A Grip on Reality Ch. 01

Even though he had been away from college only one semester, Ben still found it difficult to catch up. Not only was he out of practice at studying but many of the courses he needed weren't even offered during the second semester. He wound up having to go to summer school. When he saw how well that went, he decided to do the same thing the following summer, and that allowed him to catch up with Elizabeth and graduate with her.

They were married in the campus chapel three days after graduation. As he kissed his beautiful bride, he whispered in her ear, "Remember that day back in junior high? Best decision I ever made."

Before he launched his own bank, Ben decided to take a job in a conventional financial institution to get some practical experience and, he hoped, gain some insights into what he needed to do differently when he finally struck out on his own. His grades and his father's connections helped him land a position as a management trainee in one of the big local banks. Ben dove into the job eagerly, hoping to soak up as much information as possible. That attitude made the drudgery and rote work of the entry-level job he was given more tolerable. Still, he was impatient to get started on his dream.

Elizabeth had majored in education and managed to secure a teaching position at an elementary school. Even though the school was in a low-income area, her patience and loving personality quickly won over the children in her class.

Together the two of them were earning enough to get by without dipping into Ben's inheritance. He offered to invest some of the money for a down-payment on a house, but Elizabeth insisted that they save the funds for starting Ben's bank. "We'll have plenty of time to buy a house when your bank is a big success," she told him.

Married life for Ben and Elizabeth had its challenges and its pleasures, and sometimes it combined both. Elizabeth, for example, was something of a "medicophobe." She had always hated going to doctors for fear they might find something wrong with her. The first time she was due for a gynecological check-up after their marriage, Ben came home from work to find her in a blue funk about her upcoming examination.

Quickly grasping the situation, he pulled her into the bedroom and affected a pseudo-Germanic accent. "Zo, leetle girl, you haf come to me for your exam? Very well, lie back on my examining table und ve vill see what ve shall see."

In spite of her mood, Elizabeth giggled and lay back on their bed with her legs hanging off the end. Ben reached down and somewhat clumsily peeled off Elizabeth's panties before arranging her legs as though her feet were resting in the stirrups. "Vell, vell," he intoned solemnly, "everything looks goot from here, but I think ve must look deeper." With that he pulled down his trousers and his underwear, revealing a quickly hardening cock.

"Oh, Doctor," Elizabeth responded in a little girl's voice, "what a big speculum you have!"

Ben twirled an imaginary mustache. "All the better to probe you weeth, my dear," he said lustily. With that he leaned forward and rubbed the tip of his cock all around the lips of Elizabeth's vagina, being sure to give extra attention to her clitoris. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that she was already slick with lubrication.

"Please, Doctor," she gasped, "I think you need to go deeper. I think you need to do it right now!"

With that Ben slid all the way into her, and she gave a little cry of ecstasy. As he began to stroke into her, she gave another little cry and then reached up to grab him and pull him down to her with all her might. Her hips began to flex spasmodically and she brought her feet up to the mattress to give her greater leverage to thrust against him, which she did so hard that he almost lost his balance. "Harder, deeper!" she kept repeating, her voice rising in pitch as the sensations grew more intense. Suddenly she arched her body off the bed and screamed as a huge orgasm tore through her. With only a few more thrusts Ben followed her over the top, and the two of them slumped in exhaustion.

After a few minutes to catch his breath, Ben rose up and looked at his beautiful bride with a smile. "I hope your examination tomorrow won't go anything like that!"

She gave him a little smile. "Well, since my OB-GYN is female, I think you can be sure of that."

Ben went off to work the next day smugly satisfied with the way he had successfully handled Elizabeth's fears. So he was shocked when he came home that evening and found his wife in tears. "She told me she found something that didn't look right," Elizabeth sobbed. "She wants me to see a specialist right away."

Fear stabbed at Ben, but he managed to hide it as he took Elizabeth in his arms to comfort her. "It'll be alright," he told her. "Doctors are always going to err on the side of caution. It's probably nothing at all."

But it was something after all. A grim-faced husband held his wife as the oncologist delivered the stunning verdict: ovarian cancer. It turned out that Elizabeth had the BRCA2 genetic mutation that predisposed her to developing the disease. She'd never been tested and there had been no cancer among the women in her immediate family.

"We want to set Elizabeth up for surgery early next week," the doctor told them. "We want to treat this aggressively, get it all before it can metastasize."

Elizabeth buried her face in Ben's chest, and he felt compelled to ask the question he dreaded. "What does the surgery involve?"

The doctor looked at him sympathetically. "We won't know for sure until we get in there. Hopefully, all we'll need to remove are the ovaries."

Ben felt Elizabeth stiffen against him. They'd both wanted children.

As the day of Elizabeth's surgery approached, Ben was surprised at her reaction. While fear haunted his waking and sleeping hours, she no longer seemed troubled. Instead, she exhibited a level of peace that seemed unbelievable to him. He felt he couldn't ask her directly, but she sensed his questions and tried to help him understand. She'd always been frightened of the medical unknown, she explained. Now that the worst had finally happened there was nothing more for her to fear.

The surgery went well, and the oncologist was very reassuring when he met with Ben afterwards. "I think we got it all," he said. "With any luck she should be able to live cancer-free for the rest of her normal life."

Luck was apparently away on vacation. When Elizabeth went back for follow-up testing, the results were not good. Worse, this time the cancer had spread to her liver. The doctors put her on a course of chemotherapy that made her deathly ill but had little effect on the cancer slowly spreading in her body. A different type of chemotherapy was tried, but the results were the same.

Elizabeth's life devolved into a cycle of treatment, illness and bed rest that seemed to repeat endlessly. Ben's life devolved into a nightmare of showing up at work enough to keep his job and the precious medical insurance, leaving to take care of Elizabeth, transporting her to the hospital for treatment, keeping her parents informed of developments, plus maintaining their home. Although he would never have admitted it, he suffered almost as much as his wife, especially since he endured all the solitary guilt of being the healthy partner.

Elizabeth had just finished her latest course of chemotherapy, and Ben was at her side when the oncologist arrived to report on her test results. The look on his face was enough to tell them the bad news. "There is something you might consider," the doctor offered. "Stanford is doing some exciting work on a new approach to treating cancer. Elizabeth is a perfect candidate. If you're willing, I think I could get her accepted in the clinical trial they'll be starting."

"Let's try it, Doctor," Ben said eagerly. "Maybe this will be just what Elizabeth needs. I've been reading about it on the Internet and . . ."

"No!" said Elizabeth, so sharply that both Ben and the doctor were startled. "I don't want to do it."

"But babe, this is cutting edge stuff," Ben protested. "It might just be the thing to cure you."

"No," she said more quietly, "I don't want to go through all that any more. No more hospitals, no more treatments - I just want to go home."

Ben felt his throat constrict, but he forced the words out. "But if you do that, it means . . ."

"I know what it means, Ben, and I'm okay with that. All I want now is to sleep in my own bed, to be in my own neighborhood, and to taste and see life the way I remember it, not what it's turned into now. Please."

By now Ben was incapable of speaking. All he could do was to sit beside her and search her face for some sign she might relent. Even that task became impossible as tears blurred his vision before they streamed down his face.

"I understand, Elizabeth," the doctor said quietly. "I'll make the arrangements for someone who can help you and Ben."

The hospice nurse was an older woman who had plenty of experience caring for the dying. Elizabeth liked her and she spent a lot of time talking with her. It comforted Ben to know that Elizabeth was well cared for, and the nurse's visits gave him the opportunity to go in to work, a respite that he desperately needed.

He was at his desk one day when the nurse called. "I think you should come home now," she said in answer to his anxious question. "I think it's almost time."

When Ben came into the bedroom, Elizabeth was lying in bed wearing a clean nightgown. Her red hair was spread out on the pillow so that it formed a copper halo around her face. She was so silent that Ben wondered if he had come too late, but then her eyes opened, and when she saw him she smiled.

"Come here, my darling," she said in a low but clear voice.

He came and sat down beside her on the bed. Even the slight contact of his hip with her body was enough to remind him how little of her there was left. He gently took her hand in his, and she gave him a slight squeeze.

"You've been the best husband I could ever have," she said weakly. "I'm so happy we found each other. I wouldn't change anything for that."

"Oh, Elizabeth," he cried. "You're my dream, my perfect other half." His voice cracked in anguish. "How am I going to live without you?"

She smiled and then her face took on a serious expression. "That's what I want to talk to you about, Ben. I want you to promise me two things."

"Anything, babe, anything," he said through his tears.

"I want you to promise me you'll follow your dream to start your own bank. I've always believed in you. Promise me you'll do it - for me."

"I, I promise," he managed to get out.

She smiled. "The second thing I want is for you to find someone else, someone who'll love you and take care of you when I can't anymore."

He pulled back abruptly, his eyes filled with horror."Don't make me say that. I could never. . . There'll never be . . ." He was crying so hard he couldn't finish his thoughts, but she understood.

"Yes there is, and you'll find her some day. When you do, I want you to give her all the love you've given me."

"No, I can't . . ."

"Benjamin, listen to me," she interrupted, her voice so strong that Ben stopped and stared at her in surprise. "You have to promise me," she went on. "I can't die in peace if I don't know you'll go on with your life. Now promise me."

"Alright," he choked out, "I promise." With that he laid his head beside her arm, still holding her hand in his, trying to regain control. After a minute he was startled by a touch on his shoulder. The hospice nurse was standing beside him. "She's at peace now. Say your goodbyes and then give me a little time to get her ready."

He realized that the hand he was holding had grown cold. He bent over and kissed his wife for the last time, then forced himself to his feet and shuffled out of the room and into the next phase of his life, the one without Elizabeth.

Later, Ben would say that the only thing that had kept him sane during that time was his determination to start his own bank. Within days after Elizabeth's funeral he quit his job and began laying the groundwork for the new bank he had dreamed about for so long. Driven by his promise to Elizabeth, he intended to get started as quickly as possible. His first task was to call Perry Bergen and persuade him to join him. In college the two of them had talked about Ben's plans many times, and although Perry didn't have the vision Ben did, he had faith in his friend.

Using the money from Ben's inheritance, the two men set out to start a new bank. Their first task was to select a name. Perry jokingly proposed they call it the Umpteenth National Bank, since all the other numbers had already been taken. But Ben wanted a name that set them apart from others while describing their philosophy. "So if you want to start a bank to help the community, let's call it the First Community Bank," Perry suggested.

"I like that. You've got the part about the community right," Ben replied, "but our bank is going to focus on helping people in our community, so let's name it the Community First Bank." And with that, the CFB was born.

Virtually everything about the CFB was unconventional. Where the major banks were switching as quickly as possible to electronic banking, Ben set about opening small branches targeting working-class neighborhoods. Unlike the marble and granite edifices his competitors erected, Ben opted to lease abandoned gas stations and failed fast-food restaurants. The rents were dirt cheap, there was always plenty of parking, and through clever design and use of materials Ben was able to renovate inexpensively.

To build deposits Ben competed not only against other banks in the area but also against payday lenders and auto title loan companies. The CFB offered many of the same services but without the predatory rates that cheated the working poor. Slowly the word spread that CFB was fair and honest and the customer base grew. His initial return on assets was low, but Ben was prepared to be patient.

Following the example his father had given him, Ben specialized in small loans to help people maintain employment or start new businesses. The CFB quickly earned a reputation as the place for small businesses to go for short-term working capital. Roofers would borrow the cost of the shingles they needed; landscapers bought shrubbery and sod with loans from Ben; dry cleaners went to him for a loan when their equipment needed repairs.

The business grew slowly and there were setbacks along the way, but after four years in operation the new bank was turning a small but steady profit. Ben was still working as hard as ever, but now he felt secure enough to buy a home for himself. The one he purchased was too large for a single man, but he chose it because it was the kind of house he had wanted to get for Elizabeth.

His pain at losing his wife slowly subsided as time passed, but Ben still could not bring himself to seriously consider the other promise he had made to Elizabeth. A year after her passing, Ben's friends began trying to get him to socialize. Perry's wife Frances in particular made it her mission to look for potential replacements. But although Ben went out with some very nice ladies, none of them stirred his interest.

Finally, four years after Ben had launched CFB, something happened that changed everything. Rather than rent expensive office space for himself, Ben made it his practice to work in his branch banks. He would set up his laptop in the back office of one location for a week, then move to another the following Monday. He felt this kept him in closer touch with both his employees and his customers.

He was going over some figures one day when a strobe light on the wall began to flash. Ben knew it was the silent alarm that was installed in all his branches. One of his tellers out front had triggered it, meaning there was a robbery in progress.

Quickly Ben checked the security cameras and spotted the would-be robber leaning against a teller's cage. He switched to an overview of the bank floor to look for accomplices. When he saw none, he switched to an exterior view. The only vehicle in customer parking was a beat-up pick-up truck. Ben switched back to the robbery in progress and zoomed in with the camera. After a moment he made a fateful decision.

As she was instructed to do, the teller quickly filled a bag with all the cash in the till. When she handed it to the robber, he snatched it from her and ordered her not to call the police. Then he dashed out the door.

Striding quickly across the parking lot, the man yanked open the door and slid into the cab of his truck, only to recoil in surprise. Ben was sitting there in the passenger seat.

"Who the hell are you?" the man asked in amazement.

"I'm Ben Mitchell. That's my bank you're trying to rob."

The man thrust his hand menacingly into his jacket pocket. "Well I don't care who you are, get the fuck outta my truck, or else!" he yelled threateningly.

"Not until you hear what I've got to say," Ben said calmly.

The man looked at him in surprise and then yelled, "I'm telling you, you better get out now before something bad happens."

Ben looked at him carefully. "You don't have a gun, do you?"

The robber glared at him, then suddenly his shoulders slumped and he looked down at the steering wheel. "No," he said resignedly.

Ben pointed at the money bag the man was still holding. "So how much were you hoping to get?"

The man looked up at him, his face creased by lines of weariness. "I was hoping for $30,000. I figure that'd be enough to catch us up on the mortgage and tide us over till I can find work again."

Ben shook his head. "I expect there's less than $5,000 in that bag. That's the limit on how much we allow at each teller window. But don't check the bag to see. If Rosa did what she's supposed to do, there's a dye bomb inside that will go off if you open it."

The man looked at him in surprise, and then shook his head in disgust. "Some bank robber I turned out to be," he spat.

"Ever done this before?" Ben asked.

"Nah, I'm not a criminal, I mean, not before now. But I got laid off at the factory six months ago, and then my wife got sick, and things just went all to hell after that." He looked up at Ben with sad eyes. "I guess I just got desperate - and stupid too."

Ben looked at him for another minute, then opened the passenger door. "Come with me," he ordered. Resignedly, the man got out of his truck and followed Ben back into the bank.

The bank employees were understandably shocked when their boss walked in the door followed by the man who had just tried to rob them. They were even more shocked when Ben sat down at a desk and directed the robber to sit across from him. "Can somebody hand me a loan form?" Ben asked.

Ben turned back to his new acquaintance. "Okay, here's the deal. You give me back the money you just tried to take. In return, I'll lend you the money you need and you can pay me when you get back on your feet."

Now the man was truly stunned. "Why would you do that? You already know that I ain't got a job, and besides, I just tried to rob your bank!"

Ben smiled as he started filling out the loan form. "Well, if I call the police and report a robbery, we'll be shut down for the rest of the day and maybe longer. That's no small loss right there, plus there'll be lots of paperwork and other complications to deal with. But if I lend you the money you need and you pay me back, I'll make a little money on the deal. I fancy myself a pretty good judge of character, and I think you're worth the risk." He turned the paperwork around so the man could see it. "So what do you say, do we have a deal?"

The man glanced at the paper, then his eyes widened and he looked closer. "Wait a minute, this says you're loaning me $40,000!"