First Class Stamp (4 page)

Alex was smiling and chatting away and excited for the
evening ahead. He’d been such a happy baby and continued to be a happy child.
And now as he stood on the doorstep of his teenage years, Sophia hoped that the
trend would continue. Her life, however, was one stress upon another stress
upon more stress but she’d desperately tried to shield her son from it. Without
her parents, Sophia had no idea how’d they make it each month without the free
rent of their apartment. Money had always been a problem for her since the
moment she’d married Willis. In the beginning of their marriage it was because
they didn’t have any. They survived by eating mainly hot dogs and mac and
cheese, living in a dumpy studio apartment with occasional hot water, while she
worked two minimum waged jobs and he went to school. Willis said he couldn’t
work while in college because his mind needed to be focused and he had to work
hard to get good grades so that he’d secure a good job. How many times had she
come home after being on her feet for fourteen hours to find him sitting playing
a video game, the laundry piled by the front door waiting for her and dirty
dishes from his evening meal in the sink, with nothing prepared for her to eat?
How many years had she lived on five hours sleep a night so she could pull a
double shift at the eatery so their rent would only be three days late, instead
of ten?

And then? Willis graduated and school was finally behind
them, for him anyway. He’d managed to get a job for the first year as an
assistant manager at a cell phone retail store and money was
still
tight
even though tuition and books were expenses of the past. He
had
to have
the ‘right’ clothes to wear and sometimes spent half of his paycheck on shoes
and ties and cuff links. For most of that summer, Alex, only three years old, wore
his swimsuit because most of his clothes were too small and her paycheck had to
pay the rent and the electricity bill, with nothing left for even a trip to a
thrift shop for the toddler’s wardrobe. And finally, when the dream job
materialized and Willis finally got to wear his five hundred dollar pair of
shoes and his fourteen carat gold cuff links to a real job where he made
real
money, and she was allowed to quit her job, he controlled all the finances and she
was given an allowance that had to pay all the household bills with a little
left over for food and clothes for Alex. Sophia hated having to beg for extra
money to buy cleats for baseball, or supplies for art camp in the summer. She
learned quickly that a blow job released his rigid hold on the checkbook and as
she gagged as he released down her throat she just kept telling herself that
Alex was worth any amount of degradation and humiliation she felt.

As they made their way down the aisle of the darkened
theater, Alex picking their seats, she knew she would do anything for him…and
she had. Popcorn in hand, her son wiggled and fidgeted until the lights dimmed
and the THX surround sound swirled and whipped around the theater. Sophia
sighed, knowing that she’d averted another disappointing evening for her boy, but
was unable to focus on the movie in front of her. Her thoughts had drifted to
her mother, who was at home, and she hoped all was well. She’d left her in the
company of a good friend who’d come over to visit, fortuitously at the right
moment for Sophia to leave. Aldo had all but ordered her out when she’d
approached him about the possibility of taking Alex out for a needed break but
her mind was still in caretaker mode as she thought about her frail mother.

Sophia’s parents had been together since they were about
fourteen. Both born to Italian mothers and American fathers, they gravitated to
each other in school. They’d been brought up with the same morals and middle
class values of hard work and integrity. Now, hardly considered old at sixty,
they both still worked hard and loved each other deeply. Sophia couldn’t
imagine either of her parents alone; when she thought of them, they came as a
pair. Gloria’s healing was slow but the prognosis was optimistic. Just a few
more weeks and hopefully she’d be back to her usual chipper and energetic self.

Snitching a handful of popcorn from the cardboard bucket
resting on Alex’s lap, Sophia took a deep breath, popped a kernel of butter
laden corn in her mouth and watched Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk save the earth.

“But why?” Ella asked her Uncle Ben for the third time.

“Enough Ella,” Matt said, his brow furrowed. “Uncle Ben does
not have an answer for you so stop asking.”

Ella frowned and thumped her fork down on the dining room
table. “Everybody has to get married. That’s how you get happy. You said so, Daddy!”

“I what?” Matt asked.

“You said that you were the happiest man when you married
momma. So if Uncle Ben wants to be happy he has to get married too.”

Janie bit the insides of her lips to keep from laughing and
Ben gave his brother a look that said ‘try and find a rebuttal to that!’ Matt
had encouraged his five year old daughter to ask questions; to think for
herself. He was beginning to regret ever telling his daughter that she should
ask lots of questions.

“Ella,” Ben sighed. “I’m not married because your daddy
married the perfect woman and I can’t find anyone as good as your momma.”

“Oh,” said Ella. She tilted her head as she digested his
answer. Amazingly, she seemed satisfied with his statement. She picked up her
fork once again and gored a piece of chicken and returned her attention to the
plate of food in front of her.

“Next time you won’t be as anxious to accept her dinner
invitations, will you,” Matt chuckled.

Ben smiled at his niece and heartily consented as Janie
scooped more potato salad and barbecued chicken onto his plate. “I mean it
though. I could never find anyone like you, Janie.”

“Oh pfft,” Janie shook her head. “Matt has brainwashed you
all into thinking I’m so perfect! Far from it actually.”

“Nope!” Matt argued. “You are perfect. And all mine!”

“Mine too,” added Ella as she scooped a heaping pile of
potatoes into her mouth.

“Yes, sweetheart,” Janie grinned. “Yours too.”

The evening ended after Ben had sat on the floor of the
playroom and was assigned a doll dressed in a mermaid outfit to play ‘dolls’
with Ella. Christopher kept driving his Tonka trucks through the extravagant
‘beach’ that Ella had created using tissues as the water and hand towels as the
sand. After the third
almost
brawl between siblings, Janie announced it
was bed time and Ben bade goodnight and began the walk home. His steely resolve
to stay a bachelor and avoid children was intact.

It was the height of summer, and as he walked home, the sun
was just beginning to set and as he rounded a corner the sun blinding him, he
reached for his sunglasses. They snagged on his t-shirt and as he looked down
to pull them from the fabric he heard his name yelled in front of him.

“Ben! Mr. Lathem! Hi!”

Ben looked up to see a young man jogging toward him. He knew
the face and the name was on the tip of his tongue as the boy said, “Do you
remember me?”

“Of course I do,” Ben nodded with a smile. “You very
competently sold me stamps and coerced me out of a dollar sixty. Alex, right?”

“You do remember!” he seemed surprised.

“Yep, sure do.”

They were now face to face, or at least face to chest and
Alex outstretched his hand. Ben shook it.

“You can tell a lot by a man’s handshake,” grinned Alex.

Ben chuckled and then looked up to see a woman step beside
Alex and place a protective hand on his shoulder.

“Alex?” she said, a slight reprimand in her voice. Ben
didn’t blame her.

“Hi,” he smiled extending his hand to her. “I’m Ben Lathem.
I frequent Alex’s grandfather’s store. I live opposite.”

Relaxing just a tad, she shook Ben’s hand and half smiled.
“I’m Sophia…Alex’s mother and Aldo’s daughter.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Ben smiled.

“So where are you going?” asked Alex.

“That’s none of your business,” Sophia snapped.

“It’s fine,” Ben offered. “Actually, “I’ve just been to play
Barbie dolls with my niece. But it’s more tiring than you would think so I’m
headed home.”

Alex frowned, not at all impressed by Ben’s revelation, but
Sophia tried to hide a grin. Then, in a moment of total mortification, she
realized she was still holding Ben’s hand. Quickly releasing it, she took half
a step and muttered something about getting home.

“Have you gone to a game?” Alex asked.

“Huh?” Ben replied.

“Your shirt!” replied Alex, pointing at the Yankees logo on
Ben’s t-shirt.

“Oh. Yeah. I go quite often.”

“Oh, man!” sighed Alex. “Everybody gets to go but me!”

“You’ll be able to go when you’ve saved your money,” Sophia
reminded him.

“It’s gonna take me
forever
!” he said with the
appropriate amount of dramatic inflection.

“I’d be happy to take you anytime you want,” Ben shrugged.

“Really?” Alex’s eyes opened wide.

“Sure. We have a box suite and…” Ben stopped when he saw the
expression on Sophia’s face.
Uh oh.

“Alex,” Sophia interrupted. “We need to get home.”

“But mom…”

“But nothing. Let’s get a move on.”

“But what about the game?” Ben heard him wail as she pushed
him down the sidewalk, further and further away from him.

“Oh, shit!” he muttered as he headed to his apartment.

*****

Maria pulled into the safety of the underground parking
garage of Crystal Towers, Luca in the front seat beside her. It had been
unusually violent this morning; the riots protesting the Olympics and the
financial crisis their country was facing. But Maria had been able to take
mostly side streets and arrive relatively unscathed. Luca grabbed his backpack
and Maria her briefcase and together they rode the elevator up to the ground
floor and to her office. Of all the blessings in her life, Luca being at the
very top of that list, she was grateful for the opportunity to work for MEL
Holdings. Not only had she been given the gift of the car on her first day of
work, and not only was she paid well with an excellent benefit package, she was
allowed to bring Luca with her to work whenever he wasn’t in school. She set
him up in the conference room with school work, or movies, or her laptop and
lunch, and he was good to go while she worked. The day she met Ben Lathem was a
day she thanked God for over and over again.

Today, however, wasn’t going to be a great day. The
uprisings in Rio were getting worse. Several American owned companies were
being targeted and Maria knew it was just a matter of time until the Crystal
Towers would be on their hit list. They’d already lost several tenants from the
building over the past few weeks and today she had to call New York and let
them know about several more that were canceling their leases and pulling their
business out of the city. With Luca settled and the morning emails out of the
way, she picked up the phone and dialed.

*****

Ben sat in his office with work piled all around him. The
week had gone by too damn fast and he felt a weekend spent behind his desk was
all but inevitable. Most of the time he loved his job but today wasn’t one of
them.

He’d been briefed earlier about the situation in Rio. His
first and foremost concern was for the safety of the employees of MEL Holdings,
but more specifically, Maria and Luca. After the meeting, he’d put a plan of
action together including sending a letter to each of the tenants, releasing
them from their leases without penalty, if they so desired, but also informing
them that they were investing more in security if they decided to stay. Out of
a sense of courtesy, he called Matt and Mark, both out of the office, and
informed them of the situation. Both said they were coming in to discuss it
immediately.

Matt and Mark may not enter the skyscraper that held their
offices every day, but they sure as hell knew
exactly
what was going on
in their company, and both men had been carefully watching the news and were
abreast of the unrest in Brazil. The three brothers sat in Matt’s office and
discussed every possible scenario they could come up with that involved their
investment in Rio de Janeiro.

Mark agreed completely with Ben that all leases could be
terminated without penalty if the tenants felt unsafe, as most of their tenants
were in fact American companies operating in Brazil. The point of disagreement
was what the company’s responsibility was to their employees.

“It is their home country,” stated Matt. “If they were there
because we transferred them there, then I understand the need to initiate evacuation
for them. But they weren’t. It’s their home. We will continue to pay their
salary even if they can’t go to work, but I see no reason to relocate them.”

“We should also inform the tenants that we can no longer
guarantee their safety, even with the improved security, so they enter the
building at their own risk,” added Mark.

Ben agreed with that one but was reeling at Matt’s apparent
lack of concern for the few employees they had. “And if one of our people get
hurt?” he asked. “How are you going to feel then?”

Matt sighed. “If they think it’s
that
bad, they
should stay home. No job is worth risking your life for.”

“You feel no responsibility whatsoever to ensure their
safety?” Ben’s voice had risen by a few decibels.

“Of course I do!” Matt shot back. “This company would be
nothing without loyal and hard-working people like those in Rio. But their
homes are there…their families are there…their lives are there. And it’s not
like they are aren’t used to it,” he scoffed. “Riots have been a constant in Brazil
for the last…shit…the last thirty years! You want us to go in in helicopters
and riot gear and pull them out? Then what?”

Ben flew off the handle. “That’s right! You go back to your
multi-million dollar apartment and your ten million dollar house in the Bahamas
and we’ll just let the peasants fend for themselves.”

“What the fuck?” yelled Matt as he stood and slammed the
palms of his hands against his desk. “What in hell’s name is wrong with you?”

Ben cowered just a little. Mark, always the peacemaker, tried
his best to calm the already out of hand discussion.

“Let’s have HR contact each of the employees and find out if
they are in fact fearing for their safety. If the answer comes back in the
affirmative, we will do whatever we can to facilitate a move,
if
that’s
what they desire.”

“Which is what we would be doing anyway,” scathed Matt. He
sat back down and took a breath. “This is about Luca,” he whispered as the
light bulb clicked on.

Ben didn’t say anything as both pairs of eyes bore into him.
He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat…but didn’t speak.

“Get them out then!” Matt said. “If you are worried, Get.
Them. Out.”

“Okay,” Ben nodded and stood. He turned and headed for the
door.

“Wait!” yelled Matt and he ran to his brother and grabbed
his shoulder. “Next time just say what you want to say. I would never interfere
in something you feel so strongly about. Just damn well speak up.” He slapped Ben
on the back and smiled. “’K?”

“All good,” Ben nodded and left.

“What the hell was that?” Mark asked as Matt came and fell
into the chair Ben had just vacated.

“If he wants to fly them out why doesn’t he just do it? Why
all the drama?”

Matt shook his head. He had no idea.

*****

With the information for the tenant leases emailed to Maria,
Ben leaned back in his chair. He’d been an ass with Matt and he felt like an
idiot. He
was
worried about Maria and Luca and he should’ve just come
right out with it instead of trying to coat it in fake concern. Of course, he
was genuinely concerned with the well-being of
all
their employees, but
he also knew that Matt was spot on with his assessment. It was their home and
if they were still getting paid, whether they showed up to work or not, they’d
be just fine.

He knew, however, that Maria held a sense of responsibility
for the building and she wouldn’t just sit at home. She’d go to work every day,
and with school out for summer vacation, Luca would be with her. It didn’t sit
well with him and he needed to make sure the two of them were safe. It was
already after five and Rio was an hour ahead, plus it was Friday, but he dialed
her number anyway and it went straight to voicemail.

“Hey Maria. It’s Ben. Just checking on you guys to make sure
you’re fine and not affected by the unrest. I’ve seen some of the news reports
and it doesn’t look very good. Anyway, let me know if you need anything, um,
like if you need to move or…or whatever. Hope to hear from you soon.”

The piles on his desk reminded him of what he should be
doing, so he pulled the manila folder from the top of the stack and got back to
work.

*****

“Primeiro mundo terceiro mundo estádios e escolas!”
“First-world stadiums and third-world schools!” The signs were in abundance as
Maria drove home from work. As a Brazilian, she understood the concern of her
people; so much money was being spent on the upcoming games, yet millions of
them were hungry and ill. Taxes were on the rise to pay for the infrastructure
needed and the country’s citizens felt that they’re being ignored.

The problem was more serious than that though for Maria.
While she could sympathize with the masses, there was a small group that had
taken their dissent to a whole different level. They were targeting American
businesses and to take it a step even further, Americans. And because Maria
worked for an American company, she was beginning to wonder just how long it
would take before the angry mob turned on her too.

“Prostituta Americana!” (American whore!) “Morte ao capitalism!”
(Death to capitalism!) “Sem mais impostos!” (No more taxes!) The chants were
loud as she drove her car through the streets and managed to somehow make it
through again without incident.

Safely locked inside their modest home, Maria listened to
Ben’s voicemail. She was concerned, but more for Luca than herself. And she
knew she had a responsibility to ensure the safety of the tenants of the
Crystal Towers and the employees she had. They were a family and she would not
leave them to fend for themselves. Besides, so far, the protests were a couple
of blocks away from her building. She was confident…well, she was hopeful that
all would be well.