Jake returned to the apartment and found Rachel and Eugene drinking champagne in the living room. They both turned to him, and swayed. The bottle on the table was empty. He laughed. “Well, I leave you two alone for a minute and you get wasted.”
They smiled. Rachel said, “I forgot we had this. It’s to celebrate my last day.”
“Where were you?” Eugene asked.
“Just walking. Went along Union.”
“Join us,” Rachel said.
“It looks like I’m too far behind.”
“We also have beer,” Eugene said. Jake said, “You’re celebrating nicely.”
Eugene held up his glass. “I’m celebrating my demise.”
“Get some beer. Toast with us,” Rachel said.
Jake grabbed a can, and sat down with them in the living room. He asked his brother how his meeting went.
Eugene shook his head. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear the nitty-gritty, but there’s some maneuvering going on with the board.”
“The VC and the head are going to sell their stake to Eon,” Rachel said.
Jake smiled. “I didn’t understand a word you just said.”
“The Venture Capital firm holds a twenty percent stake,” Eugene said. “The guy on the board is teaming up with Aaron, the guy who started the firm, who has thirty-one percent. They’re selling their shares to Eon, a competitor.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Eon will then take whatever it wants from us, then close the company down.”
Rachel said, “And the VC and Aaron will walk away with Eon stock.”
“And you?” Jake asked his brother.
“Zip. If they shut down the company, there’s no parachute, there’re no equity to sell. Nothing.”
“I thought you were worth a million bucks—”
“No. I could’ve been, if everything went well, which it didn’t. But what little stock I have, if all this goes through, is worth nothing.”
Jake looked at his beer. “I don’t want to open this.”
“Open it,” Eugene said. “It doesn’t matter.”
“What’re you going to do?”
“Forget about it,” he said. “Drink up.”
Jake eyed his brother, then pulled back the tab. Rachel said, “Woo-hoo,” and held out her glass. Jake filled everyones’, and Eugene made a toast: “To a wasted eight and a half years.”
Rachel said, “To being unemployed.”
Jake shook his head, but smiled. They clinked glasses and drank. Jake checked the champagne label.
“The expensive stuff,” Rachel said. “Only the best for us.” Eugene leaned back into the sofa. “I’m getting a little dizzy.”
“That’s it? Just dizzy? You had most of the bottle,” Rachel said. Jake said, “I didn’t know you drank this much.”
Eugene groaned. “I shouldn’t have mixed it.”
“Euge is pretty good with alcohol,” Rachel said. “Not tonight,” Eugene said, covering his face. “Just don’t get sick,” Jake said.
“What I should do is go to Aaron’s house and get sick all over his door.”
They laughed. “That’ll show him,” Rachel said.
“And his car,” Eugene said.
“And his dog,” Rachel said. “Get sick on his dog.”
Eugene laughed harder. Rachel cackled and covered her mouth. Jake stared at them, then said, “Man, you two better slow down.”
“Come on,” Eugene said. “This is nothing.”
Jake kept quiet, and put his glass aside.
“It’s not like some people we know,” Eugene said, snorting. “Like who?” Rachel asked. “Oh, you mean your father?”
“Maybe after that second bottle of Southern Comfort he’d get bad,” Eugene said. “But that first bottle was okay.”
“What about your mother?”
“Nah. She never touched the stuff.”
Jake said, “I think I’m going to turn in—”
“Nooo,” Rachel and Eugene said together.
Rachel said, “You two are so funny. You never want to talk about her.”
“About who?” Eugene said.
“About your mother.”
“Nothing to talk about.”
“But she left. Isn’t that bizarre?”
“What’s so bizaare?” Eugene said. “She got sick of getting beaten up and left.”
Jake thought, Get me out of here.
“Not a word to anyone?” Rachel asked Jake. “She just disappeared?”
“Not to me,” he said.
Rachel turned to Eugene. “What about you?” Eugene hesitated.
Jake caught this and sat up. “She said something to you?”
Waving this off, Eugene said, “It’s nothing. Let’s drink to unemployment again.”
“No, wait. Did she say something to you?”
He frowned. “Just something about looking out for you.”
Jake said, “Wait a minute. You knew she was leaving? She told you she was leaving?”
Rachel raised an eyebrow and said, “Uh-oh. Did I do something?”
“No,” Eugene said. “It’s nothing. She just said one thing.”
“But she must have told you she was leaving then,” Jake said. “Not really. It was the night before. She just said to look out for you.”
“How come you never mentioned this?”
“It didn’t seem…I don’t know.”
“So what did she say exactly.”
“You don’t have to interrogate me—”
“I want to be sure you’re not leaving anything out. What did she say? When was this, what time?”
“Does it really matter?” Eugene asked.
Jake nodded.
“It was late,” Eugene said. “I got up to go to the bathroom.”
“Where was our father?”
“Out.”
“Where was she?”
“In the living room.”
Jake said, “So what were her exact words? No, you were going to the bathroom. Then what?”
“I saw her in the living room. She saw me. She told me to come over there.”
“And?”
“She said I was the oldest one, and I had to look out for you.”
“And?”
“And that’s it.”
“No, what did you say then?”
“I don’t remember. I said ‘Okay’ or something like that. I had to go to the bathroom.”
“What was her expression? What did she look like.”
Eugene sighed. “We don’t have to go through—”
“I want to know.”
“I just told you—”
“Tell me more,” Jake said, lowering his voice.
Rachel cleared her throat. “Easy, boys.”
“Tell me,” Jake said.
Eugene nodded. “She had been crying. It was after a huge fight. Her face was messed up It was that night she went to the hospital.”
“Hospital?” Rachel asked.
“What else? Did she say where or when or how? What about reaching her? She didn’t say anything?”
Eugene shook his head. “She never mentioned anything except taking care of you.”
“Why didn’t she say anything to me?” Jake asked.
“Maybe she thought you were too young. Maybe it was too hard.”
Rachel said, “She probably wasn’t planning to tell anyone, but Euge just happened to be there. So, she left that night?”
Eugene nodded. “The next morning she was gone.”
Jake tried to absorb this. He stared at his brother, whose cheeks were flushed, his expression glassy. Jake said, “Have you ever tried to find her?”
He said, “Once.”
“When?”
“I didn’t know this,” Rachel said.
Eugene shook his head. “In college. My roommate’s uncle was a private detective. I thought I’d try.”
“And?”
“Nothing. They never legally divorced, she wasn’t dead, and there was absolutely no paper trail. She might have gone back to Korea.”
“Hell,” Jake said. “How come you never told me?”
“What’s the point? It didn’t work.”
“Why didn’t she say anything to me?”
“You were too young.”
Rachel asked Eugene, “Have you ever thought of trying again?”
“Sometimes.”
“Really?” Jake said.
Eugene sighed. “I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I need to learn more.”
“Well, this doesn’t change anything,” Jake said. “She left us hanging.”
Eugene didn’t reply.
“You just don’t do that,” Jake said. “Leave us alone with him. What the hell was she thinking? Pretty damn cold.”
Eugene looked down at his empty glass.
“Whatever.” Jake stood up. “I’m going to get some dinner. You guys want anything?”
“It’s kind of late,” Rachel said. “We have some Chinese in the fridge.”
“I’ll find something.” He left the apartment and heard Rachel murmur to Eugene as he shut the door. Jake wanted to lose this restless feeling, and watching his brother get drunk wasn’t going to do it. He took the stairs down, his thighs weak from the earlier workout. He liked the faint pain. His footsteps echoed around him.