“Mr. Brown I know you asked not to be disturbed but the caller says it’s urgent. Will you take his call or should I take a message?”
I sighed before answering. Here I am on my 65th birthday and packing up my belongings after 44 years with IBM. Can’t a man have a few minutes to himself before he’s celebrated twice over?
“Put him through Mary. I won’t be returning any messages after today.”
“Gary Brown. What can I do for you?”, I snorted into the phone, trying to be gruff and businesslike at the same time.
“How do you do Mr. Brown. My name is Arthur Bromley and I have something to say to you that, how shall I say it, is of a rather delicate nature. I was wondering if I could come by your offices in a few moments to talk to you about it?”
“Well Arthur, judging by your Pommy accent, I expected it to be of a delicate nature. What is it? You want to sell me some life insurance?”
“No, no. Nothing like that at all.”, Arthur chuckled. “Although I’m sure you will find what I know to be a bit life-altering. I know it was for me.”
“Is this Amway? My friend Lois already tried to get me in on Amway. I’m retiring in about 15 minutes and don’t need any extra money thanks. Look I’m busy. I’ve got to clean up here and then go to a party. I was in a good mood or would never have agreed to this call in the first place. If you can’t just tell me what this call is about, we’ll have to call it a day.”
“No I’m not from Amway either. All right I’ll give it a try. Oh dear, this is rather awkward. Last month I received a letter from my mother telling me that a Fredrick Brown had died. Does that name mean anything to you?”
“Could be Arthur. Fred Brown was my father and he did pass away last year. But it’s a common enough name. Go on.”
“Well what was in the letter was the real shocker. She said that she was to upset to tell me in person or even over the phone. It appears that this Fredrick Brown was my father, which upset me also as she had always maintained that father died during the Battle of Britain. Not so and I’ll condense my story to say that I have followed up on this realization to ascertain that indeed, your father Fredrick Brown and my father are one and the same. So I’m calling to see if you would like to meet your brother.”
The city never seemed so silent as it did at that moment. The only noise came from my desk as it rattled while the earth shook. I caught my breath.
“Arthur come over to my office and we’ll take it from there. It ooks like I might be thrice celebrated today.”
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4 comments:
Rick
A great twist. I like the threads you created of retirement, party, phone call and discovering a brother. That's a lot. Couple of typos!!!
Gordon
This is a good read, I had no idea how it was going to go, so it kept me in suspense. Well done with the dialogue, always a bit of a challenge for me.
I had to have a little giggle at Gary's suggestions of Amway or life insurance.
There's a couple of spelling mistakes, other than that it's fun to be back reading your stories.
Kerry says:
Fun story Rick. You have given us a delightful insight into Gary's character. I like the twist at the end. Good conversation.
One thing - I would be putting commas after 'Mr Brown' (para 1) and before 'Mary' (para 3) etc.
Hi Rick, didn't see that coming. Good on you for telling the story through dialogue. Some how it makes it real even though I was surprised that Arthur took it so well, so easily - he must have been in a good mood. I did wonder though in the circumstances whether he would have been invited to the office as opposed to making a "date". I also wasn;t sure why the earth shook but regardless I enjoyed the story. Thanks Rick.
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