I got another flash. On that particular morning the office was closed in honour of Doe?s eighteenth
birthday. When we got there, the janitor let us in and we went up to t}e third floor. I always loved that
building. It was all brass and oak and everything was oiled and polished so it sparkled.
Chief stood in his office, which seems now like it was maybe half the top floor. He stood there and
swept his hand around.
“I?m going to divide this room up into three rooms, boys,” he said. “I?ll take this corner. One of you
can have the river view; the other one, the park.” Then he flipped a coin.
“Call it, Jake,” he cried. I don?t remember what I called. He covered the coin with his hand and
peeked under it, looked up very slowly, and smiled at me. “You win, Jake. Take your choice, river or
park?” I figured Teddy wanted the river and he had a right to it because it was obviously the choice
view, so I picked the park.
And I remember Chief looking at me and that left eye narrowing down for just an instant, and then he
said, “That?s very generous of you, Jake.”
The Evil Eye. Looking back on it, I think Chief saw that move as a sign of weakness. To him, it was
winner take all.
The more I got into it, the faster arid faster the flashes came. The way the place looked, Daisies all
over Windsong, hundreds of them. And candles—my God, there must have been ten thousand
candles. It was a fire hazard there were so many candles.
And people. Three hundred maybe the top of the list. Black tie, a live orchestra, champagne, the
„works. Chief had seen to that. It?s what you call taste, another thing the born rich inherit.
“I got to give you credit, Junior,” Teddy had said as I was straightening his black tie. “Three years,
man, you really stick in there.”
Was that it? Was it a test?
Before the guests arrived, Chief took the two of us out onto the porch and popped a bottle of
champagne and we stood there watching the sun go down. We drank a toast to Doe and threw our
glasses at the big oak tree at the corner of the house.
“One more year, boys,” Chief said. “And you?ll be off to law school. The time?ll fly. You?ll be back
here in business before you know it.”
That was another part of the trap, Chief laying it all out for us that way, planning our lives. Only then
it felt good. When you?re on the inside, it always feels good. When he put his hand on my shoulder,
there was lightning in his fingers. That?s the way Chief was. That?s the way all three of them were.
They were Lightning People. You could feel their aura crackling around them.
“It?s a helluva night, lads,” he said. He didn?t know the half of it.
