The setting evening sun marked his silhouette as he was sitting in his little den. Well little would certainly a reproach to a place thousand square feet, on the top floor of a financial giant, providing the bird’s eye view of the city, surveying the lesser mortals of the concrete jungle. Usually he took pride in such a spectacle but today the world seemed centered around the piece of paper, which would have been treated as a piece of junk if it was not adorned with district attorneys stamp.
“You are hereby summoned to the court of law to appear as a witness in the murder case of………….”
His body obscured the rest of the summon .While rereading the piece he could easily see his life running before his eyes, as if some somebody had cramped thirty years in a disk and had played it on a broken player, pausing some, playing others and forwarding the rest.
The first scene flashed before his eyes…………………..
“The earliest memories of my dad I had were his sitting on the couch, reading the newspaper commenting on everything, grumbling his observations to himself while I went milling about myself sitting near him disturbing him with trivialities. He was quick to temper at that time and was usually brisk with me but I always chose that time to prick him.
It was never premeditated, but I must admit it was a childish amusement to see him lifting his face over the newspaper surveying me with his deep eyes and then quenching my curiosity at the same time admonishing me for disturbing him at that time. But I was always back.
So it was on day I picked up a word -“coherence” and bracing me for his retorts went to him. To my surprise he took me into his lap and talked to me at length, told me things like conscience and all those religious and sentimental things. The thing left to me was to interpret the word my self.”
The fast forward mode started acting and he saw people fooling his dad, duping him of his money, the days of being indebted, finally two decades went by………..
“I was sitting in the auditorium with scores of other freshmen waiting for the orientation lecture to begin. A stooping gray haired man came rambling and took the centre and started addressing us. What ever he was he couldn’t have been the czar of the professional world of which we were a part. So he started his discourse on the college at large and about students in general. Soon his rambling converted into a clear oratory, one hand flattened his trusses, and the other drew out a pair of glasses from his inside pocket, the stoop was gone and suddenly he adopted a predator’s gait. Instantly he was the professional we were looking for. Watching the astonishment he commented with amusement that this was the change he wanted to see in all of us after we graduated from the college.
This was my faculty advisor at the biz. School I attended. He mentored me and taught how the business world worked, its ruthless principles and finally the adage profit always ranks supremely.”
The record picked up speed again and he saw himself adopting those philosophies to the core and rising from an employee to an investor to an entrepreneur to owner of a string of companies, going multinational. The record slowed………………….
“I didn’t know what was happening in those months I lost all my profits lost the faith of my investors. I was on the brink of financial collapse. The only thing which could save us was the investment that was forth coming from him.”
Record trudged again. He cruised through deliberations and discussions and finally the wait was over. One last meeting, a last bunch of signatures and he will be in control of things again.
“I couldn’t believe he didn’t turn up. He sent his custom made car which was duly accompanied in the inner premises away from the prying eyes of the media waiting outside. But he was not present in the car.”
A slow movement in the player ensued and he saw the reason of his investor’s absence.
“That bloody bastard had killed his secretary and her husband, mutilating their bodies in front of their children. The testimony of the children was skillfully turned around by his attorneys and now the case hung on his providing an alibi. So he has given my name. All I have to do is to testify in his favor and the documents will be signed. And true to his words. I was summoned by the DA for cross questioning”
Sun was now waiting to dip into the horizon as the record player gave a violent jerk; the oscillations began- coherence…..profit, coherence…..profit, coherence…..profit, coherence…..profit. It paused………………………….
He stood up, scribbled something and gave the piece of paper to his secretary to be mailed to the DA.
The next day DA opened his mail and found his note.
“Dear DA
The accused was not present with me or in the premises of my companies. So rest assured I will not be testifying in his favor. You can go ahead with your case”.
At the same time he was sitting in a plane bound to his dad’s place. He was going to meet him after ten years so as to know if his interpretation of the word was correct.