Miriam slumped in the couch. She couldn't stop staring at the pictures. Both of her daughters were beaming in all of them. A cheerful Olga wasn't new, but seeing Helga so happy was something she wasn't used to. That happiness had instantly melted away, it seemed, the moment she arrived. Her eyes drooped. Now would be the right time for a smoothie.
The door creaked open, rattling her out of her rumination. Instinctively, she turned toward the foyer and there he was, staring at her with a hard, skeptical expression. For the first time in a while, a chill gripped her body, spreading cold fear to every inch. She felt like a captive staring up at her conqueror, who had taken the city she lived in by storm. She was at his mercy. Yet, his first words to her in two years were surprisingly nonchalant.
"Have you settled in?"
"Y...yes..." She stammered and stumbled on her feet to meet his gaze.
"I don't think I need to tell you the gravity of this situation. I trust that Olga's already told you my terms."
"She did..." Miriam sighed and drooped her head.
"Hey now, consider this the first step in your new life. Keep your head up - trust me, it affects your mood. The opportunity is yours for the taking, but you need to take it. The choice is yours. You better make the right one."
"..." Miriam drooped her head again and rubbed her arm nervously.
"Louis?"
He turned his head to see Helga staring at him through the banister. She grimaced immediately upon seeing Miriam, which caused her to take a few steps back.
"What is it?" He replied, signaling with his eyes for Helga to relent.
"...The Monthly Boxing Fan came in..." Her frown broke, but it was replaced with a nervous look. "...Do you want to look at it?"
"Sure." He smirked. "Just let me go change and start heating dinner up."
"OK!" Helga grinned and rushed upstairs.
Louis looked at Miriam one more time before making his way up toward the master bedroom. She stared blankly at the wall.
"Mari Iimura talked to a lot of the Kamogawa Gym's members - Ippo Makunouchi being one of them. Apparently, the rumors were true and Takamura's weight management really is a problem. A big one." Helga said as they slowly downed the hot Pichelsteiner that Olga had prepared beforehand. "I really hope he'll be able to make the weigh in. The cutting has been intense."
"That's why I think Hawk's gonna win." Louis responded after spooning another mouthful of the stew. "Takamura's had to cut huge to get to junior middleweight and only two months after his last fight at middleweight. That's gonna take a lot out of him. Meanwhile, Hawk's fighting at his natural weight. The guy's a bum that barely trains, but he's probably gonna skate because of how much the cutting is exhausting his opponent."
Miriam's eyes darted between the two of them. It was a livelier conversation than she'd ever heard with Helga at their own dinner table.
"The guy's a disgrace to the sport!" Helga growled after blowing on her spoonful of stew. "I really, really hope we aren't getting a long title reign from him."
"I get what you're saying, but don't you have other things to worry about?" Louis chuckled.
"Don't start sounding like Olga on me." Helga grinned.
"Hey now, all things in appropriate measure. Not to be a party pooper, but what's going on at that school of yours? Like it or not, you're gonna get work over the Christmas break."
"Yeah..." She groaned. "Actually I've been meaning to ask you. My social studies class has been looking at the Gilded Age, and we all need to do reports on the robber barons over the break. I got John D. Rockefeller. I'm sure you learned about him in business school."
"Sure. Rockefeller basically invented the modern corporation. A study of his career is almost required reading."
"So what can you tell me about him? Give me some bullet points to start with once school lets out."
"Well...the guy was clever, and I mean extremely clever. It's not so much that he was a genius per se, and he was no great promoter, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one, and he knew how to make sure that he would only pursue strategies where his chances of victory were very high...and he could just see little weaknesses in people where he could manipulate them into doing his bidding."
"Like what?"
"For instance, he wasn't interested in actually exploring or drilling for oil. It was too risky. He decided that it was better to put capital into refining the oil once it was out of the ground because there was no risk of losing a gargantuan sum on a well that would come up dry. That's what I was talking about where he only pursued strategies with a high chance of victory. The guy had a great eye for efficiency also, so he would increase those odds still further, and he didn't care about the dark side of all this. So in the early 1870s, he basically set up a cartel with the railroads where he could ship his oil at a reduced rate. Then, because he got to ship his oil at a lower rate than his competitors, he bought rival refineries at a monster pace. He would even go to rival refiners and show them his books to convince them that it was impossible to compete and offer them generous amounts of Standard Oil stock to buy them out. That's how his dominance began. Be sure to look up the 'Cleveland Massacre' for your report, for example."
"Sounds shady."
"Remember, Helga, a lot of the stuff he and his peers did wasn't illegal at the time, and in the end, they did a lot of good, not just by spurring the government to act against their abuses, but also for their contributions to industry, mass production, philanthropy, you know."
"Well, since you know so much about it...how about you write me an outline and I can just copy from you?!" She gave a fake bashful grin.
"Nice try." He smirked. "Besides, knowing you, some of Rockefeller's schemes are going to amuse you, and beyond even that, if you're actually pondering a business career, you have to know about him. You can't learn unless you do the work yourself."
"Fine..." She sighed. "I just...hoped I'd be able to spend a little more time with Arnold over the break instead of working, that's all."
"That shtick might work with Olga, but you aren't fooling me." Louis smirked. "How is that little boyfriend of yours anyway? Eh, why ask? Knowing you, I bet you bullied him into coming over and watching the fight, so I guess I'll be seeing him soon, anyway."
"Y...you have a boyfriend...Helga?"
Her and Louis' eyes both snapped open and their heads abruptly turned to her. Miriam was shocked at their expressions. It was as if they suddenly realized that they weren't the only ones at the table. She felt like a foreign presence.
"It's none of your beeswax, Miriam!" Helga grimaced, fighting to stifle a blush.
Her eyes darted to and fro, from her angry daughter to Louis, who looked like he didn't quite know what to make of her, and then back to her stew. She nervously fiddled with her spoon and silently slid the contents into her throat.
"Uh..." She finally stammered, trying to find something, anything to say. "...Would you like some help with your report, Helga?"
"Why would I ask you for help?" Helga's expression cooled. "Since when did you ever help with anything? If I need help on it, I'll ask Louis. You know, like I just did? That's kind of the story of our lives, isn't it? Why don't you just go back to what you usually do and take an impromptu nap?"
Silence descended over the table. Miriam looked down into her swirling stew with no expression on her face, her lips sealed. They didn't open again until Olga got back. She gave a fainthearted attempt to bid her daughter goodnight.
Helga was in the kitchen, making sure all the snacks were ready. The past few days had been something of a downer. Nevertheless, today she was all smiles. Much more welcome guests were about to descend on the house.
Olga walked into the kitchen, followed by Miriam.
"Helga, you've been such a big help, especially given that Louis and I have other things to do tonight."
"Oh, it's no problem! You taught me well!"
Olga smiled.
"...But what's she doing in here?"
"Helga..." Olga trailed as Miriam looked ahead absentmindedly. "She volunteered to help. Besides, with us having to get ready, the assistance is helpful."
"Fine." Helga sighed, crossing her arms, and rolling her eyes.
"HEY OLGA!" A voice boomed from the master bedroom. "YOU MIGHT WANT TO COME TAKE A LOOK AT THIS! YOUR DRESS HAS A STAIN IN IT!"
"Ugh." She groaned. "COMING!"
As Olga scurried out of the kitchen, Miriam stared at the back of her other daughter, who was busy putting putting the frozen pigs in a blanket on a cooking tray. Her eyes drooped a little. Helga hadn't spoken a word to her in the past few days. Louis had only exchanged a few short words. Miriam could tell that he was on guard, constantly scrutinizing and sizing her up, just less harshly than Helga. Only Olga had spoken to her on a regular basis and even those conversations were somewhat guarded.
"Helga honey..." She ventured. "Do you want me to put the second set of those pigs in a blanket on the other cooking sheet?"
"No, Miriam." Helga answered nonchalantly. "Nobody asked for your help on anything, so why don't you just go away?"
"Helga..." She trailed. Her daughter didn't even look at her as she went to the refrigerator to open the second box of pigs in a blanket.
"What?" She came close to growling as she opened the box.
"Well...Olga said I should help anyway..." She tried to find something, anything.
"Then go 'help' with something else." Helga kept her nonchalant tone, showing no emotion.
"Helga!" Miriam now started to get angry. Her daughter met her gaze with not a hint of a flinch. "I know that...my being here isn't what you might have wanted, but we're still family, and you should treat me with a little more...respect." She trailed, her hot air deflating at the end.
"No, Miriam." Helga replied nonchalantly as she put the pigs in a blanket in the oven. "My real family is about to get here, you know, the people that actually care about me? Why don't you just drink a smoothie instead of giving me all this 'we're family' crapola? That is what you do best, after all. Just butt out, OK?"
Miriam's eyes widened, but the doorbell interrupted any continuation of this chat. Helga finally broke her mask of indifference and started to beam.
"Are they really here already?!"
She rushed out into the foyer, with Miriam cautiously following. Helga looked through the peephole to see a tall, muscular man on the other side, a full beard, wavy auburn hair, and the same green eyes as Louis. A confident grin marked his features.
It was Henry!