Chapter Twenty-One

THE FIRST SECTION:

Coleman’s pacing was undoubtedly annoying his father, and so he continued without saying a word. When a servant came in to light the fire, Coleman refused him by saying that the room was warm enough. Edward requested his coat in return.

“You are going nowhere,” Coleman insisted.

Edward raised an eyebrow. “And who are you to tell me this,” he asked. “Last time I checked I was the father and in charge of everything you own.”

“I have a duty,” Coleman replied, “that you gave me. You left the responsibility of the business to me and now you throw this at me?”

FOR FULL TEXT CLICK READ MORE BELOW

Edward sighed and sat down. The servant returned with his coat but he waved him off. “I never would have thought that you would have sold the warehouses Coleman,” he explained. “I would think that you would have told me your plan to do so. After all, it is still my money.”

“I told you,” Coleman answered, “I made a decision that I thought was a sound business decision, one that could give us more money down the road through savings now. It is a well thought out business decision.”

“I am afraid that I disagree,” Edward responded. “Now you have no place to bring the ships in. You will have to pay extra to re-route them to Boston or Portland. The whole idea of building a shipping empire here is now completely lost.”

Coleman continued pacing without saying a word. He was frustrated that his father had firstly never told him about his plan to move westward. Maybe I sold them to teach you a lesson in manners, he thought. But now he was even more furious with his father’s decision to use the warehouses as a launching facility for moving his assets west. How could he keep this from me, he thought, I am his son and business partner?

“Listen,” Edward said, “I am sorry that I did not tell you about my new ventures. I wanted to, but felt that it was best to remain quiet until things became more permanent. I wanted to ensure that I was standing on solid ground first. The warehouses were the final detail. I could not get the deal that I wanted in Delaware. I never meant to use Charlton until that deal failed.”

“You don’t think that I should have known that you were going to use the assets you placed me in charge of?” Coleman demanded an answer.

“Look,” Edward said, “you never should have made that sale. Do not be a hypocrite. By charging me with deceit you are embroiling yourself in a matter that is dangerous for your own well being. You never told me about the sales and that is no different from my lack of communication with you. And if you persist on that level, then be prepared to face some serious consequences. I have left close people behind; you are only slightly above them as my son.”

Coleman froze at his father’s words. He would let me drift off into time and forget me? he thought to himself. “But you should have consulted me as your son that you were planning to go west,” Coleman insisted. “I never knew that until it was dropped in conversation. You never told me personally. Do you not think that this was deserved?”

Edward sighed. “I admit that you should have heard it from me instead of someone else,” Edward replied, “and I have had words with my people to not let this business become a part of casual conversation. But it is true that I did not want to say anything until the deal was done. That was, I believed, for the betterment of everyone.”

“It is not acceptable,” Coleman said. “If I had known then I would not have made the sale to Richard.”

“Is it confirmed?” Edward asked.

“Yes,” Coleman answered, “it is all taken care of. Charlton now owns the warehouses again.”
Edward walked toward the door and said on his way out, “Then find a way to get them back without incurring much of a cost. I would hate to lose a city that I have built myself from the ground up. Richard and Montgomery may have been the architects of the plan, but it was my money and business that made it work. I am not going to let a stupid mistake tear it all down. And let me remind you, that if Richard finds a buyer before you decide to repurchase them, then we are out of business in Charlton.”

After his father left, Coleman rode over to Richard’s office but turned onto Montgomery’s estate when he saw Jasper going that way as well. Jasper waited for Coleman’s carriage before going inside and offered his condolences.

“We will get to the bottom of this Coleman,” Jasper assured Coleman. “I have heard that the culprits have been found.”

“An entire family I have heard,” Coleman replied. “Murder must be in the family if they were all responsible.”

“I am not sure that they were,” Jasper informed Coleman. “I think the boy pushed Emily down the steps. They arrested the family because it is believed that they taught him to misbehave. It will send a message to the community if they are found guilty as well.”

“They have been planning revenge ever since my father and I came to town to work with Montgomery and Richard,” Coleman seethed. “And to think that we gave them jobs and provided them with a meaningful life. They repay us with civil disobedience. Planned disobedience.”

Upon entering a servant informed the men that Montgomery and Richard were upstairs at that very moment. Coleman and Jasper looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces.
“This should be interesting,” Jasper said.

They could hear Richard’s voice as they walked down the hallway. Coleman believed him to be enraged, which was confirmed when they entered the room.

“These tactics are not acceptable in this day and age,” Richard yelled at Montgomery. “How do you know that this boy did this? How do you know you are not sending an innocent life into permanent despair?”

“I would think that you would want justice Richard,” Montgomery snapped back. “You have a perfect opportunity to get just that and send a message to the community that you are the boss, that you are the one in charge.”

“That is not how it is supposed to work,” Richard interrupted. “You condemn the guilty and let the innocent walk through life in peace.”

“Power is everything,” Montgomery replied. “Only you can guarantee that the people have a good life. They cannot decide for themselves. This misbehavior in their part had to be dealt with, and now with Emily’s death a clear message must be sent to the people, that they must behave and follow the rules. If they do, then no one gets hurt and everyone lives in peace.”

“And to make matters simpler for everyone,” Jasper interjected, “if the family is innocent then the people will be more fearful of your power. This is simple stuff, Richard. You should have figured this out by now.”

“That is not the legacy I want to leave behind,” Richard snapped.

“Oh,” Coleman began, “are you trying to set yourself up to get into heaven in a few years?”

“Heaven has nothing to do with it,” Richard insisted. “What are you talking about?”

“What else would a man want a legacy for?” Coleman answered. “If it were not for heaven, then maybe you would never consider the morality of your actions.”

“That is absurd,” Richard claimed. “I am only doing what I feel is right for the people, in the spirit of our great country.”

“Power is everything,” Montgomery repeated. “Without it, you can never lead. And without leadership, chaos ensues. We will begin with the trial soon and I have made the recommendation that they be found guilty.”

“But you can’t just give an order like that,” Richard replied.

“I know that,” Montgomery chuckled, “but without evidence suggesting otherwise it will be difficult for them to prove their innocence.”

“And everyone believes them to be guilty already,” Coleman said. “So we do not need to prove that.”

“Well do not count your victory just yet,” Richard said as he looked Coleman’s way. “I have a feeling that more people are indirectly involved in her death. It is not all this chance meeting between the boy and my daughter. If they are to be blamed for her death, then someone should take responsibility for her leaving the estate unattended.”

Richard then walked out of the room. The remaining three men were silent until Montgomery said that not everything in life could be helped. Coleman and Jasper went their separate ways, with Coleman requesting to be taken around the meadows. When they arrived at the spot where he last saw Emily walking with Jonathan he asked his driver to stop. He scanned the scenery as though he were looking at a piece of art that seemed like a masterpiece, but one that left him with a lack of understanding why it was a masterpiece. So much about the meadow seemed perfect; the way the light danced with the leaves on the trees, how the grass flipped angles with each calm gust of wind and the how the ripples in the pond bounced flawlessly in perfect circles until they caught one another or reached the pond’s edge. But there was something missing from this otherwise complete world. He tried to imagine Emily walking through the field but the more he tried to place her in his mind the more vague her body and features became. He even tried to imagine her being courted by Jonathan, just to see what it would like if she were happy. Then an image of her and Sarah walking slowly along the path that led to the pond popped into his head before slowly drifting away, ultimately replaced with the meadow he saw in front of him. Each time he tried to imagine her; she became more and more elusive. The first time he placed her in his mind he could see the glowing yellow dress and exact shape of her body. But now it seemed that each image lasted only a few seconds and became blurry, so much so that he could barely tell which one was Emily except for the fact that he chose which figure was hers in his mind. The natural notion of her presence was now completely absent from his conscience. Instead, anything that came to mind was forcefully created by him, by his own desire to see her. The facts of her image became arbitrary, as long as he convinced himself that it was her he was seeing then he could find a way to be happy. But of course, the mere understanding that he had to make an effort to think of her threw his soul into a viscous battle with his mind. What was true was not what he wanted to be true. She was gone and there was nothing he could do to bring her back. He was now imprisoned by her fading memory, a memory that was fading far too quickly for his own comfort.

After losing sight of Emily, he ordered the driver to take him around the corner to the bottom of the staircase where Sarah found Emily. It was the first time that he had ventured that way and his first thought was one that he had never noticed the stairwell before. With the carriage pulled off to the side, Coleman was able to see the ground where she finally rested. There was no evidence of her death anywhere to be seen. Traffic rolled by casually as though nothing had happened and Coleman found it difficult to grasp the fact that few people cared enough to not violate his wife’s final resting place. He vowed to never walk across the patch of dirt he believed to be where she stopped rolling. And as he stared at the ground, the staircase caught eye. He shivered with fear, as though someone had caught him doing something devious. Coleman jumped from the carriage and ran to the bottom of the stairs. He stared up at them and felt dominated by their presence. They had taken something from him that he never felt that he had. At once, he felt that he never deserved Emily and could not blame the staircase for its part in her death.

“It was I who sent her out that night,” he pleaded with the silent stone steps. “It was not you. You never took from me anything that I believed to have.” Coleman then dropped to his knees, threw his palms together and began to pray, “Dear God, I never meant to hurt her or deceive you. I never meant to walk away from what should have been right. I always wanted her to be happy. I was selfish in the way that I acted. I deserved to be punished. Please punish me. Please make me feel like a man again and not a liar and a cheat. It was my fault she left that night. If not for my inability to behave as a man should, she would be home, alive and happy. And I would be too. Please forgive me. Please make me learn from this. Please God, please!”