Free Ark by Julian Tepper

about hearing a single? Did she ever hear one?”
    â€œAnd those poor Frenchmen…whatever happened to them?”
    â€œHow many times did Sondra’s stupid insecurities limit us? It sickens me to think about.”
    â€œAnd it’s still happening. Look at us now. Look at me.”
    â€œShe’s at fault.”
    â€œShe is.”
    â€œShe created this situation.”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œMom and Dad won’t ever speak to her again.”
    â€œWhy would they?”
    â€œMom is so hurt.”
    â€œI’m proud of you, Doris. You’re doing a great job with your new label. I know you’ll succeed.”
    â€œIt’s so much work,” she said. “It never ends. Sometimes I wonder how I’ll find the energy to keep going day after day.”
    â€œIt’s in you.”
    â€œI know it is. I’m just saying I’m tired.”
    â€œWe’re all tired,” he replied. “You should come out to Los Angeles, spend a couple of days, relax.”
    â€œNo, I couldn’t do that,” she said, shaking her head. “I have to run my business. If I don’t, who will? I have to be at it every second of the day. That’s just the way it is.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œBut what about you, Oliver? What do you do out in Los Angeles?”
    Oliver folded his arms. Right now he was biding his time, soon he would start his own label. A California brand of music, broader than what they had done with Shout! Not just rock ‘n’ roll, that is, but country, and hip-hop, and world. In a couple of months, once things had settled down, he’d call their old contacts on the West Coast, take the pulse of the industry, begin scouting artists. His wife’s house in Malibu had so many rooms. He would run the label out of one of them.
    â€œDo you have a name?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œIt’ll come. Of course, the name is the easy part. Well, you know. You’ve done this before.”
    â€œI have.”
    A moment passed in silence. Then Doris said, “I mean, I hope you know what you’d be getting yourself into. It’s so much work. You’ve got to really want it.”
    â€œAnd you need capital,” Oliver said. He touched his cheek to his shoulder, then smiled as if he were imagining a great personal success. In fact, he was thinking of the money his parents had given Doris to start her new label. He said, “Mom and Dad wouldn’t be able to start me off. I’d have to find other investors.”
    â€œRight. You would. That’s true. But you have money now, from the apartment. You could use that. And then you wouldn’t be indebted to anyone.”
    â€œI suppose,” Oliver said.
    â€œThe question is, do you want that kind of risk?”
    â€œTrue. And there’s Mom and Dad to think about, too.”
    â€œWhat about them?”
    â€œDo they need my money more than I do? And then you think about how much Dad gave to Shout! He put us in business and kept us solvent. No chance we would have made it otherwise. But I guess I missed my window for another handful, right? Two hundred thousand, no questions asked. That’s not easy to find, Doris.”
    â€œI’m aware,” she said. “I’ll have you know I paid back every penny.”
    Oliver congratulated his sister. Although he didn’t believe it was true. Even if she’d had the money, she wouldn’t reimburse their mother and father. Doris had always taken as much as she could from their parents. Jewelry, for instance, and cash. She found opportunities to collect her inheritance in advance. She was slick about it. Oliver asked her, “Do you think about what would happen if you ever needed more capital?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBecause Mom and Dad wouldn’t have it.”
    â€œI know they wouldn’t, Oliver.”
    â€œMaybe you’d just ask Sondra. After all, she’s