A Million for Eleanor: A Contemporary Story on Love and Money Read Online Free PDF Page B

“After that everything changed. Two largest Mexican distributors allied against us and began causing a lot of trouble. Our dealers started to die at a faster rate, and the surviving ones demanded an increase of commissions. And then, a day before our tanker’s arrival, I found out the F.B.I. had set a trap at the port. So we had no choice but to call it a night,” he said with sadness, feeling the sphere bump against the last obstacle.
    “What do you mean?”
    “There was one hundred and twenty five million dollars’ worth of cocaine on that tub,” he said with sadness. “When you sink all that in the ocean, there isn’t much else for you to do in the business.”
    And then the sphere stormed into his heart. It seemed he wasn’t sitting on the chair anymore but soared above it. He felt exactly like he used to: six, seven, eight and nine years ago; like he didn’t care where he was or what he was doing, like the entire world was reduced to a single electrified thread curling inside. He closed his eyes and didn’t even realize it at first, bewitched by the colorful explosions on the inner side of his eyelids which the sphere was producing with its every jerk. He loved her again and in the very same way he knew he would never be able to love anyone else.
    “Richard, you’re more mysterious than I ever thought.”
    “Not true,” he said, surprised by how distant his own voice sounded to him. “It is only now that you are actually starting to think about me.”
    He opened his eyes and saw the same blue shade shimmer around her pupils. It seemed she got so pensive she even forgot to act, so innocent and melancholic her face looked.
    “What did you do after this?” she asked finally.
    “The company announced bankruptcy, and we dissolved. Frankly, I was glad. In four years I made more money than I cared to spend, and I was tired of knowing I could be shot every moment. Besides, I had an interesting offer. A friend of mine to whom I did a delicate favor had long been interested in my talents and when I became available he made me the managing partner in the New York City’s office of his tobacco company.”
    “What did you do for him?” Eleanor asked lively.
    He looked at her pensively, thinking whether or not he should answer.
    “I persuaded his wife who was divorcing him to reconsider her claims for their property. That saved him the need to kill her,” he said at last.
    He wanted to take another sip of tea, but the cup was empty. Eleanor was now staring at the table, not saying a word. Suddenly, he realized that the sharp sound that was bothering him for a while was the ticking of a quartz clock hanging on the wall right above his head.
    “All in all, it seems you have a good life,” Eleanor said slowly, still looking at, or through, the table. “You know, it’s just… astonishing!”
    “What exactly?” he asked sullenly.
    “Your story. Sounds like a movie script.”
    “No, it’s movie scripts that sound like drug dealers’ lives. The good ones, anyway. But is it that astounding to you? Did you really have no clue what kind of person I was?”
    “I guess I didn’t,” she said.
    “Did you know anything about me at all? Like what I majored in, for instance?
    Eleanor gave him a perplexed look.
    “Physics, right?”
    “No!” He shook his head, asking himself if it was possible not to adore this woman.
    “Math, then.”
    “How about English?”
    “No way!” Eleanor exclaimed. “Didn’t you always want to prove that humans are alone in the Universe?”
    “I did fiddle with science for a while, but then I gave up. I was too skeptical of its value. Besides, I would have already been thrown out had I brought you my research papers.”
    “Why do you think so horribly of me?”
    “How can I think horribly of you, given all my love?”
    “You always exaggerated it.”
    “No. You always undervalued it. Thus, the farce. But you’ve had enough time to think. Let’s come back to the question.