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At this point in our family, things were slowly getting better. We agreed to a peaceful coexistence, where as much as we could, each of us tried to be less intrusive in the other’s life. From time to time, I did my duty as a daughter and went out with Dad to show all his partners and acquaintances that we were doing fine.
In general, «peace and friendship and bubblegum.
Chapter 3
– Take it, it’s for you.
I handed Frank a box of cookies.
– Tommy. – He pronounced and placed it carefully on the table.
– These are pink cookies. I don’t know if you like them. My aunt brought them back from France yesterday. I don’t really like sweet things myself, maybe you’ll like them!
– Thank you! Are you going somewhere now?
– Yeah, for the fundraiser. I think I’ll be gone until9.
– Shall I call a cab for you?
– Oh, no, you don’t! I’m supposed to be picked up.
Frank looked at the computer monitor.
– Then, totally maybe it’s up to you!?
I leaned against the table and looked at the dark car Frank was pointing at.
– Most likely. Well, I guess I’ll be going, then. And don’t forget the cookies.
– You can rest assured, miss, I certainly won’t forget them.
Cousin Patricia, Aunt Jo’s oldest daughter, came to pick me up. In May, she was supposed to turn twenty305, but because of her short stature and childlike face, she wasn’t supposed to be more20 than that. Patricia, had reddish, naturally curly hair, a firm heel, and a tough temper. She was not one of the people I was intimately acquainted with. I knew as much about her as Mr. President knew about me.
Also, Patricia worked in my father’s company. For more than 12 years, she had been hunched over for him and was probably the only one in our family who never got into scandals. According to Aunt Jo, her eldest daughter, most like a man, because of her own business acumen and rigid ways of working. And it also bothered my aunt that her thirty-five-year-old daughter was still single.
I glanced sideways at my cousin, who was rapidly typing something on her phone as we drove to a fundraiser her mother was throwing.
In general, charity for me is like buying hot dogs for bucks50, but giving for them70. And to do it as if those bucks20 helped change the world. Seriously, that’s exactly how it looks. Until one day you step in someone else’s shit and realize that the good is good and the ugly is still there. And no matter how hard you try, you can never make the world the way you want it to be. So you get discouraged and lose enthusiasm, but you’ll still keep leaving bucks20, because your conscience is clear and you’re morally satisfied.
Now, I just brought with me, just the bucks20. And it’s not because I’m stingy for life. No, it’s not! The reason was more banal than you could ever imagine. It’s just, it was all I had. There were two days before payday, and if this event, say, for example, on Thursday, I would not be stingy, and would donate, his honestly earned three hundred bucks, for such a good cause.
In general, if you’ve ever been to this kind of event, then you may remember those old ladies, dressed in luxurious furs, who leisurely dash from one acquaintance to another. At first, you are struck by them, then you look closely, and somewhere in the third minute, you begin to recognize in this lady, one of your own relatives. Like, for example, I saw my Aunt Jo as soon as I entered the small room of the local art museum on the 3rd floor.
– Thank goodness! I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.
– Hello, auntie!
When she hugged me, I thought I could even taste the sweet taste of her perfume in my mouth.
– Your father, no way, is a great man! Now Arbiter Ramsey was able to come, even though he said he wouldn’t be here a few days ago. I wasn’t the least bit taken aback when I found out it was because your father was coming. I always knew that Henry, which, incidentally, is my father’s name, would be a great success in his business. But not like this! I couldn’t even dream of that. It’s a shame, of course, that Claire left us so soon. She was a saint.
Nothing disgusting was ever said about my mother. Everyone knew her as the beautiful, cheerful, and kind spouse of Mr. Henry Spikes. Which, evidently, cannot be said of me.
Almost every seat in the auction hall was taken. So I slowed my pace as I spotted an empty chair, in the right row, off the small improvised auction stage.
– Where are you running to, young lady?
Behind me was an old lady in a perfectly tailored peach-colored tweed suit with a thin string of pearls around her neck.
– Nowhere, madam. Please, come in!
Such prim girls, always trying to cut in line. Because, you see, they have been through a lot more than you have, and also, in the rules of good upbringing, it is considered bad form not to give way, a person older than you, a seat. Which, in principle, I – a young, well-mannered lady – had to do. Specifically, I had to let an old lady into the empty seat I was claiming.
In order to finally sit down, I now had to drag myself across the room, cursing my apologies as I passed other people who had already taken their seats. As I made my way to a free chair, I banged myself in pain. The nasty, throbbing pain in my knee reminded me of when, as a child, my mother had gently treated my scrapes and sores. I swiftly wiped away the tears, so no one would see them. I did not want to become another victim of gossip mongers, or simply inquisitive individuals who loved to discuss such displays of helplessness in their own small circle, with a glass of local French wine.
– Excuse me sir, may I…
Next to a vacant chair, sat a man, in a gray-blue three-piece suit, who was reading the newsletter of the current auction when I approached him.
– Yes, of course.
He had to get up from his own seat so I could get through.
– Thank you, sir. – The man nodded his head courteously in response to my reply, and began again to examine the lots on display for the day.
I, too, picked up the ballot as I sat down, and almost shrieked in surprise when I opened the last page.
«What the hell!» – I wanted to say when I found out in the last lot, my mother’s beloved brooch my father had given her, in honor of their third anniversary of marriage.
Well, nothing for yourself, a turn of events!
Chapter 4
20 The $500 that was in my purse now seemed like a pittance. Because the original price of my mother’s brooch was 500 bucks, not 20.
At the auction, there were a lot of people who I knew well, and who also knew me. I could have asked one of them to buy my mother’s brooch, but as luck would have it, all those people were sitting very far away from me at the moment. There was no one in front or behind me who I could ask for such a favor.
I began to shiver nervously as the last item was brought onto the stage. A small brooch, in the shape of a bee, made of white gold and studded with dark diamonds, which my mother adored so much.
– No… no… no… no! – I kept repeating.
The auctioneer pronounced the initial price, making it clear that the bidding had begun.
– 700. – Raising the sign, the lady in the black velvet dress said.
– A thousand bucks! – The man in the third row answered.
With each bet, it felt like my heart was clenching desperately in my chest. I needed to do something, but I didn’t know what to do. My father had acted inappropriately in putting my mother’s thing out there without telling me. I was very angry with him, but that anger did nothing to help me at this point.
– 2000! – The old lady to whom I had given up my seat not so long ago clicked.
– 3500.
I almost jumped up in surprise when the man sitting next to me said resoundingly:
– 5,000 bucks.
I turned in his direction. It seemed that, at the exact moment he said it, something was finally beginning to make sense to me. Specifically, my only chance to get my mom’s brooch back.
– 5500!
– Sir!» I grasped the sleeve of my neighbor’s jacket.
The man looked at me in surprise.
– 5,500 times! – the presenter pronounced resoundingly.
– Sir, please buy back this brooch!
– 5500 two!
– This thing is very dear to me. It once belonged to my mother. If you help me, I promise I’ll give you double the value for it!
– 6,000! – I heard the painfully familiar voice of my own father.
– Me-my name is Violet Spikes and I’m Henry Spikes’ daughter. I don’t know if you know him! But please believe me, I’m not some crook or whatever they call me. Sir, I really need that brooch, but I’ve only got a buck20 on me. – To be sure, I took it out of my purse and showed it to my friend. – I didn’t know Mom’s brooch would be on display right now, please believe me!
«What else can I say to this man to get him to help me?»
I was desperately gnawing his eyes, trying to figure out if I could get through to him or not.
– Six thousand, two! – the booming voice of the presenter sounded.
– Ten thousand! – Raising his sign, my neighbor said.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to hug someone as badly as I was hugging this man right now. I took my hands off his jacket and looked gratefully in his direction.
– Thank you, sir!
– 12,000. – It was my father.
– 12,000 ra…
– Fifteen thousand! – the neighbor answered at once.
– Fifty thousand bucks! – my father kept up with me.
My rescuer looked at me questioningly.
– 100,000. – Without waiting for my answer, he said.
I saw a lot of people in the audience starting to look in our direction.
– 200,000!
Apparently my father put my mother’s brooch up for sale, so that he could buy it back himself. But I don’t know why I didn’t want to lose to him at this point. I was well aware that the promise I had just made to the man sitting next to me was beginning to take an unsafe turn. Because even without looking at a good income, I could not afford a brooch for 200 thousand bucks. But at this point I had other things on my mind. Like letting my dad know that I was playing against him?
– Ma’am? – My neighbor turned to me.
– Do you take checks?
The man grinned.
– I accept. 250,000 bucks!
– 250,000 one! 250,000 two!
– 300,000 bucks.
I didn’t seem to want to overcome it at the moment, but I shouldn’t have gotten so carried away. After all, 300,000 bucks was my ceiling, which I could no longer jump over.
– Sir, I think you and I are going to have to slow down.
– Convinced?
– 300,000, one.
– I’m afraid so.
– But it’s your mom’s brooch!
– I know.
– 300,000, two.
– But should I stop there? – We looked each other in the eye. – 350,000!
There was an uproar in the hall.
– Sir, I don’t have that kind of money! – I whispered.
– 400,000 bucks! – my father bellowed.
I imagined his face, scarlet with tension, and grinned bitterly. My neighbor was about to raise his sign, but I stopped him.
– Don’t. I am grateful to you for responding to my request. But now I ask you to slow down.
– 400,000, one.
