Free First Class Stamp by Aj Harmon Page A

fifty times before we went to the
Red Sox game? Stay close to Ben. Don’t leave Ben. I’m just affording the same
protection for his mother,” he grinned. How can she argue with that? he
thought smugly. Why do I even care? the thought shot right back.
    As promised, Ben saw her to the safety of the rear entrance
to the store. She unlocked the door, said goodnight, opened the door, went
inside and closed it behind her. Ben could hear the locks clicking as he turned
and headed home.
    *****
    Maria left the management suite at Crystal Towers and
punched in the alarm code as she pulled the heavy wooden door shut. Waiting for
the elevator she gazed through the lobby and down the street. The protestors
were getting close. Most of the American companies had now broken their leases
and vacated the building. She figured by the end of the month, if the
demonstrations continued, they’d have less than a quarter of the building
rented. Then New York would have to make a decision whether or not to keep her
on. She was paid a handsome salary, but that was to manage a full building. Sane
business owners like the Lathem brothers would not be wasting money on her
salary for twenty-five percent occupancy.
    Slipping into the driver’s seat of her car, Maria drove out
of the parking lot and turned left. She’d only gone maybe a couple of hundred
yards when out of nowhere a brick came hurtling toward her. She swerved the car
to the left and the brick made contact on the rear passenger window, shattering
it completely. How she managed, she wasn’t quite sure, but Maria was able to
make a U-turn and speed away before any more flying objects made direct hits.
Shaking most of the way home, she held herself together until she turned into
her driveway and cut the engine. Then, and only then, did she lose it.
    The tears flowed and she cried aloud, and when her allotted
two minutes was up, she pulled herself together, gathered her things, climbed
from the car and went into her house. They would not get the better of her.
They would not scare her. She had a job to do and she would do it.
    The next morning, before Luca awoke, Maria took the dustpan
and a paper bag and attempted to clean up all the glass that was scattered
throughout the car. Then she found some plastic and some duct tape and taped up
the window. It wasn’t pretty but it would have to do until Monday and she could
get someone to fix it. She didn’t have a lot of extra cash, as half of
everything she earned went into a savings account for Luca’s college in the
United States. But she obviously had to get it fixed. Now she just needed a
small white lie to tell Luca when he asked what happened to the window.
    *****
    Matt had been more than happy to offer the box suite at
Yankee Stadium to Big Brothers for a game or two. In fact, he got together with
a few of his CEO buddies and talked to the Yankees front office about getting a
suite for the entire next season for the purpose of letting non-profit agencies
that worked with underprivileged, at risk, and disabled youth use it for the
benefit of the children they served. Ben took a little pride in being the
catalyst for such a worthy venture. Ben also took Alex to a couple more games
and for one of them they convinced Aldo to come with them. They all had a great
time.
    Since Alex was back in school now, his evening trips over to
say hi had come to a halt. In some ways, Ben kind of missed them and found
himself walking over to the store to buy stupid stuff, like peanut butter
chocolates and salt. Most of the time it was just Aldo in the store, but
occasionally Alex was there and sometimes even Sophia.
    Ben was also getting ready for the first ever conference for
the upper management teams of MEL Holdings. It had been Mark’s idea to pull the
heads of the teams from around the world into one place for four days and give
them specialized training in management, team building and leadership. Matt
wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea, but