Ravenwolf's Rose

Proposition

After a late afternoon of solo boxing session in their gym, I went to the kitchen to refill my water bottle. When I came out from the kitchen and walked up the corridor to the foyer I saw Charlie racing into the house. I tried catching a glimpse of the guy, but he was gone. If he wanted to join the track team he could do so well in the 100m dash...

I shrugged a little and sipped on my water. I decided to walk around a little more before I went up and had a shower.

I ended up in front of the old man's study and I paused to look at the beautiful, cherry oak door (the only one like this in the house), and I thought about what it would have been like to have gotten to know him more. It was surreal to me to think about how a single meeting could change both of our lives. 

But now all that was done, and I was left to pick up as many pieces as possible.

When I stepped away from the door, Nathan appeared. He had a few documents in his hands. I smiled at him and he waved at me, while almost dropping some of the papers. I reached out to help prevent the papers from flying out of his arms.

"How have you been holding up?"

"It's... unusually quiet..." I said, as honestly as possible and he nodded. "But in any case... I'll see you around, alright?" I smiled at him and walked forward.

"Hold on!" I turned again, only to find him motioning for me to join him in the old man's office. "I was to show you something..." I paused and then shortly after followed him. I needed to talk to him, but I didn't know when the right time would be so I had been dodging any direct conversations with him...

He put down the documents, and then walked me over to one of his bookcases and brought out a large book. It seemed like it would be filled with family photos and it was...

"I've been meaning to show this to you..." I looked over some of the photos... smiles were emanating from the glossy sheets. Somewhere there were obvious growth spurts, awful haircuts, missing teeth, and birthday parties filled with guests and presents galore.

The grandsons were so young here... there was an incredible amount of documentation of these young men's lives...

"This is just one collection of his grandson's upbringing,"

"Just one collection?" I couldn't believe it. I barely had any photos of myself when I was a child.

"I wanted to show this to you... so that you had a chance to see this family at its happiest... since these young men, were once children... children that I knew, helped raise, and watch grow... I know how difficult its been for you lately. I'm sure Henry would have wanted me to thank you in his place for sticking around this long without abandoning his family..."

I smiled at Nathan. He looked like any other relative reminiscing about the past. I pointed at a family picture and said, "was this..."

"Yes, that was the last family photo they took before their parents passed away..." I nodded.

Nathan showed me some books, and I was able to see the faces and expressions of pure joy. I thought it never existed, but at one point it did.

"Nathan... I've been thinking about what I need to do to make a bigger difference than I am right now..." he looked at me curiously. "It may cause waves at first but..."

He looked at me, and I let him glance at my determined expression. I knew I was getting nowhere because I didn't have a place here to begin with. I had to make that place for myself. Even if I had to force my way in.

"What is your idea?" he looked at me more seriously, and then I said, "I want to come work at the company... to Ravenwolf."