August 2027: The Coronation Part XII.
Friday in New York had also been a day to remember, but for less historic reasons. Thad had been up early that morning, taking a train to New Haven; he was heading there to meet up with David, who was visiting Yale on behalf of his employers at Google. The Ivy League college was having some issues with its IT systems, and David was one of the best now at finding where the glitches were, and then ironing them out. He had already used remote diagnostics from his office in Boston to identify the salient issue, and he would only need to be on site for an hour to resolve them, but both Yale and Google had told him to take the day there; the minute he knew that he had called Thad up and invited him to come and join him on a day's exploration of the school…
Thad was always eager to meet up with his best friend, the opportunities less regular now as their adult lives took over, so he had arranged with Tina to feed Caleb his lunch, and with Mike to feed him his evening dinner on his way home. That allowed them to spend the most time together, David hoping to have his work completed by the time that his friend arrived on the campus.
Drew was scheduled to be working from home that day and had agreed to take care of Ty and Olivia for his upstairs neighbours as well as his own daughter. All had been going well until just after 8am, when his phone rang. His boss was on the other end of the line, asking him to come into the office as a matter of urgency. He explained the situation that he was in, but his employer apologised and stated that the crisis that had developed was too big, and they needed Drew's expertise in the office to resolve it.
He thus had no choice but to try and find an emergency sitter, as he did not think anyone would appreciate the three kids sitting in the office in the circumstances; the issue was that he had none of the normal people to request help from. Jeff was out of town, Thad too, and it was too soon to ask the new young people next door. In despair he called Beats, and he suggested trying Dante. He was just leaving home for a shift at the Strand bookstore, but he proposed a solution…
It was the first time that Lachlan had taken care of the young people on his own; he had helped out Dante more than once, but now he was flying solo, able to take the role as his own shift at the Spotlight Diner that day was an evening one. He brought with him a couple of books that he had to read for college over the summer, as he could read them just as easily at Drew's place as he could at home. The exchange of words between Drew and the young man was brief, and with the youngsters occupied, Lachlan sat down to study. He had barely opened the book when he heard a knock at the door; opening it, he saw a surprised Tina standing there. It turned out that she too had been summoned into work, and that meant someone else had to feed Caleb. It was another responsibility for Lachlan to accept, but not an onerous one by any means…
At lunchtime, Lachlan headed down the street, his three charges at his side, ready to assist in the feeding of the tortoiseshell cat. He was concerned that if he went alone, there could be an issue, as he was aware how the animal could be around people he didn't know too well like himself. Tina had pointed out that when food was involved, Caleb had no issue with the person that was providing it…
He was a little surprised to discover after he opened the door that Evie knew the code for the alarm system, but she had just shrugged and pointed out that she had watched her dad type it in on a few previous occasions when he had been helping to keep the hungry cat fed, and she recalled it well. Of course, only the doors and windows in the house were alarmed, no motion sensors being present in the house, given the fact that there was an indoor cat prowling around that could set them off.
Caleb woke up the moment that he heard multiple sets of feet on the stairs, and after cautiously checking who it was, miaowed in greeting before coming over to accept strokes from the children; Lachlan was ignored however until the moment that he started to put the food in the cat's dish, and then he was the recipient of numerous rubs and nuzzles, now Caleb's new best friend. They all watched as he ate down the contents of the dish, drank some water, and then with a yawn and a stretch, headed back to his bed, the presence of the humans now no longer important now his stomach was full…
Taking great care to reset the alarm correctly, the little group headed back along the street to get their own lunch. To his shock and horror, Lachlan discovered that the door to Drew's apartment was now unlocked, and he was convinced he had locked it behind him. All three of his young charges confirmed his suspicions, and that led him to only one conclusion…
Telling the children to wait outside, he carefully opened the door, and proceeded with great caution into the hallway. As he tiptoed along, he wished that there had been something that he could have used as a makeshift weapon lying near the door; better still, there would have been a hockey stick or a baseball bat. He knew that there had been a spate of break-ins locally, and even if the door did not look like it had been forced open, that meant nothing; there was such a thing as skeleton keys after all…
Much to his surprise, he could hear the kettle boiling as he neared the kitchen door, which was ajar now. This seemed like a pretty audacious move by a potential thief, and he wondered if Drew might be home, but then dismissed it, as he would have sent him a text when he came back to an empty house. The noise did allow him to move a little faster with less worry about being heard. He crouched down as he approached the open door, and was on his hands and knees as he cautiously looked round the door jamb…
The crisis that Drew had needed to deal with had not been nearly as bad as his boss had made out, but it still took much longer than it should have done to resolve. He had hoped to get away for lunchtime, but in the end, it was 2pm before he could escape the office. He immediately sent an apologetic text to Lachlan, but he received no reply. He hastened home, but still stopped at the small local market to pick up a couple of items on his way. He let himself back into the apartment, shouting his apologies as he hung up his coat on its usual hook…
Then he saw what was hanging up on the hook next to it.
He left his shopping on the floor right there and ran along the hallway to the living room, to find the children watching television. "I told Lachlan he could go; I didn't see the point in him staying now that I was back," said Ethan, with a smile that was only surpassed by the one on Drew's own face.
"He's a good kid; he stepped into the breach at the last minute and saved my life…"
"He ended up having to go along the street and feed Caleb his lunch too. I came home to an empty apartment. Of course, I left the door unlocked, and that spooked Lachlan quite a bit when they came back…"
"He told us to stay in the lobby whilst he came in, and under no circumstances were we to try and stop anyone that came running out…" said Ty with a grin. "We watched him from the lobby, and he ended up down on his hands and knees by the time he was at the kitchen door."
Ethan chuckled at the memory, and added, "I was making myself a cup of tea, and I glanced over to see his head peeking round the door frame. I think that his embarrassment was tempered by the fact that it was me and not a burglar, although it will remain between all of us. Now, you must be hungry; why don't you come into the kitchen and I will make you a sandwich…"
Ty, Olivia and Evie were engrossed in the show on the screen, so they allowed the two men to head to the kitchen alone. The moment they were there, Ethan insisted that Drew take a seat as he unpacked the bag of shopping that his friend had brought home, before proceeding to make him a pastrami sandwich on rye bread, something that had always been his favourite; even more so now after he had been prevented from eating such things by his wife during their abusive marriage.
"How is your father doing now?" Drew asked after Ethan had placed the sandwich in front of him, and now was taking his own seat, a jug of iced tea and two glasses in front of him.
"He is more or less back to normal, but he admitted to me that he has finally realised that the time has come when he and indeed mom need to take a step back and slow down. Having said that, I don't think she is of the same opinion about herself, as she is working away just as hard as ever. I would actually have been home yesterday, but my dad asked me to stay another night so that he could have a conversation with me without mom being around. It started off normally enough, but then he came to the crux of the matter. Essentially, he intends to start the transfer of some of his responsibilities within the business to me within the next six months; nothing that will require me to give up my current job entirely as of yet, although I may need to ask to go part-time…"
Ethan paused to have a drink of his tea, and to ensure that Drew was eating his sandwich, which made the other man laugh, then obey. "Seeing as he had his attention, I told him what I wanted to do with the company's office building downtown, and he started to laugh, which I will admit annoyed me intensely. However, just as I was on the point of exploding and telling him to forget it, he directed me to open one of the drawers in the filing cabinet and take out a particular folder. I did, and he told me to open it; inside was a set of blueprints, signed off by himself and mom, for exactly the restoration that I had been thinking of doing. I just stared at him open-mouthed, and he said, 'Son, your mother and I know that your heart is in New York, and that whilst you will step up and take on the business when the time comes, it would be on your terms, and that precludes coming back to live in Ohio. The best thing about this is that it shows that we all think on the same wavelength, which is reassuring for the future of the business…' In short, the work on the Trust Building will start in October, the moment that the current tenants are gone. I have been sent home with a copy of the blueprints and a free hand to install whatever technology I think best to futureproof the place. I am going to speak to David about that, see what he thinks the future of tech will be…"
Drew had started to smile widely the longer that Ethan had spoken, and that put a smile on his face too. "That is good news, to know that you will be staying here… I'm going to be honest and say that I am very glad to have you back. Everyone has been so helpful whilst you've been away, but this week, with Jeff out of town, and Adam and Lawrence as well for that matter, things have been a little more stressful. I have missed having you to talk to of an evening once Evie is in bed, and she has definitely missed you too."
"I have missed the two of you every bit as much; you are as much family to me as my mom and dad. Hopefully I will not need to disappear off to Ohio for so long again for a very long time. We can just enjoy our time together now, at least until Wednesday, when Ethel arrives from London…"
Drew chuckled, and said, "That is the first time that you haven't just referred to her as Lucy's grandmother ever…"
"Well, yes; mom heard me saying that all the time, and eventually she sat me down and asked me if the poor woman had actually been christened with that awful name. I said no, of course not, and she pointed out that I needed to start using her real name to ensure that I didn't call her anything but that whilst she was in town. She has a valid point, so from now on she will be Ethel. We need to finalise which one of us will be meeting her at the airport, and also when and how we will introduce her to the others."
Drew nodded, and said, "I suppose that we need to let them all know that she is coming, and who she actually is before she arrives. We will also need to tell them her name so that everyone can be accurate, although for the guys it will be her surname."
Ethan nodded, although a part of him did wonder how their neighbours would react to her presence on the street. He was most concerned about Beats in that respect, as he still felt angry about what had happened to Drew, and unlike Jeff, had never met the lady in question…
Thad would arrive back in the West Village from his day trip to New Haven bang on schedule, his train so punctual that he actually wondered if the previous one was actually running an hour late. He had enjoyed his day with his best friend immensely, who he had noticed was looking a little older now; he guessed that was what being the father of three boisterous young children did to you. It was true that he had a few dozen boys in his care when Dalton was in session, but they were not, in the main, as needy and demanding as his friend's children could be.
David had shared some news with him, namely that Mercedes had a tour scheduled that would be taking her to Europe once more; he would be joining her for the last fortnight of it, when she had shows scheduled in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and finally London. "I don't actually know how she does it really; eight performances in five countries over the space of twelve days. Even the thought of that makes me feel quite exhausted."
Thad had laughed, and then David's face had become serious again. In a very low voice, he confided in his friend another secret, one that had to remain strictly between them. He had an appointment booked at a clinic for a small operation at the end of the month; an operation that would ensure that his family stayed the size that it was now. Thad knew what he meant, and nodded, as his friend assured him that it had been his own idea. Thad would never have thought otherwise, and smiled at just how thoughtful and considerate the man before him was…
As he walked in the direction of Nick and Jeff's house that night, Thad's thoughts were with his best friend and the choice that he had made. David and Mercedes had no issue with conceiving children, and now they had decided it was time to stop. Meanwhile, his brother had longed for a child, but nature had not given him the option of being able to have one of his own. He knew that Ollie was not alone in that situation, but he had never felt the urge to do for any other couple what he had done for his brother and Michelle; he could never be a sperm donor.
All of that was supposed to be anonymous, had been for decades, but there had been court cases now around the world where the children born as a result had demanded the right to know who their father was; the courts had then decided that their rights had outweighed the father's right to anonymity. Not all of those children had wanted to know the identity of their natural father for emotional or philanthropic reasons; some had not wanted to know any longer when they discovered that the man in question was poor… No, he had donated to them out of love, and should Ollie and Michelle ask him again, desiring to give his namesake a sibling, then he would oblige…
It was as he was about to climb the few steps to the front door of his temporary home that he noticed a familiar face standing outside the door of his own home just along the street, and he continued on to go and speak to Ethan. He swore as he walked on that he heard an indignant miaow, but he did not intend on being long in getting home. "How is your father?" he asked as soon as he was at Ethan's side.
"Better, but honestly, he still isn't 100%; I think he said he was okay as he wanted to set me free again for a little while… That sounds melodramatic and a little callous, but I will have very little freedom when the time comes for me to take the reins of Mackenzie Inc…" replied Ethan, before his tone changed. "Thad, could you spare me a few minutes for a one-on-one chat? I need to talk to someone that isn't a resident around here all the time, but someone I can trust implicitly to give me good advice. The fact is that whilst I was away, I received a call from the private detective that I hired in Germany to watch over Lucy, and well, he had some interesting news…"
Thad did not hesitate to invite to come along to Niff's home with him, and escorted him down to the kitchen, finding Caleb sitting in the middle of the room, glaring at the bottom of the stairs, and miaowing as soon as he saw their feet. Ethan couldn't help but laugh as the cat then turned his back on them, and stalked over to the fridge, before yowling as if he was on the verge of starving to death. Thad shook his head, and walked over to the fridge, spotting the note from Mike on the countertop, which said that he had popped in and fed Caleb just over two hours earlier…
"I never used to believe Nick when he said that you were a bottomless pit," Thad said directly to the cat, "but now I wholeheartedly agree. Mike only fed you two hours ago, and you are claiming to be hungry!" Nevertheless, he opened the door to the fridge and found a few scraps of fish, placing them in the cat's bowl, then putting fresh water in his other bowl too. That task done, he made a pot of coffee, then headed over to the couch where Ethan was sitting with two mugs…
"You know that the lovely Lucy is currently in Berlin – I told you that months ago – and that she had turned her focus onto a medical student that only turned twenty last month? Well, I will start with the good news, and that is that he has come to his senses, has seen her for the bitch that she really is, and has ended their relationship…"
Thad nodded, then said, "Whilst that is excellent news, I have a funny feeling that there is a but here, and that she has now turned into a vengeful stalker, making the life of the poor boy and everyone associated with him a misery…"
"Oh, she certainly tried, given that she was one of the people tasked with his degree education. She tried to flunk him in his examination papers, and not even just the ones that she was directly responsible for marking. She had access as an examiner to the main database, and she went on and reduced his marks to a failing level. She might have got away with it as well had it not been for the fact that one of the other examiners broke the rules and posted the marks for each of the students on a college noticeboard, as everyone had done so well. That meant that the student knew what he had scored for that paper, as did everyone else, so when he was informed that he had failed it by the college authorities, he challenged it; what's more, he told them everything that had been going on. He told them that he felt she had done something to his results to get him sent down from the university out of spite. They did not dismiss his accusations as being sour grapes, as some colleges would, and investigated. They found a trail that showed that Lucy had downgraded his marks, right down to the exact time she had done so…."
"Oh dear," said Thad, trying not to laugh or smile too much. "She will be in trouble then, her reputation in tatters…"
"Indeed. The university went so far as to remark all of the papers that she had graded and discovered that out of a group of forty students, she had marked down twelve students, all of them male, but had upgraded three, all females. One of those papers was so inexorably bad that they felt they needed to investigate further why she had marked it at 90%. The student in question turned out to be the daughter of an eminent politician, who had a reputation of being willing to pay for favours, something that had never been proven, until now. It is bad enough in most circumstances to take cash to improve an exam score, but in this case, it could have been fatal for a poor patient…"
"So the first consequence for Lucy was the immediate loss of her teaching position, but the university authorities also backed the student to report Lucy to the police for her actions towards him. They took her into custody last week, and well, they went on to contact the police liaison officer at the embassy of a certain middle eastern nation that Lucy used to call home. They came and as soon as she was released from the custody of the Berlin police, she was taken into custody by the federal authorities, as she is now wanted abroad in connection with the suspicious death of her former husband…"
Thad couldn't stop himself and clapped his hands together in delight. "At last, justice is finally coming for her. In my opinion, she should have been arrested for what she did to Drew as well…"
"I won't disagree with that, but the timing of all of this isn't great. Lucy's grandmother is coming over here to visit us next week. Just imagine this scene at JFK… 'Hey, Ms Prescott, welcome to New York! It is so good to see you – and by the way, Lucy is being deported on suspicion of the murder of her second husband any day now…' It couldn't be much worse…"
Thad wondered momentarily who Ms Prescott was, before realising that Lucy's grandmother must have reverted back to her maiden name. "Well that would certainly be an awkward situation to find yourself in, but let us not forget that she has put some distance between herself and her daughter's family over the last few years, the rift starting when they used her being in hospital as an excuse to force Drew into a marriage that he never should have entered into…"
"People say that they have distanced themselves from the family they have come to despise, but when something major happens, that all gets forgotten. I mean, just look at Beats; he wanted nothing more to do with his sister after all she had said and done, but when she died, he was stricken with grief and guilt in equal measure. When she discovers that her granddaughter is about to be deported to the Middle East, possibly to face charges of murder, she too might have a change of heart…"
"You seem to have landed yourself with a classic Catch 22 situation and no mistake. It is going to happen, and therefore you can't not tell her what you know, that much we both know. It is I guess a matter of when you tell her. You don't want to mar her whole visit before it starts by telling her as soon as she enters the country, but neither do you want to say you have something to tell her as you accompany her to the check-in desks as she is heading for home. I am very much afraid that at some point during her visit you will need to take her aside, sit her down, and tell her what you know. Okay, so you don't need to admit how long you have known – maybe a letter could arrive with the information, information that you share with her and Drew for that matter, at the same time…"
"A white lie used so as not to destroy everything before it even begins…"
"It also saves you from telling Drew straight away too, because I am pretty sure that he is just as much in the dark about what is happening as her grandmother is. That is no bad thing, as he has been stressed about her impending arrival; the fact that you are back will help him cope a lot better, I think. Of course, he missed you a lot, and he was also worrying about the future…"
"Well, he can be a bit more certain of that now; I can't reveal too much but let us just say that the job I am fated to be given in the future will not have any impact on current living arrangements."
Thad nodded, reflecting that being the only child of billionaire businesspeople did indeed make inheriting the business a fate. Yes, he would be rich, but money did not lessen how awful it had to be to not have any choice on your future career…
Ethan headed for home after that, conscious that Drew would be wondering where he was, and that let Thad prepare for bed. He did not want to be too late in going to bed that evening, and the same applied to the majority of the neighbours in the West Village street that night. Those closest to Thad would all be out of their beds by 5am at the latest the next day, having their breakfast as they tuned into the initial pre-ceremony coverage from London. Just as when the funeral of the late Queen had been approaching, there was an air of anticipation in the city, even if the new monarch did not enjoy the same level of popularity and status as his mother had….
For some, they had a negative opinion of him because of what had happened over thirty years earlier, something they stuck with even though the majority had come to realise that there had been a degree of fault on both sides of his first marriage. What had been dressed up as the fairy-tale romance of the century had in fact been an arranged marriage of the worst kind, cooked up by their respective grandmothers. History now told the world that the new Charles had fallen for the woman that was now his Queen Consort almost the moment that they had first met, and that had it not been for the stuffy, disapproving officials of the day at Buckingham Palace intervening, then there was every chance that he would have married her instead…
The majority of the world now saw a man that was happy. They saw a man of vision, who had expressed his concerns on the great issues of pollution, climate and environment for the first time back in 1971, and had at the time been labelled a young, clueless crank and a fool; now the world knew that he had been right. There were many that hoped that he would not be like his mother in one respect and would be a monarch that meddled in the political affairs of the nation. His mother had done so on one occasion in the 1950s and had been burned badly by the politicians then; after that, she never expressed an opinion or took a side again, at least in public. So far, however, he had not been, but it was still early in his reign; he was concentrating on getting the Royal House in order first. Some felt that he might well use his 80th birthday the following year as a springboard to reveal what he really felt…
All that was of course pure speculation, and for the future. All that concerned the world now was the events of the next day, when London would be the centre of global attention as an age-old ceremony took place in a very different world from the one it had occurred in last…
