A Passing Party II

“I have sent you money all of these years haven’t I? What more do you want?” The man’s gun was no longer on Lena, who had shuffled back to press herself into a corner, it was now pointed at the table where the family was still seated. The old woman still stood, but the gun wasn’t pointed at her.

“I don’t want your money, I want the world to know about you, and that’s what’s going to happen. Police have been called; they’ll come and arrest a man saying he’s your son. Journalists will come and investigate, like they so inconveniently do, and find a birth certificate and then the world will know it’s true. I have been waiting all of these years for you eightieth birthday, waiting because I thought that maybe when you were about to die you would finally admit that I existed. Then I get your letter and all it tells me is that you won’t write me in your will because then people would wonder who I was. You think that I care about the stupid money?!” the man’s voice had risen to a higher and higher volume as he had spoken. People were looking in through the glass sections of the doors that separated us from the main restaurant and I knew that they could hear what was being said if they were close enough to the doors.

“Is he serious mother, is he really related to us?” Henrietta asked.

“These must be my dear brother and sister, though they never knew it. Greetings siblings, I’m Noah, mother’s embarrassment, her shame.”

“Shut up,” snapped the old woman, some force coming back into her voice for a second but now the man with the gun was grinning like a mad man. I was starting to suspect that was exactly what he was.

“I don’t think so, my dear mother. You see I think I’m going to talk until the police get here and all of these people will hear everything. Then the police will show up and arrest me and there will be a trial, where I will say everything again there. Then, since I haven’t fired this gun, I won’t even be in jail that long and I will continue talking. I’ll just talk and talk and talk. You won’t be there to enjoy my speech but I will be sure to be very eloquent. So will the press I’m sure. Armed man holds up restaurant his mother is holding a party at with a gun, high society shocked. Oh, and they will be once I start talking.” The old woman turned pale as her seated son and daughter looked at her in askance.

The man with the gun, Noah, walked slowly around the table, patting a grandchild on the head, touching the adults on the shoulder, until he was face to face with his mother. They stared at each other for a moment, and then he put his arm around her shoulders, the arm that wasn’t still holding the gun.

“Such a touching family reunion isn’t it. You’ve told me about all of them in your letters. Why, this must be the first time you hugged me since I was one, I think I might cry,” he didn’t look like it. Especially not when you watched the gun, which was pointed right at his mother’s head, it didn’t seem a very emotional moment. “Let’s see here, that’s my younger brother, Edward, I always wanted to meet you. When I was younger I daydreamed about playing with you, you look nothing like I imagined. And you would be my younger sister Henrietta, horrible name, no wonder you ended up so pinch faced.” The gun went to point at each of them as he talked, while his arm remained around his mother’s frail shoulders.

“I’m afraid you have the advantage on us, we’ve never heard of you,” Edward said, gathering his courage.

“Of course you didn’t, imagine that. You see mother, here, dear, dear mother, didn’t want people to know of me. You’re father was always a stickler on moral things and our mother, our mother who thinks that money is everything, knew that he wouldn’t marry her if he knew she had had a baby born out of wedlock. A baby I might add she didn’t even know the father of. She knew she had a chance, if only he didn’t find out about me. So I was shipped off to her parents, and never spoken of. The only news I only heard of her was the letters she wrote her parents and enclosed with the money they demanded for my care every month. When I got older and moved out I kept getting money from her, to keep quiet and out of sight, and never, ever say who my mother was. Disgusting isn’t it?”

“Mother?” asked Edward. “Is he really my brother?” his tone was accusing. The old woman looked as if she was about to say something but couldn’t decide what to say. It was the first time I had seen her lost for words the whole night.

“You don’t have to worry, I have a job, I haven’t spent a penny of the money mother has sent me all these years. Since I have announced our kinship I haven’t earned it. I’ll give it to you and Henrietta since our poor mother doesn’t have the time left to enjoy it.” Noah reached into his trench coat and pulled out a large stack of bills which he threw on the table. It was more money then I had seen in my whole life. Instantly every eye at the table was attracted to it. Henrietta looked like she was about to reach for it, but then her hand pulled back. Edward looked at it greedily but even he didn’t reach out for it. It was as if the old woman, their mother, wasn’t even there. Now it was between the three siblings and they looked at each other carefully.

“You are a good and honest man to be willing to give up all the money but even if you’ve come here, you deserve the money,” Henrietta finally said, though she still looked wistfully in the direction of the money. “After all, we always got a lot of money from Mother, far more then that over the years I’m sure. We’ve never had to work a day in our lives.”

“And you didn’t speak for all of these years about her, which should earn you something,” Edward added. “You are our older brother; we don’t deny you our mother’s money though we didn’t know you existed before.”

Noah’s face was something to behold at that moment, as was the old woman’s. Noah’s face was one of bafflement at being accepted even though he had never been before. His mother’s was the face of shock that her children would team up in a united front against her wishes. It was a touching moment to see Edward walk over and hug Noah, something that made Noah so shocked he dropped his gun. Edward kicked it under the table cloth and for an instant I thought that was the whole reason why he had shown Noah affection, but no, he continued to hug Noah even then. Henrietta stood and she joined them, touching both of them on the shoulders, a big happy family. Their mother looked perfectly outraged but I was far more concerned with the men in police uniforms I could see pushing through the crowd when I looked through the glass panels on the door.

“The cops are coming,” I announced, looking at Noah. He reluctantly let go of his brother and sister and stepped away from them.

“It’s been fun,” he said, going back into his cut, precise voice. I was starting to realize the voice was a sign he was under stress and scared rather then to hide anything.

“What are you talking about?” Henrietta asked. “You are staying right here. Members of our family don’t go to prison if we can help it. Edward, you talk to them. Mother has treated you pretty shabbily Noah, so of course you wouldn’t know but with money you can get out of anything short of murder in this world.”

Edward motioned for Lena and I to step away from the doors and he opened them wide to the public. I had thought that the crowd would come running forward but they hung back, even the police, everyone had seen the gun. Now one of the hostages was throwing open the doors and another one was standing in front of the attacker in a very protective way.

“I’m afraid there has been a misunderstanding,” Edward announced. I would have sunk into the floor from embarrassment to address such a crowd, and in such a situation. Edward however was full of confidence. You could tell by his voice. “This man is our brother; he was simply playing a practical joke on us. He went overboard but I’m sure all of this can be sorted out.” I looked over and couldn’t help but liking the look on Noah’s face when Edward called him brother.