I couldn't keep the smile on my face from spreading. Oh no, she hadn't read my mail. Not at all. "I know what genealogy is."
"Yes. Well it's a huge fad here, tracing roots and all. Every family seems to have one that's into it. Anyway, she wants to meet with you."
I thought it might be nice to meet with someone who actually didn't hate the very idea of me. "Sure."
Lynette nodded. "I thought that's what you'd say so I already accepted. She'll arrive the day after tomorrow."
I went to the next letter. "And this one?"
Lynette made a face. "That's from your business advisor."
"Not a nice guy?"
"Oh, I'm sure he's fine. But bo-ring. Here. Read it."
She was right. It was very dry and boring. He sounded just like a scientist. "And when should I meet with him?"
"Oh definitely before you meet your cousin."
"Why?"
"Well, she says that all she wants is to see you and fill you in, but that's never, ever all they want."
I felt my eyebrow go up and I leaned back on the couch. Lynette always had an amazing grasp of people. "No?"
"No way. You have to remember, Jake, that once your Dad went up to space, the Cosworth fortune was in a kind of limbo. There's a lot of extended family that you support. I bet they're worried you'll come in and take it all away."
"Why would I do that?"
She looked worried that she offended me. She didn't. I was just curious. "I don't think you will. But put yourself in their shoes. They don't know you from Adam."
Huh?
"They don't know you from a hole in the wall."
Okay. I guess?
She sighed at my confusion. "For all they know, you could be a jerk who's going to cut off all the freeloaders."
Ah. Got it. "I'm not going to take their money."
"It's not their money. Not one penny. They don't do anything at all to earn it."
"How do you know?"
She looked guilty.
"Lynette."
"Fine. After reading through the rest, cousins and second cousins and so and so who call themselves your family...well I went to Marlon and we kind of...well..."
"Lynette," I said again. "I won't be mad."
She didn't look sure. "We looked in your financial files."
"Okay."
She looked like she was waiting for me to go crazy. "Okay? That's it? That's all you're going to say?"
It made me laugh. "Yes, that's all."
"You aren't mad?"
"Why should I be?"
"Because finances are even more private than mail!"
I laughed harder. "Well you already read all that, too, so I guess it doesn't really matter."
Her face turned bright red. "I did not read..."
"What did you find in my financial files?" I didn't want her flustered. I wasn't trying to embarrass her.
"Your 'family' all draw money from your account."
I figured it was like Mabel. I explained it to Lynette, how Ralph's family got money from StarTech that Ralph would have earned if he had stayed. She did not agree.
"It's not from StarTech, for one. It's from your own accounts. Well, your father's, which have now all been put in your name."
That made me angry. Ridiculously so. "Why? He's still alive."
Lynette put her hands up. "I'm not saying any different. But in terms of banking, he's not here, you are. The wheels have to turn, Jake."
I have given it thought. I suppose she was right. Dad probably would never return to Earth. He had already made that clear. Still, next interview I did, I planned on announcing just how alive and well Dad was, for my own piece of mind if nothing else.
God I missed him. I really could have used his help just then.
"Fine," I said, not really caring who got what money. "So they get paid out of the family money."
"No. You're not understanding. The family members also get paid out of the Cosworth Foundation accounts, and get the stipend from StarTech, those that qualify, anyway."
They got paid three times. I began to see why they would worry. "I'll talk to the accounts guy tomorrow about it."
She nodded. It was exactly what she wanted. "So most of these are from your relatives. But there's one you might really be interested in." She dug it out of the pile and handed it to me. "It's from another cousin of yours, Alistair."
She was right. I was interested.
Dear Jacob,
I don't know you, you don't know me. And yet, the things we share are innumerable. For one, we would have been born about the same time. I am just about to celebrate my eighty-seventh birthday. It is both thrilling and frustrating that you were in your mother when I was in mine, and yet you just celebrated your sixteenth. I can barely remember sixteen.
I never got the opportunity to meet Auntie Eunice, but father thought the world of his sister. I wish he was alive to meet the son that is no doubt as much like his mother as I am my father. I mean, of course, nothing like them whatsoever!
I would be very pleased if we could meet. I have never given up the hope of meeting Auntie Eunice someday. When the rumor of a child, you, surfaced among the conspiracists years ago, something inside just knew it was the truth. If you could make time for a silly old man, it would be the culmination of a long journey for both of us.
Sincerely,
Alistair Willington
I read it twice. Something about the way it was written made me smile. It was very like Mother, in some ways. It felt almost familiar.
"Yes, definitely."
Lynette smiled. "I knew you'd want to meet him. He sounds icy, doesn't he?"
I rolled my eyes. "Now don't you start talking like that. I've had enough of that to last a lifetime!"
She ignored the interruption. "I told Christophe we must go see him. He's in Montana. We've been approved for a short trip, but Christophe will let us know when. Probably not for a month or so."
"Not until then?"
She shook her head. "Oh, no. You'll be way too busy before then."
She was right. Boy, was she ever right.
Chapter 12
Jillian tugged the ridiculously frilly tie into the very center of my throat. She'd returned just a few days before, rested and looking fresh from her visit with her family and with what she called "a renewed sense of vigor for the duty at hand." I quickly learned that meant she had a fresh batch of torture clothes for me to prance around in.
"It would go a lot faster if you'd just hold still," she said, tugging once more on the scratchy thing around my throat.
"I really don't think I need a tie..."
Her thin eyebrows shot up. "Are you kidding me? You must be. Because the Jacob Cosworth I know would never been seen in an official capacity looking like a...a...vagabond!"
I actually thought I would, whatever a vagabond is. As long as he doesn't have to wear lace ties and hard, shiny shoes that pinch and bite.
"Are you certain this is the look we want to go for?" asked Christophe, walking into the room and shaking his head.
Exactly! I tugged on the tie, but Jillian batted my hand away and tightened it even further.
"He owns the school, Chris. He should look like he does."
"He funds it," he corrected. "And the goal of this tour is to maybe strike up some acquaintanceships with more people his own age." He didn't have to say I'd been failing on my own at the parties Lynette kept dragging me to.
Jillian gave a little laugh. "So you want him to go dressed as all the other children?" She shook her head. "Nope. The world expects more." She actually gave my cheek one of her annoying little pinches. "You're a Cosworth. And if your mother was here..."
"She'd be too busy in the lab to notice what I'm wearing at all."
There was laughter in Christophe's eyes, but no reprieve. In the end, he said Jillian was the expert and it was her call. However, after we left Jillian and were in the transport alone, Christophe removed his own tie and nodded for me to do the same. It was something. I also took the liberty of removing the painfully itchy suit jacket. There was nothing I could do about the shoes, or the hideous StartTech sash sewn into the dress shirt. But I supposed I couldn't have everything. It would have to do.