Ravens by George Dawes Green Read Free Book Online

something. OK? Could we talk a moment?”
    Dad was still wary. “You mind if I call my lawyer first?”
    “Well, that would make it an
official
visit. Which would limit what I could tell you. All I want is to run your family through a few hypotheticals. Take less than
     ten minutes.”
    Mom said from her sofa, “Oh, Let him
in
, Mitch. Don’t be rude.”
    Finally Dad shrugged. “All right.”
    He stepped aside and the visitor came in. Mom was bustling about, straightening the room. “Mrs. Boatwright? My name is Bill
     Rooney and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    “What can I get you?” Mom asked. “Scotch, gin and tonic? What do you like?”
    “I’m good, thank you. I’d just like to talk with you all.”
    “All of us?”
    Rooney nodded. To Jase he said, “Hi fella. You should hear this too.”
    They all sat. Rooney took Dad’s big easy chair. He unlatched his briefcase and drew from it what looked like a case file.
     His every move seemed studied, deliberate.
    “Well, I guess what I want to tell you,” he said, “boils down to this. Be ready. Because, because everything in your lives
     is about to change. And this change could be a source of great joy or it could be terribly destructive.”
    Softspoken but fervent. Not like any bureaucrat Tara had ever seen.
Terribly destructive?
Was he stoned? Well, why not? If he was smart, and he seemed to be, this job had to suck ass, and maybe getting baked was
     the only way to deal with it. The thought made her smile. Rooney saw this, and gave her a little smile back.
    And he reminded her a little — though maybe just at the corners of the jaw — of JCD Jr.
    “Mr. Boatwright,” he said, “may I ask you something? What are your plans? I mean suppose you did win the jackpot. Would you
     give up your business?”
    “No sir. Not at all. I’d like to
expand
my business.”
    Rooney kept smiling. “Yeah? Well. I know you think you would. But you won’t. I’m sorry. I’m not calling you a liar; I’m just
     telling you, one night pretty soon you’re going to party too much, and the next morning you’ll think, what the hell, might
     as well sleep in a little. Just this once. And next day you
will
go back to work, but you won’t be able to concentrate. Because you’ll be thinking, well maybe, since I’ve already got all
     the money in the world, maybe keeping up a marginal copier business in East Jesus, Georgia, is absolutely pointless.”
    Dad gathered himself to protest: “Actually, I’m not sure, that it’s, um, appropriate for you to —”
    Rooney raised a hand to silence him. “Sooner or later you’ll tank it and get yourself an estate in Hawaii. Then you can all
     get some sun, which’ll be great except you’ll get too much and you’ll start looking like iguanas. And you’ll try to make friends
     but who can you trust, right? So you won’t know anybody and you’ll stay home and watch TV and you’ll be lonely as hell and
     bored out of your goddamn
skulls —
”
    “Sir!” said Dad. “Watch your language —”
    “And gorge yourself on disappointment, and bitterness, and welcome to the wonderful world of winning the jackpot. And what
     I’m here to tell you, all of you, is there’s only
one
way to save yourselves from that living death. And that’s to use these riches you’ve been given for something good. You follow
     me? Bring kindness into the world. Show love. Alleviate suffering. And to hell with the house in Hawaii. To hell with the
     fancy toys and the —”
    “Now hold on!” said Dad. His voice finally with some heft. “I won’t have this foul language in my house!”
    Rooney didn’t even look at him. He said, “Calm down, Mitch. I’ll tell you a story. About this guy I know. This guy, he’s doing
     tech support? Little old ladies, their bridge programs won’t load, he talks them through it. ‘Go to All Programs, click on
     that.’ ‘Go to Add or Remove Programs, click on that.’ Kind of a dumb job, a grueling