“There is a very important board meeting coming up,” my dad said. “And you and I have a lot of things we have to discuss before that meeting. We need to talk about the lawsuit from that Mark guy, we need to talk about the numbers from last quarter, and we need to talk about the role of the COO and whether or not everything is working out there.”
I balked. “You’re talking about Matt?” Matt, my younger brother, was the company COO, and I was under the impression that he was doing a great job. I hadn’t heard my dad complain about him once. “What do you mean ‘if everything is working out there’?”
“I just wonder if maybe there might be someone better suited to the job. The company needs to continue growing at the same rate as it did when I was in charge, and you and your brother just don’t understand the business as I do. And—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said, laughing a little at the way my dad’s eyes widened when I said this to him. “I mean, really, I’m asking, are you joking right now? You have to be joking, right? Because I know you didn’t just tell me that Matt and I don’t know how the business works.”
He folded his arms and looked at me indignantly. “So, what if I did? It’s the truth.”
“No, Dad, it isn’t.” The elevator doors opened, but I ignored them. “The truth is, you’ve been talking to me and my brothers about the business for nearly our entire lives. It’s the only thing you do talk to us about. You don’t give a shit about our lives, you never ask us how we are doing, you never ask if we are dating a nice girl or if we’ve picked up any new hobbies.” I took a step closer to him and pointed a finger right at his chest. “All you’ve cared about for the last forty years of my life has been two things—making money and making sure the family business continues to grow. So, trust me when I tell you I know just as much about Becker Tech as you do. I could run this business in my fucking sleep, Dad. So how about this, if you can tell me something about my personal liferight now, I will walk back into my office and talk about the board meeting for the rest of the workday if that’s what you want.”
He opened his mouth and then closed it, his eyes narrowing with anger.
“Anything!” I said. “Tell me the name of the last dog I had. Or tell me what kind of car I drive. Tell me where I go to get my haircut or tell me my favorite place to go camping.”
“You’ve proved your point, son,” he said.
“Have I? Good,” I said. I looked around at all the people who were now openly staring at us. I spotted Lily, standing in the doorway of her office and looking confused and worried. I shook my head in her direction and then pressed the elevator button a second time. The doors opened right away, and I stepped inside. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Dad, I have some work to get done. Let me know when you come up with something you remember about me. Your own son.”
The doors closed, and the last thing I saw was my father’s face grow crimson and his mouth twist into a snarl.
* * *
I was torn in two.
I was sitting in my home office that morning, half of me feeling elated over having finally told my father exactly what he needed to hear, and the other half of me feeling like I had been picked up and dropped from a skyscraper and landed directly on my face. I was angry, but also disappointed. A little sad but not willing to admit it to myself yet, and these were all the emotions I brought with me on my way to the humane society to look at the dogs up for adoption.
I got a call from Matt just as I parked my car in the lot, and my first instinct was to ignore it, but then I remembered what had transpired between me and my dad earlier, and I knew I would have to answer this phone call eventually.
“Hi,” I said, my tone of voice just a single, low note.
“Dude.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” He laughed. “Do you know? Because I don’t think you haveanyidea of the chaos that you have created in that office.”
“Chaos? Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic?”
“Not really,” another voice said. It was Adam. I hadn’t realized I was on speakerphone. The two of them sounded like they were in a quiet place. “After you left, Dad came and tracked Matt and me down in the office and took out all his anger on the two of us. As you can imagine, that did not go over well.”
I thought of my two younger brothers. Neither of them were particularly angry men, per se, but Matt was a single father who I had been worried for months was on the verge of a mid-life crisis, and Adam had recently gone through a nasty divorce, so they were about due for a blow-up fight with my father.
“What happened?”
Adam grumbled. “What do you think happened? Dad came in here, guns blazing, and the only thing that saved our asses was the fact that Will was here.”
Will—my nephew. And my dad’s only weakness. He wouldn’t scream in front of Will, not if he could help it.
“What was Will doing at the office? Why wasn’t he in school?”
“It’s the summer,” Matt said.
Ah, yes.
Sometimes I forgot that kids got the entire summer off from school. Wouldn’t that be nice? To have a summer break again… Or a break of any kind, really. I wasn’t in a place too picky. “So, dad backed off because he would never let Will see that side of him, got it,” I said. “What caused the chaos then?”
“He wouldn’t yell atusin front of Will,” Adam corrected me. “But that didn’t mean that his anger just disappeared. Instead, he went on a rampage, going through the office firing people for no reason and snapping at everyone whom he didn’t fire. People were freaking out, they have no idea what’s going on, half of them are terrified that they have actually been fired—”