Where Are You Now?

18

A fter his luncheon with Aaron Klein, Elliott Wallace went back to his office and found himself thinking about Charles MacKenzie Sr. and the friendship they had forged in Vietnam. Charley had been in the army’s ROTC and was a second lieutenant when they met. Elliott had told Charley that he was born in England of American parents and had spent most of his childhood in London. He had moved back to New York with his mother when he was nineteen. He had then enlisted in the army, and four years later he had earned his own commission and was side by side with Charley in some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

We liked each other from day one, Elliott thought. Charley was the most competitive person I’ve ever met and probably the most ambitious. He was planning to go to law school the minute he was discharged. He swore that he was going to be a very successful lawyer and a millionaire. He was actually pleased that he had grown up in a family that didn’t have two nickels to rub together. He used to kid me about my background. “And what was the butler’s name, Ell?” he would ask me. “Was it Bertie, or Chauncey, or Jeeves?”

As he leaned back in his leather chair, Elliott smiled at the memory. I told Charley that the butler was William, and he was gone by the time I was thirteen. I told him that my father, God rest him, was the most cultivated human being and the worst businessman in the history of the civilized world. That was why my mother finally threw in the towel and brought me home from England.

Charley didn’t believe me back then, but I swore to him that in my own way I was just as ambitious as he was. He wanted to become wealthy because he’d never known that world. I was one of the haves who became a have-not and wanted it all back. While Charley was in law school, I went to college and then got my MBA.

We both succeeded financially, but our personal lives were so different. Charley met Olivia, and they had a wonderful marriage. God, how like an outsider I felt when I saw the way they looked at each other! They had twenty-three good years, until Mack disappeared, and after that they didn’t have a day that wasn’t filled with worry about him. And then 9/11, and Charley was gone. My marriage to Norma was never fair to her. What was it Princess Diana told an interviewer-that there were three people in her marriage to the Prince of Wales? Yes, that’s the way it was with Norma and me, only less glamorous.

Grimacing at the memory, Elliott picked up his pen and began to doodle on a pad. Norma didn’t know it, of course, but the way I felt about Olivia was always between us. And now that my marriage is a distant memory, after all these years, maybe Olivia and I can plan a future together. She recognizes that she can’t live her life around Mack anymore, and I can see that her feeling about me has changed. In her eyes, I’ve become more than Charley’s best friend and the trusted family advisor. I could tell that when I kissed her good night. I could tell when she confided that Carolyn needs to be free to stop worrying about her, and most of all I can tell because she’s planning to sell the Sutton Place apartment.

Elliott got up, walked over to the section of the mahogany bookcase that housed a refrigerator, and opened the door. As he reached for a bottle of water, he wondered if it was too soon to suggest to Olivia that a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, down the block from the Metropolitan Museum, might be a wonderful place to live.

My penthouse, he thought with a smile. Even twenty-five years ago, when I bought it after Norma and I were divorced, I dreamed I was buying it for Olivia.

The telephone rang, then the crisp British voice of his personal secretary sounded on the intercom. “Mrs. MacKenzie is calling, sir.”

Elliott rushed back to his desk and picked up the receiver.

“Elliott, it’s Liv. June Crabtree was coming for dinner and at the last minute she can’t make it. I know Carolyn is meeting her friend Jackie. By any chance would you like to take a lady to dinner?”

“I would be delighted. How about having a drink at my place around seven and then going over to Le Cirque?”

“Perfect. See you then.”

When he replaced the receiver, Elliott realized there was a slight bead of perspiration on his forehead. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life, he thought. Nothing must spoil it for us, and I’m so afraid something might. Then he relaxed and laughed aloud as he thought of what his father’s reaction would be to that kind of negative thinking.

As dear cousin Franklin said, he thought, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.