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“Have you all graduated now?” It was just a conversation starter as we finished our meal.
I smiled up at Daniel when he went into his room and came back with a t-shirt that was way too big for me but covered more than my towel did. I slipped on the dark blue shirt with some European soccer team’s logo printed on the front and sat back down at the table.
“Yeah,” Tristan finally answered me. “We’re off to work in Daddy’s firm in a couple of months. We have a trip to Spain planned for July and then we’re supposed to be thrust into the real world.”
He said it was a hint of irony in his voice. “You don’t seem pleased?”
“It’s not that, it’s just that we’re being given these cushy positions that we haven’t necessarily earned. I like a little bit of a challenge when it comes to work. The illusion of being useful doesn’t suit me, or any of us really.”
“Is there something else you want to do?” I inquired, curious to know a little more about them.
“Well, we wanted to open a non-profit organization for disabled kids in our community. We wanted to create a place where they could all come together and play, get to know other children that have their own disabilities. It was also going to be a place where the parents could come and be with parents that understood their lives.”
“It sounds like you had a plan?” I just wanted him to keep talking. His plan sounded great.
“Yeah. We all focused on different areas of running the business. Michael did a non-profit organization and business class. Tristan did child development. Adam studied accounting and I studied special education. We knew we’d have to hire staff, but for the most part, we trained to operate this project ourselves. Dad nixed that. We’re not even trained to work in tech industries, but he insists. All we want to do is play baseball. The one thing that we’ve ever wanted to do.” Daniel looked peeved about it and I could understand that when I considered how much work they’d done.
“We even have the entire organization model set up for it, a building selected, staff chosen. We were working towards this one goal, but Dad won’t have it,” Adam sighed at my left side and I turned to look at him.
“You know that you could get involved in both types. Stick to playing baseball, but have your own business and work on things that way.”
I hadn’t spoken to Adam a lot, but he was just as intriguing as his brothers. That scar over his eye made him look a little… I don’t know, rakish was the only word that came to mind. I smiled at him, despite his annoyance.
“Are you sure you don’t want to defy him?”
“He has us over a barrel. We don’t have the money to do this without our trust funds, and he’ll freeze those if we don’t play along.”
“Maybe you could try to get community support? I’m sure part of your classes were fundraising techniques?” I asked and looked at Michael on the other side of the table.
“It’s something we plan to talk about more over the summer. Spain is a break we need, but I have a feeling we’ll be working through most of it. Fuck! Even our starting contracts would be enough to do what we want to do in time.” he added, finishing the last of the steak he’d had, and put his fork down. “It’s not completely dead yet. If we can do some fundraising, then we might be able to walk away from Dad’s money.”
“Would you really want to do that, though?” I stared at him, fascinated with the idea. “I grew up with a single-parent struggling to keep it all together for us both. She worked her ass off to make ends meet, and I couldn’t imagine giving up this life for that.”
They all looked surprised at the question and four sets of very similar gray eyes locked onto me.
“Go on,” Daniel prompted gently, and I blinked. What did he mean, go on?
“Well, life was hard. I could see giving up money to follow your dreams, but now that I see this place? I couldn’t imagine actually doing it. Going from having every want and demand met to working your ass off to make ends meet? It would be hard on all of you.”
“You have a point,” Tristan said, his serious face on now. “It’s one of the reasons we’ve decided to wait until after going to Spain to decide what we really want to do. We all need to think about exactly what we’re about to give up.”
“I don’t know if I can help, but I’m a Communications major and I’ll do what I can.”
“You’re not going to run off to Hollywood to follow your dreams?” Adam asked with a playful wink.
