Chapter 3.14

May 23^rd, 2023

12:34PM

Bruce sat on a log bench that was sitting near the barn. It was facing out towards the water and Pioneer Peak, and he was enjoying the view. He had his eye on a golden eagle circling something below. He supposed it was a rabbit, and he watched to see if it would dive for its prey.

Chet exited the house, looking for the older man, and when he spotted him, he followed Bruce’s gaze and saw the eagle just as it dived. A moment later, it was heading back up, a wiggling mass of brown and white fur in its talons. He hoped it was a rabbit.

Walking up to Bruce, Chet observed that the man was munching on a sandwich. “Well, did the police mess up your camper?” He asked.

“Some things aren’t there. They’re keeping them as evidence, I suppose. My photo albums,” Bruce told him. “They gave me back the camper as there’s no evidence that the murder was committed there.”

“I see,” Chet said, sorry he asked the question. He’d meant it as levity, but in retrospect, it was probably not the best thing to make a joke about. “I was wondering if you’d come up to the house when you’re done with your chores,” he said changing the subject.

Briefly, Bruce thought he was about to get fired, but after the reception the day before, he figured that wouldn’t be the case, so he nodded. “Sure,” he said at the same time.

“Great!” Chet exclaimed, then escaped from his faux pas. He hurried to his truck and took off for town. He had some groceries to get for Mage.

8PM

Bruce entered the office. He wasn’t sure what Chet had in mind, and had taken his time with his chores – partially to drag his feet for the coming meeting, and partially to make sure everything was done right. It had been over two weeks since he’d worked on the farm, and he wanted to make sure he didn’t forget anything.

Chet was seated behind the big desk, and Mage at a smaller one facing the door ahead of him. There wasn’t a gate or anything to block the way, but to get to Chet’s desk, an employee would have to turn left and go around her desk.

The business wasn’t meant to be headed by the two siblings, but they were the ones best suited to their positions – Chet as CEO, and Marcia as CFO. It had been decided that Mage would handle HR, and Darryl was on the board of directors, although he had decided to work on the farm as well.

Marcia didn’t have a desk in the office, but did have a table against the wall to Chet’s right. There was a knock on the door, and Mage said, “Come in!”

Bruce glanced around the room. He smiled at the redecorating the family had done. It was definitely an improvement. He was face to face with Mage, who smiled and motioned to a sofa and coffee table behind her, strategically placed for a conference with Chet. She stood and walked to a chair and Marcia spun her chair around so she could face the others.

As Bruce was walking around Mage’s desk, Chet stood and made his way to a chair across the room from Mage and stood beside it. As soon as Bruce sat down, he sat himself, and said, “We wanted to talk to you about a few things.”

Bruce wasn’t sure where things were going, but he nodded in acknowledgment.

“As Marcia mentioned before, there are records of you doing lots of things beyond the scope of your job for the workers,” Mage said.

Bruce nodded again, and Mage went on. “You explained things to her, but we believe that you went well beyond the position of a boss.”

“Are you saying that’s bad?” Bruce asked, surprised.

“Absolutely not!” Mage said, shocked that he’d think such a thing.

Mage looked to Marcia and motioned for her to take over.

“Right now,” Marcia said to him, “you’re receiving a salary of forty-five hundred per month, right?”

He nodded. “Free and clear, yes.”

Marcia smiled and said, “I see no reason – actually, I see every reason – why that should be increased to five thousand per month.”

“Well, now…” Chet said. “Let’s not be too hasty. Why don’t we just give Bruce the upstairs of the duplex?”

“That won’t be ready for another two weeks,” Mage told him. “He should get the increase now.”

“Actually,” Marcia said, “I wanted to make it retroactive to the beginning of May.”

“I don’t need any of this,” Bruce said. “I appreciate the sentiment, but…”

He broke off as Chet said. “No, giving you either one wouldn’t be right. We’ll do both.”

“We need one more member on the board of directors,” Mage said.

“Bruce is perfect for that,” Marcia said with a big grin on her face.

Bruce’s mouth dropped open in astonishment.

-=#=-

May 30^th, 2023

During the last couple of weeks, Marcia had been checking into summer classes at the university. She and Darryl had both taken CLEP exams while in Fairbanks and passed them all. Because of that, they had credit for many of their classes. It had taken some time and funds, but they chose to use some of the money they’d saved to get their degrees faster.

10:07AM

Marcia was seated at her table, checking through the Fairbanks division’s records. As soon as she was finished, she’d authorize the payments and paychecks.

Mage brought in the mail and packages that had been delivered. She dropped a few parcels and envelopes on Marcia’s desk, then a few on Chet’s.

She sat down at her own desk, and started going through a few envelopes. A moment later, she stood and walked over to Marcia. “I missed one for Darryl,” she told her sister-in-law. She set down an envelope that was identical to one Marcia had just eagerly opened. The letter in Marcia’s hand was from the university and stated that they had an opening for her in a summer geology course, which would be starting June 22^nd. She would be starting the road to her dream of being a geologist!

She knew that Darryl had applied for the same course, and was very tempted to open the letter he received, but she resisted. All through the rest of the morning, however, her eyes kept straying toward the envelope, and she couldn’t concentrate on the spreadsheet she was working on.

Finally, at 11:30, she jumped up and grabbed the envelope. “Gonna take it to him?” Mage asked, without even looking up from the application she was looking at.

“I need to know what it says!” Marcia exclaimed. “I can’t concentrate.”

“And no matter what it says, you won’t be able to either,” Mage told her. “You may as well take the rest of the day off.”

Marcia hurried out of the room and out to the picnic table where Darryl was sitting with Bruce and Kirk. “Look what came in the mail!” she said as she thrust the envelope at him.

Darryl took it and his eyes widened. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it said. He didn’t want to take the class because of his own interests. Instead, he was taking it because he wanted to know what Marcia was talking about. At the same time, she would be taking lots of the same electives he was in for the same reason.

Tentatively, Darryl ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. Marcia had to hold herself back from grabbing the paper and reading it. A moment later, Darryl shook his head and looked forlorn. Sadly, he handed the letter to her.

Her eyes were wide and she started to tear up until she read what was said. “You jerk!” she said. “You got in too!”

“Well, you were so excited! I had to trick ya.”

She made a motion to hit him, but then leaned in for a kiss, which he happily gave.

-=#=-

7:34PM

Chet’s phone rang and he excused himself from the conversion in the living room. He walked outside as he answered it, and found that Rick was on the other end.

“How’s it going?” he asked his friend.

“I’ve got a couple of things to tell you, but I’m not sure what to say first.”

“Well,” asked Chet, “Is this a bad news, good news thing?”

“Actually, yeah,” Rick answered.

“Good news first.”

“Okay. Carla’s pregnant,” Rick said. He didn’t sound very excited though, so Chet figured that the bad news was really bad news.

“Congratulations!” Chet exclaimed, hoping to cheer up his friend.

“Yeah,” Rick brightened a bit. “It looks like the baby will be born ‘round about Christmas or New Years.”

Chet laughed. “Make sure you’re near the hospital. Never can tell what’s happening in Fairbanks around then.”

“No doubt.” He sighed. “And now for the bad news. Granny isn’t doing too good. She’s having heart trouble.”

“Is it treatable?”

“Well, she was having angina, apparently, and didn’t tell us. They’ve got her taking a children’s aspirin a day, and they’re prescribing nitro-glycerin for her.”

“Have they given any prognosis?”

“If they have, she’s not saying,” Rick grumbled.

Chet smiled in spite of the news. “Sounds like she’s being her normal stubborn self.”

“You could say that. She only told us about the heart problems when she was helping out in a garden one day and Jen happened to see her slip a pill into her mouth.” He sighed again. “Jen called me up while on her break and told me about it. I had to drag it out of Granny. She finally confessed to having angina, but she said it was good for her to work. She needs exercise.”

Chet nodded, although his friend couldn’t see him. “I could understand that, but hasn’t she been working all Spring?”

“My thoughts too. I would think she needs to slow down a bit, but she’s adamant that her doctor says she should stay working. I can’t talk to the doctor because of privacy, and I don’t want to say no, because if she’s telling the truth and she needs exercise, I’d be hurting her instead of helping.”

While Rick was talking, Chet’s parents pulled up and parked. They saw Chet and waved, then headed inside.

“Mom and Dad just got here, but let me run this by our HR department,” Chet said

Rick laughed at that. “Are you gonna run it by all of HR?”

“Yep. All one of her.”

“Let me know what Mage says.”

“You bet, Rick. And tell Carla ‘congrats’ for me.”

“Will do. I’ll talk to you later.”

Chet clicked off the call and went inside.

Mike and Gloria had sat down in the living room and were talking in hushed voices with Darryl. Neither Mage, nor Marcia were in the room and Chet made as if to head into the kitchen, but Mike asked him to stay.

“What’s up?” Chet asked as he sat down.

“Darryl is wondering if we’ll give permission for Marcia to get married before she’s eighteen.”

Chet nodded. “Not to be disrespectful, Dad, but that’s yours and Mom’s decision. Why include me in it?”

“Two reasons,” Gloria said.

“Okay. You know she’s said she wants to wait until after the surgery, right?” Chet asked.

“Yeah,” Darryl agreed.

“Then why ask for the permission? She can’t have the surgery till she’s eighteen.”

“In Alaska, yeah,” Mike said.

“Uh, where can she?”

“Both New York and New Hampshire have no minimum age requirement.”

“You’re both willing to allow it?”

“We’re willing to finance it,” Gloria told her son.

“And after the surgery will you allow her to get married?”

Mike slowly nodded. “Darryl thinks she’d want that. What do you think?”

Chet looked at his parents like they were crazy. “This is a no-brainer, Mom – Dad. I’m not sure why you’re even asking me. Of course she’ll want it.”

Mike laughed. “We figured that would be your opinion, but I wanted to make sure we weren’t gonna have a protective brother to deal with.”

Chet looked stern. “Now wait a minute,” he said. “I said she’d want it. I didn’t say I’d approve. I mean, Darryl and Marcia live in my house. I’m not sure I want a pair of newlyweds in here. Not sure my floor would take it.”

“Chet!” Gloria exclaimed. “That’s…” She paused, not sure how to classify the statement.

Darryl looked at his brother-in-law, and with a completely straight face said, “I give you my solemn promise that if we get too… energetic… I’ll pay for a new floor.”

Chet tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t manage. “You’ve been taking WAY too many lessons from Marcia.” After laughing for a bit, he turned to his parents again. “Mom – Dad – That’s a no brainer too. I want both Marcia and Darryl to be happy, and honestly, I don’t think they will be completely happy in this life till they’re married.