Page 5 of Five

Even if that freedom means fighting somebody else’s war.

COPE

TheDistantPast

“Gabriel!?”

I cringe at the sound of my father’s booming voice. I’m eighteen years old, technically an adult, but it still has that same effect on me.

I wonder if it will be the same ten years, twenty years from now.

I’m working on it. This is my time to man up.

“Uh-oh! Sounds like someone’s in trouble,” my sister, Evangeline, comments in a singsong voice which holds a hint of humor.

“What is the meaning of this?” Stepping into the room, he waves some kind of slip in the air, but I’m more intrigued with how his face has gone so red he looks like he might explode.

“Okay, what did you do now?” Evangeline whispers as an aside, neither of us daring to interrupt him when he’s like this.

“Seriously, Gabriel? The military? What the hell’s gotten into you.”

I frown, leaning forward to get a closer look at the document in his hand.

“Are those my joining orders?” I blurt without thinking. How did he get hold of them? I’ve kept the fact that I’ve enlisted a closely guarded secret.

“What these are, is history,” he bellows, ripping the official papers up right in front of me.

For a moment I just stare, my mouth slightly agape at my father’s audacity.

“Umm, dad… I don’t think it works like that.” It’s Evangeline who speaks up, since I’ve lost my tongue.

“It works any way I say it does!” We both watch with wide eyes as our father’s face purples and spittle accompanies his rant. “What the hell were you thinking, Gabriel.? We discussed this. You’re enrolled in Harvard to do an MBA so you’ll know something worth knowing when you join the company.”

“Dad, I already got accepted for a four-year tour. I have a contract. I can’t just not go.”

He gets right in my face, and I rear back as far as I can in the confined space. “Luckily for you, boy, I know people and I was able to pull some strings.”

“What!? Why would you do that?”

He straightens, giving me a much-needed reprieve. “No son of mine is ever going to be a mindless grunt.”

“Come on, Dad…” Evangeline wades into the fray. “There’s no shame in joining the military. You’re talking about the people who maintain our national security. Without them, the family company wouldn’t be as successful as it is.”

“That may be so, but they’re also cannon fodder. Front line troops who are more brawn than brain. They’re dispensable, giving their lives for our country because they have nothing else to contribute.”

Evangeline and I both suck in a shocked breath at his callous attitude, but he isn’t done. “You, my boy, have a legacy of succession. Your place is with me, running the business so I can prepare you to take over.”

“Dad, we’ve been through this.” I’m still reeling from the shock that he’s somehow managed to foil my plans, but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to fall into line. “I don’t want to work for you. I’m not cut out for the business. You need to mentor Evangeline–she’ll be far better at it than me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s a girl!” he yells, and my sister freezes in her seat, her fists and jaw both clenching.

She’s older than me by two years and has almost finished her own business degree. She’s currently home for summer break, though she didn’t get the prestige of being admitted to the same schools as me.

“Jesus, dad!” I surge to my feet, anger and indignation steeling my spine. “Surely the most important thing is that the company is guided by someone who is motivated and committed and actually wants to do it.”

He narrows his eyes and thrusts his meaty finger in my face, a bare centimeter from my nose. “And that someone will be you,” he growls, before spinning on his heel and walking out.

I collapse back onto the couch next to Evangeline. My normally pragmatic older sister has deflated much like I have. “He’s never going to change his mind, is he?” she asks, everything about her dejected.