You Can't Have It All

Chapter 10

            “Mandy!” I turned to see Mr. Christopher beckoning to me from his car. It was a Friday evening and I was about to go home from work.

            “Yes sir,” I said as I ran up to his car.

            “Come with me,” he said, “I have some things to show you.”

            “Err, what things, sir?” I asked. I actually had plans that night. Daniel and I have been getting along well these past couple of weeks, and he was taking me to watch a movie tonight. I really wanted to watch that movie, which is the Avengers movie on a Premiere night, and I had hoped nothing would come in between the screening of that movie and me.

            “Don’t ask a lot of questions and follow me,” he said as I nodded my head and got into the passengers seat. It was still early, so I might still be able to catch the movie after seeing what Mr. Christopher wanted to show me. We rode in silence as he sped to the edge of the city, where wealthy mansions were located. I looked around in awe, wondering what it would be like to live in a mansion like that. Surely they’ll have hundreds of maids and servants. Well not hundreds, but probably a lot. If I lived in a mansion like that I wouldn’t need to do the cooking and the cleaning. What a life that would be, I thought to myself, smiling.

            “The houses here are beautiful,” I commented as Mr. Christopher smiled at me.

            “Wait till you see my house,” he said as I looked at him. We entered a gated neighborhood, as the guards open the gate once seeing Mr. Christopher’s car. There were two big fields on either side of the road that we were on with no houses, just trees and plants.

            “Aren’t there any other houses in this gated community?” I asked Mr. Christopher as he snickered softly.

            “My dear,” he said, “That was the gate leading to my house.”

            “Huh?” I asked as I looked in front of me, and sure enough I saw a mansion, no a castle stretched out. It was not a castle but it could almost be. I gasped at the sight of it. Is this where Mr. Sean lives in too? They were really from a different world.

            “Welcome to my humble home,” Mr. Christopher said, as I muttered, humble, under my breath. This is anything but humble. As he pulled up the car in front of the main entrance of the mansion, I got down, not able to take my eyes of the beauty of the house, no mansion.

            “It’s so big,” I said, as Mr. Christopher led me in the door where a butler opened it for us, bowing slightly to Mr. Christopher, “Does Mr. Sean live here too?”

            “He always comes around here,” Mr. Christopher said, “but he’s got a mansion of his own, you know on the way here. Somewhere around that area, but he always drops by here for dinner or on his off days.”

            “Oh,” I said, as Mr. Christopher led me to his study.

            “Nigel, get my wife here,” he told the butler who ran off at his command. Mr. Christopher beckoned me to sit on the big couch, as he went over to his big oak table to get something from it, “I actually wanted to show you the pictures I took with you dad when we were younger. I thought maybe you’d like to see it.”

            “Of course I would,” I said, as he carried a huge leather photo album and placed it on the table in front of me. I opened it and gasped as I looked at pictures after pictures of my father since he was in school, most of it with Mr. Christopher, but there were a few of it alone. I felt my tears threatening to pour as I looked at my father’s picture. The photos seemed to freeze him in a memory kept from a long time ago.