Nightwork

'More than about time.'

'Where are your glasses?' I asked.

He laughed. 'Contact lenses,' he said. "That friend of yours, Fabian, sure sent me to the right man. Give him iny regards when you see him.'

'You can do that yourself. I just left him.'

'I'd love to. But I have to be back in New York by four.'

'What were you doing in New York this morning?' Somehow, it had never occurred to me that it was possible for my brother to escape Scranton.

'I live there,' Henry said. 'Madeleine has an apartment there. And the business moved up to Orangeburg. That's just about thirty minutes from the city.'

The waiter had come back by now with two glasses of water. Henry ordered shrimp cocktail and a steak. His appetite, as well as his appearance, had improved.

'I appreciate your coming all the way out here to see me, Hank,' I said, 'but what was the hurry? Why did it have to be today?'

'The lawyers want to have a handshake on the deal this afternoon,' he said. 'We've been working on it for three months and they've finally got everything together and they don't want to give the other side time to come up with more objections. You know how lawyers are.'

'Not really,' I said. 'What deal?'

'I didn't want to bother you with it until it was definite,' he said. 'I hope y ou don't mind.'

'I don't mind. Now if you'll begin at the beginning...' 'I told you the business looked promising...' 'Yes.' Guiltily, I remembered that I had considered the word 'promising' in his mouth as a synonym for failure.

'Well, it turned out to be a lot better than that.' He was silent as the waiter put the shrimp cocktail and my salad in front of us. When the waiter had left, he said, 'Better than any of us ever dreamed.' He dug heartily into the cocktail. 'We had to expand almost immediately. We have more than a hundred people working for us in the plant right now. The stock's not on any of the boards yet, but it's gone way up in value. We've had feelers from a half-dozen companies who want to buy us out. The biggest offer is from Northern Industries. It's a huge conglomerate. You must have heard of them....'

'No,' I said, 'I'm afraid I haven't.'

He looked at me disapprovingly, like a teacher at a pupil who neglected his homework in school. 'Anyway, they're huge,' he said. 'Take my word for it. They're the people who're ready to give us the go sign today. They're ready to offer us - our company, that is - a half million dollars.' He sat back and let this sink in. 'Does the figure grab you?'

'It grabs me,' I said.

'We should have the money within a couple of months,' Henry said, resuming his meal. 'What's more, we - the two boys who came up with the idea and myself - retain running control of the business for the next five years - now, listen to this - at three times the salaries we've been paying ourselves, plus stock options. You'd be in on the options, of course, along with me...."

I wished Fabian was there at that lunch. It was the sort of thing he would wallow in.

The waiter brought Henry his steak and he began to wolf it down hungrily, eating a baked potato and a roll, both heavily buttered, along with it. Before long he would have to watch his diet. 'Figure it out, Doug,' he said, through a mouthful of food, 'you put in twenty-five thousand. Our third of the stock will bring us thirty-three percent of half a million. That's one hundred and sixty-six thousand. Your two-thirds of that...'

'I can do the arithmetic,' I said.

'That's without taking into account the options,' Henry said, continuing eating. Either the hot food or the chanting of enormous figures had made his face flush and he was sweating. 'Even with today's inflation and all that crap...'

I nodded. 'It's a nice bundle.'

'I promised you you'd never regret it, didn't I?' he said harshly.

'So you did.'

'No more other people's money,' he said. He stopped eating and put his knife and fork down. He looked at me soberly. His eyes, through the contact lenses, were deep and clear. The little red furrows on the side of his nose had disappeared. 'You saved me from drowning, Doug,' he said in a low voice. 'I can never thank you enough and I won't try.'

'Don't try,' I said.

'Are you all right?' he asked. 'I mean - well - about everything?'

'Couldn't be better.'

'You look good, kid, you really do.'

'And so do you,' I said.

'Well—' He shifted uneasily on the banquette. The decision is finally up to you. Is it yes or no?'

'Yes,' I said. 'Of course.'

He smiled widely and picked up his knife and fork again. He finished his steak and ordered blueberry pie à la mode for dessert. 'You'd better get some exercise, Hank,' I said, 'if you're going to eat like that.'

'I'm taking up tennis again.'

'Come on out here and play sometime,' I said. There're a thousand courts at this end of the island.'

That'd be nice. I'd like to meet your wife, too.'

'Anytime.' Then I began to laugh.

He looked at me suspiciously. 'What're you laughing

about?'