Chapter 24
The first week in July, everything broke open. When Colin looked back, it felt as though he’d watched an online thunderstorm take shape before his eyes. The lightning, the noise, the blast of rain and wind, all that was in his head. But real just the same.
The Wall Street Journal’s online news feed broke the story. EA, the world’s largest maker of e-games, had made a formal offer to acquire Legend.
The next day, the news was everywhere.
Thirty-six hours later, Colin’s second investment became the hottest ticket in town. Two major corporations were vying to buy it outright. Bidding up the price. Two, three, four times beyond Colin’s most extravagant hopes.
Colin traveled down to Roland’s office by Uber.
He stood there beside Lucretia’s desk watching her complete the sales.
Almost afraid to ask her for the final prices.
Both times scarcely able to breathe after she replied.
The lady was in her sixties, grey-haired and caramel-skinned and so deadpan she spoke with a drum-like cadence no matter what the news.
Even when she had become another investor.
Along with almost all of the other lawyers and secretaries working in Roland’s firm.
After the sales were completed, Aaron walked Colin back to the elevators, patted him on the back, and said, “Enjoy your hour in the sun. Remember this moment when things don’t go according to plan.”
He spent the next few weeks holding to his routine.
July sped into August, and the southeastern United States entered another hurricane season.
Only this year North Carolina’s coastal region remained locked in an unseasonable drought.
Wildfires caused by lightning strikes erupted in the pine forests west of the city.
Often on his dawn walks to the club, he could both smell the smoke and watch dark tendrils float in the sky overhead.
Thankfully, the fires remained somewhat under control, and the city itself never came under threat.
He could feel his body gradually becoming stronger. The food, the walks, the almost daily swims, they all had an impact. He was moving easier inside his own skin. For the first time in his life, he actually enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror.
He knew his world was undergoing seismic shifts.
It wasn’t just the money now sitting in the burgeoning fund, or how he would be starting university as a fully matriculated student in just a few weeks.
In many respects, the nightmare fears he had known as a child were with him still.
All the dark shadows simply did not vanish because his father had gone silent and the investments were paying off.
Colin was changing. His world was different.
And yet so very much remained exactly the same as it always had been.
The second week of August, he made two more investments.
A week later he added another. He continued to scour the sources, input the data, search for clues.
And yet it was all done at a safer distance.
Late at night, when he woke and lay staring at the ceiling, he felt as though the currents dominating his life had reached a single solitary quiet moment.
But it was only a matter of time before they gripped him in another torrent of power and swept him back into the maelstrom.
And throughout it all, the void at the center of his being remained the silent force it had always been.
Three days later, he went for an early dinner with Arnold and Sandrine.
They took him to the Oceanic Restaurant in Wrightsville Beach, almost an hour’s drive in summertime traffic.
The talk was mostly about inconsequential things, though at one point they asked a number of questions about his latest investments.
From that it almost seemed natural to shift over to his plans for the future.
Colin found himself thinking about Lenny as he replied.
On one level, he heard himself explaining how much it meant to stay at Sojourn House, have a routine, be part of something familiar.
Several times during the evening, Colin felt as though Lenny had become an invisible presence there at the table.
Observing the simple pleasures that had never been his to claim.
When Colin arrived back at Sojourn House, he found Lenny seated in the television room, his laptop open on the sofa beside him. “What’s up?”
Lenny nodded slowly, like the question required great thought. “I’ve been wondering that exact same thing.”
Colin walked in and pulled over a chair. “You lost me.”
“You’ve been real nice to me.” Each word was carefully spaced out. Like the individual sounds required effort. “These lessons in math, I couldn’t have done them without you.”
Colin had no idea what to say.
Lenny nodded, as if he approved of Colin’s silence. “I’ve been sitting here thinking back. You know. Trying to find a time when I’ve been happier.” The youth looked up. “What I’m wanting to say …”
And just like that, the light went out of Lenny’s eyes.
Colin had no idea what had happened. The gentle shift, the silent transition, it left him unable to even breathe.
Lenny sighed once, and drifted over, landing on his side on the sofa. His shoulder struck the laptop, sending it tumbling to the floor.
“Lenny?”
But the child was gone.