Jeff goes home

“Attention Passengers aboard Delta Flight 5727, Reagan National to Boston Logan, our flight is unfortunately overbooked tonight and we are looking for several volunteers to be rebooked on an early morning flight. Delta is offering $350 and 5,000 bonus miles and we will rebook you on our 9 am flight tomorrow morning. If you are interested, please come to the gate and I will assist you in the rebooking process. Thank you.”

Jeff looked at his ticket and saw an arrival time of 10:45. After a taxi ride, he could be home at the old college apartment he still owned, get a few hours of sleep and be at his meeting on time at 9:00 am If he took the offer, the new flight didn’t leave until 9. Could he be several hours late? Would it matter? He loathed being late (and his family laughed at him for always arriving early.) However, lawyers get paid by the hour (actually, he billed by the quarter hour himself) so if they waited, that just increased their top-line number. Plus, he really didn’t want to go to this meeting, but duty called. 

Taking out his I-phone he pressed his thumb on the circle and opened the cracked screen and pulled up his browser searching for Amtrack options. Maybe he could get there on time if Amtrack still offered a train tonight. Yes, his night might suck, but the longer and more relaxing ride could help clear his head for the meeting.

“Bingo…10:00 from Union Station and arrives at Route 128 University Park Station at 7:34.”

Jeff grabbed his computer bag and walked to the line in front of the counter.

“Next.”

“Good evening, is the flight to Boston still overbooked?”

“Yes, it is, we are looking for one more person to volunteer.”

Jeff grabbed his ticket from his coat pocket and his Delta SkyMiles card and handed them to the woman behind the counter.

“I’ll gladly take the $350 and 5,000 miles. In fact, I’ll even rebook myself on a later flight once I check my schedule” adding that last white lie so the woman didn’t try to rebook him on the 9 am flight.

“Sounds good Mr. Carrig, let me just type this in the system so your Delta miles get to your account, and would you like the $350 on the credit card on file or as credit for your next flight?” 

“On my card please.”

II

Jeff worked his way across the walkway and then up the escalator to the Reagan Airport Metro Station. At the top he looked at the monitor. The next train was due in 3 mins, but it was a Blue Line and he wanted a Yellow Line tonight (even though the Blue might be faster.) The next Yellow was 7 mins behind the Blue. Checking his watch, he knew he had plenty of time to get to Union Station, but he didn’t want to rush and be close. Better to be early and relax, then to be late and frantic, a lesson his mother taught him years ago and a big reason he loathed being late. 

As he boarded the Yellow Line, the typical stench of moldy air crossed his nostrils. Just the smell alone told him this train was not one of the newer ones the DC Metro used. And as such he knew the seats sucked, the carpet grossed him out and he would never grab the handrails above when he stood. But at least the Metro was cleaner (and mostly safer) than the New York City Subway system.

Before going back underground after the Pentagon Station, the train crossed the Potomac River, and Jeff’s favorite view (especially at night) the Washington Monument. He purposely sat on the left side of the train so he could stare at the Monument. 

After graduating from Law School, he took a job at a small law firm in Alexandria, Virginia, and remembered moving down from Boston with his then-girlfriend. The first weekend in town, they walked the DC Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument and Jeff remembered looking up at the monolith in awe and wonder. The white stone lit up at night, the flags blowing in the breeze, the history, the feeling of belonging and being a part of the greatest nation on Earth gave him chills, and created one of the best nights of his life. Too bad his girlfriend didn’t have the same feelings of awe (or love,) and she moved back to Boston by herself 5 months later.

The move surprised Jeff and ended up coming on the day that shook his life. The week before she left, Jeff talked with his mother about engagement ring shopping. He promised his mother to wait until they could both talk to his father since several of his clients owned jewelry boutiques in both Boston and New York City. The day his girlfriend broke his heart and left, he talked to his mom for about 2 hours, trying to get the courage to put his life back together. By the end of the discussion, his mother’s words boosted Jeff’s mindset and he thanked her, told her he loved her and decided to boost himself with pizza from Old Town Alexandria.

While at dinner, his dad called. Thinking his father wanted to boost his confidence too, but not wanting to talk to his dad, plus being in mid bite, Jeff let it go to voice mail. 30 seconds later, the phone rang again. By the time he finished wiping his hands, voice mail picked up again. Immediately the phone rang again and this time he answered and his world exploded.

“Hey Dad, what’s up? Sorry, I’m out and couldn’t get to the phone.”

He heard some crying in the background.

“Jeff, Mom was in an accident. She is not doing well. You need to come home now.”

He didn’t make it on time. A food service delivery truck driver blew a stop light and hit his mother’s car right at her door, then he tried to flee. The police tracked him down less than 2 blocks away after hitting several parked cars, found him drunk and belligerent and arrested him.

During discovery for the trial, the prosecutor uncovered the company knew their driver drank excessively, continued to let him drive, and didn’t do anything about it. That fact didn’t do much during the criminal manslaughter trial (the video evidence from another driver’s dashcam was more than enough,) but this evidence easily won the day in the civil lawsuit against the company. The jury found the company at fault and awarded the family $12,000,000 (as well as all legal fees.)

Shaking the memory from his head, Jeff switched trains at Gallery Place to the Red Line; 2 stations later he arrived at Union Station, and purchased his ticket for the 10:00 pm Northeast Reginal 66 to Route 128 Station south of Boston. 

III

Stepping off the train in the all to familiar southern Boston suburb, Jeff grabbed a coffee from the Dunkin in the station and meet his Uber at the door.

“Jeff, right? Headed to Jim’s Deli on Washington St? I’m Alex.”

“Yes, to both, and thanks for picking me up, sorry the train was a few minutes late.”

“No big deal, I needed a chance to drink my coffee…late night watching the Bruins last night. They lost in OT.”

“Tough loss.” Jeff turned his head out his window and looked at the bare trees. 

“I guess I’m about a month and a half late for color?”

“Wasn’t great this year unfortunately Jeff. We had the remnants of a tropical storm come through and blew most of the leaves off early. Kept most of the tourists home, so the local economy also took a hit. I was a lot slower than normal myself.”

Jeff turned back and looked out the front window.

“Sorry to remind you. Hopefully December is busier so you can have a great Christmas for your family.”

“Hope so” Alex nodded, then both men grew quiet.

At Jim’s Deli Jeff got out and again wished Alex a better December. Jeff walked in, grabbed his usual Irish Breakfast Sub and ate it while he walked the quarter mile to his apartment near Chestnut Hill Reservoir.    

Unlocking the door, walking in and putting his bag on the counter, Jeff looked at the microwave.

“8:22…no way in hell I'm gonna make it on time, so I might as well shower.”

IV

“Alex, great to see you again,” Jeff said as he climbed into the back of the Uber.

“Showered, shaved, and dressed…got a meeting this morning?”

“Yup, and I’m about 5 minutes late already.”

Alex looked at his phone, “Well, I’ll have you by Beacon Hill in about 29 minutes with traffic.”

Alex pulled out and started heading east. 

“What do you do for a living Jeff?”

“I’m a lawyer for a Defense Contractor near D.C. working international sales. Mostly boring, but I do a lot of work in Europe so I can travel and see some great history. The kind of history that makes Boston look like an infant compared to almost 1,500-year-old forts, castles, and artifacts.”

“Crap! I’d love to travel to Europe! My family immigrated from Poland around 1900 and I’ve always wanted to go see where my roots are from. My wife’s family is also from Poland, just a decade behind mine so we’ve always talked about taking our daughter. You married?”

“Nope. Came close once though.”

“Well, hopefully, you find the right person someday, and have some kids.”

“Maybe.” With that, Jeff opened up his bag and took out a folder to go over for work, and Alex understood the conversation was over.

V

Jeff climbed out and started walking. He wanted the quick walk to clear his head for the meeting, no need to go in unprepared for the ‘fun.’ Yes, it made him later, but at this point who cared (even though his inner conscience screamed at him.)

Opening the door to the office he walked in and walked towards the reception desk.

“Good morning Mr. Carrig. They are waiting for you in conference room 1.”

“Thank you, Brenda," Jeff said as he walked up to the desk. "Is everyone else here?”

“Yes, you are the last one which is abnormal for you. Is there anything I can do; do you need coffee or tea?”

“No thanks." Jeff said, then followed up with "How are you holding up with all of this? Need any help or want to talk?”

Brenda looked at him quizzically.

“Between the two of us, I should be asking you that, not the other way around.” Jeff smiled as she said that.

“Maybe. But if you want to talk, that keeps me from heading in and facing the fun.”

“Jeff, I think it's time. You can’t avoid this any longer.” She used his first name. He looked at Brenda and smiled, weakly.

“I know. Wish me luck.”

Jeff walked to conference room 1 and opened the door.

VI

“Of all the people I thought might be late, I’d never guess you. You’re late and we’ve been waiting. I want this over with and settled.”

“I love you too Brian. Good morning Liz, Paul, Andy; I actually do love you guys. Good morning Mr. Donnelly, sorry I’m late, flight issues so I took the train up last night. Hopefully, it doesn’t cost us too much for the extra time, although I’m sure Brian will still charge me double…the ‘discount’ for his younger brother.”

Joseph Donnelly smiled at Jeff and pointed him to the middle chair along the right side of the table, opposite two fellow lawyers.

“Jeff, I understand. I’m sure this isn’t something you guys want to go through, but it’s part of life.”

Joe sat after Jeff found his seat. He waved to the other two lawyers next to him who hand out folders, each with a number 1 through 5.

“Please don’t open these yet until we go through the formalities and discuss your father’s will.”

Jeff looked at the folder in front of him. Written in black ink a large #5 stared back at him. Looking to his right at his older brothers, Paul and Brian’s envelopes read #2 and #1 respectively. To his left, his younger brother Andy and baby sister Elizabeth, with #3 and #4 respectively. Jeff wondered why he was #5 since he was the middle child. His should be #3 and his older brother’s numbers were switched too. Maybe since Brian was a partner at this law firm (thanks to his father who helped build the firm) he gets the #1 envelope? And, since Jeff was never his father’s favorite (since he turned down the offer to work here and wanted to make it on his own) his envelope read #5.

“As you can see, each envelope bears a number. According to your father’s will, he decided to allocate the estate in a unique way. One of you will inherit $2,000,000, one will inherit $3,000,000 plus your father’s antique car collection, one will inherit $6,000,000, and the cabin near Stowe Mountain, another will inherit $6,000,000 plus your father’s house here in Boston and the final sibling will inherit $20,000,000 and the house outside of Edinburgh. The rest will be donated to several local charities listed in the will.”

“And how did he decide to allocate the funding?”

“Brian, if you give me a chance, I'll explain everything.”

Brian played with his envelope, turning it over and spinning it around, staring at Joe waiting for him to continue.

“Your father decided that the order of inheritance would match the order you arrived in the office, with the first person receiving the #1 envelope and the last receiving the #5 envelope.”

Jeff understood now why his envelope read #5. But, did his father decide to do this because he expected Jeff to be the earliest as usual. If so, his expected envelope was #1, which meant, what?

“The order, #1 through #5 indicated the breakout, with #1 receiving the $2,000,000 and #5 the $20,000,000 and house outside of Edinburgh, and the ones in between as I stated earlier."

“Are you shitting me? This is a joke, right? Just because I got here first, I get stiffed? What the…”

“Brian, I assume you’d like to continue working here when this meeting is done? If so, I’d watch my mouth and shut up” scolded Joe. “You can open your envelopes now. Inside you will find your portion of the estate and a copy of the will. We will give you some time to read it and talk, and we will be outside if you need anything.”

Joe and the other two lawyers stood and exited the conference room.

Brian stood and kicked his chair as he walked towards the window cursing to himself. The others opened their envelope and started reading. Jeff read that, as #5, he did inherit the $20,000,000 and house in Scotland. $20,000,000 he didn’t want, although he did like the house. Smiling, he looked at Liz and Andy (both with faint smiles on their faces,) stood up, and walked out of the conference room as Brian kept muttering.

“Joe, thank you for being such a great friend to the family. I see Dad also asked to keep the name on the firm, I know it was his baby and I guess he wanted to always be present in the building, sort of like while he was alive.”

“Jeff, I know you two had a strained relationship, but he did love you. And you know, the door is always open for you to be a partner here, we'd love to have you. Is there anything we can do before you leave?”

Jeff pulled out his phone, thought for a second, and replied “Can Brenda draft me a check for $100,000? Made out to cash.”

“It will take us a few minutes but we will have it ready before you leave.”

“Thanks.” Jeff looked back into the conference room. Liz, Paul, and Andy smiled at him and gave him a small wave. Brian kept walking back and forth.

VII    

Jeff opened the door to the Uber.

“Well Jeff, how'd the meeting go?”

“I think it went well. Now it's back to D.C. and time to pack. I’m headed to Scotland.”

“That’s wicked. Wish I could do something like that.” 

“I’m sure someday you will.” Jeff turned towards the window and Alex got the hint again to stop talking.

Pulling into Logan airport Alex pulled up to the Delta drop-off point.

“Jeff, if you’re ever back in town, just let me know and I’ll give you a trip on me. Appreciate the repeat service today.”

“Thanks, Alex, I really appreciate it. Here. This is for you.” Handing over an envelope and getting out of the car, and walking into the airport.

Alex opened the envelope and pulled out two pages, a check for $100,000, and a note Jeff wrote…”Alex, please take your family on a nice trip “home” to Poland, then use the rest for your daughter’s college fund and dinner on me. Thanks and have a Merry Christmas!...Jeff”