He had the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind. He just had to sound confident and not shaken. He started to pull something together and mentally rehearsed what he would say until he could recite it without a hint of emotion. He glanced at his watch, finished his last shot, and signaled to the others.
“Let’s go home and tell them,” he sighed. “Then we’ll meet at my house to figure out what we’re going to do.”
∞∞∞
Outside, the air was bitterly cold as they hurried through the crowds of downtown New York. They tried not to look at the newspaper headlines or into the panicked faces all around them. The long walk to the wealthier residential district gave them more time to think. They broke away at the last cross street without more than a nod to each other. Jonathan kept straight, Caleb left and Aryl right.
The Garrett house was one of several mansions surrounded by short, wrought iron fences. It was quieter here. He slowed his pace a little and did a final rehearsal of what he would say. He paused at the door, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. A trembling hand turned the knob, and he saw Ava in the parlor listening to the radio with a deeply concerned look on her face. She knew. She just didn’t know quite how bad it was. Three servants huddled across the grand parlor, anxiously awaiting news. Her head snapped up when she heard the door.
“Jonathan!” She reached to embrace him, and he pressed her body into his in a vice-like hold.
“I was so worried! Where have you been?” she asked. She pulled back to search his eyes for answers. “What they’re saying on the radio. Is it true?”
He hesitated, painfully aware of three sets of eyes upon him from across the room. He removed Ava’s arms from his neck and made his way over to them. He spoke quietly for a moment, explaining and apologizing. Maura, the Irish housemaid, gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. Sven, the Russian chef, nodded with a solemn expression of understanding. Charles, the house butler, said nothing and showed no expression. Jonathan removed his wallet and gave them what pay he owed them for the week. They turned in silence to gather their things as they joined the suddenly unemployed.
Jonathan turned toward Ava again when he was sure they were alone. He sighed and pulled her close. He opened his mouth to begin his speech but found himself mute. He frowned and looked away before attempting again. His face was pained, eyes narrowed, and brow furrowed. She realized it was worse than she had thought.
“How bad is it, Jonathan?” she asked, visibly bracing for bad news. He had come home before from bad days after losing thousands of dollars, and things would be tense for a while until everything shook out. However, it always shook out. They had gotten through those times and come out on top in the end. How much worse could this be? she wondered.
“Everything is gone,” he said quietly. “We didn’t move in time. We–I, didn’t sell in time, there wasn’t any time. It all happened so quickly. I’m sorry,” he whispered.
So much for my confident speech, he thought with self-loathing. It took her a few minutes to process his words, and she sat down numbly in a chair by the fireplace. He followed and knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his. She was staring over his shoulder trying to comprehend. Everything is gone echoed in her mind. He didn’t say it was a setback or even a huge loss. Everything is gone. Silent moments passed, save the rhythmic ticking of the antique grandfather clock.
“Ava.” He frantically searched for something to say. He had nothing in every sense of the word. The feeling of failure was a crushing weight. He put his head down on their entwined hands and took a deep, ragged breath. “Ava,” he exhaled. She seemed to come back to the moment as her eyes focused on him. She pulled her hands from his and placed them lightly on his head. Sighing, she looked around the grand parlor: the expensive art, the velvet drapes, the gilded mirrors, the imported rugs, and the plush furniture.
“I always felt like this was too good to be true,” she whispered. He wanted to tell her that everything would be all right, that it would all work out, that he would fix the whole mess, and not to worry. It would have all been lies.
“What are we going to do?” she asked with a shaky voice.
“We’re, ah, going to get a plan together, I think. Aryl and Caleb will be over later. We’ll figure something out.”
Ava suddenly realized that their friends were devastated as well.
“I was so stupid,” he whispered. “I was stupid and now everyone is busted.” She leaned to rest her cheek on his neck and stretched her arms out upon his back as if to physically shield him from the fallout. They had no words of comfort for each other as they tried to comprehend the magnitude of their life’s destruction.
After a long, tense silence, Jonathan startled at the hard pounding on the door.
“Jonathan! Open up. I need your help!” Jonathan struggled to his feet and limped to the door, his legs tingling from the prayer-like posture he had held for so long. He opened it to a half-frozen Caleb, whose face held pain and panic. “It’s Arianna. She’s gone. I’ve looked everywhere. You gotta help me,” he panted.
Jonathan grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. “What do you mean she’s gone?” Caleb took a shivering breath before speaking.
“When I got home earlier, she was already in a panic. She was crying, mumbling, and running all over the house, trying to hide her jewelry. I got her calmed down after a while. I thought she was in her right mind. I left her by the fireplace to get Aryl, and then we were going to come over here. I was only gone ten minutes. When we got back, she was gone. Some of her clothes are missing and all of her jewelry. We’ve been looking for a half-hour now, and Aryl told me to come get you.”
“Where’s Aryl now?” Jonathan asked as he pulled on his coat.
“He and Claire are still out looking.”
“I’m going to go help Caleb,” Jonathan said, turning to Ava. “You stay here where it’s warm.”
“No,” she said, reaching for her coat. “She’s my friend. I’m going with you.” He resigned with a sigh.
“If you get too cold, you are coming home,” he said firmly as he helped her into her fur. He handed Caleb another of his coats, and he slipped it on gratefully as they headed out into the cold
∞∞∞
It was fully dark now, and the wind blew light snow flurries in all directions. They had no idea where Arianna might have gone but started the search with a social club, restaurant, and a ladies’ salon they knew she frequented. Aryl and Claire caught up with them near Arianna’s favorite café.
Caleb paced while Jonathan flagged down a policeman on horseback and explained the situation. He grimaced at Caleb and shook his head.
“I sympathize, buddy, I really do. I’ll take a description and name, but only to add her to a list of all the other women who ran off today. We only found two, and they were at the train station.”
Caleb’s head turned slowly toward Jonathan. “She wouldn’t.” He knew she was fragile, vain, and needed security like she needed to breathe. However, he hadn’t thought for a minute that she would leave, that she didn’t love him enough to stay if the money was gone.
∞∞∞
Jonathan watched these thoughts play out on Caleb’s face as they made their way toward Grand Central Terminal. The rest of them were under no illusions regarding Arianna’s character, and it didn’t surprise them in the least when they spotted her on a bench. She had on a black fur coat, held a second fur over her arm and two bags stuffed to the gills set on each side of her. Closer now, Caleb jogged toward her, nearly tripping on the hem of Jonathan’s coat. Ava turned her face into Jonathan’s chest as he pulled her close. He kissed the top of her head, his eyes cast down. He thought briefly that Caleb should just let Arianna go. She required expensive upkeep and was very unpredictable–surely this wouldn’t work for long with a future as uncertain as theirs. Aryl sat hard on a bench and reached for Claire, completely drained from one of the most emotional days of his life.
“Arianna!” Caleb yell
ed from across the loading platform. Her head whipped to the side, and she stood and looked around for somewhere, anywhere, to run. When he reached her, he grabbed her by the shoulders. “Arianna, what are you doing?” She opened her mouth, but nothing intelligible came out. In disbelief, he asked the obvious.
“Are you leaving me?” Her eyes dropped as she bit her lip, her chin quivering. He stared at her, wounded and humiliated. “So, it’s true,” he said flatly. “The money’s gone, so you are, too.” He stared at her for a moment, let go of her in disgust and walked around her to sit on the bench. When she turned to face him, tears were running down her face, and she tried unsuccessfully to wrench out an apology. “So,” he said, holding his hands in the air. “Did you ever really love me? Or was it always just the money?” She stared at him pitifully, stuttering to explain herself. “Can’t you even give me an answer?” he yelled. “I deserve at least that!” She winced, shivering despite her fur. Caleb looked over at his friends, who stood with their wives a respectable distance away. Suddenly angry and incredibly embarrassed at her behavior, he stood and walked toward her slowly.
“You’re not doing this tonight,” he said firmly and took her arm. It was the first time, ever, that Caleb had given her a direct order. He called for Jonathan and Aryl to grab her bags and turned, walking her by the arm toward the direction of home. “We’re going to Jon’s house, and we’re going to figure out a plan,” he explained. “We’ll talk about this later.”
9 P.M.
“Might as well enjoy this now,” he said quietly as he sat down. Jonathan poured Scotch all around and tossed cigars from his collection of the finest money could buy. They sat around the mahogany table in Jonathan’s card room, staring in odd directions. They sighed heavily in turn, not knowing where to start.
∞∞∞
Arianna was resting in one of the guest bedrooms as Ava and Claire listened out for her in the attached reading room. Claire curled up in a plush chair. “What are we going to do?” She dropped her head to her knees with a hopeless sigh.
“I don’t know. But I guess that’s what they’re trying to figure out down there,” Ava said. Claire looked up with swollen eyes.
“How can they possibly figure out what we’re going to do when there’s nothing to work with? Aryl said there’s nothing left except the money we keep at home.” Ava shrugged.
“They’re smart. It might take a bit, but they’ll get a plan together.”
“How can you be so calm about this?” Claire asked in irritated awe. “We’re penniless, soon to be homeless, our entire life has been destroyed, and you sit there shrugging your shoulders, waiting patiently for them to figure something out.”
“What else can we do?” Ava snapped at her. “We wait and hope and see where we end up,” she said as she walked to the window. Pulling back the drapes, she watched snowflakes swirl around the streetlamp below. “This is nothing new to me, Claire. Here one day, gone the next.” She paused and then decided to divulge a piece of her past, albeit, an edited piece.
“My parents died when I was twelve, and I was sent to live with my aunt. It was all she could do to keep a roof over our heads. One year she arranged to leave me with my cousins here in the city. She was growing too old and weak to take care of me. I hated it and cried for days. I begged to go home to my aunt the same way I cried for my parents. The cousins weren’t always nice to me.” She sat in a chair next to Claire and pulled her legs up, hugging them. “They really resented my being there, and I wasn’t fond of the city at all, but I got used to it. And in the end, I met Jonathan.” She skipped over the tumultuous courtship and dramatic ending of her relationship with Victor Drayton immediately prior. “Things have a way of working out. We’ll be okay, Claire, you’ll see.”
Claire looked at her friend with sympathetic eyes and reached for her hand. “I had no idea you’d been through all that, Ava.”
In fact, none of them knew much about Ava’s past. One day she was just there in Jonathan’s life and heart as if she’d been there always. At first, there were questions about Jonathan’s apparent obsession with this woman who had no family or social connections, and who very much seemed to appear out of thin air. Nevertheless, a life busy with whirlwind parties, extravagant galas, and overseas vacations easily avoided or redirected the questions.
“It was never worth mentioning until now.” Ava shrugged again.
∞∞∞
In the card room, Jonathan, Caleb, and Aryl were still cold. Jonathan got up and stoked the fire. Leaning one hand on the wall, he stared at the flames for a long while.
Aryl glanced from Jonathan to Caleb and back. Jonathan’s expression was a mix of disbelief and defeat. Aryl was positive his friend had aged five years in the span of a few hours. Jonathan had been defined by his success and was now completely lost. Mentally, he was still on his knees in the middle of the Exchange. Caleb was staring at the grain pattern of the table with his eyes slightly narrowed. Aryl knew his wheels were already turning, looking for answers. Aryl wasn’t so much the type to look for solutions but was able to see what others would pass by. When opportunity presented itself, Aryl was the one who knew what to do with it. He focused on Jonathan again.
“We better get started, Jon,” he said quietly. Jonathan’s head wobbled and he rubbed the stubble shadow on his face. He returned to the card table and sighed deeply.
“Where in hell do we start?” he asked as he poured another drink. The conversation began with recanting the events of the day and the last week with disbelief, anger, and even fear. A long series of I can’t believe and If only we had statements quickly grew old for Aryl.
“We all know what happened,” Aryl interjected. “We better figure out what we’re going to do.” Aryl was never one to look back. He realized that the chips had fallen, and he had to cut the losses and move on.
“You’re right. Got any ideas?” Caleb tipped up his shot glass as Aryl sat back and crossed his arms.
“I guess it comes down to two things. First, we secure a roof over our heads. The auction house will send someone out soon to begin the liquidation; the vultures won’t wait long. Second, we secure jobs of some kind, any kind. The cash we have won’t hold us for long. We have maybe a day or two to go through our things and get together our personal belongings. We can take clothes, some basic household items and sentimental things, as long as they aren’t of much value. Everything else will be auctioned to pay our debts.”
Jonathan leaned back, rubbed his tired eyes and then rested his hands on the top of his head. “Why the hell did we go all in? We were so stupid. We might have a pot to piss in if we’d–”
“Where do we work?” Caleb interrupted.
“I know a couple guys down at the shipping dock,” Aryl offered. “I helped them out a few years back when they got into some trouble. They owe me a favor. Maybe I could get us on there,” he suggested with a tentative shrug.
“What guys? What kind of trouble?” Caleb asked cautiously.
“Roman Grey and Harvey Duggins. You don't know them. They got into gambling bad a couple of years ago. They did okay at first but tempted fate and ended up losing a lot. They dipped into the petty cash fund at the dock office because they didn’t want their families to find out. They figured they’d win back what they had lost and replace the money. Didn’t work out that way, though.
“Long story short, it got so bad they ended up messing with the numbers in payroll, and some accounts came up short. The big boss started getting suspicious, and they came to me in a panic. I pulled an all-nighter and fixed the books to hide the missing money. They gave me some cash the next day. I didn’t ask where it came from, but I took it and worked some magic on the Street,” he said, smiled and raised his eyebrows twice. “A week later, I gave them back their money ten-fold. They replaced the money to payroll, petty cash and banked the rest. All important parties none the wiser.” He leaned forward and poured another drink, obviously proud of himself.
Jon
athan looked at him incredulously. “You do know that was illegal, don’t you?”
Aryl shrugged. “No harm, no foul. Besides, saving their asses back then just might save ours now.”
“It’s worth a shot. How soon can you talk to these guys?” Caleb asked.
“I’ll go in the morning. Dock runs six days a week, and so do we now. No more bankers’ hours for us,” Aryl said with a gruff laugh.
“Well, I can start scouting for apartments,” Caleb added. “I know of some property owners that deal in affordable housing.”
“I can go with you,” Jonathan volunteered flatly.
“I really need you to stay here with Arianna. I can’t take care of business if I’m worried about her running off again.” Jonathan shifted in his chair uncomfortably.
“It would really help me out, Jonathan,” Caleb pleaded.
“Fine,” he said, clearly irritated. “Maybe I can pack the drapes and sort through the china. I’m sure Maura’s got an extra apron and headscarf around here somewhere.”
Aryl stifled a laugh from the mental picture.
They continued to talk for the next hour: possible places to live, what to bring, how much cash each couple had and what bare necessities they would need.
During a quiet moment, Ava came in the room with Claire close behind her.
“Caleb, Arianna is asking for you.”
He took a deep breath and finished his drink. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he lumbered toward the stairs.
∞∞∞
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