Consequences

heard the door and knew the guard and prisoner had entered. He couldn’t bear to see his grandfather being led around.
    Anton waited, hands in pockets, until he heard the door close again. Turning around, he met the eyes, the dark defiant eyes. If his grandfather were wearing a suit and if the metal table were a mahogany desk, Nathaniel would look like he did in Anton’s memory. His expression hadn’t changed. They may’ve put him in this damn prison, but they sure as hell weren’t keeping his mind here.
    “So, boy, did you learn his identity?” Cole Mathews worked side by side with Nathaniel Rawls for almost two years. The day before Nathaniel’s arrest, he didn’t show for work. He didn’t call. He disappeared. Almost a year later, information that only insiders would know helped lead to Mr. Rawls’s conviction. The only released information was that an FBI agent had been embedded to investigate federal allegations. Of course, to protect his identity, his name was never released. But this was the eighties, and Anton Rawls knew his way around a computer better than most. Hacking was such a negative term for research.
    Anton placed the manila folder in front of his grandfather. “Yes, sir. I found his name and enough personal information to track him down.”
    “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.” He opened the folder and scanned the contents. “He has a wife and family.” He spent a few more minutes reading the pages. Then abruptly, he shut the folder, slamming his hand against the table. “This son of a bitch will pay!” His chair hit the wall as he forcefully stood. “Do you hear me, boy?”
    “Yes, sir, I hear you.” Anton watched as his grandfather paced in his prison garb.
    “Not just him. Hell, no. He took away my world. He took my family away. His damn kids, their kids, their kids . . . they will all face the consequences of his actions! He took everything.” Nathaniel’s eyes darkened as he moved closer to his grandson. “You know what?”
    “No, sir.”
    “You can’t lose everything until you have everything to lose.” More pacing. “I had everything, and now look at me! That man and his goddamn family will pay!” He moved very close to his grandson. “The day I get out of this hellhole, they will. Every one of them will regret the day he decided to bring me down.
    Anton noticed the difference in the sound of their footsteps. His hard soled shoes made a distinctively different noise from his grandfather’s rubber soled shoes. They squeaked. “There is more, sir.” Nathaniel turned toward his grandson’s words.
    “What? What more did you learn?”
    “He had help. He worked hand in hand with a securities officer named Burke. Mathews fed Burke the information. If this securities officer hadn’t directed Mathews, he wouldn’t have been as thorough in collecting evidence.” Anton watched the shade of his grandfather’s face grow in crimson intensity as he spoke.
    “And your father?” The blackness of Nathaniel’s eyes pulled Anton’s gaze to him. He felt compelled to maintain eye contact and surrender the rest of his information.
    “He testified for the state.” Nathaniel’s pacing continued. “It was done behind closed doors, but it isn’t secret. The media calls him the hero in our family.”
    Nathaniel collapsed red faced and defeated into his chair. The realization that his son had turned state’s witness was obviously affecting him. His tone mellowed. “Boy, you will survive.”
    “Yes, sir, I will.”
    “Being here today, discovering this information, and most importantly having the balls to bring it to me are all evidence of your future. Your father has always been a disappointment, but I believe he was better at one thing than me.” Anton sat in the metal chair facing his grandfather. There was sincerity in his tone and words, he asked Nathaniel to go on. “Public opinion, I never gave a damn what anyone thought. I worked hard and deserved all the money and possessions. I wanted more. That was never a secret. Remember this, you can want the whole goddamn world but never show it.” Nathaniel stared up at the camera in the corner of the room. “If they know what you want, they’ll watch you and take it away. Keep up appearances, boy. If you do that, you can take everything you want, the whole damn world is yours.”

 
Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions,
it is governed by our mental attitude.
—Dale Carnegie
     Chapter