Chapter 2

We had a good early dinner and my grandmother was very serious when she said she craved a big rare steak. The Butcher Block was a cool place. The building itself was an old warehouse. The inside was part cave, part sit down restaurant and part bar. The thing that set it apart from any other restaurant I’d ever been too was that when you walked in, before you were seated, you went to a counter in front of the restaurants butcher shop, where you were shown several types of protein. Beef steaks of every cut, pork of every cut, and on occasion wild game like deer, elk, and bison were on display.

Once you made your choice, you were shown to your table and presented with a selection of drinks. On this occasion we all had a nice red wine. No one blanched at serving an 18 year old a glass of wine with dinner. I never pushed it further to ask for a cocktail or a beer.

Once the drink was served we were led into the cave-like room where we were each handed a platter with the raw protein we’d ordered. In the center of the cave was a large circular open pit grill with many “stations” around it. Part of the grill had grates over an open fire, part was a flat metal grill slab. Each station had a long two-pronged fork, a pair of tongs, and a meat thermometer. Once you were set on which station you wanted to take, you used the fork or tongs to place your meat on the grill.

Then it was a matter of drinking your wine and waiting for the meat thermometer to show your food was at the right temperature. While the meat cooked we ordered the rest of our meal. There were salads and vegetables of varying types. I usually ordered the large Brussels sprouts soaked in garlic butter, which I grilled with my steak. When your meat was cooked to your preferred temperature, you put it back on the platter to rest and went back to your table.

Once seated, a server brought your meal and topped off your drink and dinner was afoot. My 12-oz ribeye looked like a kiddie portion compared to my grandmother’s 24-ounce porterhouse. We began our meal and talked about many things. We did not talk about the will reading that we were going to attend after dinner.

We did talk about something I’d asked about before. I was the only male to have been born in the family since my great grandfather. I guess after three daughters, my grandmother basically showed my grandfather the door.

I never knew him, but I can say the same about my father. It seemed that as soon as I was born, my father was out the door as well. I never knew him either, never met him, never had contact with him. I once asked my sisters if they ever heard from him and they said that they talked to him all the time. Once when they were on the phone with him, I asked if I could speak to him. My eldest sister gave me the phone. I said, “Hello father.” The line went dead. That was the only time I tried to speak to him.

My great grandfather told me that my father was under a court order to not speak with me. I asked, “Why?” and he told me that I was too young to understand. Afterwards, my sisters told me that they would never help me talk to my father again. They had both had a very stern speaking to by my grandmother after the phone incident.

After that, my great grandfather began to take an even bigger role in my life. For all intents and purposes he became my father. He was the source of all information having to do with everything from riding a bike to driving a car. He is the one to give me ‘The Talk’. That was an experience!

I was called to his library and he had me take off my clothes and stand before him. He looked at my fourteen year old body and began asking questions.

“Mick, my boy, how often do you masturbate?”

I looked at him, blushing, and totally embarrassed.

“Come on my boy, everyone does it, if they don’t have a person to do it with. Well regardless. Don’t do it too much. The old wives tales is that you’ll go blind. The fact is that too much can cause you to lose sensation in your penis. And believe me, you’re going to want to have full sensitivity someday for as long as you can.”

He chuckled at those words. I thought he was nuts. In actuality he knew something I didn’t. Yet.

After dinner, my mother told me to go home, shower and dress in a nice pair of slacks and a nice dress shirt.

“No tie will be needed, Mick. Just look neat and presentable.”

“Yes. Mother.”

I was expecting us to meet at the solicitor’s office but instead my mother said that she and grandmother would drive in my mother’s car and I should drive my old beater alone. And instead of a law office, mother told me to drive to my great grandfathers home. I arrived shortly before my mother and grandmother. I parked and ran to their car to help my grandmother out of the passenger seat. I followed them into the house and into my great grandfather’s home office.