Chapter 8
EIGHT
“If you have a chance, Kenneth would like to see you,” Matt said.
I’d just finished rehearsing a scene with Susie, and I knew I would have a scene to shoot later in the day.
“I can stop in for a moment, but...”
“It’s really you that he would like to have at his bedside,” Matt said with more insistence.
I frowned. “Why? I mean, why me? You’re his brother. And your sister is somewhere in this big, sprawling house. I’m sure she would have plenty of time to sit with him.”
“My sister is far from being reliable and trustworthy in moments such as this. She’s a little too selfish and self-absorbed to tend to anyone else’s needs.”
“And you?”
He smiled. “He realizes that you’re more knowledgeable in these types of situations. Also, I just think he prefers a feminine hand. When I slapped a wet washcloth on his brow, he swatted my hand away.”
“Fine.” I nodded and sighed with resignation. “I’m sure to be called to shoot a scene this afternoon, but in the meantime, I’ll go sit with him.”
He reached out to take my hand. “I appreciate this. I know you’re busy, but I understand his desire to have you tend to him. Were I in the same situation, it would be you that I would have at my side, if I could.”
I smiled. “Perhaps I should reconsider my calling and go into nursing.”
*****
HIS EYES WERE CLOSED, but his sleep was fitful and filled with incoherent ramblings.
“I’m here, Kenneth,” I softly whispered as I lay a cool cloth on his brow.
He mumbled and muttered and groaned.
“You’re wrong father,” he muttered. “What you’re doing is wrong.”
“Everything is all right,” I said, trying to ease whatever was troubling him.
“No. It’s not all right. What you’re doing is just one step away from slavery. Damn it, Father. You’re not the man I thought you were.”
I frowned. “What are you saying, Kenneth?”
“It’s modern slavery, and you know it. Don’t deny it. And don’t deny that you know exactly what you’re doing.”
“Kenneth, you’re delirious. You’re no longer in California with your father. You’re back home. You’re at Barry Park, and you’re safe and with your family. You need to rest.”
He shook his head. “Children. Hundreds of children. Not just men and women who are desperate for something better. Children. Children working and taken advantage of... doing dangerous work. Damn. Damn! How did we come to this?”
I stared at him, unable... unwilling to believe the words coming from his mouth.
“Dad has to stop this. He has to change his ways. We have to stop the way we do business. I don’t care about the lost profits. We can’t go on like this.”
“Never mind all that, Kenneth. Please, just rest. You’re home now. You can tend to all these issues when you get better.”
His eyes opened. He stared into space for a prolonged moment then looked at me. “Darling. Yes, sweet little Darling. You were always such a sweet girl. Never bothersome like some can be. Matt was such an idiot not to see it. He’s still an idiot. You’re a good girl. Good girl.”
“I wish you would rest, Kenneth. You’re not helping your fever much. You’re allowing yourself to get too agitated.”
“Agitated? I am racked with guilt, my dearest Darling. Racked with guilt. All these months, all these years of benefiting from the wealth my father has acquired. All these years of taking for granted everything I have, everything I am, everything that I’ve ever experienced.
And yet, when all is said and done, I am nothing. Absolutely nothing!”
“You’re speaking nonsense. You are a smart and hardworking man. You deserve the good fortune you’ve had.”
“How wrong you are.” He shook his head with great vehemence. “No. I don’t deserve my good fortune. No, I don’t. Not one bit. Not at all.”
His rejection of what his life had brought him was so sincere and heartfelt. I ached for him.
Sitting up, he grabbed my hand, his eyes narrowed and pained as he looked at me.
“I naively believed my father. He said he’d hired them, legally.
Everything was on the up and up. But it wasn’t.
They had no papers. No documentation. And this allowed him to take advantage of them.
He barely paid them, and they were housed in miserable conditions.
But when people are desperate and have nothing, even a little something is acceptable. ”
“I’m certain you’ve misunderstood. Surely your father wouldn’t do anything that could harm someone else.”
“You know so little about my father. Lord Barry’s vineyard is his baby. His cherished baby. He wanted to see his wines compete with the great wines of Italy and France.”
“I do remember your father as a man who took great pride in every endeavor he embarked on.”
“Pride?” Kenneth said with disdain. “If that is pride, I want nothing of it. Pride in the abuse of another human being? Pride in doing anything and everything to make more and more money.”
He waved his hand around the room, the beautiful large room with its expensive furniture, its lavish window treatments, and its luxurious bedding that probably cost more than many people’s entire home. “Look at this. Look at this place. Do we need more? Do we even need what we already have?”
“Kenneth, you are from a long line of rich powerful men. Your great-grandfather built an empire, your grandfather helped it flourish and, now, you father is adding to the richness you benefit from. This isn’t exactly new money that suddenly fell into your lap.”
Bleary-eyed, he looked at me. “Up until recently, yes, we had many Mexicans working our fields. The pay was minimal, but fair. The working conditions were rough, but fair. And the housing they lived in was barren and sparse, but...”
“Fair?”
He nodded. “These hard-working men were able to send money back to their families. It wasn’t a windfall by our standards, but, for the most part, the men were satisfied with the conditions.
Now? My father has fired all of them, every last one of them.
Men who’ve worked with us for years. Men we trusted, even befriended to a degree.
He fired them and brought in illegal migrants.
.. undocumented, illegal alien... choose your qualifier.
In the end, it’s all the same. They are prepared to work for half the rate.
.. a quarter of the rate. Hell, they don’t pay taxes so.
.. what the hell. The work is hard and back breaking and the hours long. ”
My jaw dropped as I listened to him, wondering if he was delirious or if he was truly conscious of what he was saying.
“You’re getting worked up again, Kenneth. Rest.”
His eyes widened. “For crying out loud, Darling. You don’t understand.
It’s not just tough strong men working our fields now.
There are presently four children working for us.
Children! Two of them are fifteen, one is thirteen and one of them, Darling.
.. one of them is only eleven years old. How fair is that?”
My heart pounded. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t want to know. And yet, I knew I had to know the extent of his father’s... His what? His selfishness? His greed? His callousness?
“He justifies his actions by saying ‘they’re used to it”. He thinks they’re used to harsh conditions, little pay and living conditions that you wouldn’t wish on a dog.”
I nodded. “Yes. I do believe I’ve heard that justification before... that they’re used to it.”
“Do you believe it? Do you believe that these people are simply meant to have a hard life? People like my father want them to come over illegally so they can control them like slaves, pay them as little to nothing. They claim they need them to clean their toilets, grow their crops, do the worst jobs nobody wants. So they want them to come over without papers, without ids. If they had come over legally, they wouldn’t be kept in servitude.
It’s all part of such a big horrible...many of them came over the border through cartels.
Many of the girls on their way died or were.
..” he looked away. “How can people like Father be ‘helping’ them under these circumstances?”
I shrugged. I’d never really considered the question.
He set his head back onto his pillow and closed his eyes. “It’s like people who claim that the lobster doesn’t feel pain when you toss it into boiling water. Right. I guess that’s why it fights to get out of the pot.”
He gripped my hand and squeezed it tight. “I can’t go on like this anymore. I can’t bear to look at the four walls around me and appreciate any of it.”
Muttering, he closed his eyes and his hold of my hand loosened. “I can’t bear it.”
His breathing grew deep, and while he muttered a few more incoherent sentences, he then fell into a deep sleep.
Frowning, I looked at him, wondering how deep his delirium was. I went to his private bathroom, wet a washcloth and brought it back to him, setting it on his warm brow. He groaned then smiled weakly.
For the next hour, I sat with him and listened to his ramblings. At times he seemed at peace, like when he spoke of a relationship with a young Latina he seemed quite fond of. At other times he was agitated, accusing his father of unspeakable atrocities.
Abbie came to see what I was up to, then declared that I wasn’t needed for another hour or two. Matt stopped by as well, happy to see me at his brother’s side. He seemed relieved to see me there... thankful.
“Can I speak to you a moment?” I said before he left the room again.
“Sure. What’s up?
“Kenneth... he’s been talking a lot.”
Matt shrugged. “He just spent a few months out in California. I guess he has a lot to say.”
“What do you know of your father’s business in America?”
Again, he shrugged. “Not much, really. I know he grows grapes. I know he makes wine, and I know he’d like to make wine good enough to compete with European countries. Beyond that, nothing.”
“Are you not interested to know the manner in which your father makes so much money? Do you not question how he manages to pay for the staff here? For the maintenance of this massive home?”
He looked at me, his eyes stern, then confused, then accusing.
“What are you trying to say, Darling?”
What was I trying to say? That he was essentially benefiting from slave labor?
I shook my head. “I don't know. I guess I just want to know what you know.”
He gazed at his sleeping brother. “What nonsense has he been spewing?”
“Details about your father’s vineyard operations... and they’re horrifying.”
He turned to reach for the doorknob. “Kenneth has a bad fever. That’s why I asked you to come sit with him, tend to him. He trusts you immensely. As for the accusations he’s making... I don’t know what to tell you. Perhaps he had a falling out with Lord Barry, and this is his way of retaliating.”
“It doesn’t sound like that at all.”
He looked at the floor, at his hand on the doorknob and then back at me. “Keely’s waiting for me. I have an important scene to shoot with Susie.”
Biting my bottom lip, I nodded my understanding. Without another word, he opened the door and left.
With the room so silent, I looked at Kenneth, replaying his words in my mind. I knew so little about Lord Barry; what drove him, what motivated him... what scruples did he have, or did he have any to speak of?
As Kenneth slept, I took out my phone, eager to get another perspective on his views of the situation.
The headlines I read left me stunned.
Thousands of Migrant Children Missing
Another Teenage Migrant Worker Dead
Mexican Woman Dead at Darien Gap
I didn’t have the courage to read the articles. The headlines were horrifying enough.
“You’re still here,” Kenneth suddenly said, startling me.
“Yes. They don’t need me for a few more hours still.”
He looked down at my phone. “The Darien Gap?” He snorted. “You’ve been following up on what I’ve been telling you.”
“I’ve always considered myself a well-informed person. Of course, I can’t know what is happening worldwide, but... still. I suddenly feel so na?ve and unworldly, so ignorant... oblivious. What I’ve been reading is even more horrifying than what you’ve told me so far.”
He nodded as he pointed to the article on my phone.
“I have, myself, just learned of the Darien Gap; a jungle on the Panama/Colombia border... so treacherous, many of us can’t even imagine.
People die from the heat, from dehydration, hunger.
They’re bitten or stung by deadly animals.
And when they manage to survive all that, there are the gangs to contend with.
.. the cartels... the coyotes. Once again, call them what you will. ”
“But still so many do make it through,” I said with a glimmer of hope.
“I’ll spare you the videos of dead children in the river, women beaten and raped and tossed aside like a bag of trash.
I won’t show you the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching images of some of the beautiful children who do make it across alive.
.. of what their little lives become once they reach the land of the American dream. ”
“It’s not your burden to bear,” I said, though I didn’t believe a word of it.
“Did I tell you that I confronted my father?”
“In a manner of speaking, but if you have more to say...”
He smiled, a sardonic and cynical smile.
“I’ve always loved my father; always admired him.
But... I don’t know what to make of all this.
He’s like a stranger to me.” He looked at me, that sardonic grin still on his face.
“He admitted that he knew about the dead bodies in our fields, of men crossing the border and falling dead. He knew of the children who were simply swept away... handed off to strangers. He knew of the children working his fields. He knew of the dangers. He knew. Can you believe it, Darling? He knew! How do I face a man who can knowingly let such a thing happen? And for what? For riches? For status?”
“You’re a good man, Kenneth,” I said as I set my hand over his. “I have no doubt you’ll find a way to remedy the situation.”
“If only it was that easy. It sickens me that people like the mayor of Los Angeles and even some ill-informed celebrities are encouraging illegal migration. This caused all these children to die, to go missing. Trafficked, sold, never heard from again.”
I couldn’t help but shudder. These smiling out-of-touch multimillionaire and even billionaire celebrities were worst than you could even imagine.