Helena Bhattacharya was an already tall woman who wore high heels that made her look even taller. Ben looked quite short in comparison to her, and felt slightly intimidated though this was more due to the fact that she was the one deciding whether or not Ben should try out for the job. Larry Hughes was happy to see her because she had been his business partner and friend for over ten years, and he glared at Ben when Ben stared at her like she was secretly a serial killer.
Ben wondered if Helena Bhattacharya was his new stepmother. He had two stepfathers already - Mr Andrew Davis sir and Mike the producer. Was Helena his first stepmother? Ben knew that his father had dated Helena because they had been talking for over ten years, which meant that they were dating. Ben knew this because he had not been there to observe their relationship for even ten months, and felt that he was an expert on both relationships and his father's life.
"It's lovely to see you again Ben," Helena said, giving a warm smile which Ben automatically saw as being mean. "Your dad tells me that you're looking to get in the job in the company."
Ben was scared of Helena because he had read fairytales and watched movies about fairytales and knew that stepmothers were always evil. There wasn't even a single possibility of a stepmother being nice, which Ben thought counted as mathematical and environmental evidence. He had learnt the environmental part from Pepe el who had deeply rooted environmental beliefs that he would continue to share with Ben in the days following Ben's detachment from his mother, sister and brother.
"It's nice to see you too," Ben said, because he had to be nice to his evil stepmother. "Dad tells me I'm looking to get a job in the company as well."
Helena laughed but Ben did not know what she was laughing at. He supposed that she was covering up an evil cackle with her warm laugh in front of his father. His father! Ben wondered what would happen to Larry, who he had only just started to trust again. In all the stories, the stepmother took power after the good old father died, and Ben was worried that Helena would kill his father at some point along the line so that she could take over the company. The company! Ben would probably inherit part of the company one day. Would Helena try to assassinate him too?
"What on earth's wrong with you Ben?" Larry asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Call the police," Ben said to himself. "Call the police and tell them what's going on. Forget about any evidence. The police get people arrested, charged and sentenced without any proof a lot of the time anyway. It doesn't matter."
"The police?" Helena asked, raising an eyebrow and rising up from her seat. "Are you okay Ben? Is there something wrong?"
Helena looked at Larry who sighed and told her he would take Ben into the dining room to calm him down. When they got to the dining room, Ben felt himself calm down a little bit but he was still nervous, so he made an action plan in his head.
Ben grasped Larry's shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. "We need to call the police because Helena's going to try to kill you."
Larry looked at his son and almost gave up on life. "Ben, we've been over this before. Remember that teacher I spoke to at your school? She was a woman and we spoke and she didn't become your stepmother, did she? Helena's not going to be your stepmother either and neither you nor I are going to die. Is that okay? Because you kind of need to prove to Helena that you're capable of handling at least a little part of the business, and we're sort of failing at that right now."
Ben felt that Larry was being incredibly naive but did think back to the teacher that his father had never married, and came to the sudden realisation that perhaps it was possible that people weren't dating or in a relationship if they simply spoke to each other. Then Ben began to question everything he had ever known. Had he and Susanna ever really dated, or had he simply been drawn to her because of the hard life she led in her shopping trolley? No, he thought. They must have dated and he just couldn't remember it. She wouldn't talk to him the way that she had if they hadn't once had something.
Ben shook himself and listened to his father as Larry gave a speech about how Ben should pay attention and make sure he presented himself well to Helena. Ben found himself nodding and did not really pay very much attention, but figured he would be nice to Helena who could possibly get Ben out of his rut and give him a chance to prove himself to himself.
"Okay, dad," Ben said. "Let's go back now. I think you've spent long enough in here hiding from her."
Larry was confused by Ben's response but decided that he would never understand his son, and simply followed Ben back into the living room where Helena was waiting. She was standing and swiping the screen on her phone when they entered, and smiled guiltily when she saw them.
"I'm really sorry guys but I've just had another meeting come up," she said. "Larry, I think you'll probably get a few more than usual as well because a couple of the investors are trying to pull out and we kind of need to reel them back in."
Nobody said anything but everyone was aware that the investors were possibly drawing away from the company because of its ties to Ben. Word had spread that the guy who had lied about his own death was looking to get a top job at his father's own company, and that seemed to put investors off a little.
"I'm really sorry I didn't get a chance to properly talk to you Ben," Helena said, reaching for her car keys in her bag. "You know what we'll do? Come to my office on Thursday. That's three days from now, right? We'll get you to meet some of our other employees and you can start learning what they do and how to perform some of their jobs. I don't know about a leadership role, but we'll possibly work up to it."
Larry smiled at her and she stopped to give both Ben and Larry a hug before rushing back out of the house again, with the promise of coffee when she met with Ben on Wednesday. Ben felt quite happy after meeting Helena, who hadn't it seemed actually been evil or an assassin. He realised he had never felt quite so comfortable around Andrew Davis, and wondered if this was because he had met Helena before or because she seemed kinder and more patient that Andrew Davis who was nearly always furious with Ben.
"I liked her," Ben said after Helena had driven away. "She seems nice."
Larry nodded and Ben watched the smile that lit up his father's face at the same time. Ben was happy seeing his father happy - something he never thought he would feel. But he didn't spend too long analysing or second guessing what he felt. Sometimes, Ben thought, it was nice to just accept happiness when it came.
Ben spent the next two days learning as much as he could about his father's business. Ben already knew that they were a tech company focused on selling antimalware software. He knew from his Online Activities degree that his father's company worked to protect computers and tablets from viruses, worms, spyware and so on. It was sort of the reason Ben had decided to complete an Online Activities degree in the first place, as it focused on some of the things his father had talked about when Ben had been younger, and it made Ben realise that a degree in Online Activities wasn't entirely as stupid as some people thought it was.
"You can meet some of the people who help me design the software if you want," Larry told Ben, who loved the idea. "You like all that stuff right?"
Ben nodded and Larry took some happiness from the fact that his son was kind of following in his footsteps. Larry had missed the kids after his split with Hillary, and was only now starting to realise that he perhaps hadn't come into contact with them sooner because he himself was scared of what they may have thought of him. Larry didn't reveal this to Ben however thinking that Ben wouldn't want to hear about the past, and the two of them settled into talk of business again.
On the Wednesday, Pepe el popped by the house to wish Ben luck with his new job and Ben took the opportunity to apologise for being so rude to Pepe.
"It's okay, Ben man," Pepe said. "You were angry. I would be too."
Ben smiled and they took a break together - Ben from his business cramming and Pepe el from his truck driving duties. Ben didn't realise how tired he was until he took a bit of time away from everything he was supposed to learn - job responsibilities, the history of the company (though this he had known ever since he had been a child) and what each software package offered.
"Thanks Pepe el," Ben said, taking the opportunity to express his gratitude for his friend's presence. "Thanks for staying by my side recently. I didn't really have anyone else with me, except for dad and having a friend there really helped me I think."
Pepe el smiled. "Not a friend, Ben man, remember? This is the brotherhood, even though we only have two members. Hey, you wanna hire your dad for the brotherhood as well?"
"But how can my dad be my brother?" Ben asked.
Pepe el shrugged and the two of them sipped the milkshakes they had made during their break. Ben felt slightly more at peace when he didn't have to worry about all the things he had to cram into his head, and thought over how it was much more interesting to hear everything from his father than it was to read it from a folder full of paper and big words. He figured he would ask Larry to explain more things to him if there was enough time.
Right at that minute however, Ben just wanted to take the time to sip milkshakes with Pepe el. He didn't know it then but it was perhaps the last time he would get to spend time with his friend in a long time.
On the third day, Ben was forced to get up so he could get ready for work.
"I don't like this cereal," Ben told his father at breakfast. "It's too sugary."
"Well make something else then," Larry said, rubbing his eyes. "I hate getting up early but I guess I've got to do what I've got to do. Anyway, are you okay getting to Helena's office if I take you into the main building? I've got to sort out an issue with one of the employees in Finance, but I should be up there with you pretty soon after that. It won't take too long."
"She's on the third floor, right?" Ben asked. "Is it the big office next to your one?"
Larry nodded and continued chewing on his cereal. "Yeah, it is. Wait outside until she calls you in though. Don't knock. I think she has a meeting in her office this morning."
"No offense, dad," Ben said. "But Helena seems to do a lot more work than you. She's always in meetings and you are too, but you come home a lot earlier than she does. And you said you're going to be at home a lot of the time soon as well."
Larry rolled his eyes and prepared to launch into a speech about the different responsibilities he and Helena had, which Ben mostly tuned out. Ben was more focused on his cereal which was kind of gross tasting, so he decided to dump most of it into the bin and get some toast instead. Larry realised that Ben was not listening and stopped talking, only going over what the company did to help the environment on the car journey to work.
"Remember to just wait outside her office," Larry said to Ben, who said he remembered. "And don't worry too much about it. It's nothing scary."
Ben nodded and Larry figured that his son was bored of him at that point, so decided to walk to Finance and leave Ben to find Helena's office.
"Hey dad," Ben called out, and Larry turned around. "Thanks for helping me with this whole job hunting thing. I'm going to start from the bottom but thanks for getting me this far."
Ben's father smiled and then turned around and continued on to Finance, as Ben made his way up to Helena's office. He did have to wait for her to finish up with her meeting, but he distracted himself by playing games on his phone. And then when she did finally bring him into her office, Ben didn't feel all that nervous. Perhaps the hurt he'd experienced over the last few days had wiped away the usual lack of confidence he felt when it came to interviews.
"I think we'll start you off in the advertising sector," Helena told Ben. "There are some really nice people in advertising and it'll give you a chance to see what the public sees when they buy our products. And then we can possibly move you around to other departments, that is if you end up wanting to move and take on a senior leadership role. I suppose it will be you and my daughter who end up taking this thing over when your dad and I are done."
"Your daughter?" Ben asked. "I don't think I've ever met her."
Helena smiled sadly. "You'd like her. Ara did a degree in Business and Economics and came to work with me over here after a few odd jobs in a couple of other companies. Then... I suppose your dad's already told you about her accident."
"He said she'd been in a motorcycle accident," Ben remembered. "He didn't say very much more than that, and you don't have to either if you don't want to."
"She ran into one of her friends from high school and he drove a motorcycle," Helena said quietly, surprising Ben. "They got in an accident and then she... she became paralysed... from the waist down. I need her to recover as best as she can before she comes back here, though she very much wants to come back right now."
Ben recognised the protective tone in Helena's voice when she spoke of her daughter, as though she was desperately trying to convey the fact that it wasn't Ara's fault she wasn't here. It was the circumstances surrounding her. Ben liked that Helena was so proud and loving when it came to her daughter, and wondered briefly why his own mother couldn't be the same way.
But thoughts like that were things he was trying to rid from his mind, and throwing himself into work was one of the ways Ben hoped to forget the pain his family had caused him. So he focused on Helena's next words, describing what he would do in Advertising, and he walked downstairs with her and he met the friendly people that worked in the department and he tried as best as he could to take part, learn his responsibilities and forget what he'd heard his mother and siblings say about him.
And he did find himself enjoying working in Advertising and Marketing, and learning more about what his father did. Ben liked the people he met and the people he worked with, and as the weeks passed he only seemed to meet more people and earn more responsibilities. Ben wanted to feel as though he had worked to get where he was, though he knew he could never fully ignore the advantage he had as the owner's son. But rather than feel guilty about that fact, he vowed to prove to his fellow workers and himself that he deserved to be where he was heading.
Slowly, as his workload increased and he climbed up the employment ladder, Ben began to enter a new stage in his life. He was no longer the idiot that couldn't do a thing. He was a guy who was trying and was doing his best to learn and do well at his job. He got a lot of things wrong at the beginning, but sticking at it proved to be very useful for Ben who managed to get the hang of a lot of his roles though never as well as those who had been there for much longer than him.
Ben also realised that the workplace and the people and the bosses around him had a very big impact on his performance and his willingness to work. Ben found himself paying more attention and wanting to excel with his father and Hillary guiding him when they weren't busy, or the directors of departments teaching him when the other two couldn't. Sometimes Ben would think over the time he had been a director of something, but his job creating junk mail didn't seem all that relevant any more.
Ben had found somewhere he belonged and nothing could destroy his stability, or at least that was what he naively led himself to believe.
A/N: I've been having some slight trouble with writing this story recently. I'm so used to writing in Ben's usual voice that the character growth has kind of changed the way I'm presenting his voice in my writing. Hopefully I can go back to how he was before at some point. Also, this novel is satire but it's meant to be grounded in reality so that people can relate somewhat and it isn't just a complete mess, so hopefully I haven't veered too far from that goal.
Also, those of you that read 'The Great Escape' when I posted it on here might remember Ara Bhattacharya. I took TGE down because the plot kind of broke down on me and I needed to go back and sort out where the novel was heading. I'll hopefully bring it back at some point.
Anyway, happy reading and I hope you enjoy the weekend! It's really sunny over here right now. I don't know if I like it or not.