SERIAL STORY - Episode Three

CONFLICT OF INTEREST                                               by Collette Johnson

The story so far:
John Campbell is amazed to discover that a stranger visiting his home town is his mother’s brother, Patrick McCarthy, of whose existence he and his brothers have been unaware. His mother has warned them to avoid this man, and has even suggested that he could put John’s plans to marry Carol Martin in jeopardy. But John is friendly towards him, and arranges to take him sightseeing. On reflection, however, he fears that this may have been unwise.

John’s mother and Joe were in the kitchen starting their lunch, when John came to join them. His mother’s eyes were red, and there were traces of tears on her face. Joe looked worried, and his expression was unfriendly when he saw his brother come in.
John waited for his mother to speak first, but she watched him in silence. After a while he said, ‘I’ve met your brother’.
She left down her knife and fork, and tears welled up in her eyes. ‘After all I said to you, you had to go and throw away everything I’ve worked for these past thirty-five years.’
‘How did you know I’d met him?’’
‘I went to the Post Office, and saw you at the petrol station talking to him. And so, I’m sure, did half the town.’
‘And what harm could it do to talk to him?’
‘After all you’ve heard from me about him, you ask me what harm it could do!’
‘I know who he is, but I know nothing about him. He wouldn’t tell me why you don’t want him here. And, Mum, he is your brother.’
‘Too well I know he’s my brother. And everyone in the area where we were reared knew he was my brother when he went to jail. That’s why I came to live where no one knew anything about us. I’ve never told a soul about him, except your father when he was alive. I reared you all to be respectable. I gave you a clean start in life, with nothing out of the past to drag you down. And now that he’s found out where I live, nothing will do him but to come here and destroy all the respect for us that I’ve built up over the years.’
John sank down into a chair as his mother continued. ‘He disgraced his family. And now he'll disgrace all of you, too.'
He suddenly thought of Carol. And Carol's father. What had he brought on himself and his family by ignoring his mother’s warning?
‘Why was he sent to jail?’
‘For stealing a large amount of money from the firm he worked for.’
If Carol’s father heard this, he might try to prevent her from marrying him! And even if her father never heard about it, he would have to tell Carol herself if he were to ask her to marry him. How would she take the news?
‘And that job you’re going for,’ his mother mumbled through her sobbing, ‘James Martin has a big say in who gets that. Do you think it will encourage him to trust you, when he finds out how trustworthy your mother’s brother was?’
‘Ah, go easy, Mom,’ Joe cut in. ‘If one man does wrong it doesn’t mean that everyone belonging to him is the same.’
‘Don’t upset yourself, Mom,’
John said, trying to comfort her. ‘He’ll probably go away soon. Anyway, no one here knows who he is. I’ll talk to him, and explain that it’s better for all of us if he goes home. I’ll tell him that we’ll go and visit him as often as he likes.’
‘Maybe he hasn’t got a home. And anyway he was never the kind of man you could persuade. In fact he would never listen to anyone. I’m going to offer him money to go away and stay away.
But first I have to think of how I can meet him without anyone in this place knowing about it.’

Uneasily John began to eat his lunch, all appetite for it gone.
‘I’ll do that for you,’ he began tentatively. ‘I... I’ve arranged to take him for a drive this evening.’
‘You’re mad! It must matter very little to you whether or not Carol Martin marries you.’
John spoke angrily. ‘I do care very much about whether she marries me. Isn’t that all the more reason for me to deal with this problem about your brother?’
Joe looked from one to the other. ‘People will think he was just someone John knew in Dublin,’ he suggested. ‘It would attract less attention than if you were to meet him, Mom.’
Eventually she agreed reluctantly. ‘Keep him as far away from this town as you can,’ she urged John.
‘How much money will I offer him?’
‘Start with a couple of hundred. But I’d be prepared to give him a thousand if I had to.’
‘We can’t afford a thousand!’
‘We can’t afford to be disgraced,’ his mother answered harshly. ‘And you can’t afford to let Gerald O’Rourke use this to prevent you from marrying Carol, so that he can marry her himself.’

w w w

His mother’s words were still ringing in John’s ears as he drove out of the town with her brother. Anger and fear simmered within him.
‘Your attitude to me has changed since this morning,’ Patrick McCarthy said. ‘I can see that your mother has told you all about me.’
‘You can hardly expect me to be pleased that my job prospects and – and other important hopes I have – may be put at risk because of you.’
‘No one need know my history. I’m certainly not going to tell anyone. I’m deeply ashamed that I behaved the way I did at that time. It’s a long time ago, you know, John. I’ve changed a lot since then.
‘What made you steal that money?’
Patrick sighed. ‘I was earning good money at the time, but I was spending far more than I earned on gambling. I was certain that eventually I’d win enough to clear my debts, and have plenty of money over. And later, when I stole that money, I intended to pay it back with interest out of my winnings.’
‘Intending to pay it back gave you no right to take it in the first place.’
‘I know, I know.’ The older man sighed deeply, and looked close to tears.
‘And then you were caught?’
‘Then I was caught, and I was sent to prison. It was the chaplain there who explained to me that I was a compulsive gambler. He told me about Gamblers Anonymous, and I joined them. That was how I got straightened out. When I came out of prison I got a job, and did well. Eventually I paid back every penny, as well as all the interest on it. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined to make amends.’
‘Did you tell this to my mother?’ John enquired.
‘She didn’t give me a chance to tell her anything. If you tell her, maybe she’ll let me stay in this town. I’ve just retired, and I have a pension. Maybe I could get a little flat somewhere.’
John was ashamed of his immediate but unspoken rejection of this idea. Having Patrick
McCarthy living in the town would be too much of a risk. Suppose someone recognized him? Suppose Gerald O’Rourke got to hear the story? Suppose it got to the ears of Carol’s father?
Yet the pathetic eagerness in Patrick’s voice filled him with compassion. To be continued