Melinda's obsession III
Alumni reunion
This is a third and final part of "Melinda's obsession" trilogy. It's a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
***
One grey and rainy Saturday in fall Ben White was sitting in front of TV enjoying beer and watching football. His favorite team was losing 0:7, making Ben angry.
Suddenly somebody knocked on the door of his apartment and Ben saw a mailman holding a certified package requiring signature on delivery.
What is that?
thought Ben, afraid of divorce papers being served.
Ben was a 6'2" black man in his late forties with a neat beard, small mustache, and short hair showing few gray spots, but no signs of baldness. He was the owner of a local car repair shop and a desperate husband trying to fix his broken marriage with his wife, Shawna.
They separated three weeks ago when Shawna slammed the door behind her and never came back, taking their two teenage children with her.
Ben's business was terribly slow in the last couple of years as more and more car owners switched to electric vehicles. Those EV's were 100% dependable having nothing to fail in them except a battery. And when the battery failed, it wasn't worthwhile to replace it as buying a new EV with warranty might be more cost-effective.
So, Ben worked mostly on very old gas cars and trucks whose owners were frugal, negotiating every penny and frequently failing to pay for Ben's already finished repairs.
Ben loved Shawna from the first day they met during his college years. She worked as a cashier at a supermarket and was not attending any school. However, they loved each other and dated for years until Ben graduated and started his car repair business.
Ben was an affectionate and faithful husband, calling Shawna, "My Chocolate." The only shady spot in his past was an affair with his classmate Melinda when Shawna had to stay with her sick mother for three weeks and was not available for dating.
Ben was always afraid of losing Shawna. Nevertheless, it happened. The family struggled with poverty and lack of income from Ben's business.
Another customer disappeared a month ago leaving Ben with his old 1997 GMC clunker and a refurbished transmission installed there by Ben worth $2,200 out of his pocket. However, the truck's owner never came back to claim his repaired vehicle and pay the cost of transmission and Ben's job.
So now Ben had an old GMC truck in fairly good running condition without a title worth less than $500 on the black market and $2,200 of debt to the junk yard for a salvaged transmission.
When Ben delivered that news to Shawna, she yelled, "Enough!" Then she grabbed both of their sons and instantly moved in with her mother, taking nothing from their family apartment.
Ben was desperate for money and tried calling Shawna several times every day hoping she would come back.
Shawna always hung up on him and one time she picked up the phone and said she was going to file for divorce.
The weather with dark grey clouds and drizzling rain for the entire day was very uncommon for the arid desert climate of the city adding up to Ben's depression.
To Ben's luck, the letter he received was not from the court. It was an invitation to the reunion party for alumni of the college he graduated 25 years ago.
The letter provided a date, time, and gathering place at the parking lot next to the church where attendees would be picked up by a shuttle and delivered to the old castle in a southern part of the city close to Ben's college.
Ben knew that place. The castle was one of the most famous city landmarks on the mountain hill right above the college campus.
When Ben was a student, he often looked at that castle during breaks between classes and thought,
what's there? What kind of people might be living in it?
The castle was built at the beginning of nineteenth century by a French nobleman fleeing from the revolution in his country.
Nowadays the castle sometimes appeared on the news as a blighted spot, shaming the city, staying abandoned for years, and slowly turning to ruins. Its elderly owners lived in Europe and didn't care about their US property.
However, the picture of the castle printed on the invitation letter showed it fully renovated with all its former glory.
The letter discouraged driving directly to the castle, offering a shuttle instead as the parking lot at the property was very small, and the private road was extremely steep and not safe to drive unless one had enough experience with it.
The package had a check for one thousand dollars from the alumni reunion committee. The condition of its acceptance was a promise to attend a party.
The fine print in the letter said,
To assure privacy of guests, no personal photography, video, or sound recording allowed. All attendees will be required to check in their cell phones and other electronic devices upon arrival to the party.
Free land phones will be available in the communication room during the event for emergency calls only.
Professional photo/video shooting will be taken. Pictures and videos will be provided to guests free of charge after the event.
Acceptance of this offer and the attached check is your agreement to comply with the policies above.
The letter raised Ben's mood. He was eager to attend the party and he parked at the church lot ten minutes before the appointment at five on the date of the event.
Ben saw his former classmate Cory and a couple of other guys whose names he vaguely remembered from his student years.
Exactly at five a shiny new black
Nissan Armada
SUV with tinted windows parked next to them and the driver suggested, "Please board and let's go to the party."
Ben was surprised, asking the driver, "Why have only four guys shown up? Where are the rest of the alumni? Will there be more shuttles to pick them up?"
The driver said, "Please don't worry. I have instructions to pick up only the four of you. The rest might be coming from separate places. So, let's go," and he started driving.
When the SUV approached the castle, Ben saw dozens of identical vehicles in front and behind theirs forming a line to drive up to the mountain with castle. Then the steep, two-thousand-foot ascent with multiple switchbacks began on the narrow road.
They arrived in the courtyard of the castle and the SUV door opened in front of a small side entrance to the building.
A tall and thin lady in her early seventies with gray hair greeted them, "Hi. My name is Gina. Please put your cell phone in the envelope, print your name on it and give it to me. Then join your friends at the lobby," she said, pointing to the long corridor.
As soon as all four men exited the vehicle, it moved forward, and the next SUV parked on its place for unloading passengers.
The guys walked down the corridor and entered a big lobby in front of the main hall in the middle of the castle. They saw already thirty or forty of their former classmates. Some faces looked unfamiliar after so many years passed.
Surprisingly, they were all men. No single woman showed up at the party so far except Gina.
Ben saw his friends, Jeff, Jason, and even Tony, who he knew was living on the opposite side of the country running a large construction business with his partner.
The guys started smalltalk and exchanging updates about their lives. Jeff asked, "Where are all our girls?" and the rest of friends shrugged their shoulders. Nobody had any idea how to answer that question.
More and more men arrived. Exactly at six the big door to the main hall opened ajar and they were all invited inside by Gina.
She said in a pleasant voice amplified with speakers, "Welcome to the party. Again, my name is Gina and I'll be your host. We hope you will enjoy our soiree. Please have a seat at the tables and help yourself to food and drinks."
Ben noticed that Jeff and Gina exchanged surprised glances and slightly nodded to each other with individual greetings.
The crowd entered and saw dining tables in a U-shape in the hall in front of stage with a huge screen. That screen displayed a slideshow from their college years and graduation ceremony playing light, nostalgic music.
Ben sat at the table with his friends, Jeff, Cory, and Tony and looked around.
The hall was magnificent. Its ceiling and walls were decorated with white and gold. Huge, gilded chandeliers with hundreds of incandescent bulbs provided enough warm light for everything to shine but without blinding brightness.
Large, arched windows gave a beautiful view of the city at night with millions of lights in the valley down below. Quiet, light music played from invisible speakers adding more majesty and warmth to the environment.
Most of all the hall reminded one of a royal palace in the nineteenth century displaying wealth, luxury, prosperity, and a hint of nostalgia.
The quality and variety of food fully matched the style of the room. Apparently prepared by the best chefs in the city, it was also display of luxury and quality mixed with exotics. Spanish jamon, white truffles, black caviar in large bowls with tablespoons and even Swallow's Nest soup for those who dared to try it.
Entrées provided wide choice from best beef or pork to game meat and exotic side dishes on demand from guests.
Drinks included wines vinted and bottled in the first part of last century and the most expensive brands of whiskey, cognac, and other hard liquors. Even water and ice were claimed to be delivered from the Himalayas.
The entirety of the environment and food showed extreme wealth and royal luxury to the guests.
Ben turned to Jeff, sitting to his left, and asked, "What is this all about? Who are the sponsors of this? Do you know anybody from the reunion committee?"
Jeff shrugged, slightly confused, saying, "I'm surprised, same as you, Ben. The only person from the staff I know is Gina. She was engaged in fishy business a quarter century ago. But she is not rich enough to set this all up."
"Who might be so wealthy to afford all this luxury?" kept asking Ben. "Do we have any millionaires among our folks?" He nudged Tony on the right with his elbow knowing that the latter was worth about fifty million.
Tony giggled, "I own a business with my partner, Angel. But all our funds are in construction equipment, materials and houses we already built and now offering for sale. I don't have enough cash to buy a gallon of caviar or a crate of truffles. Not saying anything about all that expensive booze."
Then he added turning left, "Jeff, don't be shy. You are much richer than me. Is this party your doing?"
Jeff chuckled saying, "Sure, I could afford food and rent of this property. But why would I waste so much money just for a party? "
Then after a half-minute pause he added slowly, "Umm, I know the only one person from our class so rich, that she could afford it without breaking the bank. She is a member of
Forbes-100
club, the list of the one hundred richest people on the planet. But I don't even want to talk about her as there are no women at this party."
