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“They are a rare and beautiful type of firefly. It’s a unique species that, for some reason, is located here in western Carolina. They’ve been spotted in a few other places, but primarily they’re here. For just a couple of weeks, usually in May, they arrive. They glow blue-green instead of the gold-white light we see the rest of the summer.”
“Wow.”
“My mother loved them. She would sit outside every night and wait for them.”
Silence fills the space between us as I think of what to say. He’s mentioned her several times tonight. It’s easy to see that he misses her.
“Well, I’ll have to make sure I’m here in May so I can see them too.”
“Where else would you be?” he asks.
It’s then I realize that while I don’t know much about him, he doesn’t really know anything about me either.
“New York.”
13
BRIGGS
Stripping off my suit jacket, I drape it across the back of the couch in my brother’s library and make my way to the bar. He invited me over, as he said he needed to discuss something privately with me, so I found myself in Eastover, already dreading whatever he had to say. Coming from him, it could be anything from it’s time you take on more of a role again with the company to don’t you think it’s time to apologize to our father for taking his wife away. What the two of them have never understood is that my mother did what she wanted. Her choosing to live and, in the end, pass away in Horizons Valley was her choice.
I let out a defeated sigh, just wishing this day was over.
This past week has been exhausting, and I had forgotten this from previous years. Picking the apples, washing them, milling or grinding them, and then crushing and pressing to extract the juice. While the apples don’t need to be ground immediately to get the quantities we want for each flavor, it must be done all at once and not slowly.
Scanning over the bottles in front of me, I may make ciders, but I certainly appreciate the flavors of an old single malt whiskey. My brother doesn’t disappoint, as there’s a full bottle of Macallan Enigma. I open it with zero regard to whether or not he wanted me to.
After today’s meeting, it’s needed.
My family owns the largest private equity firm in North Carolina, totaling just over five billion dollars. We’re approaching our sixtieth anniversary, and they’re already worried about how we can use this to our advantage from the PR sector. Quite frankly, I feel like it’s not as important as they think it is, and it’s definitely not something I should have to listen to, especially since we’ve all heard the story repeatedly.
My grandfather met my grandmother during the civil rights movement in Greensboro in 1960. He joined in at the sit-ins with several baseball friends as he played with the Greensboro Yankees, a minor league team. While Jackie Robinson was the first player to enter the Major Leagues in 1951, almost ten years later, the teams in North Carolina were still mainly segregated. No one really knows why my grandmother was there. Did she believe in the cause, was she rebelling from her parents, or as a socialite, was she looking to be photographed and have her picture printed in the papers? It’s never been really clear, but what did happen was they met and ultimately fell in love.
My grandmother came from a prominent family who found their fortune during the Carolina gold rush. Their property produced one of the largest gold nuggets found in the state, in addition to numerous other gems such as amethyst, ruby, sapphire, and emerald. My grandfather didn’t come from much at all. All he really had going for him was being able to play baseball and hustle people with money. If you gave him two quarters, he’d make a dollar.
Little by little, he would use my grandmother’s inheritance to invest in people and companies he thought had potential, and in turn, he made a nice amount of money. It wasn’t long after that he was approached by other wealthy individuals. They wondered if he invested their money, could he make them a profit too? For years, he focused on the industrial growth of the Carolina market and surrounding areas of the South. He ultimately revolutionized several cities, resulting in many jobs, and he became someone to the people of North Carolina. It’s what I’m most proud of when I think about our company’s history.
It was after my father took over that things began to change. He began to work less with the companies and their shareholders and instead pulled the control strings. He’s stopped listening to them and declared he knew best. He has become ruthless in cost-cutting over the past ten years or so and has done more layoffs than in the rest of the years combined with the company. Instead of trying to improve our overall economy, he’s changing its landscape and adding more industries such as business and tech-enabled services and healthcare. I understand learning, growing, and adapting to change, but there’s a reason some view PE firms as evil. There’s something to be said for the quote, “With power comes great responsibility.” In my opinion, he’s been irresponsible, and quarter after quarter, I cringe listening to him.
Filling my glass with two fingers, I throw back the contents and welcome the burn as it goes down.
The front door opens, and I hear heels clicking across the floor. The sound is faintly triggering and takes me back to a time when I looked forward to that nightly.
Leaving my glass on the bar, I turn and experience a moment of déjà vu as I’m staring into the hazel eyes of my past.
“Adele, what are you doing here?” I ask sharply.
I can’t imagine a reason for her to be here. I made it very clear that we were over a year and a half ago.
When I take in her appearance, she looks like she always does, polished and perfectly put together, but it’s the lines around her eyes that give away her nervousness or wariness.
Strange.
It’s then I hear my brother’s voice from behind her. I didn’t even realize he had come in as well.
“Right. I know this might seem awkward for you . . .”
Awkward for me?
