The Merger Mogul (7 page)

“Hi guys,
thanks for coming,” Daniel said. “Sorry I can’t offer all of you chairs so I’ll
make it quick. I’m sure Margaret has told you about this damned tumor. I’m
having the operation tomorrow morning and, assuming I survive it, the surgeon
says that I could be out of it for as long as six months.

“Bryan, you’re
in charge while I’m away. You’re already a signatory on the bank account, so
that ball is now in your court.  Don’t let them talk you into giving
raises while I’m away,”
joked
Daniel. Everyone laughed
to release the tension. “Start to roll out the new stuff that we came up with
at the brainstorming session.” Bryan nodded. “I’ve started contacting our
clients via e-mail to let them know what’s happening and that you’re in
charge.”

Daniel
continued, “You’re a great team and you’ve helped to make Tennant Consulting
what it is.  I hope to see you on the other side of this operation.”

Each one came
up to the bed to shake Daniel’s hand as they left.  Claire leaned over and
hugged him with tears in her eyes and said: “You come through this, you hear?”

“I plan to,”
replied Daniel.  He couldn’t contemplate anything else. They left him with
Margaret.

 “Bob and
I will be here this evening.  He’s been worried about you,” said Margaret.
“I’ll bring some of your favorite food for dinner.”

“Thanks
Margaret.  What would I do without you?”

“Would you like
me to call your father?  He’s gone back to Virginia but you can speak to
him on the phone.”

“I really don’t
have anything to say to him, Margaret and I’d be a hypocrite to call him now
and tell him I forgive him because of what’s happening with me.”

Margaret looked
at him sadly and said: “Daniel, you may live to regret this.”

“I hope I live
to regret it,” he joked cynically. “As I said Margaret, regrets are a waste of
time.”

Later that evening

Daniel was sitting
in his visitor’s chair with his laptop open on his lap.  Margaret had
relented and brought it when she came earlier; he was catching up on his
e-mails and sending out messages to his clients about his situation, and
assuring them that they would still be in good hands with Tennant Consulting in
his absence.

There was a
knock at the door.

“Come in,”
called Daniel. Bob and Margaret came in carrying a basket.

“Hi, Daniel,”
greeted Bob.  “You look fine.  Are you sure that MRI was right?”

“Yeah, hard to
believe isn’t it? I saw it myself.  Kind of amazing that something so big
could be in your head and you not know it.”

“Margaret tells
me the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning.  We’ll both come and see
you before you go in.”

“You don’t need
to do that,” protested Daniel.

“You’re like a
son to us, Daniel,” added Margaret.  “We wouldn’t want to be anywhere
else. We’re praying for you and we know that you’re going to come through
this.”

“I hope so,”
Daniel replied. “I really hope so.”

 “I
brought your favorite dinner, grilled salmon and risotto” she said changing the
subject.  “Eat up while it’s still warm.” 

“Is this like
the last meal before the execution or rather, the surgery?” joked Daniel.

“I don’t know
how you can joke about this,” scolded Margaret.

“It’s either
that or completely lose it,” he admitted.

Daniel lay on
his bed with his eyes open. The clock on his bedside table displayed 11.33 pm
but he couldn’t sleep.  Thoughts were swirling around in his head.
Thoughts of death.
  He wondered what it felt like to
die. Did you take a breath and then try to take another one but there were no
more? Is that when panic set in? Did it all
end
there
or was there really life after death as some people believed?  He’d never
really thought about it.  His own death wasn’t something he had given much
thought to before because he’d been so busy living and trying to be successful.

His mind took
him back over his life, to the struggles he and his mother endured after his
dad left.  His life could have turned out so differently if his mother had
not drummed into him the need to work hard and be successful so that he
wouldn’t have to ever live like that again. He’d taken her words to heart and
worked hard to get where he was today.

He remembered
the excitement of winning a scholarship to go to college and the many hours he
worked to supplement that money. He remembered the sense of achievement he felt
when he graduated from law school. Sorrow overcame him as he thought how his
mother had died, before he graduated, and before he’d had the chance to give
her all the things that he would have liked to. He smiled as he remembered how
rich he felt when he earned his first big pay check (a pittance compared to
what he earned now) and the fear, mixed with excitement, he experienced when he
took the risk and started Tennant Consulting. 

He thought of
the women who came
so
easily as his reputation and
wealth grew and even before then.  He couldn’t even remember all of their
names.  What did it all mean?  Who was it that said “Vanity, vanity,
all is vanity?”  He couldn’t remember but he definitely agreed with
that.  Where was the meaning in his life?  What was it all for? 
What was the point of pursuing wealth at all costs? Who would he leave it to
anyway?  Who would care if he died? 
Maybe Margaret
and Bob, but no-one else really.
Was this all there was to life? 

His head began
to ache with all the thoughts and he longed for the oblivion of sleep, although
at the same time he wanted to stay awake in case it was the last day of his
life.

Next
morning – 9.00 a.m.

Daniel looked
up at the fluorescent lights as he was wheeled to the preparation room. 
From his position on the trolley he felt out of control and helpless.  He’d
told Margaret and Bob not to come but now he wished they were here and he could
see their familiar faces before he went into surgery.

The trolley
stopped just outside the prep room and his eyes left the ceiling to see what
the holdup was.  Next to the trolley he saw the very faces he’d just
wished for a minute ago.  He felt a surge of love for these two people. It
was an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“Didn’t think
that we would let you go under the knife without showing our faces, did you?”
asked Bob.

“We’ll be
praying for you, Daniel,” Margaret assured him.

“Thanks you
two.  I’m glad you ignored me and came anyway.” He wanted to tell them
that he loved them but the words stuck in his throat.

Before he could
get the words out, he was taken into the operating theatre for the surgery
which would last the next ten hours, if it didn’t end prematurely.

Daniel slowly
regained consciousness.  He tried to open his eyes but the brightness made
him quickly close them again.  The first thought that registered in his
head was: “I’m alive!” which was quickly followed by a wish for death as the
most excruciating pain he had ever felt exploded in his head when he moved
it.  A surge of nausea overcame him and he opened his eyes again just in
time to spot and grab a bowl on the trolley next to his bed and he emptied what
little he had in his stomach into it.
That movement made him
feel
like dying.

He eased
himself back on the pillow and lay as still as he could.  He was afraid to
move any part of his body, afraid of the pain that was just waiting to
overpower him with even the slightest movement of his head.  He willed a
nurse to come into the room so that he could ask for something to kill the
pain.  He cautiously moved his eyes to the side and could see the call
button so temptingly close, but the thought of reaching for it was outweighed
by the memory of the pain he had felt when he moved his head before. He was
trying to decide if he should try to endure the pain in order to get medicine,
when he succumbed to the anesthetic that was still in his blood stream and
drifted into sleep again.

The next time
he woke up he found Margaret and Bob sitting in the visitors’ chairs at his
bedside flicking through magazines. 

“Hi,” he
croaked, speaking for the first time in nearly twenty-four hours. Their eyes
flew to him.

“Hi, Daniel.
  You’re finally awake! How do you feel?”
asked Margaret.

“Like someone
cut out a piece of my brain,” he replied hoarsely. They chuckled softly. He
closed his eyes again and said dejectedly, “I can’t hear through my right ear.”

“I’m sorry,
Daniel. Mr. Wellington warned you that would happen but I guess it doesn’t make
it any easier. I’ll call a nurse to give you something for the pain and maybe a
drink of water. At least you’re alright.” Margaret gently squeezed Daniel’s
shoulder and left the room to find a nurse.

Alright?
He was alive but that was it. He had never felt
worse in his life.

The door opened
and a pleasant looking nurse came in, followed by Margaret.

“Welcome back,
Mr. Tennant,” greeted the nurse.  “I’ve brought you some medication for
the pain but it may make you feel a bit strange.”

“No
problem. 
Anything to kill this pain.”

Daniel drank
some water first and then swallowed the tablets and prayed that they would
start to take effect soon. His head felt like it was in a vice and it hurt so
badly that he wanted to die.  Considering how bad he had wanted to live
that was pretty ironic. He had thought that once he’d had the operation the
worst would be over, but now he didn’t know how he would get through the next
six hours far less the next six months! He felt depression creeping up on
him.  It wasn’t an emotion he was familiar with since he had always taken
things in stride and just got on with whatever he needed to do.  Now there
was nothing he could do.  He couldn’t speed up his recovery, he couldn’t
stop his head from hurting, he couldn’t hear through his right ear and he
couldn’t even go to the bathroom by himself! He felt helpless, defeated and in
excruciating pain.  Maybe death would have been better than this.

Bob saw the
look of defeat come over him.  “Don’t worry, son.  You don’t have to
go through this alone.  We’re here for you and God is here for you.”

“God?” scoffed
Daniel. “If he’s out there somewhere why should he be here for me? I’ve never
had the time of day for him.”

“Because he
loves you in spite of that,” replied Bob.

“Yeah, OK. I
don’t want to talk right now.”  He didn’t want to hear about God or
anything.  He just wanted the unbearable pain in his head to stop.

“OK, we’ll go
and let you rest some more,” said Margaret.

After Bob and
Margaret left, Daniel was alone with his thoughts once again. His life had been
spared for some reason. Maybe he had some unfinished business to do, but he didn’t
have a clue what that was.  Whatever the reason, he’d been given a second
chance.  Perhaps it was to use what he would learn from this experience.
Already he’d learned that fame and fortune meant nothing when you were staring
death in the face.  So what was important?  What could fill the void
that was still a part of him? And for the first time in his life he
acknowledged that there was a void.  He’d tried to fill it with work,
wealth and women but it was still there.

Daniel’s door opened
after a brief knock and Luke Wellington walked in.

“Well, Mr.
Tennant, you’ve come through the surgery remarkably well.  I know you may
not feel like that right now but, although you’ve lost the hearing in your
right ear, the good news is there’s no facial paralysis.  Your left ear
will begin to compensate for the hearing loss and as long as you turn that side
to people when they speak, you’ll be fine.”

 “Looks
like you did a great job, Mr. Wellington.  Thank you.”

“You can thank
me when we’ve taken care of the rest of the tumor and you’re back on your
feet.  You’ll find that you’re going to have to learn how find your
balance again and regain your strength. The hospital has a number of
physiotherapists on staff who can help you but that won’t be until after you
complete your radiotherapy because you probably won’t be up to physiotherapy
when you’re doing that.”

“How long do I
have to stay here?” asked
Daniel.
His head still hurt,
he felt dizzy and he couldn’t even get himself to the bathroom because he was
so unstable on his legs. Bob and Margaret had insisted that he come and stay
with them until he was well enough to be on his own.

“I’d like to
keep you here for a week, make sure you’re doing OK before we let you go
home.  You’re to start radiotherapy once the swelling goes down.  It
will be five days a week for about five or six weeks. As I told you before, you
may experience some side effects like nausea, dizziness, that type of thing but
we’ll treat you with drugs to minimize the effects.  You will need someone
to drive you to therapy and to keep an eye on you at home. Once you’ve finished
those treatments you can start the physiotherapy which could take up to two
months.”

Great! For
someone who hated to take medicine and to see doctors, he was about to see more
of them in the next few months than he had in his entire his life. At least he
had a life and for that he should really be grateful.

A week later

Daniel lay
immobile while radio waves were applied to his head to remove the rest of the
tumor.  The actual procedure was painless but his whole face and head were
covered by a mask made of some kind of plastic which had been molded to fit the
shape of his face before he left the hospital.  It felt like a vice and
was so tight he thought it would crush the rest of his brain.  It made him
feel claustrophobic and he couldn’t wait for the few minutes of radiation to
finish before he could get it off.  He could relate to the Phantom of the
Opera.  He had nothing to do but think as he lay there.  He couldn’t
imagine how he was going to endure this for the next six weeks. 
Wellington had also warned him that he might feel nauseous from the treatments.
God, he hoped not.  Moving his head around was still agonizing, he
couldn’t imagine what it would feel like if he was throwing up as well. 
Was he really supposed to be learning something from this? No answers were
forthcoming, but then again, he didn’t expect any.  He realized that he
had little control over what fate threw at him, but it was up to him how he
responded.  Right there and then he made a vow that this would not defeat
him.