Chapter 3

Harry looked around the executive conference room at all of the material William had left there for him. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he said, “William kept his promise.”

The elderly man took a seat and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. He thought about what he wanted to say before he started writing. About four sentences into it, he balled up the paper and threw it into the trashcan. He grabbed another sheet and started over. It took him twenty minutes to write a letter that was half a page in length. He folded it carefully and slipped it into an envelope. He sealed it and wrote the name of the recipient, Oliver Brown, across the flap.

He put it to the side and thought, ‘What does one write to your true love of thirty years on an occasion like this?’ He decided that all one could do was to write what one honestly felt. He knew that Lady Lucy had understood him the best of all the women in his life. Neither of them was the kind to settle down. Even though he had offered to set her up in a house, she had rejected it. She had refused to travel with him, preferring their times together to be by happenstance.

He took a sheet of paper and wrote his love for her upon it. This letter was much longer and covered two pages. In it, he reminisced about moments of passion stolen in alleys, lazy afternoons swimming in streams, and other shared adventures. Other folks had seen a bag lady; Harry had seen a free spirit who wasn’t bound by normal conventions. No one but Harry had ever considered her pretty, but he thought she was a beauty queen.

Harry sat back and wiped the tears from his eyes. It hurt not to be able to say goodbye to her in person. He wanted one more chance to put his arms around her. He folded the paper and slipped it into an envelope with a sigh. Like the first envelope, he signed her name across the sealed flap. He set it atop the other envelope. He looked at the two envelopes and thought, ‘Two down and so many more to go.’

Exhausted by the effort, Harry poured himself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table. It surprised him how William was always able to do the right thing, at the right time. Raising the cup in the air, he said, “It was nice of you to think of this.”

It took six hours for Harry to work his way through all of the letters. There were three large stacks of letters to be distributed across the entire country. He had written letters to each of the individuals in charge of a Homeless Hotel. He had written letters to a number of the people he had helped over the years. He felt bad that he couldn’t write a letter to everyone he knew.

He moved the letters away so that they wouldn’t remind him of what was going to happen to him. He’d made William promise to tell him, but he’d never thought of the consequences of knowing about it ahead of time. He wanted a cup of coffee, but the coffee in the carafe was cold. He rose and stretched.

“Here’s some more coffee, Harry,” William said as he entered the room. He had a fresh carafe of coffee in his hand and a plate of donuts.

Harry said, “I was wondering if you’d show up.”

William poured two cups of coffee; one for each of them. Settling on the table, William handed a cup to Harry. He said, “Ed is waiting outside for you. I told him you’d be ready to talk to him in five minutes.”

“I didn’t realize what I was making you promise to do when I forced you to swear by your future service to the Two-Sided One. I apologize for doing that to you,” Harry said with a sigh. He hadn’t given a thought about what keeping that promise would mean for William until William had showed up.

“No need to apologize. It was what you wanted. I was being foolish.”

“I didn’t realize how I would feel about it. Still, I’m thankful that I’ve had this chance to get my affairs in order,” Happy Harry said. He didn’t know what else to say to William.

William smiled and asked, “Run out of things to say?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have a song for the occasion?”

“What would you suggest?”

“When The Saints Are Marching In,” William answered with a grin.

“Dixieland Style,” Harry said rubbing his hands together in glee. Just the thought of the song made him feel better.

“Right.”

Harry started off, “We are trav’ling in the footsteps, Of those who’ve gone before, And we’ll all be reunited, On a new and sunlit shore...”

William joined in and sang with his friend. By the time they hit the refrain about when the saints were marching, Harry was stomping around the room waving his arms as if directing a Dixieland band with William following behind him pretending to blow a trombone. By the end of the tune, Harry was smiling. Putting a hand on William’s shoulder, he said, “You can send your father in now.”

“Okay, Harry,” William said with a smile. It was good to see Harry smiling again.

William went to the door and held it open for his father. Once Ed had entered the room, William stepped out and closed the door. Ed turned back to look at the door for a second. Shaking his head, he turned back to Harry and asked, “When the Saints Go Marching In?”

“William’s idea. He knows me too well and knew that I couldn’t stay sad after singing that song.”

“Ah. So what do you want to talk to me about?” Ed asked.

“I want the Angel of Chicago to take over for me,” Harry said.

“That’s easy enough to arrange. I’ll put a motion forward at the next meeting of the board.”

Harry sat down on the edge of the table and crossed his arms. He knew that he was about to get into a major conflict with Ed. He said, “That’s another item. I want William to take my seat on the board of the Fusion Foundation.”

“He’s too young,” Ed said dismissing the idea out of hand.

“He’s Dr. William Redman Carter. He may be physically young, but he’s not a youth,” Harry countered.

“We’re trying to get fewer Druids on the board.”

“He’s not a Druid, yet.”

Ed frowned as he considered it. For all intents and purposes, William was a Druid. He just hadn’t started his service to the Two- Sided One. He said, “We all know he will be.”

Harry leaned forward and said, “Ed, trust William. He’ll know when to step down. For now, the Fusion Foundation needs his vision.”

Shaking his head, Ed said, “I’ll see what I can do about it.”

“You’ll do more than see. You’ll work your ass off to make it happen. I’ll want you to promise me that,” Harry said knowing that if Ed made that promise that he would move heaven and earth to hold to it.

“I promise,” Ed said.

“There’s one more thing I need from you,” Harry said with a smile.

“What?”

“I want you to promise me that William won’t see my dead body,” Harry said.

Ed paced around the room and said, “I can’t make a promise about another person’s choices. You know that.”

“Okay. Just remind him that it is my last wish.”

That was something that Ed could do. He had a feeling that it wouldn’t be necessary. “Okay.”

“That’s all I need to talk to you about.”

Ed took a seat in one of the chairs facing Happy Harry and said, “I’d like to thank you for taking care of William. You’ve been a good friend to him.”

Harry moved off the table and sat down on one of the other chairs. Leaning back, he said, “There have only been a handful of people who really understood me. Lady Lucy is one. William is another. I mean, that kid knows my moods and knows what to say. The homeless have had Happy Harry to give them hope, but Happy Harry has had William.

“I’ll be honest with you, Ed. There have been times when I’ve felt that you and yours kept William back from developing like a regular person. Then I have to remind myself that William isn’t like any other person I’ve ever met. I don’t know what you could have done better, but I do know that you could have treated him to some fast food on occasion. The boy’s positively obsessed with it.”

Ed laughed and said, “I fear that my fascination with fine cuisine probably ruined him for life. With Marguerite cooking for me, it was just too hard to settle for one of William’s Burger Burner joints.”

“Well, I will say that we’ve had our share of burgers, fish and chips, tacos, and fried chicken,” Harry said with a smile. The number of times that William had spotted a new fast food joint and begged to try it out was almost too numerous to count. It had been a joy to watch the young man discover Fish and Chips.

“I was more than happy to leave that task to you.”

“Thank you for letting him be in my life,” Happy Harry said.

“You were important to all of our kids,” Ed said. A silence descended on the room. There wasn’t much else for the two men to say to each other. Finally, Ed said, “You’ve served the Goddess very well.”

William stepped into the room and handed Happy Harry a key. Smiling, he said, “I got a room for you. Why don’t you go upstairs, take a shower, and get some rest? Just remember to get Ling before you head out.”

Harry accepted the key from William and said, “I am a little tired.”

“A little? You’ve been up almost thirty-six hours,” William retorted. He shooed his friend out the door.

“You’ll take care of the letters?”

“You bet,” William said. He paused and then hugged the Druid tightly. In a light voice, he said, “Take care of yourself my friend.”

“You take care, my friend,” Harry said thinking it would be the last time that he would see William. He planned to leave before the young man would wake in the morning.