trip to sequoia

ch.8

trip to sequoia

ann

         lee dropped ann off at her apartment  spent a few minutes carrying her bags in and saying goodbye to ann kissing passionately until he had to practically pull himself away from her. it was getting harder for each to be away from each other. one would think they wee in love as if people do that nowadays. . ann was a spendthrift . lee referred to it as miserly bordering on scgroooginess, with a touch of penny pinching thrown in. ann's apartment was modest at best and yet amply furnished with homey country things she picked up at this flea market or yard sale that she  happened on to along that day. she was constantly searching for that one thing that would fill a corner or an open space in her 2 story walk up apartment. she rented the first floor to an elderly couple who were trying to cut down their maintenance responsibilities and sold their home in the country. ann was responsible for the maintenance, and in return they watched anns apartment when she wasn't there.
        ann would rather be with lee but she tried staying in the same house as lee and his dad , she could do it only for a few days , but after that she had to come home .  his dad was scaring her more daily with his actions . he would say stupid hurtful things to lee and at times would just walk around buck naked scratching his parts acting like she was invisible to him.. sometimes it was that he really didn't care if anyone was there and that he  just wasn't there. a body standing naked in the living room wondering what the heck is going on or maybe not.  anyway you go, it wasn't a pretty picture and a little hard to take. but lee was doing his best to keep his dad out of the nursing home. partly because he couldn't afford it , and he was hoping in the end that his dad would just die in his sleep. but it looked as if that day was a while off . it looked as if the farm would sell first and lee would be forced to do something else with his life besides farm. he hated selling the farm to pay the nursing home but it appeared his dads social security would never cover the cost of the nursing home care. and they had numerous hospital bills from where lee's mom had cancer that were still; unpaid. lee had no choice but to quit farming . when all the bills were paid they would be lucky to see any money for the farm. 30 years farming for lee and 50 for his dad working on this same farm and nothing to show for it except bills. so much for feeding the nation when all they want to do is eat up your assets in the end. all that you have accumulated through your hard work over the years.
       she offered to help lee but he refused . there were other brothers and sisters to share in his misery, except to care for his father. they would rather let him go to the nursing home first since the farm was gone anyhow . the chance of money gone  they would  just as soon let someone like lee or hired help take care of dad then do it them selves.
      anns family was different. the gunnites had everything they ever wanted , and i guess that may be why ann has a problem with lee because he refuses her help and ultimately her family's help because whenever she does something for lee, then her family must approve because her money is theirs also. everything is paid out of the trust her parents set up prior to their horrible death in a private plane over west virginia years ago. she was raised by her uncle and aunt till she went to college in 86 where she studied business administration.
      she returned home from ohio university in athens with a mba and went back to work in the family business already being run her older brothers. they set her up in the new philadelphia office, where they poured money and resources into it  to expand the companies tracking of job orders at multiple businesses under the umbrella of the gunnite corp.. a national corporation with its roots in the mining industry. something she wasn't to proud of but then she as well as everyone had bills to pay. she was no exception as she gladly cashed her trust fund disbursement check monthly and put money away for her and lee later in life. whether lee liked it or not.
       her position was more of a watchdog office who was responsible for profit loss of all businesses under the corporate name of gunnite corp.. this could include environmental firms doing remedial cleanup of hazardous chemical spills. a registered hazmat service company who gunnite would call for all their own spills . if anything happened in any of the companies then she would hear about it and prepare a weekly report for the board meetings weekly. if someone filed a workmen s comp claim her office would be contacted first and then ann. annn would take it under advisement and notify all members of the board and administration to what the emergency was , and then appropriately the company would issue a statement regarding the emergency ann would ultimately review the statement and would approve or reject the message, based on its merits. she was the gestapo of the office and some in the office felt she too much power and crippled the company with her views. ann took on whole new persona of a women at work as she took control and lead the company.it was input that controlled the companies direction. the shareholders would object to her recommendations but she still prevailed most of the time. her brothers relied heavily on her opinion and usually consulted with her before weekly board meetings to assure management was up on issues as they needed to be.
        when her dad and mom crashed in the plane , her father had managed to squirrel away 36 million into a trust fund and it was up to family members to learn to live off there profits or interest earned on trust money. they could never allow it to drop below the 36 mark but could instead increase the fund to what ever they wanted  from company profits for their shares involved. now they 567 million in the account  paying out 37 million equally to 22 relatives for 1.68 million apiece . the immediate family members were paid no larger a share than other family members . all were devoted and contributed to the company's success. pierce gunnite ,wasn't your ordinary person, a large man with swaggering ways . he would stride into the room bursting with self confidence evidenced by the shit eating grin spread all over his face. as if to say i know something you don't. and he usually did.   ( cont. on next blog)

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