A Lifetime to Die

In a sweeping saga of familial betrayal spanning three decades of intertwining lives, Aristotle Mercury finally gets his chance for justice. Telly, as his new friends in America call him, escapes from Prague just as the Red Army’s tanks roll into the heart of the city. Even with all his success in his new country, never too far from his mind and always there to haunt and motivate him, Telly dreams of the day he will finally return to his homeland to take back what is rightfully his and exact vengeance on those that betrayed him. But does righting the wrongs of a demon filled closet come with a price too high? Secrets are sometimes better left untold in spite of their screams from across the years to be heard.

The darkest of secrets sometimes linger for a lifetime. When they are finally exposed they can be like the discovery of an ancient tomb, perhaps better left alone, although never ignored. Aristotle Mercury’s father knew too much, so he was silenced. With the help of his friends in the Russian mob, Aristotle’s Uncle Jacob is able to move in and take over as the new head of the now successful factory that his own brother created. The year is 1968. As the Red Army’s tanks roll into Wenceslas Square in the very heart of Prague, a seventeen year old Aristotle learns the horrible truth about his father. Five years prior someone else was murdered in his place to make it appear as if he was accidentally crushed under a factory press. Since then his father has been alive and imprisoned in the notorious Prague Institute for the Criminally Insane. In a daring rescue Aristotle retrieves his barely alive father from the bowels of the terrible prison. After a short time his father succumbs to the ravages of his imprisonment, but not before he divulges the location of the evidence which proves he owned the now thriving factory, and of Uncle Jake’s murderous duplicity in stealing it from them. With the Russians taking over the country, and the mob closing in to eliminate the only living heir to a burgeoning fortune, Aristotle flees Czechoslovakia and makes his way to America, vowing to one day go back and even the score. He settles in New York, in Greenwich Village. He’s honest and works hard to learn the new ways of a strange land. Soon he befriends his eccentric landlord, the elderly Mrs. Schroeder. Telly, as his new friends in America like to call him, ignites a withered spirit of adventure in the lady who still believes in the good in people. She owns some property, and Telly has a talent for building. They both learn Telly also has an eye for the deal. Together they develop first her land, and then other land in the exploding New York real estate market. Telly’s ambitions lead him from the posh boardrooms of New York to the lucrative shores of New Jersey, where he’s almost killed as he constructs the world’s largest casino. Never too far from his mind, always there to haunt and motivate him, Telly dreams of the day he will finally return to his homeland and exact vengeance on his Uncle Jake. In a sweeping saga of familial betrayal spanning three decades of intertwining lives, Telly Mercury finally gets his chance for justice. But does righting the wrongs of a demon filled closet come with a price too high? Secrets are sometimes better left untold, in spite of their screams from across the years to be heard. His own salvation hanging in the balance, Telly must somehow accept that forgiveness trumps retribution, and money truly can’t buy happiness. And just maybe, as it is with his Uncle Jacob, forgiveness is the worst possible epithet for a life lived in the accompaniment of the unquenchable thirsts of greed and murder.

In the old days life was definitely a whole lot simpler. For one thing, we all wore newer shoes and we didn’t have the foggiest notion about what was REALLY going on. I remember things from those early days. Things like my first beer. I was fifteen when I bought my first six-pack at the Curtis Gordon Hotel on Henderson Highway in Winnipeg. I think it was made by Molson Canadian. I looked older than my age. You had to be eighteen to buy booze in Manitoba and by then I looked nineteen. We took the beer across the street to Midnight Bowling at the Rossmere Lanes. I don’t think Kurt had one; he was always a teetotaler. Me and Johnny the Headman split it, caught a buzz, and had a little fun. Big D, a guy I’d known through Junior High and on into High School, was more interested in the bowling. Man, could he ever send that ten-pin ball flying down the alley. The damn thing must have been doing sixty-five miles an hour by the time it exploded the pins at the lane’s far end. Memories. Good ones. Firsts. Aren’t they something? Like the first kiss. That would be Lorraine. I remember she had a last name that could have been put on the side of a can of mosquito spray. She was something else, though. We had a ton of fun until I screwed things up royally by getting drunk and kissing someone else who happened to be a friend of a friend. You know how that one goes. What would we do without hormones? The first time I drove a car was amazing. For whatever reason my old man decided to buy sixty acres of a farm on the edge of the city and decided to drive his Olds Delta 88 with the rocket 455 engine through his wheat field. He let me get in behind the wheel. I guess he figured I couldn’t wreck anything out there in the middle of all that wheat. Freedom. That’s all I remember feeling. Fourteen years old and I could turn the wheel, punch the gas petal, and go anywhere. There was the first time I stepped into the ring as a heavyweight fighter, adrenaline running as high as the jet stream. I looked across at the guy in the other corner as we were getting ready for the bell to sound and I asked myself what the hell was I doing here? Because it was Jimmy Hoffa’s nephew standing across from me. I won that one by the way. Thanks, Ed. You were a great trainer. The first time I smoked pot I loved it. I’ve been smoking it ever since. It is sheer madness that the assholes we pay to look after things made it illegal – for the money. But that’s an entirely different story. And then there was the first time I took the escalators up to the fourth floor cafeteria at the University of Winnipeg. I was at one of the lowest points in my life. Lost in a sea of madness all around me, I finally asked myself if I could be completely selfish in my life and do anything – the one thing – that made sense to me, what would that be? I sat down at one of the tables and wrote the first three quarters of the first page of THE MONEY HOUSES. And that one single moment of utter clarity changed my life forever. I was very much in love and the timing couldn’t have been more wrong. I was still making a living doing stuff I couldn’t stand doing, and I could see the disaster coming down the road. If I said yes to her there would have been a whole lotta hurting going on later on. I loved all of us way too much to put anyone through that, so I said no. Man, that was so painful, you can’t even begin to imagine. We both moved on, she to a marriage I hoped would give her everything she needed, and I, well, I was going to be a writer. I want to thank these few rare people who had the temerity and courage to see things the way they could be, the way things ought to be, and not accept the circumstances of their lives as they were. Sometimes it requires a hell of a lot more umph deep down there where it counts the most to stay the course. I tip my hat to every one of you who would rather know, than blindly believe. God bless each and every one of you. I’ll see you all in my next novel.