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wouldn’t come see him and because of inventory of all things, he had thought. He thought to himself that the market was all anyone cared about and he promised himself that that would never happen to him — that he would never become so consumed by something. It all made sense now. The house’s complete disrepair, Jonah’s decision to go to a University of Maine instead of Stanford. Michael felt ashamed that they didn’t think they could ask him for help before... but he also felt angry that they had hid this from him. Despite all their issues, he was still family. And despite his Dad’s pushy nature, there had been good times too.
    Michael remembered that when he and Jesse were children, their dad would take them fishing. Michael was a little scared at first, especially of the bait — of all the things to be scared of! Jesse made fun of him terribly, but his dad didn’t. He just explained gently that there was nothing to be afraid of — the bait wasn’t going to bite and hooking them was simple. Despite his temper, his dad could be oddly gentle sometimes, which was strange for such a big, burly kind of a guy. His dad was right about fishing. Since that first trip, fishing had become one of Michael’s favorite pastimes.
    It’s funny, for a guy who didn’t want to spend his life filleting fish, he sure spent a lot of his free time fishing. Even in New York. His only vacations were to go out to the Hudson Valley and fish. It was always a trek but afterwards, Michael always felt relaxed and somehow more balanced, something he seemed to be lacking in the other parts of his life. Maybe life wasn’t all bad in Gray Harbor. Michael had some good times in the past, but maybe the sadness of Jesse’s death clouded things a bit — that and Michael’s blow-out with his father over moving to New York.
    New York. New York was great… or it would be if Michael ever got to enjoy it. Michael had been burning the candle at both ends ever since he finished his MBA. Life wasn’t the same anymore. And taking a “vacation” or a leave had been something he never did before. Sure he went away, but always just for a weekend, and often he was fielding calls, even when he was out fishing on a boat. But he knew his time at his company was coming to an end soon, so he figured why not take a break. He decided to help the family on the Goldfarb Funds’ dime, while he was still employed by the company. He had so much vacation time built up that if they did let him go, they’d not only have to pay him a severance but they’d have to pay him for seven years of missed vacations, he thought.
    With the economic downturn, things had taken a turn for the worse… and Michael was on the high end of the pay scale as a Managing Director and on the low-end of bringing in the money lately. Although he was in charge of his group, he didn’t always have the final say on the decisions these days, which is why he was concerned. It may seem ridiculous to get rid of one of your most senior people… but he seemed to have lost his touch, his pulse on the market, at least according to them. Or maybe the money just didn’t matter anymore.
    He had a nice nest egg saved now… but he didn’t want to permanently leave until he figured things out. He also didn’t want to make it easy on them. He had to remind himself how he came to be the director when he was only twenty-six years old. He replaced the last director and turned things around at the hedge fund. Within two years, they had become one of the most well-known hedge funds in the country. Michael had appeared on the cover of Trader Magazine annually for being so successful.
    But enough of that for now — he had to focus. The next three weeks he hoped to help his family, reconnect with his father, figure out his next steps, and then go back to New York, hopefully with a plan of action. When he listed it all like that it seemed unrealistic... but he needed to make it happen. Maybe he’d take a