. Call me eccentric, but I want you to open an account for me and hold any correspondence I may receive from your company, Paine Webber, at your facility for however long it takes me to pick it up. I may not get to it for twenty years, so if it’s twenty years, then it’s twenty years right here.”
“Okay,” Flackstein responded, “that should not be a problem. We have clients who live around the world and we have clients who pass away, so holding money is nothing new to us.”
“Good,” Lucky said. “As long as you indulge me and carry out my wishes, we’ll be fine. I’ll be in shortly with another hundred million to purchase two other stocks.”
Lucky had the young man’s attention now.
Flackstein asked, “What other stocks interest you?”
Lucky shook his head and said, “Now, now Mr. Flackstein. Does Macy’s tell Gimble’s their secrets? I will be back, but I can’t be certain when, so be sure to spend every cent of my fifty–seven million on Apple computer stock, every cent.”
Lucky reached out to the man in a gesture for him to give him back the checks. Flackstein was confused. He hesitated, perhaps thinking that if he let them go, he might never see them again. Slowly, he handed the checks back to Lucky. Lucky smiled, took out a pen, signed each one and handed them right back to the young banker.
“If there is a limit to the amount of stock I can buy, then buy what you can and put the rest of my funds into escrow, an interest bearing account or a low risk growth mutual fund.” And with that, Lucky turned and started to walk away, leaving the young man standing there holding the checks.
“Can I have your address so I can at least forward your mail?” Flackstein called out to him.
“Nope,” Lucky shot back without turning around. “I travel extensively all over the globe. I’ll be in touch with Paine Webber. Like I said, hold the mail. Hold it all here. Do a good job for me, Flackstein and I promise, you’ll be rewarded for it.”
Flackstein, perfectly immobile, watched until Lucky disappeared from sight and shook his head. He had just conducted the damnd
est deal or client or whatever in his life. Little did he know the Lucky way, the Lucky effect, the way he is with most everyone he meets.
The boys, meaning Lucky and Mickey, returned to the present. No sooner had they placed down their bags than Lucky called his bank and requested one hundred million in all 1986 currency dollars. The bank manager hemmed and hawed a bit, citing that things like this take time, that it’s hard to make sure that all this money had been printed in specific years, but assured Lucky that he would do his best. Eight days later, the manager called and informed Lucky that the cash was securely awaiting him in the bank vault. Lucky sent Nicky out to hire several armed guards and Duce out to purchase several large suitcases. On a Monday morning, hired guards in tow, Lucky and Mickey entered the vault and loaded the suitcases with the cash, all one hundred dollar bills, none newer than 1985, while the guards waited immediately outside the vault. Once the suitcases were fully loaded, the two men excused themselves saying that they wanted to use the restroom to wash up and have a private chat, and that they preferred to be alone. The banker shook his head thinking that Lucky was some rich eccentric. He turned and walked back to his office. Lucky and Mickey entered the bank’s restroom. Once the door closed behind them, Lucky told Mickey to hold onto his belt. And with that said, the two men stepped into a portal and disappeared.
Lucky checked to make sure that no one was looking and with his mind focused, fully concentrating, he created a portal which took them to Paine Webber’s office, to the day of March 1, 1986. It was now time to buy Microsoft stock. The men stepped out of the stairwell door and immediately Lucky asked for Mr. Flackstein. They were led to his office. The door plaque said “Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Accounts.” Without bothering to knock, Lucky opened the door to the office and walked right up to a startled Mr. Flackstein.
“Congratulations on your promotion,” Lucky said. “How’s my Apple stock doing?”
“And hello to you, too, Mr. Campo,” the banker replied. “I could only buy you
