Dangerous Inheritance

by Shirley E. Watson

  CHAPTER 28

  Derek and Colleen were talking a walk on the beach. It was a mild day with sunshine and scattered clouds across the blue sky. The waves rolled in, aqua and deep blue. Derek took a deep breath. “It does seem to give me more energy here. I don’t know what it is.”

  Colleen said, “I don’t know what it is, either, but that’s part of what brings people here for vacation.”

  Derek took a stick and threw it far out into the water. “So, your group is leaving for Ireland tomorrow. What now?”

  “Well, I can still get some work but the main season is over, of course. I’ll probably step up my teaching. Winter isn’t far away so I’ll move back to Boston until Spring. I can probably find work for you, too.”

  “That would be great. The thing that worries me, though, is housing.”

  “I’ll look around for you. Maybe I can get you a place with a few roommates?”

  “Not the ideal situation, but as my Mom used to say, “beggars can’t be choosers.”

  “Your other alternative is just to commute. It’s really not far and people do it.”

  “How’s the traffic, though?”

  “If you’re going against it, which you would be if you came in for the evening, then not bad.”

  “Of course, that’s only going to be good until Spring. That’s my agreement with the Winter Rental. I’d probably have to do that, anyway.”

  Colleen picked up a shell and examined it. “Probably a good idea to hold onto the cottage until then, so maybe it will work out for the best.”

  “You’re such an optimist, Colleen.” He turned her to face him, looking to see if she was still in the same mood as the other night. She looked directly into his eyes as though searching so he kissed her lightly. He pulled back again.

  “Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” He stared at her.

  “Derek, why don’t you try to contact your Dad?”

  He dropped his hands and put them in his pockets instead.

  “I told you the reason. He dumped my Mom, so I have no use for him either.”

  “Well, why don’t you get him to tell you his side of the story?”

  Derek laughed bitterly. “His side? He doesn’t get to have a side.”

  “Well, I’ve been doing a little research. If you go to this address tonight, your Dad will be there. You can ask him.” She slipped a piece of paper into his pocket.

  Derek was dumbfounded. “What? You were snooping into my family’s life? What gave you the right to do that?”

  Colleen took a step back. “I was just trying to help.”

  Derek’s face was red. His voice rose. “Well, don’t. I don’t need your help. And leave my family alone.”

  He walked away quickly, leaving Colleen standing alone on the beach.

  She slowly followed in the direction he had gone, blinking tears away. She hadn’t expected this kind of reaction. When she got to Derek’s cottage, she walked on by and continued to her own place.

  Derek came home, slammed into the cottage and dropped on the couch. He wanted a beer but thought he wouldn’t give Colleen the satisfaction of making faces at him. When she didn’t arrive, he got up and looked out the window. Well, see if he cared. Let her walk off in a huff. He completely forgot that he had been the one to walk off. He felt he didn’t need the company of such an unreasonable girl. So nosy and interfering, too.

  He roamed restlessly around the cottage. Finally, he got his car keys and decided to take a trip to Boston. It was too quiet around here. As Colleen had said, it didn’t take him long to get there, and he remembered how to get into the heart of the city. Parking was not good, but he finally found a spot and got out. He thought he’d have to master the bus routes and subway routes one of these days to save money, but looking at the subway map just confused him. He was glad he had the car.

  He walked and the exercise calmed his mind. Boston was fascinating, the narrow streets of downtown and the stores and restaurants. Students swarmed in and out of the eating places. He loved the atmosphere. He was getting hungry, so he found a small restaurant and went in. They served a hearty hamburger which was surprisingly good. He washed it down with a Coke instead of automatically ordering a beer. See, Colleen? I don’t always need to have a beer. That irritating girl was still in his mind.

  He reached into his pocket to get out his wallet and drew out also the slip of paper that Colleen had put there. He was about to throw it away when he put it down on the table and looked at it again. When the waitress came over, he asked if she knew where it was.

  She smiled flirtatiously at the handsome customer. “Oh, that’s just a couple of blocks away. When you leave here, turn right, go to Little Street and right again on Brown. It should be on that block.”

  He gave the waitress a dazzling smile. “Thanks!” Leaving the restaurant, he pulled the collar of his jacket closer. There was a nip in the air, as they would say around here. He was almost like a native. Except he didn’t drop his “r’s”. It didn’t take him long to walk the distance. The note gave the address and said, “7 PM.” Well, it was 6:45. The old guy could lump it. If he wasn’t there, Derek would just wait until he showed up.

  But it was with surprise that Derek arrived at the address. He checked the address written on the paper. Yes, this was it. But it was a church hall. He pulled open a door and went in. He looked around. He was in a lobby. Where was he supposed to go now? He heard steps and someone else came in the door. It was a man wearing a business suit and trench coat. He looked at Derek. “It’s downstairs.” Then he went around a corner and disappeared. Derek stood there trying to understand. What was downstairs? It couldn’t be a club, not in a church. Was his father some kind of religious nut now?

  He went to where the man had gone and found a staircase leading down. He could hear voices. He might as well go down and ask somebody else. There wasn’t anybody upstairs to ask. When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he was in another hallway. A room off it was brightly lighted and had rows of folding chairs set up. There were about 30 people sitting there. The man he had briefly met in the lobby was sitting in the last row and he gestured at Derek to sit.

  Derek was about to ask somebody else for help when a man stepped up to a podium at the front of the room and cleared his throat. Derek slipped into a seat beside the man. He didn’t want to be conspicuous and break up a meeting. He was just about to speak to the man when the man up front addressed the crowd.

  “Good Evening. Thank you for coming. I’m glad you did. Let me introduce myself first, My name is David Dougall and I’m an alcoholic.”

  Derek sat there stunned. Before he could react in any way, the man went on. “OK, I’ll go first. Let me tell you a little about my story.

  “I was a successful businessman in the finance area. I made a good living. I had a beautiful wife and a little son. Life was great! It was so great, I thought I’d celebrate it every night with a little Jack Daniels.”

  There were murmurs in the audience of agreement. Apparently others identified with this story.

  David Dougall went on, “Well, a little Jack Daniels became more and more. Pretty soon, I was yelling at my wife because she tried to help me. She wanted me to cut down. But I started seeing her as the enemy and to tell the truth, I drank more. Can you imagine that? It got so bad, I lost my job because I was hiding a bottle in my desk. I was late to work a lot of Mondays because I’d had too good a time over the weekend. I didn’t listen to anybody who tried to tell me I was heading down the path of destruction. The result was that my wife decided to leave with my son. I don’t blame her. She had to get out. I never heard from her again because she had to travel around making a living. I never saw my son again. But I had my own troubles. I had slid so far down that I was living in a homeless shelter and taking bottles and cans to the recycling center for money. When I wasn’t panhandling around Quincy Market where the tourists go. I wore the one good suit I had left so that people wo
uld think I had just lost my wallet.

  One day, they closed the recycling center near me. I didn’t have the money for my booze, I panicked. I didn’t want to live anymore, so I just lay down in the street and waited to die.”

  There were murmurs from the audience.

  It was cold, and I started to lose feeling in my body. I didn’t care, because I thought, “I’m going to Jesus now. It’ll all be over soon.”

  Murmurs of “Amen” from the audience.

  “But there must have been some hope left in my soul somewhere, because I started to repeat, “Lord, help me, help me.” Over and over. Just mumbling it out of frozen lips.

  “That was when I saw a face bending over me. I really thought it was the Lord, but it was just Father Moore, here.” David Dougal pointed to a man in the front row. “No offense, Father.”

  “Father helped me up and took me to the shelter again. But he sat with me through that night. And he kept coming back to see me and got me into a rehab. He helped me to get cleaned up and we went together to my first AA meeting. He found a sponsor for me who helped me keep on the straight and narrow path. The rest is history, friends. It was a lot of work but I’ve been sober 10 years now. My hope is that one day I’ll find my son again.”

  He sat down to scattered applause and another man got up to talk. Derek looked at the man beside him. The man said, “A lot of people have stories like this. That’s why we come here. To know that we can do it and we have friends who can help us. We can help you, too. If you want.”

  Derek looked back to the front and kept staring at the back of his father’s head as several more speakers got up. He barely heard what they said. Finally, the meeting was over. The attendees got up. Some left as though they had other places to go and others stood around the table in the back getting cups of coffee and pastries. Derek made his way towards his father, who was on the other side of the room. A young woman was in his path. She stuck out her hand and shook his. “Hello, my name is Ashley and I’m an alcoholic.” He answered, “Hello, Ashley. Pleased to meet you. I’m Derek and I’m not an alcoholic, just a visitor.” She smiled. “It’s OK. I guess you’re new here. Well, welcome, have a donut, and meet everybody.” He gave her a look of puzzlement and excused himself to go on. His father was talking to a middle-aged woman who looked as though she was a business executive who had come straight from work, holding her briefcase in one hand, and coffee in another. Derek hung around and finally, his father said goodbye to the woman and Derek had a chance to approach him. He hesitantly walked closer and made eye contact.

  The man reached out a hand and shook his. “Hello, welcome. I haven’t seen you here before.”

  “My name is Derek. Derek Dougall.”

  “Ha! Got a name the same as mine. I have a son with that name, actually.” Then recognition dawned in his eyes and Derek saw the shock spread over his face.

  “My God! You’re……Derek.”

  “Yes, you’re right, I’m that Derek. Your son.”

  David Dougall stood there, not speaking. Then he found his voice. “Derek. You’re a man now. I thought I’d never see you again. How’s your Mom?”

  Derek swallowed. “You don’t know? She died a couple of years ago.”

  David’s eyes widened and filled with sadness. He swallowed and clenched his fists, then sighed. “I wish I could have made amends to her, and you, too, but I didn’t know where you were. Well, I guess this is very strange to you. I know it is to me. I’ve dreamed of this day for so long but I never thought it would happen.”

  Derek said, “I have my own life now. I just wanted to find out what happened to you. So where the Hell were you? That’s all I came to say.” He turned and started to walk away.

  David Dougall came after him. “Derek, please. Give me just a few minutes. Why did you come here?

  Derek swung around, anger twisting his expression and making him look ugly and dangerous. He took a deep breath. “The only reason I came here is because a girl talked me into it.”

  David Dougall smiled for the first time. It was a nice smile. “I’m glad she did. Maybe she was an angel in disguise.”

  The novel thought of Colleen as an angel almost made Derek laugh. David noticed the easing of his expression and quietly said,

  “I won’t keep you long. I know I don’t deserve any of your time but I’m asking for it. Would you like to get out of here and get a bite to eat somewhere?”

  Derek was still for several seconds, conflicting emotions running through his mind. He’d like to have more to say to Colleen when he came back, about what a bum his father was. Let him go on and tell him the whole dumb, sad story he was going to make up? What a joke.

  Finally, he shrugged and agreed and they walked to a nearby restaurant that advertised burgers and pizza. David ordered a pizza and Cokes. As they ate, he told Derek that he worked at a non-profit agency, which needed his financial skills. He went to AA meetings once a week or whenever he felt he needed one.

  “Father Moore helped me so much, getting this job, finding my sponsor, anything I needed”. He looked at Derek. “You know, just to let you know, sometimes alcoholism is inherited or runs in families. Have you had any problems with drinking?”

  Derek said, defensively, “This ain’t about me. I have a life, not like you. I’m nothing like you. I like a drink, but I can handle it. Just don’t get on my case. You may be my father, but I haven’t seen you in years, so don’t try to be a Dad now.”

  David smiled sadly. “No, I gave away that right when I took a drink. I’d just like to be your friend.”

  Derek’s expression was still grim. “A friend? I’m not sure friend would be the word. And don’t try to give me a sad story. For years, I hated you because you dumped my Mom. She never talked about it. So just what did you do to her? What can you ever say to justify it?”

  David said, “You’ll never know how much I regret it. I really loved her..and you, too. We had a wonderful life. For a while, until I bought into the idea that I could drink as much and when I wanted. So I did and that’s when my life began to unravel. I went downhill fast but I didn’t even realize it was falling apart until your Mom left. That could have made me go sober but instead I started drinking like a crazy man. And it wasn’t long until I was acknowledging the fact I was a drunk. A drunk who just kept on drinking. You heard the end of it tonight. I was lucky that I asked for help. That finally saved my life. But let’s not rehash the past. It’s over with. I’d like to make it up to you in any way I can.”

  “Well, as I said, I’m a grown man now. My Mom and I had our life together until she died. She didn’t talk about the past much. So there’s not much I know about it either. One thing you can do is tell me what you know about Mom’s father, my Grandfather.”

  David looked surprised, then thoughtful. “Actually not a lot. Do you know that her mother died fairly young?” Derek nodded. “When we were married her father didn’t come to the ceremony. He had married again by that time and your mother had left the household. Ran away, she said. Your mother wasn’t on good terms with her father. I think it was her stepmother she didn’t get along with. Poor girl, both her father and her husband rejecting her.” He looked sad. “At least that’s what she thought. I was fighting my demons, which didn’t leave any room for her.” He looked at Derek. “She was very talented musically. Do you take after her?”

  Derek nodded. “It’s my career now. I’ll be looking for jobs in Boston but I’m staying down at the Cape.”

  David got out money for the bill. “I’d really like to talk some more to you, but I need to leave right now. I volunteer at a soup kitchen that the church runs. Here’s my cell phone number. Please give me a call when you have time.”

  “OK. I’d like to know if you can find out anything more about my grandfather. I’ll tell you why next time.”

  David looked hopeful. “Next time. I like the sound of that.”

  Derek went out into the Boston night and paused under a street lamp
. He pulled out his address book and looked up Klara’s number.

  CHAPTER 29

  Cassie came home from work and dropped on the couch. Her roommate said, “You look peaked. Are you eating right?”

  “I can’t remember if I had lunch or not, so maybe I’m not eating at all!” Cassie gave a weak laugh.

  “How about the library classes? Are you working on them tonight, or do you want to go to a movie?”

  “I’ll probably do some work. I still need to find out if we’re getting reimbursed for these classes.”

  Cassie lifted the phone and dialed Lee. Lee sounded rushed. “You always call me when I’m running out the door,” she said, irritation showing in her voice. “I’ve got to get to work.”

  “Well, we have opposite schedules, that’s probably why,” Cassie said.

  “So, are you just calling to say hello, or do you have a point to make?”

  “Whoo hoo, you’re not in a good mood tonight.”

  “Sorry, it’s been a lot of stress. And the holidays are a busy time at the restaurant. They keep asking me to work extra shifts. I can’t do that and go to school. Say, did you ever find out what is going to happen with our classes? Will grandfather’s estate pay for them?”

  Cassie said, “That’s why I’m calling. I had an idea. The weekend is coming up. Why don’t we get together and just drive up to Boston and see this lawyer?”