She had been sick the entire trip back to San Francisco. “It’s nothing to worry about. There’s no need to call the coast guard. Our ship’s doctor can help her. Just go to your cabin and I’ll send the doctor,” the Captain said reassuring Robert. He had no reason to doubt him. The Captain had seen many cases like this in his sixty some years of experience operating a large cruise ship.
Placing his hand on Robert’s shoulder he said, “Don’t worry, Mr. Samsa, help your wife back to her cabin and the doctor will be there soon.” And Robert assisted his pregnant wife to her quarters from the dining room.
That’s what the ship’s captain and medic had said the day Charlotte Samsa became extremely sick as she suffered through a high fever and then went into labor. The doctor comforted Robert by saying, “I’ve seen many cases like this, she’s young, and she’ll get over what’s ailing her. She’s just seasick.”
Robert Samsa arranged for a trip to Mexico, to make up for the many nights he left her alone to see to his business ventures, and to make up for the honeymoon they never had because he had been busy and forgot about his anniversary. It was too late the next day and the next when he finally returned to his pregnant wife with flowers, candy, and a diamond necklace.
Charlotte glanced at it, kissed him and said, “When will I get to wear this?” And he showed her two tickets in a state room on a luxury liner.
“But I’m pregnant now.” His eyes flashed and an equally large smile open to reveal his beautiful teeth. He picked her up and danced around the floor with her. “It’s a boy,” she said, “I want you to name him.” Robert had never been that happy in his entire life and he would never be as sad as he would be when she died.
He had taken Charlotte from her family and brought her to San Francisco because of what he thought would be the chance of a lifetime. She eagerly agreed to follow him, at the appeal of her father’s warning against the marriage. She left her family in the east to follow her brash handsome husband to the west.
When Robert Samsa set foot in San Francisco he knew this was the place to make his fortune and to raise a family. But his dreams were dashed when his wife became ill on the last journey of their trip and died during child birth.
Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he took the baby and settled into his large mansion he had just purchased for Charlotte in Nob Hill. He hired a woman who had lost her child at the same time to take care of his baby.
He named the baby Harper after his father.
Robert Samsa had become one of the richest men in the bay area, and after many years of hard work, he felt lonely, but the only bright light he had was his son Harper.
Without the only woman he ever loved, Robert Samsa died of a broken heart at the age of sixty one and his son Harper Samsa became the youngest and richest man in San Francisco.
Harper Samsa inherited property that his father had killed himself to possess. He left it to a son who didn’t care for the riches it brought him, and he knew little about his vast holdings he just inherited.
At the insistence of Michael, his father’s lawyer, he stopped in at his office to sign papers, and discuss the future of the company which held the Samsa name.
“Harper, I need you to look over this property in Nevada. You said you wanted to sell most of it, well you have to decide if that’s what you want to do. Your father said you should consider keeping this land for a hunting lodge or a vacation home.”
“I don’t have time. Besides I have a birthday party I have to attend tonight. I’m planning on asking Elisabeth to marry me,” Harper said picking up the pin and signing the papers.
“You really should read this.”
“Why should I? Don’t you know how to read?” Harper said with a chuckle handing over the pen to Michael, and pushing the five page document in front of him.
“This property has streams and lakes. It’s worth a fortune or will be one day.” Harper looked aimlessly around the room following the latest football games and commentary on two flat screen televisions.
“You need to pay attention, Harper.” He raised a thick eyebrow to Michael. The lawyer had a map laid out on Harper’s desk, and pointed to the land circled on the map. “Water is essential when you need to build a town.”
“Who the fuck said I’m building a town? I’m going to get married. That’s all I’m going to do for the next few months. I’m going to lay with my wife on a beach somewhere. I’m not bringing Elisabeth to a fucking log cabin in the middle of the woods.”
“With your money it doesn’t need to be a fucking log cabin.”
“Well for Elisabeth, anything where there are wild animals and away from the city is a cabin in the woods.” Harper stood. “I have to get ready for Elisabeth’s party.”
“She doesn’t know the meaning of money. She’s spending it on all kinds of things and you’ve given her so many expensive gifts that you will be broke before she says yes if she ever does. You know there are richer men than you, and she’s dangling them in front of you, and you’re taking the bait.”
Harper sat back in the leather chair and ignored Michael.
“Did you at least have sex with her?” Harper turned to him with a deep look in his eyes and his thick eyebrows in a V.
Harper put his hand to his chin, “You know if you weren’t my father’s closest friend I’d...” He stopped short of firing him because he needed him. He had been the next thing to a father to Harper. “Fuck you, Michael.”
“I love you, too,” Michael said. He hid a closed smile and shook his head.
“You know you look good behind my desk. I’ll let you stay there and run my father’s company while I take a long honeymoon. Elisabeth wants to go to Italy.”
“It’s your company now asshole, you have to be around to make sure it’s still solvent for your children.”
“If it was up to you, I wouldn’t have any children. Besides I don’t want this company with its responsibilities and wealth,” Harper said raising his voice.
“Everyone needs money. Your children will need the money and their children. Your mother and father took this journey not for themselves, but for the generations to come. Don’t throw it away, it will be like your father dying for nothing. And you never know, you might want to run from that money grubbing fiancé of yours.”
“You know you take too many liberties with me. One day.” Harper didn’t complete his thought. He just pointed his finger at Michael and walked to the door with a grin and opened it and closed it behind him.
Strutting outside, Harper glanced up at all the high rise buildings with the Samsa name stamped on them. Then he climbed into his limo and said, “Take me home.” On his way he thought about what Michael had said about the property in Nevada. Then he thought about his last conversation with his father.
“Why do you keep going like this, father? You never take a rest. Buying more property than you or I need. And why didn’t you marry again?”
“Because I will never find anyone like your mother,” Robert had said.
“You’ve never looked for anyone. You had plenty of chances.”
“They wanted my money and that’s all. All the women whom I found to be attractive were interested in only one thing. They didn’t want a man with a child. They wouldn’t have been a mother to you. Another reason I didn’t marry,” he paused staring at a picture in a silver frame, “because once you find the woman who will make you happy, no one will ever take her place.”
When the car slowed to a stop, the driver had parked in front of his father’s mansion. He stepped out and walked inside.
I have to sell this monstrosity, he thought. Elisabeth will want something more modern. And he smiled at the thought of her. She had been the most beautiful girl in his college class. She moved around as if walking on air, he remembered, with a multitude of equally handsome men following behind her only looking for a smile, or so he thought.
It was love at first sight. He fell in love that day she strutted past him on her way to class. His class.
When he picked up Elisabeth’s picture lying on the large piano, he watched at it wondering when she would give him the go to have sex with her.
“We can’t have sex until we’re married,” she had said to him the first time he took her out on a date, and the second time he said he wanted to marry her.
He thought he had found the woman his father said would be special and fill his life. She had high morals and he liked that about her. But each time they met and he picked her up for a date she would unzip his pants and fondle his penis, and she would dropped her tongue down his throat in the most obscene way. He wanted to fuck her, but after getting him aroused she would push him away. He didn’t know how long he could stand this.
She would keep him so worked up where he couldn’t think straight. All he thought about was putting his sheath into her. He couldn’t get near her without his cock twitching. He had to have her, but she kept him to his promise of no sex until marriage. And that’s why he had to ask her to marry him and put him out of his misery.
It had been one long year of abstinence. He thought he would burst from the anticipation.
Remembering Elisabeth, he strode to the fireplace and reached for a picture of his mother and father. There was never a picture of him being held by his mother or the kind of pictures where you see the entire family because there wasn’t a family any more.
Feeling empty he murmured, “I want a family. I want lots of babies.” He shrugged and placed the picture of Elisabeth near the picture of his mother and father.
After having his dinner alone and taking his bath he reached for his tux which had been laid out for him. When he had dressed and was fidgeting with his bow tie, he remembered another conversation with his father. Harper appeared to appreciate his words since he had died, and he missed him even more.
“Times are different and this world is different. And you are different from me. Any woman who marries you will inherit a fortune. They will indeed be hanging on to you. Make sure you select one with care,” Robert had said to Harper.
He looked forward to seeing friends from college, since Elisabeth had decided to invite the ones who had excelled in their fields.
He wondered if they would recognize him. Although he thought he hadn’t changed. After making a final loop on his tie, he glanced into the mirror. He was the mirror image of his father but younger. His father had dark curly hair and brilliant blue eyes with long silky lashes.
He pulled a picture from his dresser and placed it near his face. “The same face,” he murmured. The picture showed a playful father holding on to his mother and smiling broadly. Robert’s face no different than Harper’s. The only difference is that Harper was clean shaven but they had the same piercing blue eyes and square jaw.
Robert a fit man who hadn’t been born rich. In the picture he filled out every inch of the suit when he was younger. “I worked in a mill and lift tree trunks all day. Even cut a few down every month. Kept me in shape,” Robert had said to Harper proudly.
“I’m sorry son but all you’re going to be lifting is a pen. I guess I did you an injustice,” he remember his father saying to him.
As Harper entered his limo to take him to the party at Elisabeth’s family’s home, Emily rushed to Elisabeth’s mansion and entered the servants’ quarters late to dress Elisabeth and serve Elisabeth’s guest.