Chapter Six
Clarity walked up a small path on Scrub Island which led to the top of the island, with Hari walking by her side. After the incident at the terrace, Hari had been fired by the owner, and everyone was looking for a job for him. She was in charge of keeping Hari busy, with something not too draining. It was about eleven in the morning, the sun was brightening all of the British virgin island.
"So you are not worried about what happened?" Asked Clarity.
"No," said Hari, "that tourist was not thinking, he didn't understand the value of what I was saying. Anyway, no, I've failed at many things, not just one. Failed at school, then I failed at university, graduating two years after the official four years, thanks to my father who arranged a donation amounting to five times my tuition. I began losing money at the age of eighteen, when my father gave me my first allowance. I was the most admired car crashing Sheik in college, crashed a Porsche, then a BMW, and finally, a Lamborghini, I was really happy to crash that one because my father paid a lot of duty on it. Then, there are official failures, I don't share them that much, probably should share them more. I've received the Gulf award for most prominent loss making financier five years in a row. I'm also golf businessman of the palace, having the consistent record of being consistently over par, eight or nine shots over par. Even my caddy says kudos, when he sees me grab the golf club, commending the golf club itself, because it's expensive and of good quality, not me. I have also received a certificate of appreciation, gratitude, and solidifying friendly relations from University of Oman, thanking me for lowering the pressure of all graduates, thanks to me having had such poor grades in college. Then, I am a member of the forum of social studies, they wonder how someone so wealthy like me can do so bad in so many areas, losing so much money, they cannot figure it out. So they like to use me as a social study item of investigation."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, sometimes I also fail, to pay that is, bills or those people who lent me some money. I do that just so that they pay attention to me."
They reached the top of the island, where you could see all of it and the sun rays hitting the sea. Hari looked at Clarity, who was wearing a pair of jeans.
"Would you like to pee in front of me?" Clarity looked at Hari, processing the question for about five seconds.
"No," said Clarity.
"Some women like to pee in nature."
"Yeah, I've done that sometimes."
Hari stared at Clarity, with a non descript look, his mouth half open.
"Maybe next time."
"No, not really, but thank you for asking," said Clarity.
Hari began to walk down the path, thinking about something else.
"Do you think I should mary Nora?"
"Do you love her?" Asked Clarity.
"No, not really, I prefer Lohvia, but Nora is smart, she has good conversation, she can take care of herself, for someone used to failure like me, she may be a good complement. My family likes Nora."
"I'd go with Lohvia then, go with what you like, not what others would like you to do."
Hari nodded, unsure about the value of the suggestion, but thinking that Clarity was addressing a good point. Clarity looked ahead and saw a rabbit staring at them.
"I'll jog down the path to the resort, I'm going to try and catch that rabbit," said Hari.
"All right."
Hari began running like a madman down the hill, after the rabbit, who fled from his pursuant. Clarity strayed off the path for a few minutes and lied down on a patch of grass. She was so comfortable that she fell asleep for a good half hour. When she woke up, she heard some voices walking a few feet away on the path. Staying down lying on the grass, she peeked beyond a tree in front of her and noticed Nora and Hakeem talking.
"You know why I came here, Hakeem. I know the family of Hari is hiding a block of assets, that's why the valuation given to Argyris is so low."
Hakeem stopped walking, turning to Nora. The Argyris wealth magazine was a nosy publication, thought the retainer, simply interested in showing off the money of the wealthy just for the sake of it. Having received a leak on additional assets alledgedly belonging to Hari, Alfio Andreadis had decided to show in his billionaire ranking, a figure for the fortune of the Sheik, higher than the one provided and backed by the Sheik and his family, by about four billion dollars.
Officially, Hari was worth about six billion dollars, but Argyris claimed he was worth slightly over ten billion. With that figure, Hari had leaped right into the top one hundred billionaire list, and the family did not like the prominence that came with the unofficial or unapproved wealth figure. Tax authorities had begun to inquire for possible anomalies, asking questions to the trustees of Hari's fortune. So the family of the Sheik had decided to sue Argyris, for misrepresentation of the official fortune of Hari in the wealth magazine, and for additional damages arising from the tax investigations. It was the task of Hakeem, entrusted by Hari's family, to know who had leaked the information to Argyris. For now, the lawsuit and the issue with the ranking, was being kept private, for the family of Hari did not like to be in the news.
"What do you want?" Asked Hakeem.
"I want money, and I also want to marry Hari, according to a revised family prenup. I don't like the working arrangement."
"Money, no, we're not going to pay you, Nora. Hari will decide if he wants to marry you."
"Then, be prepared for some big hassle coming Hari's way, I might ensure that the Consortium goes after Hari to track down the family fortune."
Hakeem held the stare of Nora. The Consortium of International Informative Journalists was a pain in the bum, just like Nora.
"Do what you want, we are not going to pay." The administrator of Hari's affairs stopped walking, wiping some sweat off his forehead.
"All right, if that is how you want to do things, that's fine."
The Vanity Gloss journalist broke a twig in two and walked away, walking down the path towards the resort. Clarity saw Hakeem talk on his smartphone. A few minutes later, Merhab came running up the path, out of breath.
"There's problems," said Hakeem, "Nora is nosing around."
"Do you have the information on where Hari's father keeps the account for Hari?"
"No, I am not sure whether it is in Cayman or BVI. The Consortium probably knows more than we do."
Clarity listened to both men, who were coveting a personal fortune of several million dollars set aside by the father of Hari, as reward for Hari, in case the Sheik began to make some money, or in case he lost too much money. It was a financial line of defense kept by Hari's father, that very few people knew.
She stood behind the tree for a few minutes, and decided to walk back. In the resort, Hari pulled her aside, leading her to his room.
"Thank you for taking a walk with me. I am a lot more confused about my love life, and I have absolutely no clue of whether I love Nora or Lohvia, but I know our talk is something that will bring some reflection out of me."
"No problem, any time."
A loud knocking on the door interrupted their conversation.
"Hari, open the door, it's me, Hakeem."
"Get in the closet," said Hari, "Hakeem cannot see us together, I cannot have so many girlfriends simultaneously."
Clarity moved towards the closet, but Hari stopped her with his hand.
"There is something else."
"What is that?" Asked Clarity.
"You confuse me."
He stared at her with a dull look, reminiscent of both a hush puppie and a bull dog about to drool a large amount of saliva.
"I confuse you?"
"You do, when I speak to you, it is sort of like talking to another girlfriend, not sure whether you are my girlfriend. In fact, I don't understand my girlfriend very well, she likes sailing instead of being with me. What is Nora doing now, I am unsure. And the real problem is to understand how she thinks, I have no clue how she thinks."
"Well, no, I am not your g
irlfriend."
Clarity disappeared inside the closet and Hari opened the door to his retainer, who sat down on a sofa.
"Hari, I needed to talk to you, I spoke to your father a few days ago, he told me that under no circumstance should you contact anyone who is investigating the family, anyone from the media, or belonging to the Consortium of Informative Journalists. No one can know about the missing block of assets of the family which are showing up in the Argyris valuation. You have to go down in the billionaire ranking to position one eighty or so, with those owning or being worth about six billion. If you get any email messages from the journalists, delete the message. If any lawyer of the firm Augiers Urbina gets in touch with you, let me know."
"Sure."
Hari pulled on one of the threads of his ripped jeans, making his shabby look very genuine. He did not understand what Hakeem meant, because he was not aware of any block of assets missing from the family assets, or of any Consortium, a word which sounded like a magic incantation to him. Hakeem never allowed him to become involved with the lawyers of the Panama law firm Augiers Urbina, those representing all of the holdings of the family, and those who also were leading the lawsuit with Argyris.
His girlfriend Nora usually talked to the media on his behalf, and that was part of the reason he liked her. Journalists did not understand fully all of the merit of his failure, how making money was irrelevant in general, and how failure allowed him to be comfortable. And his family simply viewed him as a convenient face front for them to show to the media, while the rest of the family was doing the real business, managing all the money of the family. Lohvia understood him a lot more, allowing him to be who he wanted to be, essentially a shabby dude, with imperfections, many imperfections, and a consolidated and substantial reputation for failure, all of which made him human.
Hari saw Hakeem leave his room and he glared at the screen of his laptop. He checked his email, entering a luxury email provider which charged twenty thousand dollars a month for being a member. He noticed a message, which said Consortium of Informative Journalists, asking him several questions about several family assets. Angry that he was not getting any recognition from his family, for just being there as a convenient Sheik for them, he hit a button. Only instead of deleting the message, he hit the reply and send button, alerting the Consortium of his email address and his luxury online messages provider. Then, he opened the closet and let Clarity out.
"Nothing important," said Hari.
"That's all right," said Clarity, "I got a closer look at the closet, I placed the trolley you use for travel in the far end of the closet, it was crushing your shabby shoes collection."
Sun on the Rocks - The Shabby Sheik Page 7