me!”
“Sandra gave birth to not one, but two baby
girls! While everyone celebrated, I considered suicide. Even so, knowin’ the
good Lord the way I do, the bullets in the gun would have been blanks! They
named the twins Maxine and Samantha. Richard told me he named the first born
after me. How can the child be named after me, Frank, when the child’s name is
Maxine, not Maximillion?”
“Everyone called the girls by their given
names. Not me! I wanted boys, blast it all! If I was gonna be stuck with girls,
by God, I was gonna make sure they grew up thinkin’ they were boys!” Max
exclaimed while he raised his fist in the air, shaking it at the heavens above.
“They did rebuild and refurbished the old
homestead. That’s the only thing that made me happy, if anyone had bothered to
ask. The kids also bought bigger cattle ranches in Oregon, Texas, California,
and Montana. I figured that, at least, wasn’t so bad since Richard did know somethin’
‘bout cattle. Then, the ‘Big One’ would strike and the entire coast would be
under water and there goes my dreams! And, with my luck, they’d find a new
market producing water wings for cows!”
“Then if that weren’t bad enough, the blasted
reporters started coming ’round, sneaking up on a man and asking stupid
questions. Like,” Max’s voice became high pitched as he began to imitate a
female’s voice, his expression looking as if he had just swallowed a nasty
piece of fish. “‘What color underwear are you wearing’, and ‘How does it feel
having all that money?’” Max, speaking normal, “Like even the reporters needed
to pour salt on the open wound of my life! Richard and Sandra worried about me
talkin’ to reporters and stuck me with a twenty-four-hour babysitter… you!”
“Then, of course, there’s the crownin’ glory to
this story. Richard, in his infinite wisdom, decided to name this monstrosity
after me. The company is known and recognized as Maximillion Enterprise. My
name linked to this calamity! The day they told me, I could have sworn I had a
heart attack! You ’member Frank, they had to rush me to the emergency room.
‘Nothing serious’ the doctor said, ‘just need to relax a bit.’ Relax? When my
life is a livin’ hell?”
“Emma was in heaven of course, why wouldn’t she
be? Emma always wanted a girl, so it’s fittin’ she now has five! Sandra
proceeded to give birth to three more traitors. All were girls: Jessica, or
Jesse as I insist on calling her, Alexandria, or Alex, and last but not least,
Jacqueline, or Jack for short. My life, in my opinion, is God’s idea of a
blasted joke, only I’m not laughin’! If anything, I'm considerin’ buildin’ a
polar outpost in Antarctica and movin’ in! However, I fear even that would be
cursed! With my luck, the darn ice would melt because of global warmin’, and
I’d have beachfront property worth millions!”
Setting back in his rocking chair Max’s eyes
clouded over. Frank knew the next part of the story extremely well. Even after
all these years Max would not speak of it aloud, the pain of it far too great
for any man to bear.
On Richard and Sandra’s tenth anniversary, the
girls had been staying with their grandparents because Richard had wanted to
surprise Sandra with a trip to the Caribbean. This was the moment of the story
where there was no happy ending. Frank would never forget it. He was there
through it all.
That was the year that Richard and Sandra died
in a tragic plane crash. They experienced a fluke mechanical error and went
down en route back to the states. Max had wanted to give up the money right
there on the spot, to the first charity he could find, but Emma stopped him.
She said that without the money, their son would never have found Sandra, and
they wouldn’t have their granddaughters.
Max asked her what she knew about running a
multimillion dollar corporation, to which she replied, “Nothing, but you had
better figure it out, and quick”.