an expression of hatred rippled across his face, then he smiled and it was gone and he stuck out his hand.
“Jeremy Tripp. You’re Johnny Richardson. And you’re Stan.”
Stan made a surprised noise. “Wow, how’d you know?”
Jeremy Tripp waved his hand dismissively. “A man moves into a new town, he does his homework.” He gazed toward the trees that lined the road. “This is a very nice spot.”
There were two wooden benches in front of the warehouse, put there to add a little rustic charm to the metal shed. Jeremy Tripp sat down on one, leaned back comfortably, and gazed at us. He was in his late forties and a few inches under average height. He had brown hair that had been highlighted and a body that, while not overweight, was more padded by fat than muscle. He looked like a man who was used to dealing with people. He waved at the other bench.
“Sit down, it’s a beautiful day.”
I found his proprietary air offensive but as we were just starting a business it seemed sensible not to be offensive back. Stan and I sat and I forced myself to make conversation.
“So you’re new in town?”
“Mmm, arrived yesterday. Got a place on the Slopes.”
“What brings you to Oakridge?”
He looked levelly at me and took some time to reply. “I’m thinking about building a small hotel here.”
“Oh? Whereabouts?”
“I’m not certain yet, though I have a possibility in mind.”
“Is that what you do, build hotels?”
“I ran a telecommunications company. I’m taking a leave of absence. I was getting flaccid. The challenges in that world are really not so interesting. The boardroom is bullshit. What I’m interested in is something real. We’re like children, John, always children. We have to keep pushing at the walls of our playpens. Without that there isn’t a whole lot else to do.”
“I guess.”
“You don’t sound as though you know your own mind. You should watch that. The mind is the most powerful thing we have. A big, strong guy can beat someone up. But a smart guy can destroy a whole life.”
“If he wanted to.”
“If the person deserved it, it would be satisfying, don’t you think? Manipulating events to get that result.”
Despite the dictates of good business sense, I was thinking of getting up and leaving him to pontificate to himself, but he laughed and shook his head.
“Don’t pay any attention to me. I get these crazy ideas and I blurt them out. I don’t mean a word I say. What do you do, John?”
Stan chirped up before I could answer. “We’re starting a business.”
“Really, Stanley? Tell me about it, I’m all ears.”
“We’re going to put plants into stores and people’s houses.”
“I know the sort of thing.”
“Hey, you could be our first customer. Is your house big?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I bet it would look better with some plants in it.”
“It might. How are you structured? A one-off start up fee and a monthly maintenance charge?”
Stan looked nervously across at me and I pretended I had at least some idea of what I was doing and answered Jeremy Tripp with a firm “Yes.”
Stan took him into the warehouse and showed him the displays we’d assembled. When they came out again Tripp told us how many planters he wanted, then he shook Stan’s hand and sat back down.
“Done deal.”
I thought Stan would burst with happiness. “Boy, this is incredible! Hey, Mr. Tripp, can I go look at your car?”
“That’s not a car. That’s a VI2 E-type Jaguar. Yes, you can look at it.”
“Wow, thanks!”
Stan bounded off to the parking lot. Jeremy Tripp watched him go.
“You two seem close.”
“We are.”
“Your brother appears to be quite invested in this plant venture.”
“Yes.”
“For the money? Because he doesn’t really seem like the money type. Tell me, is he challenged?”
“He had an accident when he was young.”
“And this is his chance to feel like he’s part of the normal world?”
“I don’t know.”
Tripp smiled knowingly. “Did you research your market?”
“What’s to research? No one else in Oakridge does it.”
“Even so, I’d be surprised if the town could sustain this kind of business. You’ll get customers, of course, the question is will you get enough of them? You have to pay for your stock, cover your operating costs, and generate sufficient profit to make the whole thing worthwhile. Juggling your income and your expenses can be tricky, John. I should know.”
“Well, we’re going to give it a shot.”
“How do you think your brother will react if that shot fails?”
“I guess he’ll come to terms with it.”
“Really?”
Stan came back from the parking lot then. “Cool car, um, Jaguar, I mean.”
Tripp’s face brightened. “Just the man! How would you feel if your plant business didn’t make it, Stan?”
Stan looked at him in surprise. His mouth trembled and he glanced at me then back at Tripp. “Don’t you want plants anymore?”
“Oh, I want them, don’t worry about that. But what if no one else does? What if no one ever leases plants from you?”
“Well, I… I…” Stan couldn’t form an answer and I saw tears start in his eyes.
I stood up and clapped my hands together and made a show of being the upbeat, busy guy who really just had to get on with his work. “Well, we’ve got a lot to do here. We can come out tomorrow with your displays, if that’s convenient.”
Jeremy Tripp just sat and smiled at me for a moment. Then he stood up. “That would be dandy.” As he turned to go back to his car he put his head close to mine and whispered, “Doesn’t look like he’d come to terms with it to me.”
After he’d gone Stan looked at me unhappily. “He’s weird, Johnny.”
“You can say that again. But guess what? We got our first customer.”
Stan made a superhero noise and raised his fists in the air. “Yeah! Plantasaurus lives!”
And though it
My father came home that evening with presents for us. In the past his choice of birthday and Christmas gifts had been a family joke. Although he never missed these occasions the things he bought seemed either to have come from some bargain basement bin, or otherwise had no relevance to the person for whom they were intended.
As an adult I had tried to understand this seeming incompetence. He was an intelligent man, so it wasn’t that he didn’t have the ability to make appropriate choices. He was not a wealthy man, but neither was he so strapped for cash that he was prevented from buying something reasonable. What I came to suspect was that he felt the choosing of a gift that would delight its recipient, that required thinking about and searching for, was an action that would betray too much emotional involvement on his part. And so he chose instead to give gifts that were empty of meaning and maintained the barriers to engagement that seemed so necessary to him. But this evening, when he came home in a white Ford Taurus rental, his presents were nothing like that.
