“So, that’s pretty much what I did. I graduated on time, two years after you, and was commissioned into the Army, so I belonged to them for four years. I ended up in the 82nd Airborne, in a battery of 105s. You know what I’m talking about?” I had to explain that to Marty. “A year after I graduated, Marilyn graduated and we got married.”
“So, you did your four years and got out,” he asked.
I gave him a wry look. “Well, that’s the strange thing. Actually, I liked it, and was good at it. I decided to go career, but then I made a bad jump and screwed up my knee.”
“You? Career Army? Holy Christ! You couldn’t stay in?”
I shrugged. It was too much to explain, unless he had been Army himself at some point. “Maybe, in a staff job somewhere, but I was a combat officer, and a good one. It’s like I told Marylyn, it’d be like working in an ice cream store and not being allowed to lick the scoop. So I got out.”
Surprisingly, he nodded. “Okay, I can follow that. My old man was in Korea. He once said something like that to me, too. But how do you go from the Army to investment banker? I would have figured you for teaching college or going to work for Microsoft or something.”
At that I laughed loud and long! “Oh, buddy, if you only knew!” I told him.
“Knew what?”
“Back at RPI, I was a millionaire. I’m really good at investing, really good! When I got out of the Army, that summer I flew out to Redmond, Washington, and wrote Bill Gates a check for five million dollars. You think I was going to work for Microsoft? I own just under five percent of Microsoft!”
Marty stared at me. After a few more seconds, he said, “Are you shitting me? You own five percent of Microsoft?”
I shrugged and smiled. “Technically, the Buckman Group owns the shares, but I own 75 percent of the Buckman Group.”
“How much does that work out to?”
“What, the Microsoft shares? Well, the market capitalization is somewhere around $13 or $14 billion, so figure five percent times 75 percent, that makes what, $500 million or so.”
“Holy Christ! You’d better go slow and start from the beginning. You were a millionaire in college? What the hell?”
I smiled and pointed at the wet bar. “You might as well bring the bottles and ice over here. This is going to be a long, long tale!”
While Marty laughed and went over to the bar, I pulled my cell phone out and hit the first memory button. I listened while the phone rang, and then was picked up. “Hello?” It was Charlie’s voice, still high pitched and a little thin. In the background I could hear his sisters demanding to know who it was, at which point he yelled back, “SHUT UP! I’M ON THE PHONE!” I slapped my hand over my face in disbelief. Then I heard, “Hello?”
“Charlie, don’t be rude to your sisters…”
“Hi, Dad!”
“Is your mother there?”
Needless to say, the next thing I heard was him dropping the phone, probably on the kitchen counter, and yelling at the top of his lungs, “MOM! IT’S FOR YOU!”
I muttered to myself, and a minute later there was the sound of the phone being picked up. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Buckman, this is the National Center for Youth Telephone Discipline. Do you have time for a survey?”
“Very funny! Let me kill your son for you, and I’ll tell you all about it. What’s up?”
“My schedule’s changed. I’ll be staying here tonight. I’ll come home tomorrow night and make a long weekend. Sorry about this, but it just came up.”
“That’s okay.” Marilyn had learned my schedule needed some flexibility. “What’s up?”
“I need to have dinner and drinks with an old friend who I just reconnected with,” I told her.
“Male or female?” she teased.
I glanced over at Marty. “It’s either an ugly guy, or a really ugly girl. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
Marty flipped me the bird, making me laugh. Marilyn just said, “You can take me to an expensive dinner, and not the special at the Westminster Diner, either.”
I laughed some more and told her to make reservations for Saturday night, and then told her to tell the kids I loved them. Before I hung up, I asked, “Do me a favor and call Tyrell I won’t need a pickup tonight or tomorrow morning, please.” Tyrell Washington was the helicopter pilot for the LongRanger. Marilyn agreed, and I flipped my phone shut and stuck it back in my pocket. “Let the drinking begin!”
Mindy stuck her head in a little later. “Anything I can do, Congressman? Chuck asked me to look in on you.”
I snorted. “We’re fine. Do me a favor. Call around and make reservations for dinner somewhere, something nice. Morton’s would be good if you can manage it. Ruth’s Chris, too. Tell my driver, too.”
Mindy excused herself and closed the door again, and Marty and I got back to swapping lies and talking about the old days, and how we ended up where we were. At six, Mindy knocked and came back in. “I’ve got your reservations at Morton’s at half past, and if you go downstairs now, your car should be waiting for you when you get there.”
“Mindy, you are an angel. Don’t let Marilyn know how you run my life, because she’ll only get jealous! We’re going. You should go home, too.” The girl blushed and waved good-bye.
The limo waiting for us when we got down to the lobby, the security guy standing there holding the door for us. Marty climbed in and then I climbed in after him. He smiled as he looked around. “Pretty swanky compared to the old days, huh?”
I laughed. “Marty, you have no idea! Listen, you doing anything this weekend? I’d love to take you home and reintroduce you to Marilyn.”
“Sorry, not this weekend. Next weekend is open, though.”
“Perfect. Bring a bag or a suitcase over here next Friday and prepare to be surprised,” I told him.
He gave me a curious look. “Going to show me your castle?”
“No castle, but trust me, you’ll be surprised.”
“It’s crazy, you know. I knew about the billionaire who bought himself a Congressional seat, but I never figured it was my little brother from the frat house. You’re really a billionaire?” he asked.
I held up two fingers in a V. “Somewhere between one-and-a-half and two. And I wish I could have bought it! It would have been so much simpler than putting up with Andy Stewart!”
“Talk to me! He’s been a scumbag since before he ever made it to Washington. What happened with you?”
We talked over the campaign for awhile, taking care of the ride over and getting our table and through the appetizers. It was a touch early in the evening, and Wednesday isn’t a big ‘power dinner’ day, so we didn’t have to wait. Marty loved the whole election mess; me, I was less than thrilled with it! “I’m glad you’re enjoying this. I could have done without it. So, if I have to tell you the sordid truth about my election, you have to tell me the sordid truth about your marriages. What happened?”
He shrugged and sighed. “My first marriage? She didn’t handle being overseas very well. She started sleeping around, and I walked in on them one night.”
“Okay, that pretty much sucks,” I agreed. “What about Number Two?”
He shrugged. “I guess I was on the rebound. It just didn’t work out. Maybe I’m just not the marrying kind. Anyway, screw that! I want to hear how you are conquering Washington!”
I snorted at that. “Conquering Washington? I’m not even sure I’m conquering my office! So far I am not riding to glory.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked.