A Little Common Sense

Chapter 4
Part 4

I pulled into Bobby’s driveway, turned off the car, and sat brushing my hair in the rear view mirror. I watched another car pull up and park on the street a couple of houses down. I shook my head, and waited, but no one got out of the car. In the mirror, I could swear it looked like Geoff’s Lexus.

"Grandpa, Grandpa," Marie Henderson, and my youngest granddaughter squealed, delighted as she opened the door for me. For a second, I wished I could play with her as a kid, but I didn’t have time.

"What happened, Grandpa? You were a little kid, like me?"

"Leave your Grandfather alone, sweetheart," Bobby said pulling the girl from the door.

"But Daddy...." She said.

"I really was, sweetheart," I said with a wink and held a finger to my lips. "It’s okay.

Marie flashed me a grin, then ran inside. Bobby shook his head. "Kids."

"Ready to go?"

"Sure, but is this really necessary? I could go over to your house and save you the time and effort."

"True, but Geoffrey is watching the house. You wouldn’t believe the amount of video and tape recording equipment he had installed in the house today. I had it all removed, but until I have my people check it again, I don’t think the house is that safe."

"Dad, this is gone far enough. Feeling a little paranoid, are we?"

I laughed, and shook my head. "I wish. He followed me over here." I nodded my head back toward Geoff’s car. "Your car, mine could be bugged, too." I grabbed my briefcase, and walked over to his beast.

"I see." Bobby started up his car, an oversized Town and Country Van, and backed down the driveway. He stopped next to Geoff’s car, and looked. There was no one in the seat. He frowned, then hopped out of the car, pulled the driver’s door open, and grabbed the keys. I heard Geoff’s voice yelling from inside the car as Bobby stood up and waved the keys around.

"What are you doing?" Geoff demanded.

"Going out to dinner with Dad, and you are not invited. We intend to bar hop and stop at several brothels after dinner, and after that, we will skinny dip in Miller’s Pond. Do you want any more of our itinerary?"

"Very funny," Geoff said.

"I could have sworn that it was Dad that was getting paranoid about you. I was wrong. Look, sonny boy, you will have to face the fact that Mom and Dad had three children, and that Dad has a separate relationship with each of us. It’s none of your goddamn business where we are going, and what we are going to talk about, so butt out." With that, he threw the keys down the street.

Bobby hopped into the car, and let me shake his hand as he pealed down the road leaving Geoffrey to look for his keys.

After dinner, in a little place neither one of us had ever tried before, I directed Bobby to a small motel, a bit upscale, and I took a room for the night. Bobby was set to drop me off and pick me up in the morning, but I insisted that he come up to the room.

Once inside, I told him to wait while I went into the bathroom, undressed and put on a bathrobe. I walked back out into the room.

"Nice, robe, Dad, but is there anything else? I do need to get home."

"I know, but you have to see this. And I don’t mean a strip tease, either. I made sure the blinds and curtains were drawn tight, and that there was no one outside watching. I turned back to my son, right as the cell phone rang.

"It’s Geoff, you want to hear this?" he said, and turned on the speaker. "Hello?"

"Bobby, where in hell are you. I’ve been looking all over town for you."

"It’s none of your business. I told you, Dad and I went out to dinner, we had a lot of things to discuss and now we’re in a sleazy motel with a couple of hot babes. What do you want?"

"Do you know what he’s done now?"

"Dad?" Bobby asked with a loud sigh. "No, but I’m sure you are about to tell me in great detail. What is it?" I had to remember that tone of sarcasm in my son’s voice.

"He’s taken in some sort of street kid, he’s buying clothes for the kid, food, he could be in danger."

"How old is the kid?" Bobby asked.

"Ten, maybe eleven. Dad asked the kid to bring me a soda when I was trying to watch the house."

"That doesn’t sound too threatening, and I don’t see what you are going on about."

"Dad put that basketball hoop up for the kid.."

"Oh, my God, you mean that kid might actually shoot hoops in our driveway like we did when we were kids? This has to be end the world. Or maybe the other kids on the street would use it, too? We’re facing ruination, I tell you."

"This kid could steal him blind," Geoff insisted.

"The last time I looked Dad had his Faberge Eggs under lock and key, and he keeps the British Crown Jewels in the family vault in London, so what’s your point? Dad rarely keeps cash at the house, and even if the kid took it all what would he get? Ten dollars? One hundred? I don’t think Dad would mind that much.

"Geoff, you know, if Dad bought a huge mansion, and turned it into a home for a hundred street kids, sent them all to the best private schools and colleges, and had their meals served to them by a five star restaurant for the rest of their lives, it wouldn’t touch his money that much."

"Bobby, it’s the principle of the thing. He’s letting some kid into his life that could hurt him. He needs to be stopped for his own protection."

"Oh, God, are you still on that kick. Geoff, the only thing that is driving him nutso is you. He’s not senile, and there is no way in hell that either Dad, or Carolyn or myself, will ever let you get enough control of our company to sell us down the river. It’s bad enough that you’ve tried."

"You don’t understand," Geoff grumbled.

"You think I don’t? Try this, you gambled away your soul, again, and you are in so much debt to the mob that you will never get out of it. If you don’t come up with an obscene amount of money, some bruiser is going to either break every bone in your body or kill you outright. Something like that? You’re too scared to tell Dad, that you broke your word to him - again, and that you have to be pulled out of this mess - again. Even worse, not only did you throw away your own future, you are trying your damnedest to throw away ours too. How much was Merganser and Stork going to give you for our company?’

"Five hundred million," Geoff said, quietly.

"That’s less that one tenth of what it’s worth, and the loss in income would be worse still. Do you have any idea of how much we earn in the course of a year? No, you wouldn’t. Do you know what the term patsy means?

"Look, big brother, as far as I am concerned the mob can do whatever they want to you. I might send flowers to your funeral, but that would be stretching it."

"Is Dad there?"

"Yes, I am. Is there something you want to tell me?"

"I - Okay, I know what I promised the last time you bailed me out, and I don’t believe this happened again. I...."

"You’re addicted to gambling, you know that, so do I. The whole town knows it, and yet you still think that somehow, somehow you can go to any gambling joint in town, and you won’t be taken for a patsy. You are a patsy, Geoff. You don’t have the brains to be a gambler, or much of anything else, either, but you love the feeling of being a big shot, spending money as if it’s going out of style, and losing all of it. You think those games aren’t rigged?

"I know, but I can’t help it."

"Okay, you know Phil Rieger?"

"Yes, I do. He’s the one that is going to kill me if I don’t pay him back."

"Already done. He called me months ago to make sure you were good for the losses, and I gave him a limit. You reached it, he kicked you out of the club, and I paid that man every penny that you lost."

"You never told me," Geoff said unable to hide the relief in his voice.

"You never asked me. But you did go on to show your entire family what sort of man you are. Do you know what the term ’enabler’ means? You think that right now you are off the hook again, and in a week or two you can find another gambling joint and start up again. Wrong. I will not enable you to gamble away millions of dollars again. "Meet me, tomorrow afternoon, at the office and we will go over the details.

"But what about that kid?"

"He gets keys if he wants them. I trust him, not you. And if I chose to give one kid a hand or a million kids a hand, it’s my business, not yours."

"I guess I deserve that." Geoff hung up the phone.

"So who is this kid of yours," Bobby asked. "If you want kids, you can have mine, Grandpa."

"You would never believe me in a million years, but this is what I brought you here about. Watch." I felt the bathrobe grow around me as I looked up at my son. I changed back. "Do you need to see that again?’

Bobby opened his mouth, but nothing came out. "You were a kid," he blurted out. "I saw that. I couldn’t have seen that. Do that again."

At his request, I changed again, then gave my son a wide grin. "Well? What do you think?"

"That is impossible. That’s the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I don’t believe it, and I saw you do it. What’s going on?"

I shrugged my shoulders and practiced rolling my eyes. "Magic."

"Dad.... Kevin.... What should I call you?"

"Kevin works for me."

"Okay, Buddy. What’s going on and I don’t mean magic."

I shrugged again. "What else would you call this? I have no idea how or why I can do this. All I know is that I can do it. So far, it’s been a blast. I spent the afternoon shooting hoops with the neighborhood kids, but Geoffrey had to spoil it when he sent a cop over to my house. I have enough clothes for me, now, and a sort of story to explain things to the rest of the world. I mean, an eleven-year-old boy can’t just appear without some sort of records.

"No, but.... Can you show me how to do that?"

"I don’t know. Hang on, Uncle Bobby."

He grimaced, but didn’t say anything. I closed my eyes and pictured my son as he was at eleven, I had a picture in the living room which helped. I concentrated harder until I heard a boy’s voice.

"Dad, that’s enough. I don’t want to go back anymore."

I opened my eyes to find me face to face with Bobby at eleven. He was swimming in his clothes, but he had such a gleam in his eyes I had to laugh. "Well?"

He shrugged out of his clothes, and walked over to the mirror by the sink. I watched him pinch his arm a couple of times. He stared at himself in the mirror for a while. "This is incredible. I’m a kid again. I could.... Get a PSP machine. I could...." I could almost hear his thoughts going a million miles a minute.

"Think about turning back into yourself. You do have a wife and kids to think about, too."

Bobby practiced changing back and forth for a moment. "It works. Okay, Kev, it’s magic. What can we do?"

"It’s a little late tonight, you can go home and pick me up in the morning. I will pick up my car and go home for security and go into the office to meet Geoff, in the afternoon. You know, Beav, I did this to begin with to drive Wally crazy. But...."

"You want to be a kid again, full time?"

I nodded, then shook my head. "I don’t know. I don’t have any commitments except to the company, but then again, I haven’t taken a good vacation in years. Can you see me, as a kid, at Disney World or Hollywood?"

"Not without me. Then again, we would have to take turn being the grownup."

"No, we hire someone to take us. Then, when school lets out, you would have to take Mary and the kids on a long vacation, too, or would she understand this?"

"I - I don’t know."

"This afternoon or tomorrow, would you buy me a bike? I really need one. I’ll pay for it, then I can take you to the shop and buy one for you. You can keep your stuff at my house, and...."

He started giggling, and I did, too. "We do sound like kids, don’t we?" he commented. We both started laughing our heads off.

"And what’s wrong with that?"

He broke out laughing again, and I threw a pillow at him. He looked at me with an odd expression on his face, then threw the pillow back. The pillow fight lasted for ten minutes, until he called it off.

"That was great. Haven’t had so much fun in years. Oh, man, I need clothes, shoes, everything."

"Like the bikes. I will take you shopping anytime you want, Bobby. Then you do the same for me."

"Deal."

I must have tossed and turned a storm that night. I dreamt, over and over that I was standing in a cemetery, watching a burial. Tears ran freely down my cheeks, but I felt numb inside, not believing that I was saying good bye to my parents. A tall man stood behind me, with his hands on my shoulders. I knew him, he was a friend of Dad’s. But it didn’t make me feel any better. I wanted someone to hold me, and hug me and tell me that everything was a bad dream - that I would wake up in my own bed with Mom making breakfast before school.

"There is a couple coming over to the house this afternoon," the man said. "They will be your foster family until the judge decides something permanent."

I didn’t say anything. I was to dead to the world to care.

The scene shifted. I was in a room with the people that said they were my foster parents. I must have just walked in because they were strangling another kid, a boy about my age. I screamed, and saw the boy, Steve, go limp. The man turned toward me and pulled out a gun. I screamed and backed away, only to wake up to the sound of the gunshot.

I felt the sheets soaked to the point of dripping with sweat, and maybe something else. I was a kid again. Tommy, I thought. I had to call Tommy Jones and tell him I was okay. I wondered for a second who Tommy Jones was, but I saw him in my memories, a lanky boy, redheaded and freckled, with an easy grin. He was the coolest kid in the fifth grade and my best friend since we were born.

That was crazy, I thought pulling back to me. I wasn’t in the fifth grade.... Someone pounded on my door.

I changed back to my old self, and pulled on my bathrobe. I got up, and peered through the peep hole. How the hell did he find me? I wondered as I saw Geoffrey waiting outside. It was Two-thirty in the morning.

Pulling my bathrobe tighter around my middle, I opened the door, and stepped aside. "This had better be good."

"Pop, you have a house of your own. You don’t need to sleep in a motel, or did you get lost?" He walked into the room, and tossed his suit coat on the bed. I saw the glance he gave it.

"I won’t dignify that with an answer."

"Okay, where is he?"

"Bobby went home hours ago. It’s the middle of the night, why aren’t you home in bed with the wife?" I asked, stifling a yawn.

"I meant the kid."

"What kid?" I asked again, with a frown. "Kevin doesn’t stay with me. I feed him when he wants food, and he knows he can come over to the house anytime he wants clothes or a shower, but he isn’t willing to stay the night. I would love it if he did, but he doesn’t trust me that much, yet."

"You want to have this kid sleep with you?"

I walked right up to him, grabbed a fistful of shirt, and half pulled him off his feet. "If you ever say or imply anything like that again - I don’t know what I will do." With my free hand, I ripped open his shirt, then yanked the microphone complete with tape, off his chest. Without wasting a beat, I turned him around and ripped the transmitter off his back. He screamed as three tons of hair came with it.

"How females can put up with waxing their legs I will never know," I commented as I ripped the machinery apart. I opened the door, and tossed it over the balcony to the parking lot, below. I grabbed the suit coat, pulled the tape recorder from the inside pocket and tossed that and the coat out the door, too.

"Pop," he said, running to the balcony. "Do you have any idea how much that stuff cost?"

"Do you have any idea what this little stunt is costing you?" I replied as he walked back into the room. "Geoffrey, you are my first child, my first son, and I will always love you, but that doesn’t mean I have to like you or even respect you. Neither one of those options apply right now."

"What do you mean?"

I cleared my throat. "You can’t be that stupid. I had Bobby drop me off at this motel because I wanted to get one night in without you. I am getting so sick and tired of having you call me, and turning up at my house every time I turn around."

"I’m worried about you," he said, with a blush on his face.

"I don’t need that line of BS at this hour in the morning. Why did you come here wired for sound?"

"I was trying to get information I could use to get rid of that kid," he said, again with a blush.

"Bull shit," I said. "You can’t lie to me, Geoff." I concentrated and applied a little mental pressure on him to tell the truth.

"I have a deal with Merganser and Stork to sell the Henderson Family Trust for five billion dollars as soon as I get control."

"And how do you think you will get control?" I asked pleasantly.

"As soon as I can get you to step down, and at this point I don’t care how I do it, I will take control of the company. I am the oldest son, after all."

"Yes, you are. You realize that I have long ago filed all the papers necessary to prevent that. My lawyers, and Bobby’s lawyers have the papers giving complete control of the company to Bob and Carolyn should anything happen to me, or on my retirement. As of now, you can no longer expect an income from the Family Trust, and I will not rewrite you back into my will. Is that clear?"

"What am I going to do about money?" he demanded, and for the first time I think he actually realized what situation he was in.

"I don’t care. Your children have college funds, that will not change but you will not be able to touch them. Karen will get a household allowance every week, but I expect you will have to sell the house, get an apartment and get a job. I’ve told you this, before, I will tell it to you again, you need to do something with your life, but if you ever set foot on my property again, without permission from me, I will press charges. Is that clear? Tell Fred Merganser I said ’hello’, and believe me, Bobby will be only to glad to get copies of the paperwork to show you."

"You can’t be serious about this. Pop, I’m your son."

"Biologically, yes, legally and morally, no. Does the word disinherit mean anything to you? Geoff, I have told you your entire life that you do not have the brains or the talent to be a gambler, but you have never believed me. I told you that would do everything in my power to protect my company and the interests of my family, and yet you gambled away your entire inheritance because you were too stupid to listen. Do you really think I would let you give your siblings the shaft with my money?"

"They would have received some."

"Bull shit. I told you that you can’t lie. Now. You are history as far as my family is concerned. I will never give you another penny for anything, do you hear me? Get out of this room, and let me get back to sleep, or do I have to call the cops now? I do not want to see you again, until I call you."

He shut up, turned and left the room. I closed and locked the door.

 

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