Сергей Редькин – Hide-and-Seek (страница 3)
“Thanks for coming, Alex,” he said shaking my hand.
“My pleasure,” I said.
He had a similar casually expensive look. It seemed that he didn’t want to be bothered with anything that had buttons on and was sporting a dark blue linen T-shirt with no print on and a pair of black jeans with black deerskin sneakers. I’d say the whole ensemble was purchased in a Zegna boutique. A bit too humble for a man like Jared, but who was I to judge?
Since it was an informal situation, I’d decided to keep it simple and to look like I was on my way to some sport event. I chose a doeskin wool two-button blazer from Ralph Lauren; you can’t go wrong with classic. Besides, it could get a bit chilly in the evening. A stretch checked shirt from Corneliani was tucked into a pair of cotton tailored trousers from Brunello Cucinelli. I also felt comfortable in my Carlos penny loafers by Santoni and was on time thanks to my dad’s discontinued blue dial AP Royal Oak. I had kind of tricked him into lending that horology masterpiece to me for a business meeting a few years ago. “It would go well with my shoes, don’t you think?” I believed my line was. I forgot to give it back to him after the meeting and he never asked about it either. Back then, we could forget about things like that.
“Let’s get a pint and sit down by that window,” Jared said, pointing to the farthest corner of the pub.
The place was not too far from Jared’s office, but I was a bit surprised that he chose this old unpretentious, like his wardrobe, place. People with new money often like to show they have it, but I imagine Jared wasn’t one of those people. Perhaps he owned the place. He probably bought it secretly to show other people how humble he was or something. I bet there would be some fancy kind of craft beer with a fruity flavor and healthy snacks.
We grabbed our beers and sat down at an old table.
“Cheers,” Jared said and drank a good half of his glass. “That’s more like it!” he said and put his glass down.
I took a sip. The beer was good. Nothing pretentious, but a good old lager. I had some more and decided to let him talk.
“Listen Alex,” Jared said after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “I just wanted to have a chat with you away from the office. So, there’ll be no shop talk tonight.”
“We’ll do all that next week,” he continued.
“Let’s finish these and order another round, shall we?” he said and, without waiting for my approval, he gave a sign to the bartender for more beer. “Bottoms up?”
Now, that is the game I play well. We drained our glasses.
“I come here all the time. Hugh, the bartender, knows me well and doesn’t mind bringing drinks over when I ask him,” Jared said.
“Okay,” I said.
“They say it’s one of the best pubs in town,” Jared said, looking around.
“Never been here.”
“You’re probably wondering why we’re meeting here.”
“That crossed my mind. Yes.”
“Well, perhaps, you don’t know this, but I spent quite a bit of time overseas. Your family was good to my mom, and she was able to save some money so we could go to our relatives in the States.”
I didn’t remember any of that. Why would I? Jared was not in my circle of friends. He was not on the same level as me socially either. In fact, I didn’t think I had ever talked to him much when we were kids.
Hugh, a middle-aged man with tattooed hands and a goatee, brought our drinks and put them on the table. Jared just nodded to thank him.
“I didn’t really want to go across the pond because I enjoyed my time here. The little cottage behind the main house my mother and I shared and the time playing with the local boys and …”
“Charlie,” I ended the sentence for him.
“And Charlie. Right.” Jared smiled and lifted his second glass. “Here’s to your little brother.”
Jared took a hearty sip from his glass. I followed suit.
“There was just something about that boy,” Jared said. “He was so kind and …what’s the word I’m looking for here?”
“Gregarious.” I made my guess and meant it about my little brother.
“Right. Kind and gregarious.”
Jared emptied his glass. He was thirsty and I had no problems with that. I could be really thirsty if I wanted to. So I emptied mine as well.
“Now, could I ask you to tell me exactly what happened?” Jared said after a short pause. “I mean, I know the story, but I haven’t been to the house ever since I left when I was a kid. I heard it from my mother, and I read something in the papers, but it’d be great to hear it from you.”
Okay, so that’s what those two rounds were for – to soften me up and prepare me for the sad story. It takes more than two beers to make me emotional. A delicious meal and a movie about little puppies in trouble might do a better job. Beer only makes me alert and curious – well, up to three glasses, that is. After that, we either increase the alcohol content or just keep at it until one of us cracks, goes to the bathroom, and breaks the seal.
Well, Jared was my potential investor, my
Chapter 4
My brother was seven years younger than I was. Despite the age difference, I remember us being good buddies. Of course, we had our brotherly disputes, and I admit I could be quite an ass to him at times, but Charlie liked everyone, and everyone liked Charlie. He was incredibly inquisitive – sometimes to the point of annoying the hell out of me – and seemed interested in learning and collecting everything at once. From picking up stones from our stream to gathering postage stamps, from inspecting worms with his magnifying glass to learning star constellations, nothing escaped his awestruck attention. You could often hear him laughing victoriously somewhere in the house or outside whenever he made his discovery of the day.
I always wondered where all that energy came from and why I didn’t seem to have that trait in my DNA. I did my best to keep him away from my so-called entrepreneurial attempts. He always wanted to be around me, though I did not always let him. There was never anything bad or negative about him. Despite all the puberty nonsense teenagers usually go through, I think I was proud to have such a brother, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.
When he disappeared, it felt as though a black void opened inside me, one that has been slowly growing ever since.
I blamed my negligence for his disappearance. For years, I had the same nightmare where Charlie was calling my name, and I couldn’t find him. I would be running around our house looking for him. I could hear his voice, but I just couldn’t find him. I would wake up screaming and it would take a minute or two before I’d realize that it was a dream. The countless hours of therapy gradually changed the dream to the one where I’d just watch Charlie running through the park. Well, the therapy and the “exciting” combination of drugs, alcohol and quite a bit of casual sex. Theoretically, one could’ve called it a breakthrough, but I had tried to forget the day it’d happened and had been avoiding the topic with everyone, including my parents. Today, however, it seemed that there was no way around it. So, there it was.
“You might remember that Maple Grove House isn’t the biggest manor around but quite spacious,” I began.
“Indeed,” Jared said. “Ten bedrooms, isn’t it?”
“Yes, plus five or six other rooms for different activities so to speak.”
Another round of beer magically appeared on our table. This time it was accompanied by a bowl with walnuts.
Jared took a sip from his fresh glass, started cracking the nuts and throwing them in his mouth rather skillfully.
“Anyway,” I said after admiring his cracking-and-throwing technique for a second. “Charlie loved to play hide-and-seek for hours with me because there was so much space that we could use. Our parents were often too preoccupied with their guests to spend any time with us. So, we were left to our own devices when we were there. That was of course only during summer and winter breaks. Then we sort of played it less and less.”
“I do remember that,” Jared said. “I also remember wanting to play with you so much, but the house was off limits to the servants’ kids. We could use the playground though, which was quite generous of your parents.”
That was true. At one point we kept quite a few people as staff in the house. My parents liked to hire married couples with children. They were stable employees, I suppose. Being a single parent, Jared’s mother was an exception, but she was a good employee. In any case, we always had some kids playing in the playground that my great grandfather had built.
“Well, we were playing the game on that day as well,” I said, dreading to get closer to the moment when my brother disappeared. “We hadn’t played in a while and Charlie sort of begged me to do it for old times’ sake, so to speak.”