Humbled by Patricia Haley Read Free Book Online Page B

Don,” Tamara said and hung up before giving them a chance to say good-bye.
    After the call ended, both Don and Madeline sat quietly, neither reacting immediately to Tamara’s revelation.
    â€œSee what I mean?” Madeline said, folding her arms tightly, breaking their silence. “Nothing I say or do sits well with that girl.”
    â€œThis is crazy. We’re both going after the same division, and she doesn’t even know it. Why does everything have to be a fight for our family, especially when it comes to you and Tamara?” Don asked.
    â€œI don’t understand my child. She looks for controversy. I want to work with her, but you see how unwilling she is. There’s no changing her mind about this. I am willing to give up on her working with us, but she can’t have the West Coast division too. Tamara can’t have everything she wants. The rest of us are making sacrifices. Shouldn’t she?”
    Don didn’t have an answer. As a matter of fact, he didn’t really want to think about the situation much longer. They’d spent too many precious years having fights, years that could have been lived in harmony.
    Don shut his eyelids tightly and let his thoughts soar to the South African coast. The two years he’d spent there, while being estranged from his family, was a time he longed to repeat. The company he’d started, LTI, was based there. His special friend, Naledi, was there. His solitude was there too. If much of what he yearned to have was there, why did God have him here?
    â€œWhat are we going to do with DMI?” Madeline asked.
    â€œI’m not sure.”
    He’d engaged in numerous wars in the name of DMI, some with family members and others with outside foes. None had been simple, but Don was absolutely certain God had wanted him to return from South Africa last year and assume the leadership of DMI. Since then he’d grown to realize that his journey had nothing to do with the leadership of DMI. His role was to help restore the family. Nobody—not Joel, not his mother, definitely not Tamara, and not even Sherry—had made his task pleasant. Yet, for the Lord’s sake, he had persevered. Last week it had seemed like he had accomplished the goal and was close to being able to relax. His mother and Tamara were speaking cordially, and Joel had left town. The Mitchell family was basking in a miracle. Needless to say, it was only the eye of a storm, the creepy calm before the second half hit land, threatening to do more damage than the first wave.
    Don leaned back in his seat and chuckled louder and louder.
    Madeline stared at him. “What’s so funny?”
    He continued chuckling, unable to stop. Madeline kept staring at him, then squinted. She probably thought he’d lost it. Maybe he had. It wouldn’t be a far stretch. Their family could drive anyone batty. Finally, he was able to gain composure.
    â€œAre you going to share the joke with me?” his mother said.
    â€œThat’s it exactly. This place is a joke. We’re like those gerbils running on a treadmill. They’re huffing and puffing and getting nowhere. They’re in the same spot after running for hours, days, years. In our case it’s been decades. Regardless of how silly it looks, the little gerbil is going to keep running, because he doesn’t have common sense. But you do,” Don said.
    â€œWell, when you put it like that, I sound like an idiot.”
    â€œNo, Mother, you’re not the idiot. I am, if I continue to stay on the treadmill with you.”
    â€œDon, don’t second-guess your commitment. You’ve done an amazing job. You’re the reason we’re still in business. You’ve fought a good fight, and this is only the beginning. You belong here.”
    â€œI don’t know how much is left in me.” He glanced at his mother with reverence. “You are the best mother in the world, but you’re