Stealing Flowers (13 page)

While the school work was tedious, I’d
learned that if I spent my entire Monday evening finishing my
weekly assignments, I’d much more free time for the rest of the
week.

Every morning at one o’clock, I continued to
crawl into bed with Sally. I’d grown pubic hair and my penis now
seemed nearly twice it was when I was adopted, proving that it pays
to play with it.

Sally hadn’t had her period yet, but we’d
decided as soon as she did, we would start cuddling more
intimately. I stole some condoms from a drug store just for that
purpose.

I also stole a gold ring and bracelet from
an expensive jewelers. Sally loved them and I told her she
shouldn’t wear them in front of our parents. I also now professed
my love openly for her.

Una and Mary took us to Saint Petersburg,
Florida, for a week on March break in 1970. We stayed in a
luxurious villa with its own private pool. I remember building a
huge sand-castle with Una and Sally on the beach, just the three of
us all alone in the sun. Though I was very content, it added to a
sense of the unreal which had affected every level of my being, all
the more so because of my run of successes.

Month after month, my life took on a
marvelous quality. I enjoyed the cottage better than the Magical
Kingdom. Not so many things got in the way. But really, I enjoyed
them both enormously.

About this time, Sally became sometimes
annoying to our friends and to Una. In grade five, she began
thinking that we should be allowed anything because we were
Tappets, and I must say in fairness to myself, it was Sally’s idea
from the beginning.

Often times, I didn’t fight this degenerate
tendency, as Una calls it, as much as I should have, even though I
knew it to be wrong. Often times, I’d find myself at odds with Una
because Sally wanted something which Una had refused her.

At one point, Una even took back our credit
cards.

“Don’t you see?” I complained to Sally one
day, “Una wins every time. Why do you keep on testing?”

“Una won’t be around forever.”

I’d eavesdropped on enough of Mary and Una’s
private conversations, to know this wasn’t true, and that Sally was
being petulant, and that Mary had one time recently said to Una,
“If that child of mine were to ever be spoilt, I’d never forgive
myself.”

“Everything’s in hand,” Una had replied, “as
long as we’re on the same page.”

I began to actively coach Sally on reducing
her testy behavior and watching carefully for her mood changes.
However, though I didn’t concede to material temptations because I
was a Tappet, I did yield to being treated differently outside the
mansion.

This turned out to be worse than any sin
committed by Sally.

On Sunday September 23, 1970, I turned ten
years old and Mary, Una, Sally, and Stan, escorted me to a
restaurant near the Empire State Building, The von Covvossan, where
I was surprised to see it was closed to the public for the night
and only available to Tappet employees and other invited
guests.

Stan sat at a table at the front with John
Admen who ran Factory Bright and Ken Roxton, the president of Modal
Oil. John had flown with Stan in the Korean Conflict, but Ken
wasn’t even a pilot, yet they were all war buddies. I wouldn’t find
out the story behind that until much later. They were with their
wives, but I didn’t see any of their kids. Una had spoken to me
many times about John and Ken. I knew she particularly held Ken in
high esteem, the one who had helped Lloyd.

Mary referred to the original founders, of
whom there were six, as Stanroids, Stan’s co-founders, war-buddies,
allies, and long-time friends. Often up in her office in the
mansion, she’d complained to Una about them. How they undermined
her authority or voted against her on this or that issue, unless
Stan intervened at her request. A number of times, she’d become
furious.

Una and she would talk at length about the
company and its many ins and outs which I couldn’t even begin to
understand. Mary would complain that this executive had too much
power, or that too much protection because Stan liked him. Most of
the time this part bored me and I left or tuned out. When supper
began, I sat beside Una. Sally was on the other side of her.

“Point out the six Stanroids to me tonight,”
I whispered conspiratorially.

She wiped her forehead off with a napkin and
her big brown eyes were delighted that I was interested. “What do
you know about the Tappets’ politics?” she asked, pretending to be
surprised. I shrugged and she gently rubbed my head. “I think you
spy at the door too much and know far more than you should,” she
added. “Do you see the big man at the table across from Stan’s?
He’s dressed in the black suit and sits beside the
blond-curly-haired woman? I nodded. “That’s Gordon Whitley. He runs
the mining companies, Tay Mines and Tappet Holdings. He made the
most money of the lot this last year.”

“Even more than Ken Roxton and John Admen?”
I asked surprised. She nodded. “Even more than Mom and Dad?” I
asked further surprised.

She nodded again. “The man beside Gordon is
Graham Roberts, the president of Constant Batteries. When I first
met him in 1960, he was a slim handsome man. Success has gone to
his stomach.” She giggled. “However,” she quickly added, “not like
with Una in a nice way, but in a rather swollen way.”

What she said was absolutely true. When you
saw Una, you didn’t think uncomfortable, you thought, smooth-skin
and happiness, but when you saw Graham, you thought bloated. His
clothes were to the point of bursting. I laughed and squeezed her
hand. I instantly disliked the man. In my terms of how I’d learned
to judge men from the streets of Jersey City with lightning speed,
his face, especially his eyes, were mean and untrustworthy. How
true this assessment would turn out to be.

“The one beside her, is that his wife?” I
asked.

“No, that’s Cheryl Garland, the president of
Nexus. She’s one of Mary’s allies inside Tappets. Last year her
husband and two children were killed in a car accident. Mary has
spent a lot of time with her lately, but there’s only so much you
can do. She’s still working though and I think it’s getting better
for her. The financial-comptroller of Tappets is Jack Denison,
sitting on the other side of her with the grey thinning hair. The
one dressed in the blue suit and the old-fashioned bow-tie. He’s
also the International Spokesperson for Tappet’s interest
worldwide. He is referred to as a Stanroid as well, although he
doesn’t run any of the divisions.”

“Who is the sixth one?”

“Hiroyuki Nakamura, the President of Poss
Fast-Discs. He’s the man sitting beside Mary right now.”

The tall and debonair Asian man with hard
features looked over at me as though he knew we were discussing
him. It was spooky, but his hard features were softened by his kind
eyes and he sent a warm smile in our direction.

“He looks very rich.”

“He should for what Tappets pay him.”

“How much is that?”

She grunted. “You’ll get your nose clipped.”
Una always said that if I became too curious, especially about
things I was too young to understand. “He’s also Senior Vice
President of Tappet Electronics,” she added. “Mary admires him more
than any of the other Stanroids, and he often votes with her
against your father. His power inside of Tappet Industries has
become as great as anyone’s.”

“Was he one of the men at the hospital the
first time I saw you?”

“Those two men were John Admen’s people from
Japan who were meeting with Mary that day.”

“How is it that Mr. Nakamura is a war
buddy?”

“He’s not. But they did meet during the
Korean conflict.”

I didn’t see how he could be a Stanroid if
he wasn’t a war-buddy. This was another thing that bugged me about
life. Nothing was obvious, even the simplest things were
complicated. What could be more simple than six war-time buddies
becoming co-founders of Tappets and being referred to as Stanroids.
But no. There had to be an exception. “Why would Mom and Dad be
voting against each other?”

“Good question, my full-grown child.” For a
few minutes, our conversation was interrupted because dinner was
served, but when Una had made sure Sally was well on the way to a
good meal, her attention returned to me.

“If you’re piloting a plane,” she whispered,
“the pilot and the captain are one and the same. You can’t have a
vote on how to take off or land or even how fast you should be
flying. You’re the captain, your authority must be unfettered. When
you are running a complex financial institution, such as Tappets,
there’s room for compromise and negotiations to keep the original
partners on board. Mary is a pay as you go girl, and doesn’t want
to finance things until they’ve proved themselves in the market
place, like appliances, metals, tools, and so forth. But, to her,
the team is the biggest asset of Tappets, and she’ll make
compromises to keep the original people on board. She greatly
admires loyalty. Stan likes to spend money on ideas, gadgets, and
inventions, but much of them will never make any money. He had real
problems with Thorp Tools when he was the Executive Operating
Officer and Mary replaced him and put him in charge of research.
So, by this compromise, they try to get the best of both
worlds.”

“Who has the final say?”

“Who do you think?”

“Mary.”

“Usually it is Mary, but she occasionally
loses, and when she does, look out.”

After I had finished my supper, I saw Lloyd
walking toward us and rose to meet him. His blond hair was even
longer than before, and it had softened his eyes further and made
him appear more gentle. I remember thinking though that maybe it
wasn’t his long hair alone. With the job he had at Tappets and his
improved living arrangements with Ken Roxton, perhaps the cruelness
in his eyes had been taken away a little. The only thing which
contradicted this judgment was that his body was as lean as ever,
as though he was caught in the middle of a long war and couldn’t
find enough food to eat.

“Happy Birthday,” he said and gave me a
quick hug.

We went out of the eye of the crowd, back
behind the tables. He passed me a small gift of which I guessed
immediately was a book and I unwrapped it. “The Last of the Wine,”
I said, “by Mary Renault.”

“You’ll like it. It’s about the Greek
philosophers and their friends and warriors during the hostilities
between Athens and Sparta in ancient time.”

“Thanks. How is it at the Roxton
family?”

“They bought me a mountain bike.”

“What kind is that?”

“One with thick tires for riding anywhere
you want even over curbs. Hi, Sally.”

Sally had stepped up behind me. “Hello,” she
said. “Christian doesn’t get the rest of his gifts until he gets
home.”

“Guess what I saw last night?” Lloyd asked.
I never understood why people ask questions that way. If you ever
guessed correctly they’d be disappointed. It’s stupid. We both
shrugged. “Saturday Night Fever,” he said. “Ken took Mike and me.
The dancing in it is so real. Have you ever been to a disco?”

I’d begun to collect Rolling Stone records
and I had decided that I should hate disco. I knew nothing about
it, but I had picked up my cues from Kurt. He had told me that
disco was for fairies and Europeans. I shook my head.

“I’d love to go,” Sally said, “but our
prison-keepers would never consent.”

“Prison-keepers? ” I said with a laugh.
“They give us everything we want.”

She half-frowned. “I was just joking.”

Everyone was asked to sit and Mary rose to
the podium at the front of the hall. She was flanked on two sides
by enormous arrangements of blooms and orchids of which I hadn’t
really taken note of before.

“Our annual fiscal year statement in mid
September,” she said, her voice loud and clear, “was our fifth
straight year in a row of significantly increased sales. We’ll be
having a party in Hoboken in early December to celebrate. Last week
Tappets published the MRP merit plan which every year around this
time is completed. All the winner’s were invited tonight and
bonuses will be handed out in the next few weeks by Mr. Nakamura’s
office under Mr. Denison’s direction.”

She paused and looked out over the
gathering. “Before we bring out the birthday cake and other
goodies, to salute Christian’s birthday, I want to comment on an
issue which took place in our new London England office this last
month with Spectrum Sound. You may have heard some rumors about it.
Some executives bought a prestigious castle to set up our offices.
I interdicted and made them relocate to a more modest place, but
that fiasco cost Tappets Industry plenty. We are is here to serve
the public and we don’t show our wage-earning might nor tolerate
open displays of wealth by any of the divisions. We’ve achieved
this success by a deliberate strategy of relying on the choice for
better value by consumers, not on advertisement and duplicity of
image over quality. All of our divisions are what they are: Trusted
products. They produce guaranteed goods and take a slight profit.
We don’t boast of our success, even though we could. Let’s make
sure this doesn’t happen again. You’ve great freedom inside the
Tappet structure to create and produce, but not to spend on
frivolous matters.”

For the first time, I saw that in public,
Mary was intense. Una had told me once that she was a visionary. I
didn’t know what that meant, but I was gaining some idea. Stan and
Una came to the front hall and Mary stepped down from the podium.
They sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and everyone joined in. Sally held my
hand and kissed me when they were done. I was very flush and nearly
choked up.

Afterward, we had cake, ice-cream and such.
It being a school night, we soon left for home. I knew Sally had
only been partly kidding before about Una, Mary, and Stan, being
our prison-keepers. Someone was putting these stupid ideas into her
head and I wanted to know who or what. She’d said it was a joke,
and oddly enough, it turned out to be funny and strange all at
once. The last thing I wanted to do was to go to a disco and I
found myself on the way home asking Mary, Stan, and Una, if Sally
and I could go.