There was a subtle creak of antique leather and mahogany as Max stretched and stood up from his sumptuous chair, he strolled around the solid oak desk and looked out through the rain lashed window of his luxurious office.Far below him throngs of ordinary people scurried back and forth, streaming like crazy ants buffeted and drenched by the freezing winter storm.He didn’t like to imagine what it must be like after a long hard day at work, battling through such filthy weather on foot; hardly daring to allow his memory to recall the time in his life when he would have been down there too.
He would of course wait in the comfortable heated lobby of the towering building that housed his business headquarters, until the ever-reliable Franklin pulled up at the front of the building.Franklin knew the procedure only too well; he would drive twice around the block to make sure that the car was warm enough for a comfortable journey home.
The harsh winter weather had arrived early this year and he almost felt sorry for the teeming hordes below, but he was a firm believer in the theory that we all have the power to influence our own destiny; if they were weak or lazy and chose to succumb to their lower station in life then they had only themselves and nobody else to blame.He on the other hand had made his own good luck and fortune, shedding copious amounts of blood sweat and tears along the way while building his business from the ground up into a successful group of international companies.
It had been far from easy and a lot of sacrifices had been made on his own personal journey from rags to riches.His deluded wife had left him because he had refused her constant bleating requests to “try for a baby”; he still found it difficult to believe how she wouldn’t listen to him when he told her that they just weren’t ready yet.As well as having the necessary funds to cope with the expense of bringing a child into the world in the early days of a marriage, where on earth did she think he would have found the time with a business to build and run?
He spent enough energy and trouble dealing with his employees, who on the whole were not much better than children a great deal of the time. His life was certainly full and easily busy enough without the inconvenient distraction of children and since her desertion, he had managed very well without a wife thank you very much.In fact he was generally very satisfied with his lot in life, imagine having to struggle through jostling crowds of people just to endure the packed and noisy discomfort of public transport.Only to arrive home to a small cramped apartment, with a nagging wife and noisy demanding children.I mean, how many other people had a palatial serviced penthouse in the best part of town, or a secluded rural retreat surrounded by lush woodland?
It was Friday night and Franklin would have called Jennings at the lodge and reminded her to remove the dustsheets and light the fires at his lakeside cabin, he was looking forward to the peace and relaxing solitude of a weekend’s fishing.Some of his greatest and most profitable business ideas had been formulated by that very lake, undisturbed by the clamour of daily life and never spoiled by the demands of a spouse or the incessant chatter of noisy offspring.
He returned his gaze to the window and watched a young couple Smiling despite struggling against the wind and rain while cuddling a small child protectively from the elements. A single lonely tear slipped softly into a well-worn groove in his cheek.
Ends
