“My car? We’d take a big loss selling that now. I love that car. If we’re not going on any vacations this year then I want to drive that car to work. We’re already living in a rental house. What else do I have left?”
Zack pulled out the kitchen finance drawer and shuffled around in the stack of paid bills. “Here, this and this, these are our last three credit card payments.” Zack went down the list flagging anything that seemed extraneous and easy to cut, “We could take this much a month off our spending. Those are all clothing stores. We can buy sweatshirts and jeans for the kids when they grow out of what they have now. I’m already dressing like a pauper, I’m still wearing the four pairs of ten dollar jeans I bought at that store sale five years ago, I don’t think I bought any shirts since then either. You could probably weed down your closet and avoid buying any new clothes for the next year?”
“Weed my clothes? I need to look professional at work.”
Zack circled a string of items, “These all look like restaurant meals. We can cut down to taking the kids out once a month. They’d be happy still. We trim bad things like all that caffeinated pop and potato chips out of our grocery shopping, and it’s doable.”
Lydia squeezed her head in her hands, “I can’t believe this. I thought we were improving and finally catching up to the foreclosed house losses.”
“No we’re not talking about that. We’ll argue all night and for the next week if we dredge all of that up.”
“You don’t want to talk about it because it’s money you lost.”
“Sunk costs –”
“– Losses –”
“– That are behind us. We have to look forward and I think we can make it.”
“You can’t go to California every month.”
“If I don’t go then we don’t have the money to pay up the capital call either. My working out there is conserving our cash needed.”
Lydia shrieked. She turned to Zack, her fist punctuating her sentences, “This is your fault. I feel like I’m drowning. We can never get ahead and it’s your fault.” She shoved one of the kitchen chairs under the table, “What’s this?” She pulled a yellow T-shirt off the seat of the chair. She spun and held it up in front of Zack’s face, “I spent my time emailing and reminding you! I even found the shirt in Noah’s closet and put it out here and you didn’t put it on him for school today?”
“My customers called with an urgent question while I was getting the kids ready. They were fighting and it was all a big mess.”
“You can’t handle two kids and another phone call? So you forgot to put the shirt on him? How do you think he felt at school when all the other kids had their spirit shirt and he did not? I wasted all of my time getting him set up and you even managed to screw that up. I don’t know what else I can do!” She threw the shirt into Zack’s face and stomped into the living room. She snatched the television remote from the side table and flopped on the couch. “What are you making for dinner? It better not be noodles.” She powered on the television. “You need to apologize to Noah.”
“And you need to apologize for that wine shipment you signed for. I found the empty bottles when I wheeled the recycle can to the curb. Unless you had a party you neglected to tell me about.”
Lydia turned away.
Zack went to his office and answered the ringing phone.
“Hi, this is Philip Gangli” I wanted to call you. I still think we have problems. I’ve been getting some of the investors together to discuss ousting Martin from managing the winery.”
Zack sat down in his chair, “That’s not the problem. We need more investors contributing; can you talk to them to get involved? I’ve been fighting here on the home front so I can go out there. I’ve also strained my job with remote working in the evenings.”
“Yeah, I think I could talk to the others.” Then Philip said, “I have another guy interested in putting money into the winery. He’s in the technology industry and has buckets of cash, apparently. The problem is he wants to cash everyone out and take complete control. He won’t have any partners. I guess he was burned once or twice losing control. We need all the shares from all the current investors to do it. While I’m not in the situation that Jacob Winters is fighting, I sympathize with him and I really want to get out from under my stock in the winery too.”
“I’m going to be honest, Philip.” Zack avoided revealing too much, “It’s the one thing going right in my life right now. It’s a wonderful industry.”
“The winery is still losing money.”
“But sales are going up and customers like the product. It has a future. Can you hold off? I would have a challenge selling at the moment and I think there will be others that are tied up too much financially and emotionally.”
“Probably right but I’m talking to others in the computer industry – a web startup that just sold spilled out a bunch of big money investors seeking the next promising project. You have to admit, the wine business is romantic and sexy. Especially since that’s how we got in there.”
Zack spun in his chair, “It comes down to earnings. If we can get sales to move forward at enough of a pace, we can make more money owning the business than selling. We’re at an inflection point solving all our problems if we get sales. Time and patience will win. We do have to be aggressive and work sales hard – maybe some of our investors have lines on retailers or reviewers that can help us?”
“Yeah, that might be the way too. Let me think about it.”
Zack stared at the phone he hung up. The winery seemed like the only thing going right in his life and it was still losing money. Well, maybe not the only thing. He loved his kids. However, he wanted a little business success.
-:-:-:-O-:-:-:-
“Claire! What’s going on?” Joan’s voice quivered over the phone.
Claire asked, “What do you mean?”
“Tyler is at the hospital with Dad. But his phone battery ran out while he was telling me what happened.”
“Which hospital?”
“The one near Dad’s house.”
“Everet Hospital?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. He had Dad in the emergency room.”
“Did he fall or have a heart attack?”
“No. Tyler was with Dad watching college hockey. Dad stood up and started flailing his arms around and Tyler couldn’t make him stop. He was incoherent. Tyler took him to the emergency room and then his phone died talking with me. Can you go and find out what happened? I’m all the way out here on the East Coast and can’t do anything!” Joan leaned away from the phone, “… I’m going to fly out tomorrow. Can you take care of the kids and call for a substitute teacher for me until I get back? Thanks … Claire? Claire, I’m going to get a flight out.”
Claire slipped her arm into her jacket and dragged her key chain across the counter toward her front door. “I’m on my way,” she shoved her toes into a pair of flats by the door, “I’ll call you when I know more.” She locked the door more from habit than thinking about it – thinking was difficult. She hurried to her car.
Everet Hospital stood tall against the sky. It wedged in between several glass-sided technology company headquarters with its sandstone facade and aluminum clad windows. She entered the visitor parking structure and spiraled up and up and then down and down. She felt she found the last two open spaces in the whole parking garage. “Follow the blue line to the red line then turn at the green line and the blue line again but don’t take the yellow line because that way leads to madness.” Claire nodded to the information desk clerk giving her a clip-on visitor badge. She followed the lines until she lost them. Then she followed the overhead signs with arrows for the departments.
“Tyler!” Claire yelled to her brother who happened to be walking down a side hall, sipping from the lip of a soda can he just liberated from a vending machine.
“Claire! Hey, fancy meeting you here,” he saluted her with his can. He loped toward her wearing his surfboard shoes with worn h
oles at the toes. Tight rubberized shorts gripped his skinny tanned legs and accentuated the beer gut hanging over his belt. He wore a loose sun faded T-shirt that the sun cut knife-like slits all along the shoulders where it beat down on him while in the ocean.
Claire said, “I got the call from Joan. What happened?”
“Dad and I were watching a hockey game. I don’t know how those people practice on the ice freezing all the time. Some referee made a bad call that Dad pounded his fist on the chair arm. He stood up and then he started wailing his arms around. I said ‘Dude, it’s not that bad a call’ but he was still swinging around like he wanted to fight someone.” Tyler pulled up his shirt showing his immense belly and pointed to his ribs. “He socked me right here. Look at that bruise! I didn’t think he had that kind of strength. I tackled him on the couch until he seemed to not want to punch me anymore.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No. He’d grunt. He seemed to calm down. Like he wigged out on some crazy drug. I know he didn’t. He wasn’t even drinking the beer I found for us in the back of the pantry. He just watched the game.”
“Where is he?”
Tyler took another sip of his soda. He smacked his lips and pointed with a finger released from the damp can, “This way. I was going back to see if any doctors showed up. They are sneaky and hard to catch but I was getting thirsty so I grabbed something.”
Claire’s shoes clicked on the institution tiles as she hurried to her father’s room. “Tyler, he’s in a private room.”
“Yeah. They didn’t think it would be safe for another patient after I told them what happened. So he’s quarantined.”
“He’s just lying there.” Claire came up to him and touched his face. Weathered lines deep like field furrows ran across his forehead, matched with laugh lines straightened in sorrow at the corners of his eyes.
“They gave him synthetic relaxers. I’ll bet good stuff. He’s been out for a while.”
Tyler glanced to the hall. “I see him.”
“Who?”
“Dad’s doc.” Tyler clunked his soda on the window shelf and rushed to the hallway, “Doctor Galley. Doc, my sister is here, can you see us?”
Claire called Joan and put her on speaker conference.
The doctor entered the room followed by Tyler as if he herded a basket of cats seething to run away.
“Hello, I’m Doctor Galley. I’m taking care of Mr. Vega.” He flipped the chart closed.
“I’m Claire, his daughter. My sister is on the phone from the East Coast. What happened to our father?”
“Tests so far show your father had a stroke. We’ve put him on several blood thinners and relaxants while we await tests. He has another Magnetic Resonance Imaging exam in a few hours. A delay because of the lab back up. We’re monitoring him but my experience says the damage is already done, in fact was done, when he stood up. Your bother did the right thing getting him calmed down and to the hospital as quick as he did so no additional blockages occurred. Your father is stable but we want to monitor and finish up with our tests to ensure he stays stable.”
“How long before he can go home?”
The doctor changed his stance, still uncomfortable even though he gave this kind of news daily to too many people, “I’m not going to sugar coat this. He’s going to be permanently impaired. There is a chance he could make a few improvements but overall the outlook is bleak with that kind of stroke. He will need someone to care for him. He won’t be able to live on his own, possibly he could be on his own for a few hours a day, but you’ll need to think of him as a five or ten year old child. The other option is putting him in a home but that depends on his financial situation, the combined family’s opinion on placement, and your financial health to be able to do that.”
Claire heard Joan draw a wincing breath. Tyler danced on his broken shoes with his hands in his pocket. Claire didn’t have any money and did not like the idea of plugging him into a home even if she did.
The doctor broke the stifled silence, “You don’t have to decide right now what to do. He will likely remain in the hospital for two or three days depending on his progress. I’m sorry about all this. I know it’s shocking.” The doctor’s phone wailed at his hip with a message. He pulled it out and touched the screen. “I need to leave. If you have more questions, I’ll be through here again late tonight. Or ask the nurses.”
“Thanks Doctor Galley.” Claire said. She motioned to Tyler to follow her to the hallway. They found an empty room across the hall, went in, and closed the door.
Claire asked Joan, “What do you think we should do?”
“I think it’s too early to tell. They have him on some big drugs. He could wake out of it tomorrow.”
Tyler said, “But what if he doesn’t? What are we going to do?”
Joan said, “Let’s figure that out when we know more. Claire, I don’t think I’m traveling. I can’t believe how expensive these plane tickets are and conference calling in like this seems to work. Claire you need to stop by Dad’s house. Check his mail and make sure his bills are paid. Maybe not today, but depending on what we learn tomorrow, you should check. He might have had a bill he was preparing to send. We don’t need the power getting turned off or anything.”
Tyler pulled out their father’s keys, “Here, Claire.” He pressed them into her fingers.
The weight of the keys made a prickly dread in her hand. Claire said, “What if this is it for him like the doctor said? What are we going to do? He never lived as if he had much spare money to afford a nursing home – those can be thousands a day. He might need care for years yet. More than the University retirement plans he might have.”
Joan said, “I can’t take him out here. Getting him here would be a problem and then the both of us already daycare our kids so we can work. We’d need to stick him in a nursing home here during the day and that just won’t work. I grade papers almost every night. Claire, I think you’d be the best option to take care of him.” Joan didn’t need to say why their brother Tyler would be a poor choice. Even though he was the oldest of the three of them.
Claire said, “Tyler did a great job getting Dad in the hospital. With my work, I don’t know how to do it.”
Tyler said, “I’m teaching a few surfing classes. But if I’m not on the beach I can’t find my customers to teach.”
“So what do we do?”
“Why don’t we figure it out tomorrow when we know more?”
“Sure.”
Claire walked out of the room. The phone felt as heavy in her hand as her heart. She knew she was going to have to be the one to take care of their father. She doubted that either of them would give her money for rent. None of them had any money to care for him properly. She needed to work to keep her apartment. “Tyler, maybe I should move in to Dad’s place and get rid of my apartment?”
“Move into Dad’s? He never repainted your old room. Maybe we both move back in?”
“If Dad wakes up as himself he would be angry. You know he threw you out on your own. He has you back to visit a lot but you can’t do that yet. I can’t keep him at my apartment nor keep the apartment if I have to quit and take care of him.”
“He’ll be fine tomorrow. Let’s see how these tests go. I think he will be fine. Everything will be back to normal in a week. You’ll see.”
She worried that he would not. Claire sighed as they stood in the hall, “I should tell Zack and get his advice.”
“Zack? Is that the guy Joan told me you were seeing?”
“I’m not seeing him. We’re just friends.”
“Joan told me he’s married. That’s not right. He’ll hurt you.”
“I can take care of myself. We need to focus on Dad.”
Chapter 12
June
“Hey there stranger.”
Zack removed his gloves and put his arm out, “Claire!”
She came up to him and gave him a tight hug. Zack could feel the press of her breasts agai
nst his chest. He wrapped his arm around and held her. He didn’t let go until he felt her arms relax. “I’ve missed you. How did you find me?”
“I asked around and the girls at the winery seem to keep track of you.”
“I must have a reputation as a trouble-maker, I guess. It also helps that I’m the only one out in the field today.”
“Why didn’t you call when you got back out here?”
“You left me at the ice cream parlor and I … I didn’t know if I should call you.”
“I didn’t know either, the whole drive out here. I almost turned around and went back home twice, or more times.”
“Sorry.”
Claire took a breath and looked around, “What are you doing out here?”
“I’m going through the vines.” Zack pointed down the row, “See where the clusters of grapes hang down from the vines?”
“Suggestively?” Claire bit her lip.
“I suppose. I hadn’t thought of that before,” Zack looked at Claire’s twinkling eyes. His hunger for her expanded. He refocused, “What I do is make sure the leaves don’t cover the grapes. I clear the leaves out around each. You can see down the row where I’ve been.”
“Why do you need to do that?” Claire’s nose wrinkled up, a bit mocking, or playing.
“It allows the wind to make sure the grapes stay dry so no mold starts growing on them plus the sunlight gets in there and increases the intensity of the flavor.”
“I see. How long before the grapes are ready?”
“Some months yet.”
“Oh.”
Zack saw her turn away and look across another part of the vineyard. He looked and didn’t see anything but the grapefruit plantation in the property next to the vineyards. He pushed back his cowboy-styled straw hat and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”
Claire shrugged her shoulders.
Zack came close and put his hand around her, turning her slightly. Tears rolled down her face. “I can assure you I had nothing to do with the lost dog, officer.”
CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country) Page 13