The Unfolding: A Novel by A.M. Homes

Author:A.M. Homes [Homes, A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Palm Springs, California

5:00 a.m.

No rest for the weary and then some.

There is a brief period between Thanksgiving and Christmas where business still gets done; call it a limited-capacity portal surrounded by a dead zone. The dead zone has been growing in recent years; now it starts the Friday before Thanksgiving and goes until the Monday after New Year’s Day. Ten years ago, it was a day off. Then it became a three-day weekend, then a week off. And finally it became impossible to close a deal between November and New Year’s if you didn’t catch the fumes of the first ten days of December despite the financial implications of December 31 deadlines.

Now they’ve got their communications and misinformation man, Metzger from Winnetka; Frode, an eccentric doctor from Bethesda brought in by Kissick; and Doug Keyes, the judge from Texas the Big Guy knows through Charlotte’s father. And things seem to be progressing with the General. At Bo’s suggestion, the Big Guy recently sent him a “thinking of you” gift and got a vintage Denny’s postcard in the mail with “One day we’ll celebrate with a Grand Slam” written in red block letters on the back.

That said, the Big Guy needs to bring them all together one more time to make sure they’re ready to start the clock just after the new year.

More important, he wants to get it done while Charlotte is still at Betty Ford and before Meghan comes home for the holidays. Some men might find this a lot, a double-whammy stress ball, but he kind of likes it, yin and yang as he used to say; it is the balance or unbalance of things that keeps him on his game.

From Palm Springs, he makes the calls, inviting the boys to a “hunt club” weekend at the ranch.

“What’s a hunt club?” Kissick wants to know.

“If anyone wants to go hunting, I’ve got a couple of guides who will take them out on horseback for a day.”

“Live ammunition?”

“Yes, Kissick, real men don’t hunt with Nerf guns.”

“What about paintball or rubber bullets?”

“That’s called play fighting; this is called hunting,” the Big Guy says.

“But it’s optional, right? It’s not like the balloon thing where we all have to go?”

“One hundred percent optional. You can stay home and take a bubble bath if you like. I’ll put you in Meghan’s room; you’ll feel right at home.”

“I’m not a gun person.”

“I know. And listen, Kissick, I want you to present your findings on the composition of the project, and we need to discuss the price of the buy-in and sharpen our expectations.”

“What am I supposed to say to my wife? Every time I’m running off on one of these weekends or to meet with the guys, I’m likely to miss one of the girls’ holiday spectacles or a ballet recital. Do you know what it costs me in family currency?”

“Kissick, you are a businessman; they spend the money faster than you can make it. Tell them you’re traveling for work; put your lovely wife on the phone—I’ll tell her myself.

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