Chapter 5

At the start of the Christmas break, Morrisette and her family came over to the house again. Well, really it was the first time they had come over to the B.'s house; the last time it was to my house. Morrisette was very pregnant. I mean, she was very pregnant back in August, too, but it didn't show. Now her belly was all puffed out like she had swallowed a beach ball. They said she was due on January 10^th.

Morrisette just said, "Chris, I'm sorry. I lied before." Her mother was just holding her hand, but her father was so angry that his face was as red as anything. "Todd is the father of my baby. He's on the football team and it's his senior year. If I identified him as the father, he'd be off the team. So I didn't want to mess up his chances with the scouts that would be coming around. I'm sorry if it caused you any distress."

"That's all right, Morrisette," I said. I was pretty calm on the outside, but inside I was really pissed off. "It wasn't much of a problem. I just got four months of being grounded. And I was ignored by the whole school. And the Principal of the school pretty much kicked me out ... You know what? I hope nobody ever does anything this bad to you. I don't think you could take it ... One question: why did you say that about me?"

"Well," her voice was very soft now. "You're a nice guy. And I didn't think you'd mind, much."

"I wouldn't mind much. God, who's the dummy here?" I said. Then I walked over to her very angry dad. "Who's the half-wit now? Huh?" And then I ran up the stairs and into my room.

I guess they left pretty soon after that.

Lu knocked on my door and I asked her to come in. "I knew it all along. I told them that it couldn't have been you. I just knew it." Then she threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. Well, she came about up to my chin, and she tried to hug me around the broadest part of my shoulders, and she had included my arms in her hug, so she didn't get her short little arms all the way around me. Not hardly. I could feel her breasts against my upper stomach and I could smell the flowery scent of her shampoo in her honey-colored hair. I started to get hard, really very hard. It came on me all of a sudden.

I'm sure she noticed, 'cause it was poking her in her abdomen. She pulled my head down and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I'm so happy for you, now. Now, get downstairs. Don't hide!" she said. And then she grabbed my hand and started to pull me out the door. I followed along. I just naturally would do what she wanted me to do.

"Daddy," she said when we got to the bottom of the stairs, "can we take out an ad in the newspaper that says Chris isn't the father of Morrisette's baby? This kind of news would not get around as fast and as far as the bad news went. And it would serve Morrisette right if everybody knew what she did."

"Hmm," said her father. He was puffing on his pipe again, but this time it was lit and smoke was coming out. "We can't say anything bad about anybody else. And it will cost quite a bit to get a big ad." He puffed quite a bit more. "But I think, yes, we can do it ... Chris would you like to do that? If we just say you're not the father."

"Can we also say, 'Congrats to Morrisette and Todd'? That would get the message across," I said. "I know Franklin Stims, he's the editor of the school newspaper. I know they take ads."

"Hmm," he said, as he puffed some more. "Let's organize it for the first publication of the school paper after Christmas break is over. And then we'll put it in the town newspaper too. You should be glad you don't have to go back to that school. I don't think you have many friends there, really."

"What about you, Lu. I won't do it if there's going to be any problems for you," I said, giving her a goofy grin.

"I've already got enough credits to graduate, and I'm going to the U. to study law next year. What can they do? Kick me out? I'm third in the class. I'll handle the other kids."

So that's what we decided to do.

That was very good news, but it wasn't the best thing that happened during Christmas break.

About in the middle of the school break, on the 20^th of December, Mr. Merriweather called.

"Hello, Chris. Do you remember who I am?" he said.

"Of course. You're my dad's mentor."

"Yes, I was. But now I'm your lawyer. I've got some pretty good news. A Christmas present, almost."

"Okay."

"The construction company has offered you thirty-seven and a half million dollars to settle. I think we should take it."

"Wait a minute, please." Then I shouted for Lu. "Lu, how much is thirty-seven and a half?"

Lu was just in the kitchen and she answered, "It's three seven point five, Chris." I understood decimals, but not fractions. Lu always said they were the same thing – not for me, they weren't.

"Okay. How much is three seven point five million?"

Lu walked in to the room. "Who's on the phone, Chris?"

"It's Mr. Merriweather. I just want to know how many zeros in a million. I never tried to count that high," I said, still holding my hand over the phone, so Mr. Merriweather couldn't hear.

"Can I talk to him, please?" she asked, very politely.

"Mr. Merriweather, this is Lucinda Belevere." I expected her to say 'of the Fox Avenue Beleveres', but she didn't. "Chris was just a little confused by the fraction in what you said."

There was a pause while she listened.

"I think that's great, but it'll have to be his decision ... hold on." And she handed me back the phone. "Chris, that amount is three seven five with five zeros after it."

Mrs. B. had come out of the kitchen now too, and was wiping her hands on her apron.

"Hello, Mr. Merriweather? I just had to understand how much money that was," I said.

"It's a lot of money, that's for sure," he said. "Chris, my advice is to take the offer. Then we'll be all done with the lawsuit and you can get on with your life. The other choice is to go to court. We'll win, but I can't be sure of the amount we'll get. That will be up to the jury. This is a known quantity."

"Can I think about it a little? I don't want to make a mistake with that much money at stake."

"Very smart move, Chris. Sure, take a day or two. Say by the 22^nd, I'll have to give them an answer. That'll give you almost two days to think it over."

"Okay. Thanks Mr. Merriweather."

"Chris, Merry Christmas. Can I stop by on Christmas Day?"

"Sure, I guess."

Two days later, on the 22^nd, I called him back and told him I'd take the offer. So now I was pretty rich.

That was the second piece of good news, but it wasn't the best thing that happened that Christmas.

On Christmas afternoon, Mr. Merriweather came over. He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. It seemed strange to see him out of his 'uniform': the three piece dark grey suit with the pinstripes. But he was relaxed and happy. He gave me a gift. It was a sterling silver ID bracelet. I think that's what it's called. It was made of heavy links, went around my wrist and had my name carved in the big panel. The panel could snap open and there was room inside for two pictures. One picture was already there. It was a picture from last summer of me and mom and dad. I looked at it before putting it on. Then I said "Thank you" to him. My throat was very thick and I had tears in my eyes. "This is very nice, Mr. Merriweather," I told him.

"Call me Alex. I call you Chris, right?" He gave me a big hug, then he suggested that we go over to my old house. I hadn't been there, except to get my clothes and other stuff, so I agreed. I asked Lu to come along, kinda as my security blanket.

"Who's been paying the bills for this house, Chris?" he asked as we were walking through the house.

"I dunno. The estate guy, I guess – Mr. Fellsmore?" I ventured a guess.

"We should get that formalized. Do you want to keep this house?"

"Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is my house, right? And when I get to be eighteen, I can move back in. Nothing against the Beleveres..." I squeezed Lu's hand, to show I wasn't mad at her family, or nothing. "... 'cause they've been great. I owe them, and you too, Lu – big time."

We walked through the place. "It's an awfully big house. Three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, you dad's office, plus lots of other space: basement, laundry, and so on," Alex said. "You sure you need that much space?"

"Well, I'm rich, right? Dad thought this house was a good investment. Except for the lawn – I useta cut the grass and mom did the gardens and stuff. If I'm rich, I want to get somebody else to cut the grass. That's reasonable, right?"

Alex and Lu both laughed. "Sure is, Chris," Alex said.

When we got to the office area, he said, "Chris, your dad had a lot of papers here. I think you should go through them. Some of them should come back to the firm, because they were related to his work. Others might be important to you."

"Okay, I guess I should do that," I answered. But I had no idea how I was going to be able to read all those papers. Maybe I could put them all into my computer and have the computer read them to me, but that would take forever. I couldn't ask Lu to do it, because that would take her forever, too.

"Maybe you could pay someone to read them for you ... someone you trust," Alex said and he looked at Lu while he was saying it.

"Sure, maybe." And I looked at Lu, too. "If I can find somebody I can trust."

Lu looked at me, then at Mr ... um ... Alex. "I'll do it for free, Chris. You know that."

"Yeah, you would. But it will take a lot of time, and besides, I'm rich!" I told her.

She just smiled at me. "You sure are," she said with a smile.

A warm smile from Lu almost made my 'nice things that happened this Christmas break' list, but didn't – barely. LOL

Then we looked in some other rooms.

Alex said, "Chris, you really should think about cleaning all the clothes out of here. They're just going to be getting in the way of your getting past this tragedy."

"If you mean that they're going to help me remember all the good times – and not so good times – with my mom and dad, then you're right. And I'm not ready to do that yet," I replied. "I don't need the space, and I'm not going to sell the house. I'm rich. I can have an empty house, with old clothes in it, if I want."