Call of the Clan [NOOK Book]

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Honestly, none of it was my fault. The whole thing began the morning I had my little fender-bender. In a matter of two hours, I had lost my car, my job, and pretty much all prospects for the future. From there, everything just spiraled down and down....

My brother Gil refers to this unlikely and improbable course of events as a Karmic Chain. He says that once a Karmic Chain is complete it will break, and everything will just fall into place the way it is supposed to. According to Gil, a predestined event can't take place until all the necessary events leading up to it have happened. Not being as philosophical as my brother, I just interpret his Karmic Chain as sort of a giant cosmic grocery list.

My Karmic Chain probably has a lot to do with why a month later, I found myself flying across the Atlantic to claim an inheritance from a father I'd never known.

I wasn't thinking about my karma or much of anything else the morning my little Toyota crunched into the ass end of an SUV on my way to work. Nor was I thinking about it when I called my boss to explain why I wouldn't be making my eight o'clock meeting. Chad was a good sport about it, though, and told me not to worry. In fact, in a move that won him the Best Boss Ever Award, he told me to take the whole day off. I should have seen the rain clouds looming over my parade, because in the very next second he told me to take all the time off I needed.

I was fired.

"What? What do you mean, I'm fired?" I screamed into my cell phone. "I can't be fired, Chad, I'm the office manager. I'm the one who does the firing, remember?"

"I'm sorry, Brynne," he said. "It's just notworking out. I'll have Brandi pack up your things for you, and you can pick them up at the front desk."

"Not working out? I've been there for nine years, Chad. Wait a minute. You gave my job to Brandi?" Well, that just figured. Chad had been dating Brandi, one of the receptionists, for several months now, okay, not really dating, just banging. The absurdity of the situation suddenly hit me, and I burst into laughter, because I didn't know what else to do. A carload of old women stared at me suspiciously as they passed.

I waved to them, and pointed to the phone. "My boss just gave my job to his sex-buddy, the one with the crooked teeth, bad hair, and the out of proportion to the whole rest of her body knockers."

"Brynne?" Chad squawked. "I'll need you to come by and sign a few papers. Nondisclosure agreements, some tax stuff. You know, just so there's no hard feelings."

Brandi had told me in the past that she'd have my job, but I hadn't expected her to have it so soon. She'd hated me ever since the day I walked into an exam room unannounced and found the two of them doing the naked mambo in a surgical chair. She might not have disliked me so badly if I hadn't flung myself back out the door, screaming that my retinas were on fire. That, naturally, generated an audience, which got to see Brandi in all her silicone and collagen enhanced glory.

"Hey, Chad," I said politely.

"Yes, Brynne?"

"Kiss my ass." I snapped the phone shut, snarled at it, and then popped it back open to call my brother. After all, I was going to need a ride back home. Or at least to some place with chocolate.

While the tow truck driver was loading up my sad little Toyota, Gil came to collect me. Ever the optimist, he delicately asked when I was going to head out and look for a new job.

I shrugged, and handed the tow truck man my credit card. "I'm not going out today, that's for sure. This sucks, Gil. Completely sucks. You know, I need a job with no stress. Maybe I could find something easy to do, where I wouldn't have to deal with people at all."

"You could feed the fish at the aquarium."

I giggled. Gil always made me laugh. He patted my hand. "You'll be fine, sis. We'll manage."

"I know."

The tow truck operator approached us. "Ma'am? Your credit card has been declined."

Gil pulled out a wad of cash and counted off some tens to the driver. "Sorry, pal. She hasn't been able to keep track of her finances since she had that plate put in her skull last year," he quipped.

We waved good-bye to my little silver car as it rolled away, dangling pathetically from the back of Billy Joe's Towing Service. "So now what?"

My brother stared at me suspiciously as I tucked the Master Card in my wallet. "Brynne, how much money do you have?"

"Gil, honey, I'll pay you back for the tow truck, I promise."

He shook his head. "That's not the point. If your credit card was declined you obviously haven't paid it in a while. What's the balance on your credit card?"

I stared out the window. He was about to give me the third degree, and not for the first time, either. It was a discussion I was hardly in the mood for. Ever. "It's maxed out."

He changed lanes and got onto the interstate. "How much?"

"Fifteen," I sighed.

Gil lit a cigarette and exhaled slowly through his nostrils, looking artfully philosophical as usual. "Fifteen hundred isn't so bad. You can pay that off in a month or so, if you start working again soon."

I didn't say anything, but I picked up his lighter and began to flick it absently.

"Brynne? It is fifteen hundred, right? Tell me it's not fifteen thousand."

I ignored him, waiting a few seconds until....

"Oh, for the love of Zeus, Brynne! What the hell were you thinking? How far in debt are you?" he snapped.

I pondered this for a moment. "Well, let's see. There's the car, the other credit card, my student loan...."

Gil was grumbling under his breath.

"...the trip I took last year to Cancun. Remember, when I met that guy Carlos? There's the surround-sound system I got you for your birthday...."

"I can't believe you."

"...and my home gym that I've been using as a towel rack, but I think that's all of it."

"I should hope so!" huffed Gil. "Didn't you learn anything from Mom? Anything at all?"

I felt like he had slapped me. "Oh, that's a shitty thing to say." I turned and stared at a row of dilapidated houses. We were off the highway now, gliding through the neck of Charleston's peninsula. "Take me home. You suck, Gilbert."

Gil blew smoke through his nose. "No, Brynne, honey, I am sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have said it. It's just that ... you remember how much money she owed when she died?"

Of course I remembered. To be fair, our mom didn't just die. She went to that great happy hour in the sky after gobbling a big dose of sleeping pills with a vodka chaser, and did it owing a lot of people a lot of money for a lot of bad habits. I dug around in Gil's shirt pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Normally I don't smoke, having officially quit years ago, but whenever we start talking about parents.... I lit up and inhaled deeply.

"I just worry about you, Brynne," he was saying. "I see so much of her when I look at you and the way you behave. You never do anything halfway. You have to have all of it, all at once."

"Thanks, Gil," I said dryly. "Maybe you've forgotten, but I don't drink myself into oblivion or shovel cocaine up my nasal cavities."

"No, no," he said, "that's not what I meant. "It's this ... intensity you both have. Had. Whatever." He paused for a moment, weighing his words carefully. "When the alcohol wasn't in control, she did love us very much, you know."

"Not enough to quit drinking or getting high. Not enough to keep Dad alive."

"I guess not." Gil was quiet after that. Dad had actually been Gil's father, but not mine, if we were going to get technical about it. I never knew my real father, so Steve Marlette had been a pretty damn good substitute. I had loved him, and missed him a lot.

We stopped to pick up sandwiches, and took them back to Gil's shop. He and his partner, Mark, own a new age bookstore on Chalmers Street, just a stone's throw from the Cooper River. They sell incense, Tarot cards, candles, and books by people with names like Dragonstar and Moonwalker. While I was living paycheck to paycheck, spending my money on nice cars, high-tech toys, high rent and vacations, Gil had opened his shop a few years ago, after the trust fund left by Steve Marlette matured.

I blew my entire share within six months of inheriting it.

When we arrived at the Air Apparent, Gil held the door open for me. The shop smelled of sandalwood and patchouli, and was already occupied by Mark, whom I just adore. It's like having two brothers. I hope he and Gil never split up, because I'd miss him terribly.

"Oh, lovely Brynne!" he sang, as though he was announcing royalty. "How are you this fine summer day?"

"Well, Mark, I'm pretty shitty. I wrecked my car and lost my job this morning, all before I got any breakfast. You?"

He waved a hand nonchalantly. "Oh, you know, the usual. It's all good here. Gilbert, did you bring me food?"

Gil passed over a hoagie and a small tub of coleslaw.

"Mmm. Heavenly." Mark sighed appreciatively. "So, Brynne, what are you going to do?"

I nibbled my sandwich. Glancing at my brother, I muttered, "Find a new job and pay off my bills, evidently. I suppose that's what one does when one is fired."

Gil snorted in response, and I stuck out a tongue full of turkey and mayonnaise at him. "Oh, that's attractive," he retorted.

Mark frowned. "Don't be bitchy, Gilbert. Brynne needs our support now. We should think positive thoughts for her so she can get back on her feet."

"Yeah," I agreed, squelching the impulse to add a so there. Gil pointedly ignored us, and went to assist a few college students who were browsing over by the gargoyle statuettes.

"Seriously, Brynne," whispered Mark through a scoop of coleslaw. "Are you just going to be an unemployed bum for a while? You could do that, you know. It might do you some good. Help you relax, find some inner tranquility. Oh! I know, baby. You could stay at my place on the beach."

I grinned. "That I could handle. I should take an extended vacation."