The Lifeguard

Chapter 15: The hangman's last reward Part 2

 I needed to give him one last reward. He was a Goodman after all. I went upstairs to the gym area and knocked on his office door. There was no reply so I decided to go to his main office. The one that originally belonged to Jerome Cole. I knocked on the Door and went into the large office the Goodman sat in his chair while he was on the phone. 

It sounded important.  

The Goodman made me wait a few minutes and then got off the phone his face changed as he spoke. 

"I know why you're here and frankly I could not care less. You see as of today, actually as of the moment I just got off the phone with Jerome Cole. I am the new centre manager of Waterpark." I could see the pride in the Goodman's face as he said those words. 

I guess you could say this was another kick in the nuts. Truth is after everything that happened recently I could not care less. 

"Congratulations then" I said as the Goodman looked at me as if he was analysing my movements.

"Levi or Jay or whatever your name is? Do you know how I came to be known as the Goodman?" Drew Martin said as I stood in his large office.

 "No you never told me." I said in a calm voice.

"I worked my ass to get to where I was. I dedicated my life to this. I neglected my family, my marriage was a complete disaster because of my ambitions. I made a very profitable company in Thailand. I was at the top of the game. However it all came at a cost. I had not seen my family in ages, money was not everything." The Goodman looked down at his desk as if he had remembered something horrible and then looked back at me with fire in his eyes.

"One day I saw in a newspaper article the achievements of a man who was dubbed the towns 'Goodman'. He got his title not because of his status but because he protected his family's small butcher shop in the face of organized crime. This article made me question my desire to make it to the top. I left Thailand and came back to Australia, my dream now is to help my daughter and fix my marriage." Drew Martin stood up continuing to look at me. 

"That goal was completed last year. I then vowed to become the best I could in Australia. I became the Goodman for my family and now achieved more than I ever imagined as the new centre manager of Waterpark" Drew Martin said as he waved his arms around in some dramatic gesture. 

I could tell Drew was very proud of what he had accomplished. However this man who called himself a Goodman was far from that title he gave himself. He was delusional and the power had gone to his head. I didn't want to work for a man like that no matter how much I wanted to work in the gym. 

"So you're a self-proclaimed Goodman" I said as I saw Drew Martin take what I said in offence. 

"Levi do you know how to tilt your hip"