I am not a violent man and I don’t actually remember hitting him, but I watched as Andrews flew backward knocking over several chairs before bouncing off of John Gordon and sliding to the floor. Blood was flowing out of his nose leaving a large red stain on Gordon’s shoes. Mr. Gordon was a corporate vice president and head of the Chicago office. It was rumored that he was first in line to become the next CEO. When Andrews tried to get up from the floor I kicked him in the ribs three times as hard as possible. After the third time he remained on the floor curled up into a ball. I spun around and walked past the other people in the room that were cowering wide-eyed in the corner and left.
Outside I walked away from the building. My hand was really starting to hurt so I stopped at a deli and bought a large cup of ice to stick it into. I kept walking until I came to a bench that overlooked Lake Michigan and just sat, staring out at nothing. In the space of three days my life had turned to complete shit. I was twenty-seven years old and had been betrayed by my lover, my marriage of four years was in ruins, I was out of a job and was probably going to be arrested for assault. I am normally a laid back type of person, but today I had turned in to some kind of homicidal maniac. As I sat there, words like love, betrayal, cheating, dishonesty, commitment, infidelity, deceit, unfaithful kept floating around, racing in and out of my thoughts. Eventually I noticed that it was getting dark so I returned to my hotel room.
At 9:30 that night I was wrapping my hand in a fresh batch ice when someone knocked on the door. I opened the door and was surprised to see John Gordon.
“Good evening Robert, you’re a hard person to find.”
I only stared at him in confusion.
“Do you mind if I come in? What I have to say may take a while.”
“Sure, why not.” I stepped back to let him in. “Look, Mr. Gordon, I won’t apologize for what happed this morning, but if you don’t mind there are a few personal items in my office… excuse me, my former office that I would like to get.”
“Ah yes, this morning. You certainly have an interesting way to start your Tuesdays.” I opened my mouth to speak when he raised his hand to stop me. “Please don’t interrupt me just yet. I need to say this and get on my way before my wife reports me as a missing person. First off I want to assure you that you are not fired. In fact, I am very grateful for what you did this morning. Derrick Andrews is a shithead and I’ve hated him from the moment he walked into our office. But he was sent by headquarters so my hands were tied.”
“After you left, Mrs. Lopez grabbed me and pulled me into your office and started yelling in Spanish. At first I didn’t understand much of what she was saying, but gist of it was ‘you have to fix this.’ I thought she was mad at you but she wasn’t, it was Andrews. She told me about the things he had done to you in the office over the last two years… and about your wife.” At that point he paused and looked around the room before continuing.
“By eleven o’clock this morning, Mrs. Lopez had seven women lined up outside my office telling me that they were going to file sexual harassment charges against Andrews and the company. I spent most of the afternoon on the phone with the legal department in New York. The upshot is that the women are not going to file a complaint against the company, but in return our legal depart will represent the ladies in court when they do file against Andrews personally.”
“I have done nothing today except try to put out the fires that you and Andrews started. I interviewed every single person in your unit and they all confirmed what Mrs. Lopez told me. You may not be aware of it but you are the most respected person in that building. Within twenty minutes after you left the entire unit was writing their letters of resignation. Andrews has completely destroyed the morale of that unit and most of the people only stayed out of loyalty to you. Fortunately the staff has agreed to hold their resignations until I get a chance to sort everything out.”
“You have several options to think about here. If you want to come back to the office, you will be coming back in Andrews’ position as manager. If that is too much for you right now, I know several CEOs around the country who will hire you at a moment’s notice on my recommendation… or here in Chicago if you want to work on your marriage.” Again he paused for a moment.
“There is a third option I would like you to consider. You are too valuable an employee for the company to lose. I understand that you’re originally from California. I can arrange for you to be transferred to our San Miguel office in California… at times like this it helps to be around family.”
The minute he said San Miguel I knew my answer. I opened my mouth but before I could speak he stopped me again.
“I don’t want an answer tonight, I want you to sleep on it, although it doesn’t look as though you’ve been doing very much of that the last couple of days.” He handed me a small card with a telephone number on it. “This is my private line, call me at 9 AM tomorrow.” With that he headed for the door. He opened it and turned around with small grin on his face. “Just so you know, the score was one broken nose and three cracked ribs. I made certain that assault charges will not be filed against you. Here’s the good news. When Andrews gets out of the hospital, he is going to explain to the district attorney how a man on his salary is able to pay cash for a Mercedes-Benz.” His grin got bigger and then he left.
The news about San Miguel was the only good thing I had heard in the last few days. I was born and raised in Santa Teresa, about one hours’ drive south of San Miguel. My mother and two brothers still lived there but that was not the good part. My best friend in the world lives in San Miguel. Colleen has always been the most important person in my life, from childhood and on to our “grown-up” lives. We share everything. I was the best man at her wedding and she was a bridesmaid at mine. There was nothing that we would not do for each other.
Colleen is also my sister.
There are four of us. Colleen is the oldest and three years older than me. In between are James and Michael, the twins. We all love each other but as children the natural paring was always Jimmy & Mikey against Colleen & Bobby in all the games we played. That same bond just continued as we grew up.
Colleen taught me how to tie my shoes and held my hand crossing the street. She sat behind me when we went down the giant slide and let me hide in her bed under the covers when the monsters in my closet were ready to come and get me.
When we were in high school, she watched out for me and kept me from doing anything stupid that would end up branding me as a hopeless dork for the next four years. Colleen gave me the best birthday present any fifteen-year boy could possibly imagine. She convinced her best friend on the cheerleading squad to take me to the Senior Class Christmas Ball as her date. I was the hero of every male in the freshmen class. Afterwards Cindy would wink and wave to me in the hallway and I became a living legend.
Colleen had married Bill after college and moved to San Miguel so he could open his business. They soon had two daughters and everything looked bright. Bill became an extension of Colleen for me and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him. But then Colleen’s world fell apart.
Bill was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer. After five months of agonizing pain, Bill died at home in Colleen’s arms. Two months later our father suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly. The strain was almost too much for Colleen but somehow she survived, became stronger and kept herself involved in her daughters. Even though we talked on the phone at least weekly, if not daily, I had not seen Colleen since Dad’s funeral two years ago. I was excited at the prospect of living in the same town with her.
Surprisingly, I did get some sleep and after a shower in the morning felt almost human again. That was the physical part. On the inside, I could feel my soul, my spirit, whatever you want to call it, starting to shrivel up and die. At 9 AM I called Gordon and told him my decision about San Miguel.
“Excellent choice Robert. There is a Starbucks around the corner from here on 53rd and Randolph. Meet me there in one hour.” And he hung up.
By the time I got there he was already sitting at a table with a box in front of him.
“I don’t have much time so here is the deal. Mrs. Lopez put all of your personal things in this box. Right now, Mrs. Lopez and I are the only people that know you are going to San Miguel and it will remain that way unless you tell someone personally.” He handed me a thick envelope that was sealed and stamped CONFIDENTIAL. “Harold Peterson is the head of the San Miguel office and is expecting you at 8 AM Monday morning, he loves punctuality. Give this to him when you get there.” He handed me a second envelope that was not sealed and I pulled out the contents. Inside was a first class airline ticket, one way to San Miguel. The other item was a piece of paper with the name and address of a law firm a few blocks away.