Family Rapprochement

Jack had been working for the Birch family for several years now and felt fulfillment in the jobs he’d been assigned in his rise from general helper in the stock department to supervisor of that department and then manager of the grocery sales department. He was currently the assistant manager for the purchasing department and aiming to be to apply for manager when the current manager retires. In his rise to the current managerial status, he’d made sure to cultivate the Birch brothers and the emerging heir to Fairvale Birch enterprise Alex.

Jack was building up enough to make a deposit on a house and was assured of a bank loan to purchase over a thirty-year loan period. The Birch family had spoken to the bank on his behalf and assured them Jack was destined to continue to be in their employment. With his estrangement from his family, he felt lonely and often thought of making peace with his sisters so he could be part of their lives as they married and had children. He knew he should make peace with his mother too. She’d worked hard to see her children being fed and clothed as they grew up and had showered her love on him knowing of his feelings of perceived rejection by her husband. This was not the reality. Joseph Colthorpe was repeating what he’d learned at the hands of his own father who believed that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child, and it was his sacred responsibility to prepare his children as good citizens. But Joseph in his peculiar way loved his children equally stern as he was. That was the attitude of those times.

Jack’s need for a rapprochement with his sisters was so strong that he eventually gave in and visited Mildred, who was still working at the council office though now engaged. She was delighted to have him visit her and they met that evening to share a meal at the Brown Jug Café on the main street. She excitedly shared that visit with her brother William, and with Susan and Nancy that evening and as a result Jack was invited to the home of Claude and Susan, which he gratefully accepted.

It was a happy reunion, and he went back to his rented apartment that evening in a much happier frame of mind. The visits became more frequent on weekends when most paused from the week’s work schedule. The Birch brothers and workers noticed a change in Jack’s attitude. While he continued to put out the same professional work as before he was much kinder to those who worked under him. He’d always been careful to respect the Birch family as they were his guarantee of a future, but they’d observed his exacting treatment of their workers, which was not the way they operated. To the Birch’s their workers were their family members, and they were rewarded well for their loyal service.

Alex particularly had developed a reservation about building Jack into future top management positions until he saw a change in Jack’s treatment of the workers under him and decided to continue to view him as a candidate for a top management position in consultation with his father Andrew who now carried much of the management role with his son. His elder uncles were beginning to consider retiring from the business. They were increasingly involved in the social activities of the town.

The elder bachelor brother Bruce had supervised the construction of a lawn bowling green being one of the larger donors and its first president. He was spending a lot of time there now. Graham Birch and his wife Fay were members of that club and Graham was the current chief of the Fairvale Rotary Club. Andrew Birch was being urged by his golfing friend the Mayor Richard Price, to stand for council member election and was considering that possibility. This would leave Alex to be the one to take overall responsibly for management should things continue in the direction being taken in his family and he’d tapped some of his cousins in the capital city to gauge their interest in buying into the Fairvale Birch enterprise to help him expand the business. Jack was also a possibility if he continued to show a different spirit toward their workers.

While Jack had made friends with his sisters, he began to reflect on how kind his mother had been to him as he grew up. But she was living with William and William continued to be the one to substitute for his father when he deemed revenge was appropriate. He’d often passed by the news agency and seen May working at the counter noting that the shop was always full of people and imagining how much money they took in because of the crowd of customers each day. May had seen him several times and waved beckoning him to come in but he’d pretended not to see her and went on his way. He realized this was petty and he needed to make this right. But one weekend when he visited with his sisters at Price home May arrived. He didn’t know how to react as he realized he’d been very foolish to treat his mother badly for no reason. May didn’t let her son off the hook but requested her daughters for some privacy and got to the point.

“What’s this all about Jack? Your father is dead and it’s time for you to let this anger go as it will destroy you. I’m glad you made peace with your sisters and now you must make peace with William and me. We’ve done nothing to deserve this treatment and you’ll never be happy until you let your anger go.”

She waited for a response and Jack just sat there, his mind in turmoil. He knew his mother was right and he had to deal with his insane anger. His father was dead. William had only been kind to him and his actions were unreasonable. He was being destroyed and instead of getting revenge on his brother by destroying him and his future in payment for his father’s actions he was destroying himself. This revenge was aimed at himself health wise by his actions. He burst into tears and shook as he sobbed while his mother held him in her arms letting it all come out. His sisters peeped around the corner of the corridor wondering what had set their brother off this time. Eventually Jack calmed down and his mother released him and turned him around to look at his face. He stood.

“Sorry Mom. I’ve been very stupid.”

He went to the door and turned briefly to face his mother, blowing her a kiss. Then he headed for the news agency. William was just closing the shop when Jack arrived, and he indicated he wanted to come in. William beckoned him in and closed the door behind them then indicated they should go upstairs to the apartment. He indicated the lounge, and both sat opposite each other. Jack poured out the turmoil that had enveloped him since his childhood. His hatred of his father after the beating. How he’d held everyone else responsible for this and continued to blame family even after his death. He told of his dreams of harming William and destroying their news agency in some way. He told how he’d struggled with the logic of his insane hatred and how unhappy this had made him. He’d come to apologize.

William was shocked to know what had been going through his brother’s mind all these years. He’d been puzzled and hurt when Jack had cut them all off and refused to attend the family gatherings but had eventually accepted this was the way it was and remembered how his brother had been a trouble in his early childhood and assumed it was just part of his nature. He’d been happy when Jack had made a miraculous turnaround at school, had got excellent grades on graduation and landed a good job. He was proud of his brother’s rise in the management levels of the department store and hoped some day there would be a rapprochement with the family. His fondest dreams had reached their fruition in the discussion they were having now. He stood and went to his brother and hugged him.

“I’m glad we are family again Jack. I’m proud of your achievements at the Birch department store.”

Jack smiled wryly.

“I’m glad we are family too William and happy you’ve been there for mom when I should have been sharing that responsibility with you. My desire for revenge has only taken it out on health social interactions and relationships and I want to make that up to all of you now. I confessed to mom this evening I’ve been very stupid, and I want all of you to forgive me.”

William smiled and put his arm around his brother.

“Enough of that apology stuff. Let’s go eat. I was just about to go get something from a takeaway and go sit in the park and listen to our local band playing there. Now you can share it with me.”

Graham and Fay Birch were sitting in the park enjoying the band when William and Jack arrived and took their seats in the park some distance away.

“Who’s that fellow with young Jack Colthorpe Graham? I’ve never seen your young store worker socializing before.”

“It’s William Colthorpe who Samuel Price sold the news agency to. I guess they must be cousins as I haven’t seen them together before. I knew Jack had sisters as they stay with the Prices but didn’t realize William Calthorpe was related as I haven’t seen them together up to this evening.”

Next day at work Jack was in an excellent mood. He’d removed a burden from his life by his apologies and no longer harbored anger against his family members. He went around the departments wishing everyone well and they were in shock at this change in the assistant purchasing manager. Alex watched as Jack did the rounds and decided. He’d fit in as one of the senior managers someday along with his cousins who now showed interest in a partnership.

Mary Mahoney noticed the change in her boss as he made the rounds. She’d worked as his assistant for some time now and had been mesmerized by his good looks and ambition. She’d have welcomed his interest in her if he’d had a different attitude toward people but now, she decided it was time to show her interest. She approached her boss.

“Jack I’d like to go to the dance tonight but my brother who usually takes me has let me down. Would you be able to fill in for my brother and take me?”

Jack paused in surprise and looked at his assistant seeing her as if for the first time. She was not just another worker. She was a beautiful young Celtic woman and in his present good mood he decided to do the unusual. He smiled and addressed his assistant.

“I haven’t danced since they taught us in high school Mary. Are you sure you want to get your feet trodden on consistently by this out of practice man? Besides that, Birch workers are not supposed to fraternize in this way as the other workers may feel they are going to be less favored.”

“Graham Birch assigned me to you to learn. He’s the president of Rotary and they have had a project to help our family recover from losing our home in the flood, so he helped me, and my siblings get jobs to help the family. I think he would support my request to you after all it’s only a dance.”

Jack nodded.

“OK you better put on foot guards then and I’ll be happy to take you. What time does it start?”

“Seven this evening now I better get back to work or my boss might sack me. I’m very fearful of you Mr. Jack.”

Jack smiled at her impudence as she minced off to the office, but he was very pleased Mary had asked him, and it was another sign that when you shed negative thoughts people will grow to like you and seek your company. He realized it was socializing that had been missing in his life to balance his ambition and hard work with only the solitude of his rented apartment and no company in the evenings. But this evening it would be quite different.

To be continued

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