Читать книгу A Thin Place - Jack Peterson - Страница 7

June 6th, 1898

Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana

It was late afternoon when Josiah Lilly decided it was time to begin the two-mile walk home. His father’s funeral had been over for hours but he had remained behind. Being alone in front of the family mausoleum brought him a welcomed calm because private time had been non-existent since his father’s death. It was familiar territory. He and his father had rarely spent time alone and now he deeply regretted that it was too late to recapture lost opportunities. As he walked, putting his past and future into perspective became more difficult with each step. Twenty years earlier, his father borrowed a thousand dollars and used his training as a pharmacist to open a small drug manufacturing company. That same company now claimed over 2000 prescription formulas and generated annual sales that dwarfed their largest competitor. For Josiah, the fact that the company’s successes had made the family very wealthy was nothing more than a perk, a simple byproduct of his father’s many successes.

A former Civil War officer, his father was affectionately known as Colonel to most, including close friends and family. The Colonel preferred it that way, but Josiah was keenly aware his father’s penchant for secrecy did not stop with his given name. The Colonel had many other secrets, including countless unwritten business agreements arranged behind closed doors with nothing more than a handshake. The Colonel had left him little to work with. Worse yet, he feared he would never know whom to trust. At the age of thirty-seven, he would honor his father, do as the Colonel had asked and carry the torch through to the next family generation. No matter the load, he would lead. For others, it seemed a normal and easy transition, but Josiah knew differently. The meeting he and his father always planned to have never happened. Now, it was too late. He was about to cross an ocean of uncertainty without a map.

When Josiah eventually arrived home, he paused a moment on the porch landing and turned around just in time to see the final rays of the sun settling below the horizon. Tomorrow would be a new day, a new beginning. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and walked inside. There was trouble ahead. He could feel it.