The Ring of Fire Pt. 01

That night after talking it over with my friends I called home. It took me about six minutes of searching online to get my mother's fathers home phone number. It was he, who gave me his daughter's new phone number. My sister, Wren who was visiting answered. She informed me that our father had been killed in an industrial accident while serving his time and that I was named in his will. The problem was that until I came to see his lawyer nothing could proceed. When I asked why all she could tell me that without my input nothing could be resolved or revealed without both the executors' and my approval. That seemed to be unusual to me. Her comment took me back to the last conversation I had with my father during it he had revealed that with or without his winning his appeal he would set up things that would leave him with the final word.

My first thoughts were not to go but it was one of my few female friends who brought out a truth about me that night that would take years for me to understand because she said, "You have been hurt so deeply by the females close to you in your life that you no longer allow females in. I disagreed with her thoughts, so she pointed out that she had never seen me go out with a girl that was not in a mixed crowd situation. She asked if it was because you never want to be hurt like that again? Then added to answer that question for yourself you will have to go back and face the past. Until you do it will indirectly influence everything you do."

I didn't respond to her because I had never given it much thought. I would learn by thinking things out while driving back that what she had revealed held a lot of truth. It made me see that in my relationships with the opposite sex I naturally kept a distance because I kept seeing some of the characteristics that dominated my mother and sisters. Unknowingly the past was affecting what I was doing because it had naturally built up some defensive protections that I had not recognized.

To get things settled I would have to come back home. Apparently, he had died seven months ago. That was when I learned that I had an almost five-year-old half-brother that I had never met. I had her email me my father's lawyer's information.

********

Two weeks later from the next Sunday I began the twenty-two-hundred-mile drive back to my childhood home. In the five years I had been gone I had grown a lot. I had my father's face but my mother's father statue. I was now six foot two inches, thick chested, and looked as if I lifted weights. I had a full head of dark brown hair with a blonde spot on the left temple. I wore a mustache and goatee like my father's father that made me appear to look older than I was. According to the web I could drive back to Jackson Missouri in one day and six hours if I drove nonstop. I am sure that there have been those who have but they were not me. I did it in three. During that drive I learned that to be able to drive long distance one had to build into it by training their bodies to it. It gave me private time to try to figure out what I would say to family that I no longer wanted anything to do with. An added plus it gave me time to come to terms with my grief that was once again staring me in my face.

Life had made me a bit of a loner because I no longer automatically trusted or believed in people. No one was given the benefit of doubt. I took everything said to me with a grain of salt while I watched to learn what kind of person they were. By doing that I was able to learn a lot. Not only about them but about myself. Those I allowed to get close to me called me a solitary man because they found it impossible to read me.

I looked back at that time. I still saw the secrets being kept, the lies said, the overall conduct of my mother and my two older sisters as the cause of all my father's problems. Seeing it with my adult eyes I saw that my dad was a man who had been blindly playing poker against a stacked deck. It made what they had done appear to be colder, premediated, and deliberate.

By the time I hit the Missouri state line I had decided that I would with time find the way to make them pay for causing my father's freedom to be taken away. Going through the state while listening to local talk radio I got the idea from one of the broadcasters that there was a lot of people like me who wished there was a legal way to make some pay for some of the things they had done.

********

I drove into Jackson after taking the first exit off the interstate just as the Tuesday evening rush hour out of Cape Girardeau was starting. To the people living in the area this would be known as the back way in. Most would be leaving Cape to return to their homes in the out-landing area. It surprised me as I drove in that not much had changed. Growing up it rarely did because it was not in the main drag area. I booked a room in the motel that sat on the corner of the main street and the commercial district. It was considered to be on the main drag and was almost kitty corner to the police station. It was an intersection where two state roads interconnected.

The old steam train that the local historical society were trying to restore at the corner appeared to look the same. I thought about time standing still because that train was a perfect example of it. With its appearance being the same as I remembered, it told me that they were still doing a lousy job at raising the funds needed because of their ongoing failure to find someone who could do it.

At one time the motel had been part of a chain but now it was privately owned. They had renamed it the Town Inn and it now provided a free continental breakfast service to those who wished to take advantage. Once settled I had a quick shower, cleaned my face, and trimmed my facial hairs before putting on clean clothing in preparation to go out to get something to eat.

If the Jackson Police Department still acted the same way I knew that because of my age by the time my first night in town was over my plates would have been run. They would know from the information they got that the runaway was back in town. I figured that within the first two days one of the police officers would be calling on me. The carny used this same motel to stay in when they were in town running the rides in our annual small-town fair. With the type of employees, the carny had, and its reputation their employee license plates were routinely run by the police. On numerous occasions they had arrested a few of the employees because of drug possession. Over time it became something they normally did if they noticed a single man or a couple of them had booked into that motel.

I drove over to Cape seeing the changes that had been done since I had been gone and I was surprised by the five-lane intersection at the end of the off ramp they now had off the interstate. I went to Ruby Tuesdays ordering their cheeseburger platter with their all you can eat salad bar. It was while I was at the salad bar loading up for the second time that I saw a female that I knew had been one of my sister's friends while she attended high school. My first thought was that within minutes my family would know that I was back in town.

From the time of puberty Tammy Preston had been the older girl that I had the hots for. Seeing her brought back memories of her in a two-piece bikini as my sisters and their girlfriends spent the afternoon around the family pool on a hot summer day. From what I could see as she sat at her table, she was still too damn hot. I don't know how many hours I spent looking at her spread out on a towel trying to get the perfect tan over her whole body with the hormones of my youth working overtime.

Tammy was a natural blonde whose soft heart and tender ways spoke volumes. At that time, she had a gentleness to her that I had never seen before. My father's mother said she had a gentle soul and she prayed that when she found her partner in life, they would not destroy it. I could not count the number of times she had come to my defense or acted as a bumper between my two sisters and myself. There was a down to earth quality to her that set her apart from most females. Her gentle nature had been one of the things I found attractive about her and wondered if time had changed her as much as it had me. I still wondered how she could be friends with my sisters who were her opposites.

During the rest of the meal, I kept catching her glances at me. I knew curiosity was getting to her. I saw her texting someone with her cellphone. I waited, knowing that if my reading of her behavior was right that before I finished the meal, she would come over to talk to me. I was right so as she approached me, I stood up to greet her.

"Your sister Wren, who is on vacation, confirmed from the image I sent her, that it was you, Branden. It took her a few minutes to respond because of how much you had changed. I thought it was you, but your height and facial hairs created some doubt because it has matured your looks so much. I must admit that I find your new image quite appealing," Tammy Press said once he had reached my booth. "May I join you for a few?"

"Please do, Tammy," I replied before adding, "you still look as beautiful as you did the last time, I saw you."

That brought a smile to her face and by the time she had sat down across from me it was as if I had never left. By her facial expressions I knew that for the most part that her personality was most likely the same.

"Wren would like to introduce you to her husband, if you are in town long enough," Tammy said. "She and her husband are away for a few days. What brought you back and where are you hanging your hat these days?"

"Washington State, I assume that you know that the family finally found me and that I am back for a few days," I said, "I got called back to start the process to settle my father's estate."

"No, I didn't but I know why you left," Tammy said. "Your three-page letter to your mother exposed a lot of truths that they wished could of have remained hidden. They were not pleased when some of what it said was printed in the local paper as a follow up to what had been a headline a few weeks earlier. It ended up creating a mini scandal that still dodges them all to this day. To be honest because of what your letter revealed about what was going on Wren and I have gone from being best friends to casual acquaintances."

I found the statement perking my interest. For Tammy to say that to me said a lot. Until that time they had seemed to be connected at the waist.

"My parents and I discussed the whole situation back then and concluded that based on what you knew you really had been given no choice. My parents were quite impressed in the maturity that your letter showed. We all thought that if some of the truths in it had of come out during your father's trial he would never have been convicted. The adult thing for you to do under the circumstances was to start building your life. So, what are you doing," she asked out of curiosity?

"I run the automotive department for a Costco store while working on my degree in Business Administration," I explained.

"Married," Tammy asked?"

"No! Marriage is not for me, and never will be. I guess I have my mother, sisters, and her lover's conduct to thank for that," I said with a coldness in my voice. "Based on what happened I don't think I could blindly trust someone of the opposite sex who claims to love you. Watching what the three of them did to my dad has changed my view on things. To be honest it has jaded me a bit towards long term relationships with women so much that I'm thinking that I might end up becoming a lifelong bachelor."

"From what has come out since you left," Tammy said, "I can understand why you feel that way. My parents said that with what you had endured that it would take years to overcome because it had to have turned your whole world upside down. Perhaps in time you will find the one that will force you to review everything you feel with different eyes. It will take time for you to realize that not all females are like your mother and sisters."

I learned from Tammy that my mother had indeed married the father of my new half-brother and had taken his name. Rumors were that she was doing the same to him as what she had done to my father. She now went through life as Sarah Irene Perkins. Both Wren and Sparrow she believed had a good relationship with our mother's new husband Samuel Arthur Perkins who was still a dentist in town. I noticed that the female friends that Tammy was sitting with was keeping their eyes on us which I found curious.

We chatted for a few more minutes in a friendly manor until she said that she had to get back with the party she had come with. I got the impression that she did not want to leave, and it left me questioning as to why. Before leaving she commented that I had turned into a very nice-looking man. When checking the time on my cell I saw that we had chatted for over an hour. I paid the bill, drove back to the Jackson city park, and went for a long walk as I digested what I had learned.

I must admit that my eyes were on her as she walked back to those she had been sitting with. No matter how she was dressed in my eyes she was simply gorgeous. It still bothered me that I could not figure out why when she was near me that I felt complete.

Tammy had reminded me that our conduct when brought out creates questions and leaves a trail that follows one all their life. My mother's conduct toward my father had caused the rumors about her current situation to flow whether true or not. To be free of them she would have to move out of the area she had lived in all her life.

It had been over five years since I had last laid eyes on Tammy and as I lay in the motel rooms bed that night my thoughts were on nothing but her. As I thought about our brief meeting, I hoped that I had handled myself in an adult way.

********

It was one in the afternoon the next day that I got into the lawyer's office. I learned that my father's farm equipment dealership had been sold along with the home my parents had lived in. All is other assets built over time had been valuated and some had been sold off to provide my mother with what the court had decided was her half. It surprised me because until that moment I had no clue as to how much my parents had been worth before my mother started the divorce. Under my father's direction his share of the liquid assets after the court ordered fifty-fifty split had been invested in tech stock and had more than tripled in its value. Using those shares he began rebuilding his real estate holding with other people's money.

"Your father was smart because after your disclosure to him he started setting things up to protect himself in case what you had told him was true. It ended up that he was able to keep some of his equity from the court and your mother's eyes. For example, he instructed me to set the new investment company he formed under a limited trust with his and your name on it. We set it up legally in a tax haven and he ran it from there. It protected everything from US taxes. The bank account has about three hundred thousand cash, and the stock your corporation owns value as of two weeks ago was just under two million dollars," the lawyer explained. "After the first year he was transferred to a minimum-security facility where he was allowed to own his own computer. As a result, using his business skills the investment company's growth exploded."

"Since its all run through an offshore company and pays no taxes it's growth has been astronomical," he said. "It also now owns the farm that you grandfather lives on in retirement so you will have to work things out with him. There is a list of every commercial and residential buildings owned by the company including a few other interesting pieces of property. With the cost of building materials going sky high these last few months, I figure the current value of his physical assets are greatly understated."

"Just so you know, he decided after all the details came out that your sister were to receive nothing. Your father felt that since they sided with their mother that they should be awarded with what they worked so hard to earn. As a result, everything he had is now yours. His father, your grandfather is the executive of your father's will, so I recommend that you discuss it all with him. He was extremely proud that you were able to see the truth of the whole situation," the lawyer said before going into other details I needed to know.

When I looked at it all in the privacy of the motel room, I was impressed by what my father had accomplished while behind bars. He had turned the remnants of a twenty-year marriage into a phenomenally successful enterprise.

The way he had it set up I could cash out, pay off the mortgages on the revenue producing buildings, and live quite comfortable without investing in another thing if I wanted too. Just looking at how quickly he had recouped what he had lost because of the divorce took me back to when he first started teaching me about money. He had taught me to view money as a tool that when used properly could create a lot of opportunities. My dad had always said although we need money to get through our everyday life the key is not to go out and spend it foolishly.

Sacrifice your whims and wishes to start, then use your savings wisely to give yourself a jump start in the game of life. To be able to do that you need to understand that all advertising is done out of greed because they are trying to convince you to spend some of your hard-earned money with them. Giving up the toys you want when starting out may be difficult and hard, but you will quickly learn that once your established it is easy to use others money to your advantage.

With the time he had served he had nothing that cost him money I saw how that had given him a real advantage over everyone. Not having to spend money on his basic needs allowed him to grow faster because of no overhead. He had followed his own advice by using the banks money to finance his revenue producing properties which were more than paying for themselves.

********

I thought back to when I first arrived in Washington State with the idea of slipping into Canada. Knowing I had to live as cheap as possible I gleamed the daily papers looking for a small room to rent. Within three days I found one, two days later I had my first full time job as a grease monkey. It was nice because it was within walking distance of where I had lived.

I had lived in that one room furnished studio for three years before getting an apartment because it was dirt cheap and illegal. No one was going to say anything to anyone in case the city came and closed it down. It gave me a spot where I would be allowed to go about my business without anyone looking.

I cooked what I ate off a two burner that I had bought in a good will store and did my laundry at a local coin operation. It had a small bathroom with a shower but no tub. Besides a burner phone bought from Walmart I kept my expenses at a minimum. I made my own lunches to take to work with me and had bought a thermos which I filled with unsweetened Kool-Aid because it saved me from spending money at the pop machine.

Within two years I had saved sixty percent of the three hundred a week I netted after taxes. I used it as a down payment on the six plex that I now owned. My father's insight had been right. I must admit that it might have been the fact that I was trying to keep myself off the grid as much as possible that forced me to live the way I did.

It was when the owner of the lube shop had promoted me and transferred me to Bellingham that I bought the six plex I now lived in.

********

I found an unopened handwritten letter addressed to me from my father stuck in the middle of a bundle of pages the lawyer had given me. I learned that while in prison they had discovered he had liver cancer. He figured that it was because of the chemicals he had been exposed to while in the service.