The Brown Paper Box

Dear Reader, this story is a continuation from The Old Barn and Death By Chocolate, it will be continued in Golden Summer.

Eric Cole sat in Miss Eliza Cole’s sitting room staring at her.

“My dear boy, why are you not speaking?”

“Well ma’am, that is a lot to digest”, said Eric.

“Yes, I suppose it is, still I have been talking for approximately 20 minutes and aside from some grunts that let me know you were awake, you have said nothing.”

“Again ma’am, I am tryin’ to digest that information dump, I’m gonna need a minute.”

Eliza stood up and walked towards the windows overlooking the sprawling lawn. Had she made a mistake? She was told these boys were intelligent, yet this one had not asked a single question. Perhaps his brother got all the brains.

“I do have one question ma’am”, said Eric. Finally, thought Eliza.

“Which is?”

“Why? Why bring me here, why involve me in any of this?”, asked Eric.

“Were you not listening? I explained that very clearly when I laid out our family’s history.”

“Yes ma’am, I was listenin’. You explained that you and my Paw-Paw are brother and sister. You explained that your lives took different paths, and you explained that he made you promise not to involve me or my brother in your side of the family’s shenanigans until after he was gone. What you haven’t explained is why you even want us involved in your family problems.”

“My family, which is your family too incidentally, does not have family problems nor do we have shenanigans. What we have are decisions to make about the future of our company.”

“Right, and again, why does that involve me or my brother?”

“Young man, look around this house.” Eric turned his head side to side taking in the vast room. “What do you see?”, asked Eliza.

“I see rich people stuff.”

“Exactly, these items have all been carefully chosen and placed to give off the air of wealth, an item that is fast dwindling from our bank accounts.”

“Huh?”

“The family once had fortunes to spare, but we are currently in a transitionary period where our wealth is in a sharp decline.”

“I’m sorry to hear that ma’am, but I don’t know what it has to do with me.”

“I need your help; I need you and your brothers help. The only people left in this family have been rich for so long they have forgotten how to work. Our holdings are diminishing by the day, our resources are becoming scarce. Without a major leadership change we are headed for financial disaster.”

“And you think I can help you hold off this financial disaster?”

“Yes, no, I don’t know. You and your brother are my last hope. As foolish as I believed my brother to be he did have a simpler way of thinking about things that resulted in profits for the family. Since he left the business over 40 years ago our profits have been declining, we are in fact losing money every day.”

Eric stood up, “Ma’am, thank you for the liquor and the family chat, but I am a simple mechanic with a simple life, I can’t help you.” Eric started walking towards the door.

“Oh really, you have so much going on that you would let 20,000 people starve?”

Eric turned around, “what are you talking about?”, he asked.

“The Cole family holdings employ over 20,000 people, the majority of those people are low to middle class, what happens to them when their checks stop coming?”

“Now hold on, that would not be my fault, this has nothin’ to do with me!”

“That is correct, as of this moment you have nothing to do with it, you cannot even be bothered to try and stop it. Fine, we will carry on, we will dissolve some assets, perhaps we will only have to put 10,000 people on the unemployment line. Sorry to have wasted your time.”, Eliza turned back towards her window.

“What do you think I could even do?”

“For starters, I would like you to sit in on the board meeting today and observe, then tell me your thoughts. If after that you do not think there is anything you can do I will not bother you again.”

“A board meeting?” Eric looked down at himself in his old jeans and flannel shirt, “I don’t think I am board meeting material ma’am.”

Eliza waived her hand in the air as if to say that is nothing, “We can find you some suitable attire. Will you go to the board meeting, it starts in 30 minutes?”

Eric looked at Miss Eliza, and was again forcibly reminded of his Paw-Paw. He also had a way of putting Eric in a position where he couldn’t say no. Then again, what harm could it do to sit in a meeting. “Fine, I’ll go.”

“Excellent, Jennifer!” called Eliza.

“Yes madame?”

“Take Mr. Cole to Gerald and get him some decent clothes, the car will leave in 20 minutes.”

“Yes madame.”

Eric walked out of the sitting room towards the butler who said “Right this way sir.”

Twenty minutes later Eric and Eliza were in a stretch limousine heading to the board meeting. “I don’t have to talk right?”, asked Eric.

“No, you do not have to talk. You will be there as an observer, that is all. Trust me, there will be more than enough people talking in that room.” They exited the car approximately ten minutes later to another house on the property, this one was not as grand as the Manor house, but it was not lacking in the room department either.”

“What is this place?”, asked Eric.

“This is our family headquarters where we perform business while at the Manor. I have asked them to hold the board meeting here this month instead of in Atlanta. Come.” Gerald held the door open for Eliza and Eric as they entered the office building. Miss Eliza didn’t break stride, and Eric followed, down the hall, down another hall and into the largest conference room Eric had ever seen. There had to be fifty people sitting around the table. All stood as they walked in.

“Miss Eliza, so good to see you” said a portly aged man.

“You too Hansen, this is my nephew Eric, he will be sitting in on the meeting today.” Miss Eliza looked at the middle aged man sitting next to the empty seat at the head of the table and said “John, you wouldn’t mind giving up your seat for my nephew would you?”

“Of course not Miss Eliza, Mr. Cole” John gave a slight bow to Eric and Eliza as he held his arm towards his chair, beckoning Eric to take a seat.

“Alright gentleman, please begin.”

Three hours later they were back in the car. “Well, what did you think?”, asked Eliza.

“I think I see the problem, whole lot of talk, not enough action. Does that group get anything done?”

Eliza laughed, “A bit, but no, not much. Mostly those meetings are for everyone to congratulate each other on how well they are doing.”

“But they aren’t doing well, they aren’t even doing sort of okay, the company is bleeding money and they are plannin’ a party.”

“It is not a party, it is a Gala, but you are correct that the company is not doing well.” Eliza handed Eric a brown wrapped box.

“What is this?”, asked Eric.

“That is a choice. If you want to know more about the company, if you want to try and save it, that is your new employee welcome packet so to speak. It contains an all access badge to every Cole Holdings facility as well as several credit cards, car keys, computer, cell phone, and keys to an apartment in Atlanta.”

Eric stared at the mysterious brown box and asked “And if I don’t want to help?”

Eliza’s face was overcome with a deeply saddened look, “If you do not want to help, well, then I can have Gerald drive you back to your brother’s farm and you can wonder what might have been. But I have to ask you Eric, what do you have to go back to? Why not at least give this a try, do you really have something more important to do?”

Eric thought on that for a moment, did he have anything else to do….no not really. He couldn’t go back to the house he shared with his wife, he didn’t fit in at Danton’s farm, and he was tired of being alone at the lake house. At least this would be something new. “Okay, I will try it on a temporary basis, get the lay of the land and see if I’m interested, okay?”

Eliza’s smile was beaming, “Excellent! I will have Gerald alert the helicopter pilot that he has a passenger to take to Atlanta, he will go with you to show you to your apartment.”

Once back at the manor Eric met with Gerald and they departed to Atlanta, midflight, Eric called Danton from the phone in the helicopter.

“Hello”, said Danton.

“Hey big brother, how’s it hangin’?”

“Eric! What the hell man, I thought I would have heard from you by supper, what the hell is going on?”

“Well, a lot actually. It turns out there is another door opening for me and I’m going to take a walk on the wild side, which in this case turns out to be Atlanta.”

“Atlanta? You’re goin’ to Atlanta?”

“Yup, I’m flying in the Cole Family Helicopter as we speak. Miss Eliza wants to see if I can help with something. I’ll fill you in more tomorrow, for now just know I’m alright, and who knows, maybe this door will hold everything I need.”

TO BE CONTINUED……