Chapter 16

Sunday morning I went down to the gym and, since MaryAnn had still not returned from her weekend with her college friend, I had to work out alone. I didn't expect to see Joe come down for an early morning workout. I did a half hour on the treadmill, a half hour on the free weights, and a half hour on the heavy bag. I ate alone for breakfast and lunch, so I was very pleased when MaryAnn came home about 4:00.

She took her bag up to her room, then came downstairs and we chatted out on the patio. As was our custom, neither one of us asked the other what they did on the weekend. We respected each other's privacy.

I told her that I had not seen Joe since Saturday morning. She mentioned that he had called her, telling her that he had some last minute business dealings to handle and would be back in a couple of days.

I told her that I was on pins and needles waiting for Joe to give me the next, and last, task that we had to do in order to complete his list.

"John, I'm so happy to hear that, I hope it won't be too difficult."

"Joe assured me that I'd enjoy it and be thankful to him for the rest of my life."

The next two days were uneventful. MaryAnn and I were able to spend more and more time together. Joe returned late on Tuesday night, and stayed in the library most of the next day. After dinner Wednesday evening, Joe rose from the table and asked me to meet him in the library. As he was walking out, he turned to MaryAnn and said,

"Give us a while, then please come to the library."

Something was up, but knowing Joe, I'd have to wait for him to tell me what it was.

"John, come on in. Please shut the doors."

"Joe, what's up?"

"John, please sit down. I owe you a very long and detailed explanation as to what has been going on here for the last twelve months. Before I give you the final envelope I have a confession to make.

My heart stopped, 'all this has been an act, he's not rich and everything he had he spent on his list.'

"I told you a half-truth; I'm not dying of cancer."

'I knew it.'

"I do, or did, have cancer; skin cancer on my shoulder that I had removed almost a year ago. And as far as dying, we're all dying each and every day; we're getting one day closer to the end of our lives. So I really didn't lie to you. Sort of.

"Let me tell you more about me. What your mother told you was true: I ran away from home when I was eighteen and spent six years in the Navy. On my ship I was known as the go to guy. If you needed something, you came to me. I had a knack for being able to get my hands on stuff that no one else could get. I honed that skill for my entire stint in the Navy. I made a lot of money and a lot of friends helping people get things they needed. I bent a lot of rules but never broke any, at least as far as I know.

"After I got out, I used that money, those skills and the friends I made, to make more money and more friends in higher places. Soon the deals I was getting involved in began making serious money. I took a lot of chances because I felt I was playing with the house's money. I got really lucky and made millions on land deals in Hawaii, and real estate deals here in California. The more money I made, the greater the drive I had to make more money. Then I dropped out for a while, collected my winnings, built this house and bought the estate in Kauai, and basically retired at the age of 33.

"I used to hang out on Venice Beach, watch the bodybuilders work out, and dream of doing the same thing with my body. There was a beautiful Norwegian bodybuilder named Diana, they nicknamed her 'The Valkyrie, ' because of her fierce competitiveness in everything she did. I wanted to meet her so badly, but I felt I wasn't in her league; she could have any of those guys she wanted. One day I saw her having a terrible argument with one of the other bodybuilders. She left the beach with tears in her eyes. I knew she was hurting badly. I followed her at a distance, out to the far end of the parking lot. As she neared her car, two of the guys from the beach jumped her and began beating her. I almost turned away, not wishing to get beat up myself. But at the last minute I ran across the parking lot screaming 'Police!' at the top of my lungs. They both turned and ran, not realizing that I was a force of one.

"I helped her to my car and I took her to the hospital. I waited for several hours while they patched her up. They told me that they would have to keep her overnight for observation. When they asked me who I was I told them that I was her boyfriend.

'Congratulations, one of the nurses said after the doctor had left, your girlfriend is pregnant.'

"The next morning I went up to see her."

'You're the guy from the parking lot; it was you who saved me. Why did you say you were my boyfriend?' 'Wishful thinking I guess.' 'You don't want to be him, because when I get out of here I'm going to break every bone in his body. He and his brother were the guys that were beating me up. I told him I was going to have a baby, his baby. We argued. First he denied it was his, then he wanted me to have an abortion; it seemed that a baby wouldn't sit too well with his socialite fiancée. When I refused to have the abortion, they tried to make me have a miscarriage. That's when you arrived. Now I have no place to go and no money. I guess I'll have to move back to Minnesota and live with my cousins.' 'I have an offer for you. If you want, you can live with me. I just built a brand new house on the beach in Malibu. I want to build a first-class gym in the basement. If you come to work for me as my fitness coach, you and your baby can live with me as long as you like. I have plenty of room and I'll pay you well.

'What do you say?'

"She agreed and came to work for me. She had a baby girl and for the next two years, she put together a world-class gym, and whipped my ass into the greatest shape I was ever in. We used to wrestle against each other. Of course, she would beat me most of the time; she was just too strong for me. Then, I started to put a winning streak together. The first couple of wins resulted in some great sex, right there on the mat. After the last time that I won, she just lay there with a worried look on her face.

'Joe, something is wrong with me; I'm losing strength in my arms and legs and I'm losing weight even though I'm eating like a horse.'

"We took her to the doctor and then to a specialist who told us she had pancreatic cancer. The prognosis was not good; at that time they had no treatment for it. They told her she had three to six months.

"We returned home, made love, and planned for the end. I wanted to get married; she refused. All she wanted was for me to take care of her little girl. I watched her waste away; this once mighty Amazon was a mere one hundred and twenty pounds when she died.

"I was a basket case for almost a year before I finally snapped out of it. I put all my energies back into business. I made deals; I made lots of money. And I adopted her little girl. She had the best of everything, except me. It was too painful for me to be with her; every time I looked at her, I saw Diana. So I traveled. A lot. My businesses overseas flourished. I sent her to private schools, nothing but the best was good enough for her.

During one of the weekends that we were both home, I passed by her room and heard her sobbing. I was just about to walk into her room, when I heard her say, 'Why doesn't he love me? I would give anything for us to be a family, I just want a daddy who loves me.'

"Talk about a kick in the gut. I rushed into the room, held her tight, and promised her that I would always love her, that we would be a real family. And we have been ever since.

"She graduated from high school, I was there. She graduated from college, I was there. I had her take over as my fitness coach, allowing her as much time and freedom as she wanted or needed. I wanted her to be happy, to find someone, to get married and have kids of her own. The one area in which she seems to have trouble in is relationships; but I'll let her tell you about that if she wants.

"About seven years ago, I received a letter from your mother. She was worried about you. You had just graduated from college, but seemed to have no ambition, no drive and, as far as she knew, no woman in your life. I called her and, after a long talk, she made me promise her that I would look after you. She must have had a premonition of something bad happening to her, because within six months she and your father were dead. You never realized it, but I was always looking over your shoulder. I bought the company you worked for just to insure you would have a job. I couldn't understand why you stayed there, so I had them give you a series of psychological tests, which you thought everyone had to take. I had the tests reviewed and was told that you were a submissive, even if you didn't realize it yourself. That you needed someone to be dominant over you, to make the decisions in your life. That was why you never had relationships, why you appeared to have no ambitions in life.