Rags to Riches

I couldn’t focus the next day at school. No matter what was happening around me, my mind was still on the night before. I found myself pulling out that business card multiple times and just staring at it. At the top was a very intricate logo from a company that I had never heard of before – TechNet. Below that was a name and rank – Donovan Seville, CEO – followed by a phone number, a fax number, an address for the company’s building, and the guy’s office number. Aside from the fancy logo, the card was fairly plain; it got straight to the point, like business cards were supposed to, I guess.

I knew what the right thing to do was. And I knew that if I didn’t do that, it would have eaten me alive for fuck-knows how long and I would eventually do the right thing anyways. So I figured I might as well get it over with as soon as I could.

’But he wanted me to work for him. It’s the beginning of the school year. When did he expect me to be able to work for him? Big shots like him don’t work weekends, right? What am I supposed to do; go work for him all night after a full day of school? Fuck that.

‘Well, I mean, I guess that’s better than going to jail. I did try to rob the guy. I’m not just getting out of this like I didn’t do anything. Well, I could…but I’ve already gone over that; it’d drive me crazy knowing that I wasn’t doing the right thing. I have to work for the guy. So I have to go talk to him soon. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll let me off easy. Like only work once a week or something like that. Yeah right. Like I’d get that lucky.’



It was a good twenty minute walk from the school to the street TechNet was on, but once there, it wasn’t too hard to find which building it was. Even though all of the buildings were smashed up against one another, only the signs above the doors distinguishing one from the next, TechNet was on a whole different level from the buildings surrounding it. It was only six stories high – about as tall as the ones around it – but it was made almost completely of windows. Where most buildings only had a few window panels per floor, TechNet’s building only had a few panels per floor that weren’t windows.

’Shit, I thought, standing back and looking up at the formidable building in front of me. ’This company is loaded. And I tried mugging the CEO. Jesus fucking Christ. No wonder he gave me all that money without a guaranteed return. What the fuck did I get myself into here?’

I took a deep breath and built up the courage I didn’t realize I needed. Walking through the huge glass doors into the lobby of TechNet, I couldn’t help but feel terribly out of place. I wasn’t the only one that noticed it either; the entire time I was walking towards the main desk, the man behind it glared at me suspiciously. I stood in front of him and put on my most professional face as I said, “I’m here to see Donovan Seville.”

The man quirked his shaped eyebrows at me and asked in a very snarky tone, “Do you have an appointment?”

“Not exactly,” I responded hesitantly. How do you explain to someone that you’re there to see the guy you tried mugging as a way to repay him for giving you a shit-ton of money willingly? You don’t.

“Not exactly…” the secretary repeated skeptically. “Either you have an appointment or you’re here to schedule one, because nobody sees Donovan Seville without one. Not even me. Now do you have an appointment or not?”

“Just tell him that the boy from last night is here to see him.”

I got another quirked eyebrow and a very sassy face in return. “And I suppose he’ll just drop everything he’s doing in order to see you, right?”

“I don’t know, man,” I sighed, becoming increasingly more fed up with the situation. I was starting to wish I’d never come in the first place. “I just know that he gave me his business card and told me to come here so I can repay him for helping me out of a bad situation last night. Now can you just tell him I’m here already?”

I didn’t even get an answer in return, which really just pissed me off more. The guy just scoffed, rolled his eyes, and picked up the phone. He pressed a few buttons and soon was saying, “This is Eric from reception. Could you tell Mr. Seville that, quote, ‘the boy from last night’, unquote, is here to see him. Yeah, apparently he’ll know what that means. Thanks, I’ll hold.” I figured he’d be able to just talk to Donovan himself, but I guess he had to go through the guy’s personal secretary first. ’Why do rich people have so many secretaries?’ I asked, mentally sighing. My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Sass himself talking again. “Really? You’re serious?” His voice was filled with disbelief, but it was obvious that he had to listen anyways. “Okay, yeah, I’ll send him right up, I guess.” He hung up the phone and looked back at me, astonishment and a little bit of disgust on his face as he opened his mouth to speak.

I cut him off before he could get anything out. “Thanks for your help Eric. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with Mr. Seville. And yeah, I know where his office is, thanks.”

With one last glance at the satisfyingly shocked look on the guy’s face, I spun on my heel and started towards the elevators. I didn’t realize that I’d have such a hard time getting in to see the big man himself. I guess when I noticed that he was the CEO and that he was the one that asked me to see him, I thought it would be less of a hassle to actually do. But I was starting to get the idea that everything I thought about this situation wasn’t going to be accurate.

I shook my head as I boarded the elevator and looked at the business card again to get the number of Mr. Seville’s office so I could press that floor’s button. It wasn’t a surprise to see that it was on the top floor, and I shoved the business card back into my pocket and pressed the circle with the glowing ‘6’ inside of it. I wasn’t too used to riding in elevators, so I flinched a bit as it lurched into motion, grabbing the rails behind me reflexively.

Everything about this building put me slightly on edge, whether it was the overwhelming amount of windows, the starkness of the polished chrome all around the building, or the way that it was so large, but so empty at the same time. In the lobby itself, there was far too much room between the doors and the front desk, and although the desk took up a lot of area, there was still so much empty space surrounding it that it threw me off a bit.

I was used to emptiness, but it was a different sort of it. The emptiness of our house was from a lack of money for things other than the basics. There wasn’t any kind of décor around the house aside from a few picture frames here and there and certain things that my parents had before they went broke and kept because they couldn’t sell them for anything significant. That was a completely different kind of emptiness from TechNet’s. Theirs was intentional; it was a decorating style, and I could tell that even though I knew nothing about interior design. The emptiness here came from almost pristine cleanliness, sharp angles, metallic colors, and a lot of open areas. I’m sure it was a good fit for the company, but it made me uncomfortable nonetheless.

Through my thoughts, I felt the elevator slow down and got confused when I realized it was stopping on the fourth floor. The door opened and two women mid-conversation stepped into the small space. ’Duh, other people use the elevator too, Kenny.’ I chastised myself, shaking my head.

The taller of the two women turned towards me and broke her conversation to ask me, “Going down?”

“No, sixth floor,” I responded, wondering why it mattered. Then both of them actually looked at me and their mouths fell open slightly. They were both dressed to the utmost level of professionalism and looked as if they actually belonged in the building, let alone going to the sixth floor – where I figured the most important people were at.

The elevator was already moving by the time they realized that they probably didn’t want to be near me, and although it pissed me off, I almost didn’t blame them as they pushed themselves against the opposite wall. I didn’t exactly dress for success that morning; I was wearing a pretty ratty pair of old jeans, a worn pair of boots, a wrinkly tee-shirt I pulled out of a basket, and a thick, black, zip-up hoodie with the sleeves rolled up. I looked like a grade-A delinquent, honestly.

When neither of them responded and they continued to stare at me, I just scoffed, rolled my eyes, and shoved my hands in my pockets. The loud chime signaling that we’d reached the sixth floor couldn’t have come any sooner. As the doors opened, I walked out and shook my head. Before the doors could close, though, I spun around and put my hand on them, stopping the motion. The women’s eyes grew wide and the one actually flinched as I opened my mouth. “It was nice talking to you both. Have a wonderful day ladies.” As I turned back around, I caught a last glimpse of the two, both looking at each other with their mouths open. I chuckled and rolled my eyes again as I walked down the hall. Sure, they stereotyped the shit out of me, but they probably didn’t know any better. They probably grew up in rich families that never worried about money and always feared those people from the bad parts of town. But that’s life.

I found Donovan Seville’s office as easily as I found the building, but this time it was because it was at the end of the hall, with a big sign on the door with his name and title on it. Opening it, I found myself in a sort of waiting room lined with chairs on one side and another secretary’s desk on the other. I knew I’d have to go through his personal secretary though, so I was prepared for this encounter.

“Hi there…Kim,” I greeted, reading the nameplate on her desk. “My name’s Kenny. I’m the boy from last night that Eric was talking about.”

“Ah, yes, I figured you’d be here soon! Mr. Seville’s expecting you, so go on ahead in.” She was a lot nicer than Eric was, that was for sure. She also didn’t seem at all phased by my appearance, which was a relief after all of the judging stares I had already gotten that day.

“Thanks.” I smiled genuinely and walked to the door that would hopefully lead into Donovan’s office. Who knew how many doors there would actually be though? Too many, that’s all I knew.

Opening that door, I found it to be the final one, thankfully. The same regal looking man that I’d seen as a perfect opportunity last night sat behind a large desk, scrolling through something on his computer screen. It couldn’t have been too excited, because he had his head in his hand and his elbow on the desk, looking utterly bored at what he was reading. The details I couldn’t make out about him in the dimness of the night before were stark against the brightness of his office. His once dark brown hair had hints of gray throughout, which carried down into his beard and moustache, all trimmed in a way that made him look as if he had all the power of the world. He wore another fancy looking suit, but wore it much more casually, with the jacket hung up on a hook behind his desk and his tie loosened around his neck.

I cleared my throat and closed the door a little harder than necessary, trying to grab his attention. His head snapped up and he smiled slightly as his eyes caught sight of me standing there. “Ah-ha! I was hoping I’d be seeing you soon. Didn’t really expect you today, honestly. That’s good though; shows that you have a good set of morals.”

“Wait, what? How?”

He laughed, the skin around his eyes crinkling, showing his age. “You showed up after only one day of thought. That shows that you wanted to do the right thing so badly that you couldn’t wait any longer. The longer you would have waited to mull everything over, the more it would have eaten away at you. And you knew this, so that’s why you had to come today. You know the difference between right and wrong, and I could tell that about you even last night.”

“But I tried stealing from you,” I argued, not understanding his logic about my morals. He was right about everything else, but I didn’t see how that made my morals strong. “That’s definitely on the ‘wrong’ side, but I did it anyways. Wouldn’t that make my morals weak?”

“No,” he said simply, as if that explained it. My eyebrows were as quirked as Eric’s were when I talked to him downstairs. “You were desperate. When people are desperate, sometimes their morals bend to accommodate the need at hand. They don’t completely change; they simply mold into slightly different variations of their old self according to the situation. Your morals morphed into what was necessary for you to convince yourself that what you were doing was for the betterment of your family, and that you had to do a bad thing like that because there was no other option. You still know that it wasn’t right, but you also know that you couldn’t have done anything else. So you still have strong and good morals, despite seemingly going against them.”

I didn’t know what to say to him. I had absolutely no idea how to respond to that. So I said the first thing that came to mind.

“I can’t even believe this is happening right now. This is unreal.” I rubbed my hands across my face, as if that would make the situation any better.

Maybe it was the stress of everything, or maybe I was just dehydrated or something like that. But whatever it was made my vision blur and my balance falter slightly. I just barely noticed Mr. Seville shooting up out of his chair and running over to me. He put his hands on my shoulders to steady me. “Maybe you ought to sit down, son. You don’t look too hot right now.”

I couldn’t even think about protesting as he led me to the couch in the corner of the room, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t form the words. I couldn’t believe that I was literally about to pass out for no reason. I’d been arrested three times before. I’ve been in fights where the loser ended up in the hospital. I’ve been in bad situation after bad situation almost all my life. But I get a little overwhelmed in the fancy office of the richest guy I’ve ever met and I’m about to pass out. I wanted to protest and tell him I was fucking fine and to leave me the hell alone. But I knew I wasn’t fine and that he was right.

I felt my world right itself a bit as soon as I sat down, but it might have been just because I had some actual support underneath me. I couldn’t see where Donovan went, but I knew that he wasn’t near me anymore. Within a minute, he was kneeling in front of me and put an open bottle of water in my hand. “Drink this, but try to keep your head between your knees. It seems silly, but it’ll help a lot.” I didn’t even try to go against what he told me because I knew that he would end up being right anyways. So I did exactly as he said, and by the time I had half the bottle down, I felt nearly back to normal again.

I sat back slowly, knowing that fast movements would only make things worse again. “Thanks for that, uh, Mr. Seville.”

“You can call me Donovan. That is alright,” he laughed, patting me on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re feeling better now. I’ve had moments like that before; it’s all from stress too, and I can only imagine how much you must have in your life right now…you know, I still haven’t caught your name yet.”

“Kenny,” I supplied before taking another drink of water. “Kenneth Craig, actually. But I prefer to be called Kenny. Kenneth is too formal.”

“Of course. And if you’d like, you could call me Don. I’m perfectly alright with either name.”

“I think I’ll stick with Donovan for now. I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable calling you Don; it sounds like something your close friends and family would call you. I certainly don’t qualify as either.”

“Donovan it is, then. Now Kenny, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly made you resort to what happened last night?” His eyebrows furrowed and the look on his face showed me that he was genuinely concerned. He took a seat next to me on the couch and looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to start my story. It still baffled me how he could be treating me the way he was when I did what I did to him.

I took a deep breath, searching for the right words to start with. “Both my parents have intensive full time jobs that pay very little and demand quite a lot from them, physically and mentally. Neither of them are home often, which leaves me to take care of my little sister most of the time. I don’t mind that because she and I are very close and I want her to have as good a life as possible. But that also demands a lot out of me, especially once my parents get home, even though you would think it was the other way around. When they’re home, they are so exhausted from work that they don’t do very much around the house. A lot of the time, it almost seems as if I’m taking care of three children. I do a lot of the cooking and most of the cleaning, and if we have any unexpected expenses crop up, it falls on me to find the money if we don’t have it.”

“That’s what happened last night, isn’t it?” Donovan asked, his sad eyes focused on mine.

I nodded. “We had a bit saved up, but my dad needed new work boots because he had to pick up more hours at work so that we could get caught up on our rent. But then my mom’s work shoes were doing more harm than good, so she needed to get new ones if she was also going to pick up more hours. And we didn’t have the money for them, let alone this month’s rent, so I told her I’d figure it out, and that’s what I was trying to do when I – uh – ran into you.”

“I knew you weren’t doing that just because. I was right; you were trying to be the man of the family and help the only way you could. Obviously you couldn’t get a job of your own if you’re stuck taking care of the household like it sounds like you are. So you did what you could and you were the one that got your family out of trouble. You just got yourself into trouble by doing so.”

“Yes, thank you for the unnecessary commentary on things in my life that I already knew,” I snapped, starting to get frustrated. What right did this guy have to act like he knew what I was going through?

“Sorry, maybe I crossed a line there. I just wanted to get an idea of what kind of situation caused me to be pulled into an alley last night.” That stung.

“Okay, yeah, you got me there. You actually do have the right to know about that. I just really don’t like talking about it, I suppose. I wish I never had to start doing things like that – “

Right then, the intercom on his desk emitted a beep and Kim’s voice sounded on the other end. “Donovan, your daughter is out here. She says she really needs to talk to you.”

He stood up, sighing, and walked to his desk, pressing a button on the intercom and saying into it, “Send her on in Kim.”

The door opened right up and my eyes grew wide as I saw who walked through it. When I thought of a girl that would be Donovan’s daughter, she was around thirty years old and had kids of her own, based on his age. But the girl that came through that door was my age, maybe even younger, and was, in a word, gorgeous.

She had the same hair color as her father, only hers was a pure and natural brown that fell around her face and to her shoulders in loose waves. Her eyes were the same striking blue as her fathers and were outlined in a subtle layer of makeup – not too much, like most of the girls I was used to seeing, but just enough to amplify her already beautiful features.

I’d seen a lot of pretty girls in my life before, and I had seen some even more beautiful than this girl, but there was something about her that would have put me at a loss for words had I tried talking to her. Not that she even noticed I was there at first.