Pieces of You (19 page)

The year following the collapse of the project that had been intended to increase the security of their ocean-going vessels, the company had transferred Steve to New York City to oversee their wealth management services.

He and Mark had lost touch but here he was, on a Friday night, sitting in the bedside chair usually occupied by Martin. Steve had been advised by the nurses to talk to Mark as though he were fully alert.

“Hey, man, there’s so much we need to catch up on, so much I need to say to you.
I was allowed to come
on one of the corporate jets
, but
I have to be back in the office Monday morning. Your company needs you back
. W
e all miss you
!
” He couldn’t say any more, just took one of Mark’s hands in both of his own and bawled like a baby.

As the night stretched on, Steve thought about the last major project they had shared. Even though he was quite certain that Mark didn’t know he was there, Steve began to reminisce aloud.

“Once you coaxed our team into defining how they could make a difference, nothing would stop them. Their diligence and persuasiveness harvested contributions from companies and non-profits in dozens of countries.

“You remember how proud we were of the revolving loan fund that you and I got up and running in only six months? Our team quickly found a model we could almost wholly imitate—the Self-Employed Women’s Association in India. We even used their trade union concept to help our borrowers serve each other.

“
Mark, I wonder if you’re aware that the money collected for the loan fund is still circulating. Very little of it has been used fraudulently, and very few borrowers defaulted.

“
That’s a tribute to the simple, sensible guidelines our team built into the system. Some of our people turned out to be excellent mentors and trainers.

“
Remember Gerald, the guy who laid the groundwork with his definitions for restorative and retributive justice and for revenge? He runs a training company now for factory employees who show signs of an entrepreneurial spirit and, from what I hear, doing it pretty successfully.”

Steve was gazing into the middle distance as he spoke, knowing he would be unable to keep up the
pretense
of a two-sided conversation if faced with Mark’s blank features.

Just then, Franz, Mark’s Geneva neighbor, came into the room. After the introductions, Franz took a seat on the other side of Mark’s bed. Steve explained what the nurses had advised and how uncomfortable it felt to converse with his friend, not knowing if anything was getting through.

Franz responded, “Why don’t you just talk to me about those times you and Mark shared? I’ve heard a few of his stories. I’d like to know more.”

“Okay, Franz, I’d be happy to. It was a good time for Mark and me and a highly successful period for our company.  Strange, because the whole team was focused on making the plan work…almost more than making money.”

“You know, Steve, I have a feeling that Mark hears you. You may just have a companion on your walk down memory lane.” Go ahead. Tell us more.” 

“Talking about this reminds me of some of the Somali entrepreneurs we met when we were there as consultants.

“
I remember the young man who had been a pirate or at least a disciple of a group of pirates
.
I’ll never forget the look on his face.

“
Abdi, I think his name was. The stunned look when he and his partners first spied us walking down to the water’s edge with our slacks rolled up to our knees and carrying leather portfolios and a laptop. It was easy to see they were choking on laughter, not to appear blatantly disrespectful.

“
I always wondered why Abdi became Mark’s shadow from the get-go.
It was almost as if he thought he’d found his long-lost uncle or something, even though he told us his family had been wiped out years before.
“

Franz interjected, “Mark does have a way of attracting people to him, especially young people. Almost every time I came over, Martin’s friends would be almost overflowing their den. I would have to pry Mark away from them to get him to hike with me.”

Steve flashed a quick smile and resumed his story.

“Anyway, you’ll recall that this young man and his friends proudly showed us the two or three rather run-down boats they had stripped and refinished. The former owners, probably pirates, had obviously gauged them too decrepit for their purposes.

“
Those young men really had done a nice job of making the boats seaworthy. Just as well, since they persuaded us to take a ride.

“
Good old Mark flaunted unflinching fearlessness while I was white-knuckled all the way. In fact, I think I became a praying man that day.

“
They created a fishing co-operative around those boats and, just a few weeks later
,
our young clients led us through an idle cold storage facility abandoned years earlier. “

Steve turned to Mark, seeming to forget that Franz was in the room.

“Remember the wall plaque with the name of a Danish NGO-business partnership on it? That was another scary adventure, for you too, this time.

“
I’ll never forget how we both just about had heart attacks when the boys shone flashlights into the corners and awakened the monsters—I mean the reptiles. Those guys thought nothing of sharing space with crawly creatures but then their office was not quite as airtight as ours.

“
Remember how totally not reassured we were, when they explained that none of those reptiles were aggressive, not even the poisonous ones?”

Steve paused, as though waiting for Mark’s laughter to subside and then resumed his reminiscences.

“When the cold storage facility was built it was desperately needed
,
but the foreign developers expected local fishermen to come up with capital to operate the business and pay a substantial leasing fee. How could the developers have not known that the locals made barely enough to feed their families?

“It was impressive how keen Abdi and his friends were, assuring us that they could repair the dilapidated building if we would donate a small cache of supplies and tools
.
As soon as
we agreed to that, they
persuad
ed
us to invest in seawater holding tanks with water circulation. They figured the tanks would allow their co-op members to store and then export enough of their fish and lobster catches to provide a secure, if miniscule income. It really was the ideal project to support
,
pro
ving
that our company was serious about being socially responsible.”

Steve seemed to come back to himself from that corner of his mind where Abdi and his friends still lived. “Franz, I wonder how often Mark has relived the excitement of collecting tools, supplies, and equipment, and then finding experts to train the Somali co-op members. I know it’s a memory that can still change a bad day into a good one for me.”

Now it was Franz’ turn to reminisce, “Hmmm, Mark always liked to shop for tools. He and I have had some of our best times showing Martin and his friends what a little skill with those tools could produce.”

“I don’t know how much of a difference that training did in the lives of your neighborhood boys,” Steve said, “but it made a world of difference to our Somali students.

“
Their newfound confidence and skill paid off quickly once our students learned better methods for inshore and deep-sea net fishing, fish preservation and marketing.”

Steve stopped speaking for a moment, his thoughts far away from that hospital room. After a few minutes he took up the story again.

“Everything was going just as we’d envisioned it would, until fishing fleets from other countries turned up and their illegal trawling became rampant
.
There were far more than we c
ould hope to put an end to without powerful collaborators.

“
It was Mark’s idea to turn to the Round Table of International Shipping Associations to do something. With their support, we challenged members of the European Union and the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations to defend the Somali coast from illegal fishing and dumping.

“
It took several months but eventually the various owners of the foreign vessels got the message: they would be caught and punished with exorbitant fines and there would be no clemency.

“
But we hadn’t taken the greediest pirates into account. They couldn’t be stopped by mere acts of goodwill. We had to create an even larger, more encompassing network of private and public entities to improve surveillance and alert shipping companies to threats. Even that we accomplished for a time…”

Mark still had a blank expression on his features – clearly locked out of corporeal reality - but his spirit followed Steve’s narrative. Zachri had become a conductor, channeling the words into Mark’s brain.

After hours of reminiscing aloud, Steve was ready to give up. Franz seemed to be a good man who could fill in some of the gaps in what he knew about Mark’s last few years, but that wasn’t what Steve was here for. Mark hadn’t reacted to anything he had said. What he had shared was his best shot at breaking through to the mind locked within the body of his friend-turned-boss.

***

When he stopped talking, Steve’s physical presence flickered and then vanished entirely. Mark could now only hear Zachri. He needed answers badly.

“Why didn’t it last? Why weren’t our efforts adequate to stop these violent acts?”

“Because it’s very difficult for resource-limited organizations to work collaboratively for long and because human beings will rarely, and only temporarily, exchange possessions and power for peaceful coexistence.

“
Be comforted that what you did made a difference in the lives of many. Even though it did not include permanent protection for your company, your work was honorable and credited to you as acting justly.”

“Thank you for those words of encouragement Zachri. You know, for years I have searched for the answer to why we seem to be judged by our peers and superiors—maybe even God—on our successes only. Now you tell me to be reassured because my purpose was fulfilled. Isn’t that like telling a surgeon that her or his purpose was fulfilled even though the patient died?”

“Yes, it’s something like that. If the surgeon kept himself in top mental and physical condition, kept current on medical procedures, and followed the Hippocratic Oath, then the doctor’s work is honorable, regardless of the patient’s post-operative condition.”

“Since you’re using the analogy of a patient’s condition, Zachri, what is the latest prognosis of mine? Have I learned what I needed to learn? I concede that although I told myself I was a fairly generous, compassionate person, selfishness and pride were always fighting for dominance. That has become very apparent as I’ve relived past events. I acknowledge I’ve been selfish
—
I guess what you’d call sinful! May I now be released to practice a new way of life and to share a better self with my dear ones?

“Mark, I’ve said before the decision is yours, not mine.”
             

Mark ignored the remark; he was intent on getting more answers.

“You’ve been my guide and my support while I faced the darker days of my life. You’ve also brought me back to some of my better days. At least those experiences where you claim I fulfilled my purpose. Funny how when I thought about those days, I had come to the opposite conclusion.

“
I thought I was heroic in war and a trailblazer quenching risk for the bank. On the other hand, I thought I had been impotent when dealing with the pirates and inadequate to the task of correcting corporate
and
personal wrongs. How can a man know what is decent and honorable behavior?”

“Let me respond by sharing some things written by one of your girlfriend’s favorite authors, C. S. Lewis. In
Mere Christianity
Lewis suggests that Moral Law, a Law of Decent Behavior, by which humans live, must come from somebody or somewhere because it’s not what we would choose naturally to do. Men ought to be unselfish, ought to be fair. Not that men actually are unselfish, nor that they like being unselfish but that they ought to be unselfish.”

“Okay, that makes sense. The question I need an answer to but am immensely afraid to ask is
,
what happens when I have repeatedly broken this law?”

Zachri answered, “Let’s go back to Lewis:

‘It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law and a Power behind the law and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. It is a story of repentance and forgiveness.

“Mark, if you accept that, then you have come to a turning point.”