The Hedonist (13 page)

Shawn was handed the briefcase once every bill of the money was counted. After saying bye to one another, they were back in the Ranger Rover and on their way.

In preparation for Friday evening at the Country Club, Shawn spent Friday morning packaging the drugs into just the right amounts for purchasing. A large kilogram brick had to be packaged into many small grams. Jessica and Lauren helped him scoop the powder out of the bundled bricks and into small impressive baggies and vials.

Friday evening arrived and Shawn made his way into the Wilmot Country Club. He wore his blue Wilmot club jacket to show off his status to visiting patrons and carried his near-priceless briefcase with him. Upon his entrance, he noticed the exclusive club was adorned with a large banner welcoming the professional golfers to the city of Ashmore. The banquet hall was filled with balloons and extravagant party favors. Truffle deserts and gelato were being served throughout the evening and anyone standing outside could see a regular array of lavish fireworks by seven o’clock.

Two things in particular stood out to Shawn. The first was the fact that Michelle was missing from the reception area. He looked forward to greeting her each weekend but this time, she was nowhere to be found. In her place was an older female in round glasses and a pink pantsuit. After looking around as if he’d spot Michelle lurking behind a corner, he asked the concierge of her whereabouts.

“Just between you and me,” the concierge told him, “She was a bit of a screw up. The Club kept her for the pretty face but they didn’t want any mishaps while the WGT is going on. Don’t worry, she’ll be back once the tournament is over.”

The second peculiarity was the assortment of new faces that filled the Wilmot Country Club. He expected to see a few professional golfers but instead, there were a great deal of them. And each of them had at least one beautiful woman by their side.

After introducing himself to them and being referred by other club members who had purchased drugs from him, Shawn was able to make transactions with a few of the golfers. Most of them were low tier players but their money was just as good as anyone else’s. One golfer in particular, who had two women by his side, purchased quite a large amount of cocaine.

“He either got a bad habit or he’s gotta share with the two girls that are following him everywhere,” Shawn thought to himself.

He didn’t recognize the man from television or from any golf sites but the fellow introduced himself as “Javier Mathias, professional golfer.” He mentioned that he arrived in Ashmore several days ago for the beginning of practice rounds. This made Shawn certain that he was a C-level golfer.

About half an hour later, Mathias ran into Shawn again, this time his eyes were wired and he gave Shawn his phone number.

“I’ll call you again soon, my friend!”

“I only do this on Fridays,” Shawn told him.

“Then I will see you again on Friday, Dr. Stevens,” the man said as they shook hands.

Shawn kept the contact specifically between himself and the golfer during their first encounter. When Shawn saw him the second time he made sure to make eye contact with the two women the golfer brought along. This was followed by a wink and a wave.

When the Friday night “Gathering of Golfer’s” event was half over, Shawn ran into Dr. Daniels. She had clearly had a few drinks but not enough to impair her completely.

“Hey, Shawn!” she said as she bumped into him.

“Hello, Lauren. Nice to see a familiar face.”

“How are sales?”

“Pretty good, I’d say. Things are looking pretty good.”

“Oh, uh, I’m glad I caught you because there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“Sure, ask away.”

“Well, Shawn…” she stammered before spitting it out, “I was wondering if instead of the usual ten percent cut, you could just pay me for this week’s earnings with several grams of blow.”

“Sure! No problem.”

“Great, my girlfriend loves that shit you bring in. She decided to postpone rehab for a little more fun. I mean, I’d prefer the cash but she wants the good quality blow. And I told you when we first had dinner that’s pretty amazing white pony. I wouldn’t have got into business with you if it weren’t.”

“Too much of it will drive you nuts,” Shawn huffed.

“Tell me about it…”

As they were getting ready to go their separate ways, Shawn stopped her one last time.

“Oh, Laura, I was wondering about the women here.”

“Yeah?”

“Some of them are with the golfers while others are just walking around. They certainly don’t look like the usual club members nor do they look like professional golfers.”

“And they’re pretty hot, aren’t they?” Laura snickered.

“Exactly.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t caught on yet, Shawn. They’re all call girls. The management here lets in the high priced escorts this time of year. They keep the golfers busy here at the club. The longer the golfers are here, the more drinks and amenities they buy, and the more money the club makes.”

“There’s the direction I was headed,” Shawn assured her.

“And don’t forget that the management also owns the biggest hotels around here. The Wilmot Golf Tournament brings in billions of dollars to this city and millions alone to the Wilmot Foundation and the college.”

“They’re all in on it,” Shawn copped.

“Absolutely. The cops know exactly what goes on, but they’re told not to do anything,” Laura balked.

“Police Chief, O’Hara, behind that?”

“You know it. Ashmore makes enough money during the Wilmot Golf Tournament to fuel the city for the remainder of the year. Eleven months of the year are dependent on this one month here.”

“It’s almost like one big Ponzi scheme,” Shawn thought aloud.

“Yeah, but as long as we get our cut, who gives a fuck?”

The night went well to say the least. He charged the golf players at a higher rate than usual and made more money than ever before. At the banquet hall, they all popped countless bottles of Dom Pérignon and partied the night away. It was the sort of inhibition you would equate to college students but this party consisted of professional well-to-do adults. Liquor, drugs, and gorgeous women allowed their guards down as they attempted to set new records for the meaning of excess.

Confetti showered them while champagne continued to spray in every direction. Dr. Daniels was downing shot after shot while others began dancing after the speakers were commandeered by contemporary music tracks. The party went on for what seemed like hours.

When midnight struck, Shawn was exhausted and the party began to slow down. The club members slowly left the building and so did the golfers. Shawn was not far behind. Once at home, he collapsed onto his bed from exhaustion.

The next day, he awoke and spotted Lauren and Jessica on his bed. He could barely open his eyes but he heard them giggling and rummaging throughout his room.

“Wake up, Shawn!” Lauren said, “Let’s go shopping!”

“Huh? What?” he yawned while looking around.

He picked himself up and after rubbing his eyes for several seconds, he saw Lauren and Jessica sitting on his bed counting the cash from his briefcase.

“What are you doing with my money!?”

“That’s what you call a payday!” Jessica’s eyes lit up.

“So are we gonna go shopping?” Lauren asked.

“No, I’m tired!”

“Then wake up,” they both suggested.

“Alright, alright. I’m getting up now,” he told them. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and spend every penny I’ve made.”

They eventually convinced Shawn to enjoy his money by spending it. After getting cleaned up, Shawn visited Dr. Daniels and handed her a small amount of well packaged cocaine as he promised. He then agreed to take Lauren and Jessica out to purchase a few items of their liking. What he thought was going to be the acquisition of a few pieces turned into a full blown shopping spree when Lauren and Jessica went along.

He used his cash to purchase expensive jewelry for each of them. He even bought a pearl necklace for his mother. Jessica wanted new clothes while Lauren begged him for a few designer handbags. They traveled a few miles away to a larger city that held an outdoor strip mall. They visited the most expensive stores as Shawn spent large amounts of money on the newest spring season handbags and designer shoes.

Purchases weren’t only made for the two young women that accompanied him. Shawn spent lavishly on himself as well. He bought shirts and suits and glasses galore. This was topped by a platinum ring bearing his initials. But just as he thought he was done, Lauren and Jessica begged him to purchase more items for his house. He agreed, not with reluctance but with a slight whim of arrogance. Shawn viewed his overspending as a point of superiority. He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

CHAPTER 12

Shawn’s previous Friday night at the Wilmot Country Club was a record setting weekend for him- where moneymaking was concerned. That record was quickly broken on the Friday that followed. After being recommended by the low tier golf players who arrived for practice rounds, Shawn was able to make connections to a few of the top professional players. These pros arrived at the Wilmot Country Club as honorary members to an even larger festive celebration. There was twice the champagne, twice the luxury food, and twice the elaborate confections.

This meant that Shawn was able to increase the price of his contraband. The top tier professional golf players who attended the extravagant gatherings were grandiose and generous. Many of them did not even count out the wads of cash they handed over to Shawn in exchange for cocaine. They merely dipped into their pockets and pulled out large amounts of money.

“I’ve heard this is the best blow in town,” a golfer told Shawn during a transaction. The golfer then handed Shawn a bundle of money in exchange for several small quantities of ‘white pony.’

“You won’t be disappointed, my friend,” Shawn assured him.

These sorts of deals went down all through the night and the weekends that followed.  On the second and third weekend of the Wilmot Golf Tournament, Dr. Daniels continued to ask Shawn for drugs instead of money. But the money that Shawn earned was so great that he insisted Dr. Daniels take the cash instead.

“Do you know just how much ten percent is of what I’ve been making?” he asked her. “Come to your senses!”

“I guess you’re right. It’s just that the blow is so good. My girlfriend can’t go without it.”

“You don’t want her to develop a habit. Believe me, I’ve been there, Laura.”

“She’s a grown woman. I can’t control her!”

“Well you’re going to take this money, that’s for damn sure.”

“Okay, I’ll just buy some of that white pony from you.”

“No need,” Shawn told her. “You’ve been good to me. I’ll just give you some in addition to the money.”

“Great! You’ve been pretty good to me, too. Hey, why don’t you stop by my house on Saturday,” Dr. Daniels suggested.

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Sure, can I bring the blow around 3?”

“Come a little later,” she thought for a moment. “Can you come at 6?”

Shawn agreed to meet her the next day. But right before leaving the Wilmot Country Club for the final Friday of the tournament, he was given complimentary tickets to attend Saturday and Sunday’s final golf game. The game was set to be televised on live network television during the day. With all of the preparation that was meant be put into this grand golf game, Shawn wondered why the players were spending the night before the big game partying until they could no longer stand.

“Guess they have more in common with me than I thought,” Shawn said to himself.

He learned that his method of procrastinating was more far prevalent in the professional world than he previously thought. Not only among professional golfers but among many of the professions that occupied his clientele. Doctors, lawyers, judges, and chairmen were all trumping their way through life. They were all the great pretenders who, upon finally climbing the ranks of their profession, did little hard work.

“Hard work guaranteeing success is a myth,” Shawn once told a class he taught. “It is the biggest myth to ever pervade the American culture. Countless individuals will spend their lives working hard and their labor will bear no fruit.”

At that point, a student interrupted and insisted that hard work could pay off. The student then listed off a number of famous names who worked hard.

“And those are exceptions to the rule,” Shawn responded. “A staunch hierarchy is in place and it is rarely broken. The life journey of most individuals is determined at birth. Those born rich will live rich and those born poor will live poor. You need only look at the familial income of students at a school like Harvard or Yale.

“Those are not schools meant for the poor. But an illusion is crafted when one out of a thousand students at Harvard gets there by a scholarship. The focus is shifted to that single scholarship student that came from nothing. That one student’s story becomes so widespread that a false grandiose image is forged. An image that says ‘if you work hard, you too can one day be enrolled at Harvard.’

“You see, some societies are simply more straight-forward about their hierarchy and some are more flexible. The caste system in India prevents their citizens from obtaining a higher social class. It is a straight forward practice with no apologies. America, on the other hand, is more flexible. The hierarchy exists; it’s merely not as visible due to the lotto-like exceptions that are made. But make no mistake, 90% of Americans who are born into the lower middle-class will live and eventually die in the lower middle-class.” 

These were the moments that Shawn thought of when he attended the upper-class gatherings. And he thought that perhaps he was the exception to the very rule he described to his students.

On the final Friday night of the exclusive club’s festive celebrations before the big Saturday game, the complimentary tickets he was handed were for his “extraordinary valor and good charm towards the professional golf players and other visiting guests of the Wilmot Country Club.” The tickets generally cost upwards of eight hundred dollars apiece and Shawn wasn’t interested in golf enough to purchase them. He was, however, quick to accept them when offered.