Читать книгу Unfinished Business - C. A. Walters Walters - Страница 9

Robert woke up at the ringing of his alarm clock, and reached out to shut it off. Just then, his bedroom door flew open, and 20 pounds of flying three-year-old landed squarely on his chest.

“Daddy!! Daddy g’up now, beffus is weady, Mommy say tum eat!” Little Robbie junior loved to wake his daddy up, and of course, his mom got a laugh out of it, so she sent him in to do the dirty deed.

“Okay, squirt, daddy’s coming” said Robert as he rolled out of the bed, holding his son to his chest with one arm. “Let’s race to the kitchen” he said, as he put his son back on the floor. “One, Two…three!” Robbie junior took off just as fast as his little feet could carry him, and his dad stayed just a little behind him.

“Beat me again! said Robert as they rounded the corner into the kitchen. Robert’s wife Dawn looked on happily as her two favorite “men” played together. It was great to see how much her husband loved his little son, and Robert doted on Junior.

“So, what great adventures do you have planned for today, dear?” she asked as she put plates of hot waffles smothered in strawberries and whipped cream in front of each of them.

“I have a meeting with the board about the upcoming events, you know, Mother’s day, Father’s day, Memorial day, and let’s not forget the fourth of July.

Our birthday initiative seems to be really taking off, and the genius who came up with the idea of getting the school kids to write to a “Foster Grandparent” deserves a special place in heaven. The looks on the faces of the patients when they get letters from their special little friends makes it all worthwhile.

Dawn said, “How about getting some of the veterans in the nursing homes to write to some of the guys who are overseas now, kind of like the way the kids adopted them. I’m sure the special bond you veterans have with one another will extend to them too.”

“That’s brilliant! Robert said, as he took out his PDA and jotted a note. “I’ll bring it up to the board this morning, I bet they’ll love it.”

“And, I know just what to call it!”

“What’s that, sweetheart?” she replied.

“The “Dawn” patrol initiative! He exclaimed excitedly.

Dawn walked around the kitchen table, and put her arms around her husband’s neck, as she gently kissed him. He still knew how to make her feel like a giggling schoolgirl, even after eight years of marriage.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea honey, and I’ll help by “blogging” about it as soon as you say the board agrees.”

He remembered back to when they met. He had just gotten out of the Navy. During his two tours in the service, he had obtained a multitude of college credits, and decided to go to school to finish his degree in business administration. Surprisingly enough, he was accepted into a leading university, and made arrangements to attend. The school had a very prestigious music program, and Robert decided to go check it out. He could never play well enough for their program, but he still had a love of classical music. Robert would sit in the back of the practice hall, and just listed to the beautiful music. Then one day a vision walked into the room. Five feet five inches tall, long flowing blonde hair, she looked like an angel holding a violin case. This young woman had started a couple of weeks late for some reason, and had to audition for the group. When she opened her case, rosined her bow, and tuned up, Rob moved a few rows closer, so he could get a better look. Then she tenderly placed her bow on the strings, and the opening strains of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.3 came floating across the room. Robert was transported, not only did she look like an angel, but it seemed as if a goddess of music had entered the room, and taken over. Everyone went silent, enraptured by the beautiful sounds coming from the strings of her violin. When the last note had died away, the whole place erupted in thunderous applause. Wiping a tear from his eye, the conductor waited until the applause ended, then, instead of giving her a critique as he would normally do, simply bowed deeply to her, and motioned to the place of honor, first chair.

“Earth to Rob, Earth to Rob” Dawn said. “Where were you for the last couple of minutes?”

“I was listening to the most beautiful woman in the world playing her violin. Sorry, that always takes me so close to heaven that it takes a while to come back to earth.” He said.

“Well, whoever that hussy is, you better tell her to back off my man!” Dawn laughed. Knowing he had the support of this wonderful woman made Robbie wonder what he had ever done to deserve her. But then again, some things we don’t deserve, they just happen. So he finished his coffee, kissed Dawn, kissed his son (he was still young enough not to complain!), and made his way out to the driveway.

Glancing at the gauges as he was taught so many years ago, he noticed that he was down to a quarter tank of gas. “I guess it’s time for a tune-up, this thing seems to be using a little too much gas lately.”

Something was niggling at the back of his mind, but it wouldn’t quite gel. “Oh well, I guess it’s just the stress of the job” he thought to himself.

Robert drove into the city, to the corporate offices of Silver Threads, Inc. Parking in the garage, he made his way to the main offices.

“Good morning, Mr. Lacombe” the receptionist, Lucy said. There are messages for you on your desk, the Mayor called, and would like to speak to you at your convenience, and the board meeting is set for 9:00.

“Thanks, Lucy, you’re the best” said Robert, as he opened the door to his office. As the President, he had many responsibilities, and having an efficient secretary like Lucy was a godsend.

Sitting down at his desk, he started reviewing his mail. Mostly routine, nothing of any real import. Reading the message from the mayor, Robert decided to call right away; after all, a good relationship with the Politicos is very important, even to a non-profit corporation like his.

The mayor’s secretary said he was in a meeting, but would call back after he was done. Robert told her that would be fine, to call his cell phone, and he would answer right away.

The abuse hotline that they had established was beginning to bear fruit, people who were generally afraid to talk to the police would call in and report abuse of their elderly relative in the various nursing homes and A.C.L.F.’s (Assisted Care Living Facilities) in around a one hundred mile radius.

Most cases only required speaking to the administration of the facility, and the problem would be solved. Sometimes, the police would have to be involved, and Robert was on a first name basis with some of the upper echelon of the Boston P.D. because of it.

Today was quiet on that front, the only news his search engine picked up on was the murder of the orderly the night before. Their computer had correlated the name of the orderly with a complaint that had once been filed against him, but there was nothing there the corporation would be interested in.

Robert downloaded the note about the Veteran’s initiative Dawn had come up with into his computer, and began fleshing out the idea a little. He had a few minutes before he had to go to the boardroom, or the “boring” room, as he like to call it.

Getting the V.F.W. involved, along with the Legion, the Eagles, and any other fraternal organizations he or his team could think of could really help get the ball rolling. Once he had his ideas straight, he copied them into his laptop, and left to go to the meeting.

Entering the room, he saw around half of the people he expected were already there, early birds like himself. The old military “Hurry up and wait” was still ingrained in him from his time in the Seals, and some of the people he worked with in the coalition apparently had adopted it, too.

Finally, they were all together, and the meeting began. Budgets, expenditures, blah, blah, blah. The new proposal for the veteran initiative was well received, and a group was assigned to pursue it.

The abuse hot line they had established was discussed, and it was agreed that it was doing some good, as many people who wouldn’t talk to the police were willing to call the anonymous tip line.

Fortunately, due to the nature of the hot line, the organization was eligible for some Federal matching funds for the project, and the telephone company had graciously donated some phone lines

After the meeting, Robert told his secretary he was stepping out for lunch, and would be available after 2:00 in the afternoon. He felt what he figured would be a whopper of a headache coming on, and since the most important work of the day was already done, he didn’t feel bad about leaving for a while.

Robert went home for lunch, then lay down to take a nap for a short while. When he woke up, he looked at the clock, and it said 1:45. He had to scramble to go back to the office for the rest of the day.

“Where the heck did the time go?” he wondered. He knew he had gone home at 10:00 in the morning, and felt like he had only slept a few minutes.

“I guess I’m just getting older” he thought as he drove back to work. It bothered him that he seemed to be losing time lately, not every day, but still, too much time was unaccounted for in his life.

When he arrived back at the office, Lucy informed him that the mayor had tried to reach him on his cell, but only got the voice mail. Robert checked his phone, and found it was turned off. He couldn’t remember doing that; he always left it on when he wasn’t home.

“Man, I’m getting forgetful lately. Maybe I need some vitamins or something” he thought. Again, it seemed that time was just slipping away from him. The stress was getting to be a load, though nothing he felt he couldn’t handle. Maybe just a good strong drink would help him ease the tension a little, like it did when he was a young buck in the service.