Red Clover (31 page)

“If no one has done it in your industry, stop looking there. Look elsewhere.”

“Like where?”

“Other industries.”

“But they have different product lines, processes, operational costs, and marketing channels. How can they help me?”

“You’ll apply what you can to whatever it is you need, and you’ll make up the rest. And if what you make up doesn’t quite work, you’ll try something else.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

He laughed. “The concept
is
simple. Doing it is quite another thing. I’ve spent my life in research integrating just a little bit of my own intelligence with what others have already accomplished. They say ninety percent of innovation has already been discovered by someone else. You need to be innovative.”

“It makes sense in theory. I’ll have to think about what other industries combine business segments in ways similar to what I’m trying to do.”

“It’s not obvious to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Deer Bottom Inn and Brewery.”

“What?”

“Think about it. They brew their own beer and sell it to other establishments—that’s wholesale. They sell it to individual customers like you—that’s retail. And they provide services inside the bar. Isn’t that what you’re trying to do?”

“I don’t know. Seems farfetched to me.”

“You asked me for advice. That’s my advice.”

Lee thought about Dr. Rad’s suggestion on his way home. It seemed crazy to him and potentially a waste of time, but he respected the doctor’s wisdom and figured he didn’t have anything to lose. He called CJ when he got home for the name and number of the inn’s owner.

A few days later, Lee was reading the morning paper when he was interrupted by someone pounding on his front door. He opened it to find Shaneta agitated and out of breath.

“I just came back from Raddie’s...big machines...end of your property...on Attenberg Road. Call the police!” she shrieked.

“Calm down, Shaneta. It’s okay. I know all about it.”

“What?”

“They’re supposed to be here.”

“And what are they doin’?”

Lee didn’t respond.

“Okay, mi friend, why are you not telling me?”

“Telling you what?”

“Mista Lee, don’t play games with me. You know how my curiosity is. I have to know everything. Every thing.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to be patient with me. You’ll know in due time.”

“That’s not fair. I’ll explode if I don’t know.”

“If you do explode, Shaneta, don’t do it on my front porch. It’ll make a mess.”

She shot him a menacing look.

Feeling a little playful, he asked her, “Speaking of secrets, what were you doing just now at Raddie’s place?”

“Nothing.”

“Your face looks a little flushed. Everything okay?”

“I have to go.” She turned toward the golf cart, which she had parked in Lee’s driveway. “He's helpless. That man is helpless. I don’t know how he exists from day to day.” Her voice trailed off as she neared the cart.

Lee waved to her as she scooted down the driveway and out onto the road to the guesthouse before he jumped into his own car and drove to the far southeast corner of his property.

When he got to the locale, Lee found several pieces of earth-moving equipment clearing and leveling the land. The acrid odor of disturbed dirt smelled sweet. Without getting out of his car, Lee waved to the foreman.

“If this weather keeps up, they’ll be able to pour the foundation next month,” the man shouted.

“That’s great! The sooner the better.” Lee smiled and drove home. “Thank you, Father,” he whispered to the heavens, hoping Nelson Sambourg would have approved of how forty-five of his coins were being spent, especially since his mother had told him he and his father before him had grown the collection, not cashed any of it in.

As he headed west down Attenberg Road, he saw Shaneta driving the golf cart down the dirt road as fast as it would go, toward Dr. Rad’s place, bouncing up and down in the seat, her sweater and scarf streaming out behind her. He watched her disappear into the grove of trees that blocked his view of the lab.

Lee drove twenty-five miles to the Rockford Public Library where he spent the rest of the day in the business-book section. He needed to learn as much as he could about marketing, advertising, merchandising, and small-business management for the unfamiliar arena he was about to enter.

* * *

The first Christmas Eve in his new house shifted some of Lee’s attention away from business development to preparations for a Christmas Eve gathering for their “makeshift family,” as Shaneta called them—Dr. Rad, CJ and her sons, Francine, and Bennett. They decorated the house in traditional American and Jamaican holiday style, complete with a fifteen-foot northern white pine tree Lee had cut down from a small grove at the back of his property. They placed the tree in the living room, in front of the two-story bay of windows.

By the time everyone arrived, Lee’s home was fragrant with a mixture of pine needles and potpourri. After enjoying a savory feast prepared by Shaneta, they all exchanged presents and listened to her tell stories of her childhood Christmases in Jamaica.

The guests started leaving close to nine o’clock. Bennett lingered behind, and when everyone had left, told Lee the latest news about his marriage.

“She’s filed for divorce.”

“You knew that was coming.”

“Yes. I knew, but being served with the papers made it real.”

“And the kids?”

“The
children
,” he corrected him, “will be living with her, and I’ll have visitation rights.”

“At least she’s not denying you that.”

“Let her try.”

“Are you two at least able to be civil to each other?”

“I am, but she’s too bitter right now. Hopefully, that will change with time.”

“What’s she got to be bitter about?”

“She claims I didn’t turn out to be the man she thought I was, that somehow I falsely presented myself to get her to marry me.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You know Daphne’s family.”

“Not really.”

“Her father is a big oil tycoon, and her mother hobnobs with the Kennedys. She’s used to living high and being seen with important people, and she thought she was getting that with me.”

“She did get that, didn’t she?”

“In the beginning...until I started to see the light and realized I was really someone other than just a Winekoop.”

“Speaking of them, what do you know about what’s going on at the house?”

“With Mother and Father?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems there’s an awful lot of tension there lately.”

“I haven’t talked to her since she said she was going to tell him that I know everything. Maybe that conversation took place.”

“Well, that would do it,” Bennett said.

* * *

It wasn’t like Mother to not return phone calls. Lee had left three messages for her over ten days and was becoming worried enough to consider driving out to Evanston to check on her.

Finally, she called him back.

“I know you’ve been calling, but I didn’t want to call you while Henry was still here. He’s out of town on business now, so...”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is okay.”

“It doesn’t sound like it.”

“I’m just tired.”

“Tired physically or emotionally?”

“A little of both, I suspect.”

“How was Christmas?”

She sighed. “It was tolerable, I suppose.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told Henry about our conversations.”

“And?”

“And he reacted the way I expected.”

“Not well?”

“No, dear.”

“What did he say?” Despite the pain of it, Lee wanted to know.

“It doesn’t matter, Lee.”

“It matters to me.”

His mother didn’t speak.

“I know this is hard on you too. Believe me, I do. But keep in mind I grew up under that man’s rejection and lived under a veil of lies from everyone who knew that I was another man’s son. And if you don’t think that had an adverse effect on me, and to a degree still does, you’re mistaken. I deserve to at least be told the truth now, the whole truth, don’t you think?” He had never spoken to his mother in that tone before.

His mother remained silent.

“Are you there, Mother?”

“Yes, I’m here.” Her voice was softer than usual, her tone conciliatory. “And you are right on both counts. Yes, this is hard on me. And you deserve to know the whole truth. But now I’m tired and need to—”

“Please don’t do this to me. Whenever you don’t want to talk about something, you need to lie down. Pull up a chair, take a deep breath, and talk to me.” He waited several seconds. “What did Henry say when you told him I knew?”

“He said...” She fell silent.

“Mother, if I was standing in front of you, I’d want to shake you right now. Just tell me.”

“He said he’s glad the whole...thing is over and...”

“Tell me the word he used. He didn’t say
thing,
did he?” He waited for her to respond, and when she didn’t, he said, “I can come over there, and we can finish this discussion in person.”

“He called it a farce.”

“What else did he say?”

“He took you out of his will, but I—”

“What else?”

“He questioned some of your skills.”

“Mother.”

“What?”

“What did he call me?”

“A loser. There, now I’ve said it. Are you happy?”

What Lee heard next was a sob and the sound of her hanging up the phone. He called her right back.

The cook answered the phone.

“Winekoop residence.”

“Bryah, this is Lee. Put Mother back on, would you please?”

“She’s gone to her room, Mister Lee.”

“Please go get her, and tell her if she doesn’t come to the phone, I’m going to drive out there.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lee waited several minutes, and when his mother got on the phone, he could barely hear her.

“I’m not a very strong person, Lee. I thought you knew that.”

“Don’t fool yourself, Mother. I suspect you’re a lot stronger than you think. That’s my opinion, anyway. Look, I’m sorry I pushed you so hard, but at this point in my life, I have to know the truth, no matter how heinous it is. I need that in order to move on. Otherwise, it’s like carrying around a live hand-grenade in my back pocket. Pull the pin for me, Mother. Let me panic over it for a few seconds, and then I’ll throw it as far as I can so as not to be threatened by it anymore.”

“I’m not sure I like your choice of metaphors, but I do understand what you’re saying. But what you need to understand about Henry is—”

“No, I don’t have to understand anything when it comes to him.” He struggled to keep his voice soft and calm. “All he cares about is himself. And what bothers me the most is he has no sympathy for me, the innocent victim in all this. He’s nothing but a callous, self-absorbed human being, and I doubt he’ll ever change. Honestly, I don’t know how you can stay with him.”

“Well, that could change.”

“How’s that?”

“Bringing this all out in the open has been a turning point in our lives.”

“How so?”

“It was one thing when we were pretending about...well, about you. Now that we don’t have to do that anymore, well, our relationship isn’t the same. In some ways, I think the lies were what held our marriage together.”

“Do you hear what you just said?”

“Yes, and now that I’ve said it out loud, I must admit it sounds rather absurd.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know, son.” Her voice was barely audible. “I’m just waiting to see what happens.”

“Mother, may I impart some wisdom I acquired during the past few years?”

Her sigh could be heard over the phone. “Yes, of course.”

“If you keep letting things happen to you, you’ll always be channeling someone else’s course. Believe me, when I figured that out, I was a much stronger person, a much happier person. I’ll take it one step further—I became my own person.” He hadn’t thought about it in those terms before, and he didn’t know which made him more proud—the fact he had become his own person or the realization of what had given rise to it.

“That’s easier, dear, when you’re young. But look at me. I—”

“That’s just an excuse.” He paused, unsure how far to take this argument, given how much he had already said. “Let me ask you something. What are you most afraid of?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’ve spent your whole life with him trying to keep things on an even keel instead of living your own life. You’ve lived that way for so long, you don’t know how things could be any different. Why have you done that? What are you afraid of?”

She hesitated. “That he’ll leave me, I suppose.”

“So?”

“And I need him.”

“For what?” He didn’t let her respond. “All I’m saying is you create your own happiness by the choices you make. If you rely completely on others, you’ll never have it, at least not in the true sense of happiness.”

“I’m sure you’re right, dear.” She stayed silent for several seconds. “Maybe I’ll have Charles drive me to the lake house for a few days. If I do, could we spend some time together?”

“Of course, Mother. I’d like that.”

* * *

Lee arrived at CJ’s New Year’s Day party at four o’clock, followed by Shaneta and Dr. Rad and then Francine and Bennett. The women worked in the kitchen while the men chatted in the living room. CJ’s sons spent much of the time in their bedroom watching
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
on the video-cassette recorder Lee had bought them for Christmas.

Lee, Bennett, and Dr. Rad were discussing the new multifaceted business model Lee had created based on insight he had gained from the owner of Deer Bottom Inn, when the phone rang. Lee heard CJ answer it.

“What? You’re kidding,” she said. “When? No way. How long do you think?” She emerged from the kitchen, her face flushed.

She talked fast, in a hushed voice. “They arrested Bern last night. Caught him with over a hundred pounds of pot
and
stolen guns in his basement. Hauled his ass off in handcuffs. The feds, not the local police. Don’t say anything to the boys. Not yet.”