The Day his Motor Died - Prologue. Prologue

Michael graduated from The Wharton School of Business in 1997 with an MBA. He immediately landed a great job in a mid-town Manhattan brokerage firm. It was a fantastic opportunity. He advanced quickly, and had many happy, satisfied clients.

All through college and grad school he had rented a room in a private home. Out of sheer habit, he went about looking for a room to rent.

“For Christ ‘s sake,” his dad lectured him. “You’re a big boy now making big bucks. Drop the rented room bit, and look for an apartment that befits your status in life. Besides, don’t you want a place to entertain young women?”

Heeding his father’s advice, he rented a spacious one-bedroom apartment in a gentrified Manhattan neighborhood, and it made him feel that his career was skyrocketing. To his credit, he was aware of, and he appreciated his good fortune.

He met Nancy at work. She was the secretary of one of his associates. They began a torrid love affair. Nancy was beautiful, and Michael was much envied by his friends. This just added to his complacency.

One day, in the late fall of 2000, he awoke to a glorious morning. There was no hint of summer heat left in the air. And then, his Edenic world began to unravel. It happened quickly and without warning. He didn’t have time to assess the situation until he was at rock bottom.

It started with an early morning phone call from his father. He wasn’t even half dressed for work yet. Phone calls at odd hours scared the shit out of him. He almost let himself believe that his mother had died.

Michael’s father, Ted, was polar opposite of his son. He was totally blue collar, and Michael was totally white collar. Ted owned an automobile repair shop on Long Island. Michael had worked for his dad after school and every summer for as long as he could remember. For sure, he knew his way beneath the hood of a car.

Ted was disappointed that his son would not take over the successful business he had built, but he supported all his son’s decisions about his own life, and stood ready to back him up with whatever he wanted to do. Michael respected his father, and loved him dearly.

He picked up the phone. Without hellos and preliminaries, he heard, “I wanted to tell you myself. Your mother will be calling you soon. We split up. She’s already started divorce proceedings.”

Michael always believed that his parents had an ideal marriage. He had hoped to emulate them with Nancy. He couldn’t believe he heard right.

“What happened?” he croaked.

“Your mother just lost interest in me. She didn’t want to go out to movies, restaurants, theaters, concerts, and pretty much anything else. At first, I was content to stay home with her, but then she joined a bridge club. She spent hours playing the damn game, leaving me alone at home. After a while, I found myself going out to local bars without her. Michael, don’t condemn me. I met a woman, and I’m moving in with her.”

“Wow,” was all Michael could manage. “Look Dad, I’ll call you tonight. I have to go to work now.”

Seconds after he hung up on his dad, his mother called. He let his answering machine record the message. When her message was finished, he listened. According to his mother, the breakup was all his father’s fault. No surprise there.

The moment he got to the office, the senior partner wanted to see him.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“You tell me.” Joe Spenser said. “James McCauley took all his holdings away from us this morning. He said that he was dissatisfied with you.”

Michael could not believe what he had heard. McCauley was his best client. He had increased his portfolio value by fifty percent in eighteen months.

“That’s crazy,” Michael said. “Not one of our managed portfolios has done better than his. He practically kissed my feet every time he saw me.”

“Be that as it may, you must have done something to irk him.”

“I can’t think what.”

Michael and Joe never found out what. McCauley was having an affair with a beautiful investment advisor, who worked for another firm. Of course, he gave her all his business. He was a married man with kids, so he couldn’t tell Joe the real reason he was deserting his firm.

Two years later, he broke up with her after she badly mismanaged his money, and after he lost a good deal of it. He ate crow, but he came back to Michael.

In the interim, Michael’s record with the firm was blemished, and a junior partnership did not seem so imminent any more.

As soon as he got back to his office, Nancy buzzed him.

“Can we have lunch together?” she asked. “I need to talk to you.”

“Sure,” he said. He needed a friend at this moment in time. “I’ll pick you up at noon.”

As soon as they were seated in the restaurant, he asked Nancy what she wanted to speak to him about.

“Later,” she said. “Let’s have lunch first.”

Michael’s day had gone so badly so far, that he was really apprehensive about what she might tell him. They both ordered sandwiches. Michael gobbled his up, but Nancy ate slowly. She seemed to be delaying what she had to say.

Finally, Michael could stand it no longer. “Well?” he asked.

“I had sex with Mark last night,” she blurted out.

Mark was the associate Nancy worked for. He was Michael’s co-worker for God’s sake. He was too shocked to speak, so Nancy continued.

“I’m breaking up with you,” she said.

Michael finally found his voice. “Why? To be trite, I thought you and I were a match made in heaven.”

“I thought so too, but when Mark made love to me, I was transported to paradise. You make love like a virgin school boy every time we do it.”

As if things had not gone badly enough this horrible day, Nancy had just cast aspersions on his manhood. She stood up and left the restaurant. It was an indication that there was no room for discussion; end of story.

Michael returned to his office, and he asked his secretary not to put any calls through.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You look like you were hit by a truck.”

“I was,” he said.

He went into his private office and locked the door. He had to sit quietly for a while to digest everything that had happened to him today, and to reconsider his life. Long after everyone left, and he was alone in the office, he made a decision.

Michael had scads of vacation and sick days due him. He never took either. He decided that he was going to take a month’s sabbatical, and motor across country. He wanted to be alone, and to go to a place where there were very few people. He zeroed in on Wyoming. He had read somewhere that it was the least populated state in the union. If it were true or not, he could more easily avoid interacting with others in that part of the world. He even decided to use back roads instead of super highways. He gave no thought to whether this was wise or not. He just wanted solitude.