The corporate employees gasped.
“I’m sorry,” Sam said. “If Celia was here, she’d be angry that I told you.”
“Thanks, Sam,” the head of estimating hugged Sam. She added, “We appreciate your trust.”
Sam nodded then returned to Jacob’s office.
“Well, that’s it,” the head of estimating said.
“What are you doing?” Tres asked.
“I don’t know about you, but I started this company in my jeans. My team is changing into our jeans. We’re going to the sites. If we’re going to be owners, we’re going to start acting like them.”
The CFO and controller shared a look.
“I’ll find funding,” Tres said. “I’m the senior corporate officer if Jake, Aden and Sam are gone. I’ll need to stay anyway.”
“I can...”
“I’ll get it done,” Tres said. “Go change. Get the rest of the department. You need to be ready when Jake needs us.”
The rest of the employees nodded.
“One admin stays,” Tres said. “Blane’s ill.”
“I’ll stay,” the receptionist said. “I’ll stay until tomorrow if I have to.”
“Great,” Tres said.
Looking around, he realized everyone was changing their clothing. He went to do the same. If the company was going down, they would go down with their jeans on.
~~~~~~~~
“Mommy, you have to help me.”
Face down on the floor of the executive bathroom, Jacob begged his mother to appear.
“Please. I really need you.”
“I debate with myself whether I should just let you beg,” Celia said. “You know that I’m right here.”
She helped him roll onto his back.
“Mommy.” Jacob wept at the sight of her.
She lifted his head onto her lap. He felt her stroke his hair and face.
“I wish I knew what you want me to do,” he said.
Celia smiled.
“Everything’s wrong. Everything I tried is wrong.”
Celia continued to stroke his hair.
“Tell me, Mommy. What do you want?”
“I want you to be happy, Jacob Marlowe.”
“For your company. What do I do with your company? I’ve tried so hard to make your dream come true. But the board...”
“It’s not my company, Jake,” Celia said.
“What do you mean?”
“My company was run out of our basement. Sure, it grew into an actual office. But you’ve built it into a million dollar company. This isn’t my company, Jake. It’s yours.”
“I’ve been doing all of this for you and Dad.”
“That may be true.” Celia smiled at her only son. “Maybe it’s time you started doing all of this for you.”
“I don’t want this company,” Jacob said.
“Are you sure?” Celia asked. “You seem to work awfully hard at something you don’t want.”
“I love carpentry,” Jacob said.
“Why does it have to be one or the other?” Celia asked. “For that matter, why is ‘normal’ the opposite of psychic?”
“God Mom,” Jacob said. “You know why!”
“Normal for you is being what you are.” Celia stroked his hair. “Why do you have this chest pain?”
“My heart is injured,” Jacob said. “The doctors say it doesn’t work right.”
“Humor me. Ask your heart.”
Jacob closed his eyes. Stretching out his being, he asked his heart as if it was something separate from him.
“I don’t want to give up the company,” Jacob said.
“Yes, it’s your company,” Celia said.
“But I’ve worked so hard to...”
“You don’t have to give up the whole thing, Jake. It’s not all or nothing.” Celia touched his face. “The rest of this… drama? Tell me Jacob Marlowe, why is this happening to your company?”
“So the employees can act like owners and...”
“And?”
“So I can sort out what I want,” Jacob smiled.
Celia began to fade.
“Don’t go, Mommy! Please don’t go.”
“I’m the voice in your ear if you want listen,” Celia said.
The door of the restroom opened.
“Oh my God,” Sam said. “Get his arm. Blane just told us about the angina.”
Sam and an accountant helped Jacob into the chair.
“Call 911.”
“NO!” Jacob exclaimed. “I’m really all right. I just need a moment.”
“When you’re ready,” the controller said. “We’re ready.”
Jacob looked up.
“What?”
“If this is our company, we’re going to fight for it,” the head of estimating said. “We’ve changed into our jeans, called our families. We’re working until we’ve set things right.”
Standing, Jacob looked from face to face at the crowd of Lipson construction corporate employees. His face broke out in a smile. He weaved, then found his balance.
“Call all the employees from the snowed out sites...”
“They’re waiting in the parking lot, Jake, “Aden said. “They showed up here to help.”
“We need to find alternative...”
“The CFO is looking for alternative funding, Jake,” the controller said.
Jacob stopped short when Celia appeared in front of him.
“Son, look in your back pocket,” she said.
Jacob pulled the postcard from his back pocket. Reading the words, he groaned and laughed. He gave the card to Blane, who laughed.
“Let’s get to work.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
How this goes
One hour later
“I’m not sure what this fuss is about.” Sam put his hand on the homeowner’s arm. “From what you told my site manager, Tony, you knew about the waterline problem. Sounds like you and your neighbors have already spoken with the city about it.”
The man shook his head at Sam.
“Listen, it’s snowing,” Sam said. “You’ve had a difficult morning. Why don’t you head back in? I’ll let you know what we find out.”
Mumbling under his breath, the man nodded and turned back to the house. Sam jogged to catch him.
“I heard you say you need help with the kids?”
“The Nanny quit. My wife’s on bed rest. Twins due any day. My two year old would drive a saint insane. And I have to get to work.”
“I’m sorry about your wife,” Sam said. “Christy thought your wife was pregnant.”
“Who the fuck is Christy?”
“She’s one of our road girls,” Sam said. “Blonde? Pretty? She worked your corner this week.”
The man nodded.
“Why don’t I send Christy in to watch your two year old? She’d be happy to help. You can get to work and not worry.”
“My son’s a pain in the ass,” the man said.
“So’s mine,” Sam laughed.
“You have a toddler?
“He’s twenty-six,” Sam said.
The man laughed.
“I’ll send Christy to your house. She’ll appreciate getting out of the cold today,” Sam said. “Can you find help today?”
The man nodded.
“Great,” Sam said. “See! That was easy. And don’t worry. If your son’s too much for Christy, we’ll teach him how to fix a broken water line. That’s what I did with my son, and now he owns the company.”
The man laughed. Holding out his hand, he said, “Thanks.”
“Easy.”
~~~~~~~~
Two hours later
“When you called, I was like no way,” the field director for the Museum of Nature and Science said. “But, hot damn, Jacob Marlowe, that’s an entire village. I bet we’ve got ten, maybe fifteen homes here.”
“Settlers?” Jacob asked.
“Ancient. Jake, I think it’s Clovis.”
“What
does that mean?” Jerry Siegle, the site manager, asked. “This is not Clovis, New Mexico.”
“Ancient civilization. Thirteen thousand years ancient. We’ve got an expert at the museum. Steve Holden. He’s going to ...” The man beamed at Jacob. “You’ve made our careers.”
Jerry groaned.
“Yeah, glad we could help,” Jacob said.
The man laughed at Jacob’s sardonic tone.
“You’re saying we have to close the site?” Jerry asked.
“I’m saying you can’t work here,” the man said.
“Ah fuck,” Jerry stomped back toward the trailer.
“Ever?” Jacob asked.
“Probably,” the man said. “If this is what I think it is? The government will take over this site. In five years’ time, they’ll sell tickets for the good people to see.”
Jacob frowned.
“I guess you probably didn’t want to hear that,” the man from the Museum of Nature and Science said.
“It’s not you,” Jacob said. “I need to talk to my guys.”
“Yeah,” the man said. As Jacob walked away, he said, “Hey Jake!”
Jacob turned to look at him.
“Thanks. Really. A lot of people would have just kept working. This is a big assed deal.”
Jacob nodded then continued to the trailer. As he approached he heard someone yelling. When he opened the door, everyone was silent. Only the whir of the heaters broke the sterile silence. The men stared at him.
“What’s the word, Jake?” Jerry asked.
“This entire job is cancelled,” Jacob said. “Off our books.”
Jerry’s assistant threw his coffee cup against the trailer’s wall.
“I KNEW we shouldn’t have called,” an assistant site manager said. “Fuck, my one chance... God damn it.”
The other two assistant site managers shook their heads.
“That’s it, isn’t it? God damn it, Marlowe.” Jerry’s angry face was inches from Jacob’s. His index finger tapped on Jacob’s chest. “I’ve worked at this company all my God damn life. And why?”
Jerry spun away from Jacob. His employees watched their site manager in stunned silence. Spinning in place, Jerry turned back to Jacob.
“Because some rich asshole set unachievable conditions. In almost thirty years, Lipson construction’s met our fall projections three times! Three times in thirty years! Now we have to pull off some fucking miracle. God damn it.”
Jacob opened his mouth to respond, but Jerry wasn’t finished.
“This is on YOU, Marlowe. You should never have let those fuckers set ANY condition on our company. When it comes down, YOU better say that YOU fucked up because we’re not taking the blame.”
Jerry crossed his arms in defiance. Jacob opened his mouth again to speak.
“You can fire me if you want,” Jerry said. “I’m not going to work over some lost civilizations remains. I’m not going to take the blame for the employees losing the company. And I’m not going to put up with bullshit.”
Jacob raised his eyebrows with the question – was Jerry done?
“Yeah, I’m done. Your Mom made the same face when I went on a rant.” Jerry bowed his large body slightly. “I’m sorry.”
Jacob laughed at his apology.
“You don’t have to humiliate me, Marlowe. God damn it. I’m trying to be humble.”
“I think he wants to say something, Jer,” Jerry’s assistant said.
“Oh,” Jerry said. “Go ahead. I’ll listen.”
Jacob opened his mouth to speak.
“But just so you know, I meant every word. Even though I’m sorry I go on and on.”
Jacob started laughing so hard that the men in the small trailer began to laugh.
“Ok, I get it,” Jerry laughed. “Go ahead.”
Jacob’s face shifted to stone.
“The bank has called our credit. We have twenty-four hours to secure new funding.”
The silence in the trailer was deafening.
“The only thing they will take as capital is the Castle. They know there’s no way I will put my child, my family… hell anyone who needs a place to stay… in the position of not having a home.”
“What about the school?” Jerry asked.
“We rent,” Jacob said.
“What are you going to do?” Jerry’s assistant asked.
“I don’t know,” Jacob said. “We’ll do something. But as of this moment, the only way to secure our debt is to either put my mother’s home up as equity or ...”
“Let the board buy the company,” Jerry said. “Mother fuckers...”
“Exactly,” Jacob said. “I want you to hear this from me. You and your men did exactly the right thing. I need you to clean up the site and get back into town. We have a couple of other situations that could use your guys and, Jerry, your experience. How long will it take to tear this site down?”
“Three days,” Jerry said. “But if we’re needed in town, then we can go there now. We can tear this site down this weekend.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Can you guys get out to Golden? They shut down due to snow. They’re having trouble with the melt off. They could really use you. I need your men at County Line. They can restart but their guys moved to Steele Street to help.”
“We’ll go right now,” Jerry said. “You’re going to sort this financing out?”
“Have to,” Jacob said. “Construction companies run on credit. We have to have credit to buy the supplies we need to complete jobs and pay employees. Without it, we close the doors.”
“What are you going to do when you get the financing worked out, Jake?” one of the assistant site managers asked.
“I’m going to get rid of the board.”
Unintentionally, Jacob smiled his evil hockey smile. The men shifted uncomfortably. Noticing their discomfort, Jacob let out a breath.
“Let’s just get through today,” Jacob said.
~~~~~~~~
“One, two, three.”
Aden yelled over the wind, snow and machinery. He waved his hand down and the loader buckets of two backhoes moved in unison. Tap, tap, tap. The trench shoring moved off the bottom of the trench.
“STOP,” Aden yelled over the machinery and the wind.
The backhoe operators lifted the buckets. Aden climbed into the trench. Shaking his head, he dug a handful of dirt from the steel shoring plate. He stuck the dirt in his pocket then climbed out.
“What is it, boss?” Bambi yelled.
“I don’t know,” Aden said. Pulling the dirt from his pocket, he showed held it out for Bambi to see. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
The dirt was a mixture of red Denver clay soil and some kind of gray matter.
“I thought these were rocks, you know.” Aden pointed to a gray chunk. “But...”
“Throw me a shovel,” Bambi said.
Bambi climbed into the trench. Honey passed her a shovel. She dug around where the steel shoring had been. Mimicking Aden, she put a handful of dirt in her pocket and climbed out. She showed Aden her dirt.
“That’s concrete,” Honey said.
“That’s what I thought,” Aden said.
“Concrete,” Bambi said. “What do we do?”
“We call the police,” Honey said.
“I don’t want to be the site that...”
“Don’t worry, Bambi,” Aden said. “Jake’s going to work everything out today.”
“How do you know? Jerry said the financing’s been pulled and...”
“I know the man,” Aden said. “He’ll work it out.”
“Police?” Honey asked.
“Police,” Aden said. “And thank God, no one was hurt. If we hadn’t had this snow storm, someone could have been crushed.”
Honey wheeled to the trailer to make the call.
“And the tapes?” Bambi asked.
“Heather and Blane are reviewing them,” Aden said. “When Jake said we had to buy those video cam
eras for the lights, I thought he was nuts. So expensive! But man, I’m glad we have them.”
“Me too,” Bambi said. “Me too.”
~~~~~~~~
Two hours later
“This is how this goes,” Mike said.
Standing in the middle of Megan’s living room, he paced back and forth in front of Steve, Candy and Megan. He opened his mouth to speak, then shook his head.
“Why are we here, Mike?” Megan asked. “You said it was an emergency.”
“And where’s Jill?” Candy asked. “If we’re getting yelled at, she should be here too.”
“Yeah,” Steve said. “Why does Jill get to miss out on this yelling?”
“Jill. Yes, this is about Jill,” Mike said. “Jill is not here because it’s about her. Jill won’t marry Jacob because she thinks you guys can’t to deal with the truth.”
“What truth?” Megan asked.
Mike let out a breath. He looked from face to face. He closed his eyes to their faces then said:
“Our mother is alive.”
He didn’t open his eyes until they stopped talking.
“SHUT UP,” Megan yelled.
Steve and Candy stopped talking.
“Start at the beginning Mike,” Megan said. “You saw the bodies.”
“I saw a body, our father’s body and a charred… I don’t know what it was,” Mike said. “The state police said Mom’s body was burned beyond recognition in the fire. Dad was thrown from the wreckage. Most of his head was destroyed. I recognized what he was wearing and his watch.”
Mike pointed to the watch Steve was wearing. Steve wore his father’s watch every day.
“Why would Mom abandon us?” Candy’s voice echoed her loss.
“Why do you think?” Mike asked.
“Because she had to,” Megan said.
“My mother loved me. Fiercely,” Candy said. “She knew about me. She told me that I was perfect in every way. Every day. Even though I’m gay. That’s the only reason my mother would leave me. She was forced.”
“But Mike why would she have to?” Steve asked.
“You want to hear this?” Mike asked. “Jill tried to tell you. Each of you. But you didn’t want to know.”
“Oh Mike, we were just… crazy. I remember her saying something but… I wanted Mom to be alive so badly. I thought she was... imagining I guess.” Megan shrugged. “Is she angry?”
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