“Please God, just grant me this one little miracle today,” I prayed and turned the key in the ignition. My temperamental little car sputtered twice and then the engine started up as if nothing had ever been wrong with it.
“Thank you,” I whispered and looked over at Justin who was sitting straight up on the passenger seat next to me with a look of sheer expectant exuberance on his face.
As little as I cared for the apartment I was leaving behind I still felt and incredible sense of loss as I pulled out of my parking spot and into the road that would take me out of Round Rock, Texas.
I was driving away from the only man I’d felt anything for over the last couple of years and I realized that I’d been denying the intensity of my feelings for him. I considered driving over to the factory to have a final word with Nathan and to apologize again for having sold Justin’s TV and PlayStation and perhaps just to look into his gorgeous eyes one last time. But then I remembered how angry Nathan had been the previous evening and thought he might just shout at me again and I definitely didn’t have the strength to face something like that in my already battered down state so I just took the turnoff towards the highway and kept on driving away from Round Rock, Texas… and away from the wonderful, slightly irresponsible man I’d hoped to get to know much better one day.
“Let’s put on the radio and sing,” Justin suggested and I turned up the volume button on the cheap car stereo. The sound wasn’t that good but we could hear the music and even though neither Justin, nor his unemployed mother, knew the words to the song we still sang out loud with the music as we drove down the highway toward Arkansas and an uncertain future.
NATHAN
I couldn’t believe what Jerry was telling me. How could Grant just fire Emily for being a little late? No matter how I tried to wrap my mind around it I simply couldn’t understand how anyone could be that cruel.
I knew that Emily’s car had been giving her trouble and if only I’d had any kind of mechanical skills I would have fixed it for her. I tried my best to get down to work but I simply couldn’t force my mind to get into the rhythm of fitting together electrical components as if nothing had happened. The whole debacle was compounded by the fact that I still felt incredibly guilty about my terrible behavior the previous evening at Emily’s place and now it seemed I might never get the opportunity to apologize to her.
I made some additional mental notes, next to some similar ones I’d already made, to teach Grant Belmont a little something about decency and good manners as soon as I got the chance. He badly needed some people skills and I could think of a couple of creative ways of helping him learn some. I took a look around the factory floor at all of the good people who kept slaving away every day for their meager salaries and thought how devastating it would be for them if my dad closed the deal with Mr. Cheng and his Chinese business consortium. If the factory was moved to China, like my father was planning to do under the deal with the Chinese, all of these factory workers would soon face the very same fate that had just befallen Emily that morning.
“I’m sorry Jerry, but I can’t carry on as if nothing’s wrong!” I finally announced as I left my work station on the assembly line and walked over to Jerry to hand him my work overall.
“Are you crazy? Grant won’t hesitate to fire you if you just leave your work station in the middle of a shift!” Jerry said and he looked very concerned.
“You know what Jerry? You should be the one sitting up there in Grant’s office and that rat faced bastard should be the one getting fired!
I walked out of the factory in a huff and suddenly I couldn’t give a shit if I got fired and failed my dad’s little test. It was time to set things right, or at least to try doing so before it was too late. I stood outside the factory for a while and wondered what I should do first. I decided to rush over to Emily’s apartment to see if she was okay. On my way there I kept rehearsing in my mind what I was going to say to her.
Emily I’m so sorry you lost your job! No, that wouldn’t do…I had to apologize for my terrible behavior first.
Emily I’m so sorry I acted like a total ass last night…yes, that was better, but what about the fact that she’d just been fired?
Emily I’m a total ass and I’m so sorry you got fired! Somehow I couldn’t quite come up with the right things to say and decided to just wing it as soon as she opened the door. I knocked three times and waited for her to open like she always did. Nothing happened and I knocked again. Still nothing.
I got a sinking feeling in my stomach and peered through the window. Everything looked quiet inside Emily’s flat and when I turned around I saw that her little car was not parked in its parking spot. She must have gotten it started somehow and I realized that she’d driven off somewhere. Apart from the fact that I had absolutely no idea where she might have gone I didn’t have any mode of transportation to drive off on a wild goose chase after Emily anyway, so I only had one final option available if I really wanted to try and fix everything that was going on.
I needed to go home and confront my dad.
Not only did I have to find some way to get Emily’s job back for her, I also needed to have it out with my old man about his plans to destroy the lives of all the good people working in his factory, just so he could lower production costs by moving the factory to China. I hated how my father only saw everything in dollars and cents and the time I’d spent working like an ordinary, struggling factory worker for Edward Electronics had taught me that here was a lot more to life than just making a profit. I was totally prepared to go back and work with the rest of the workers on the factory floor for the rest of my life, as long as I could save Emily’s job and all of the other workers’ jobs by convincing my dad to let go of his China plans.
I had no money left for a bus ticket so I ended up hitchhiking back home to Malibu, California on the back of some sixteen wheeler trucks and four by fours that rattled across the roads as if there was a constant earthquake striking the highway underneath us. It took me one entire day and night to get back to California and when I arrived there I was very hungry and I looked much the worse for wear.
When I finally stood in front of my parents’ large mansion it didn’t really feel like I was home at all…I realized that, as small and uncomfortable as my little apartment in Round Rock had been, I’d started thinking of it as my real home. I didn’t even have a cell phone to call my mom or dad to announce that I was coming home and now I had to pressed the buzzer outside the large security gate just to get someone to open up for me. Fabio, our French chef, answered and he was ecstatic to hear my voice.
“Master Nathan! What a delightful surprise, let me open up for you!”
I thought of all the times Fabio had made me delicious snacks in my life and how seldom I’d truly expressed my gratitude to him for his efforts.
“I’m so happy to hear your voice again Fabio...you are the best chef in California! I said and watched as the massive gates parted before me.
I walked inside the grounds and that’s when my mom saw me walking up the drive way. She ran down towards me and threw her arms around my neck.
“My boy, my darling boy I’m so glad you’re back!” she kept saying over and over and when I looked up the house looked even bigger behind her than I’d remembered it in my mind.
“Where’s dad? I need to have a talk with him,” I said and my mom looked me straight in the eye.
“I really hope you can talk some sense into your dad…he’s totally obsessed with this China deal and I think he’s gonna lose his mind if he keeps going on the way he is at the moment.”
I followed my mom inside the house and I was suddenly struck by the incredible splendor and opulence of the house in which I’d grown up. Just the kitchen area alone was larger than the entire flat that I’d lived in back in Round Rock and I found myself wondering how on earth I’d managed to simply take the sheer size of our house for granted before. Had I really never noticed all of this, or did I simply have noth
ing else to compare it to? Whatever the reason, I was having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I’d grown up in such privileged splendor without ever really noticing it at all.
“I have fixed you a snack to eat, Master Nathan,” Fabio said and when I looked down at what he put in front of me I suddenly wondered who on earth had told Fabio that a juicy steak with chips and a large French salad was a ‘snack.’
Just as I finished up the delicious meal that Fabio had prepared for me there was the sound of a car in the driveway and when I looked out the window I saw that it was my dad driving up in his Mercedes AMG. I thought back to all the times I’d watched my dad arriving home as a young boy and how happy I’d always felt as I ran outside to meet him. Now I only felt dread as I got up to go and face off with my dad.
“What the hell are you doing here!?” my dad exclaimed when he saw me. Funny how much my dad and Grant Belmont had in common, I thought as I remembered how Grant also never greeted anyone back at the factory before starting to shoot off his mouth at the factory workers with some snide remarks.
“I’ve come to have a talk with you dad. There are some wonderful, loyal people working for you at the factory in Round Rock and you are going to destroy their lives if you go through with this deal to move the factory to China! I also think it’s time that you got rid of some of the ill-mannered, talentless idiots who run the factory over there. Some very skilled workers on the factory floor are suffering from an absolute lack of proper management…a wonderful single mother got fired yesterday and no one seems to care what happens to her and her boy now!”
“What has that got to do with the fact that I asked you to go down there and work for three months so you could prove to me that you are not just some kind of spoiled playboy and that you are capable of doing some honest hard work?” my father asked in a combative tone of voice.
“Now you wait just a second Wilbur!” my mother interrupted and I could see that my father was slightly taken aback. We all knew that my mom was very angry whenever she called my dad ‘Wilbur’ and we’d all learned the hard way that it was best to listen very closely to what she had on her mind when she got like this.
“You were exactly the same way when you were young! I can still recall how you acted just like a peacock when you used to pick me up for dates!”
“Yes but that was different, I…”
“No it wasn’t any different and I’m sick and tired of your damned little game with our only son’s life!” my mom interrupted my dad for the second time.
We all stood there shocked and looked at my mother. She was red in the face and looked quite ready to carry on with her tirade.
“Okay Edna, just please calm down…I guess it’s time we talked about the whole thing again,” my dad said and my mom finally seemed to calm down a little.
“I must say that I am happy to see you seem to have learned to care for other people besides yourself…it sounds to me like you’ve have spent your time at the factory to think about things a little,” my father said and looked at me pensively.
“I’m quite prepared to go back and work in the factory as long as you promise not to move our operations to China and destroy a lot of our workers’ lives in the process,” I said and I know my dad could tell that I was serious.
“I’ve been having some doubts about the whole China deal anyway,” my dad said to everyone’s surprise, “and you said one thing to me that day when you were supposed to pick them all up at the airport which I must agree with and that is the fact that Mr. Cheng and his group are way too easily offended…on top of the fact that they are extremely demanding!”
“Isn’t it time you just let go of the whole China idea?” my mother asked and looked at my dad with pleading eyes.
“Are you ready to take your rightful place next to me in the management of Edward Electronics?” my dad asked and looked me straight in the eye.
“I can honestly say this for the first time in my life…yes, I am ready,” I said and my dad held out his hand towards me.
“Well congratulations son, I hereby appoint you as Operational Manager of Edward Electronics. You have proven to me that you are capable of doing some honest, hard work and that you also have the ability to learn from your mistakes!”
“That’s wonderful!” my mom shouted and threw her arms around my dad’s neck after she’d given me a celebratory hug.
“Congratulations Master Nathan! Perhaps I could throw us together a little dinner later to celebrate?” Fabio said and shook my hand to congratulate me.
“Sounds good, I just don’t know if I’ve got any space left in my stomach after that little ‘snack’ you made me earlier,” I joked and we all laughed together.
It suddenly felt as if I was really home again and we all went inside and talked about everything that had happened during the almost three weeks that I’d been away. My dad was surprised and disappointed to hear how badly Grant Belmont had been treating the factory workers.
“I always thought that Grant was a strict, yet very fair manager,” my dad said as he listened to me listing all of the ways in which Grant had been acting inappropriately in his management of the factory.
“Where is this Emily now that was so cruelly fired by Grant?” my mother asked and I felt a pang of regret as I thought how badly I’d treated Emily the last time I saw her.
“I have no idea,” I said, “but I think the very first thing I’d like to do as Operational Manager is to find her and set things straight.”
“I think that’s a very good idea, son,” my dad said and I noticed that my mother was looking at me somewhat quizzically.
“She’s a bit more to you than just an ordinary factory worker, isn’t she?” my mother asked with a knowing smile.
“Who knows mom, maybe she is…only time will tell,” I replied and my mother sat back in her chair with a satisfied look on her face as Fabio carried in yet another plate of delicious snacks and put it down right in front of me.
EMILY
My mom and dad were so happy to see me and Justin that there was no time to worry about the additional financial strain it might place on them if we packed out and lived with them for a while.
“Grandma, Grandpa!” Justin shouted and my parents had their hands full with him as he ran through their house like a wild deer.
“Don’t you worry about a thing my girl, we will find a way to get through all of this,” my mother said after I told my parents how I lost my job because my car wouldn’t start.
“I just wish you could have told us about the dire straits you were in financially so we could have known to turn down the money you sent us for my operation!” my dad said.
“Don’t be silly dad, you’re going to go to the hospital and they are going to make sure you will be with us for many more years to come, “I said and gave my dad a brave smile. I thought back to all the times in my life that my dad had been there for me and how he always believed that his daughter would one day see all of her dreams come true. He always had my back and I‘d always had the confidence of knowing that my dad would be right there in my corner, no matter what fight I had to fight or obstacle I had to face. My dad was the more outspoken one of my parents and he never hesitated to speak his mind, while my mother was more of a quiet anchor in our house. I knew that my parents still loved one another as much as the first time they’d met and I always kept hoping that I would also one day be lucky enough to experience that kind of love in my life.
Later that day I was sitting outside with my mom while my dad was playing Gin Rummy inside with Justin. We could hear Justin shouting ‘Gin!” every now and then as my dad kept allowing him to win. We didn’t talk at all and my mom was doing some knitting while I just relaxed in her presence as I’d always done as a young girl. This was the place where I’d dreamed all of my dreams about becoming an actress one day, before Randall Trent came along and destroyed it all on prom night.
My heart wandered back to Round Rock, Texas and the gorge
ous blonde boy I’d met there in the strangest place of all; the dirty factory floor where I’d spent so many lonely hours wondering if the rest of my life was going to be spent alone in poverty and shallow misery. I would not go as far as saying that I missed working on the assembly line, but I did miss those stolen glances and furtive looks that Nathan and I intermittently used to exchange while we slaved away together. I missed old Jerry’s friendly voice and the cups of coffee he would bring me whenever I looked as if the strain of working on the factory floor was getting too much for me.
I wondered what Nathan was up to and how he was getting along on the assembly line without me there to help him when he got stuck. He was such a charmer in certain ways and so stubborn in others…I hoped that Jerry was taking good care of him and shielding him form Grant Belmont’s wrath as I couldn’t imagine what a guy like Nathan would do if he lost his job at the factory. He was so impulsive in certain ways that I found myself worrying about him and I wondered if it would be possible to put a phone call through to the factory and ask to speak to Nathan. I thought about t some more and decided that it was probably a bad idea as Grant was sure to get wind of the fact that an ex-employee was trying to speak to Nathan and this was sure to be in contradiction with one of his many ethical bullshit rules.
Big Bad Billionaires [Volume 1] Page 8