Power Games

“Yeah Dad, I’ll make sure that he’s there at 10 am but you know what Isaac is like, he’s going to be in no state to turn up if they win tonight,” I say down the phone organising the family to be at the NDP headquarters for the big announcement of Dad’s promotion to the leader.

“Yep, Sarah and Eliza are flying in tomorrow morning so I’ll have Adam pick them up from the airport,” I say looking down at the diary of plans for tomorrow and try to organise everything to go smoothly for Dad because it’s important.

I sit down for five minutes in between meetings and scheduling events with Ashton Rogers, my phone going non-stop. The next few hours are a blur until I decide to turn my phone off and head and watch Isaac play in the game. He’s the most talented player in the team and has the most sporting ability of anyone in the family but at the same time, he’s just so dumb when it comes to life and perspective of everything.

The game is epic as Isaac wins them the game and I sit there and know that he’s going to be in absolutely no state to come to the press conference and all the other events afterwards. I get on my phone and leave Isaac a voice message “Hey bro, good work on today but remember your responsibilities tomorrow alright because Dad needs you there because this is important for the family alright” I say taking a deep breath “And for god sake don’t do anything so fucking stupid this time bro”.

I get off the phone and know that he will just look at the message and not bother to talk to me but that’s something that I’m going to just accept and deal with tonight and most definitely tomorrow morning. I drive back to my apartment in town and take a shower and get on my phone.

“Hey Billy, it’s Brendan,” I say down the line “Yeah, look I don’t mean to be a bother but can you just babysit on Isaac again tonight? Yeah, I know, just keep your eye around the Stadium and may be in Town really if you can… I owe you big time again for this” I say hanging up the phone to my old college bud Billy who is know a Junior Detective in Grantham.

I head straight to bed knowing how important it is for the family to stand there by Dad’s side and then launch my own political career which is something that I have been wanting since I was a kid to follow in my father’s footsteps. My mind can’t switch off though knowing that Isaac is out there no doubt going to get himself in trouble.

I end up drifting to sleep when I get woken up by my phone ringing and see Billy’s name on the caller id “Oh fuck no…” I say out loud as I answer the phone “We found Isaac’s car crashed into a pole up on Green Hills Road… there’s no sign of Isaac in the car or the area but he was definitely driving because his keys were still in the ignition with the college tag.

Rubbing my face “Fucking hell” I say down the phone, “I don’t want to be the bearer of worse news but he wasn’t alone in the car when it crashed” I put the palm of my hand over my face just frustrated by everything “Who was it? Are they alright?”.

Billy takes a deep breath “It was the male prostitute again but he’s been taken to hospital in a stable condition but has no memory of the crash” he says which is a small relief to me hoping that there is a way that the story doesn’t leak out. “I’m in control of the situation, so I’ve made sure that nothing obvious looks as if Isaac caused the crash,” he says down the phone to me “I was the first one on the scene so I took the keys to make sure that there wasn’t any evidence of him being in the car and that it was just a car theft gone wrong”.

I take a deep sigh, still worried about everything “So do you know where Isaac is at this point?” I say to him “Nah, looks like he’s long gone from here so he’ll probably be back at his apartment knowing him by now” Billy replies down the phone “Alright, the usual deal applies if anything comes of it, I’ll deal with it internally”.

I put the phone down and cringe at what Isaac gets up to especially with the going behind our backs with the drinking, misbehaving, and topping it off hooking up with random male prostitutes which doesn’t make any sense seeing that he has a girlfriend.

Over the night I don’t sleep panicked slightly by Isaac’s antics yet again so I leave a few messages for him to make sure he’s alright but he doesn’t answer and I go back to sleep for a bit before my alarm goes off at 5:30. I’m exhausted but it doesn’t bother me as I quickly change and get in a gym session before I ring Isaac again.

“Bro, it’s Brendan… Ring me back otherwise I’m not going to cover for you, I’ll be honest with Dad and he can make the final decision because simply you’re going to embarrass him and the family if this keeps going” I hang up the phone and have a shower just trying to forget about anything Isaac had done and I ring Ashton “Everything is set for Dad’s announcement tomorrow, Isaac isn’t going to be there but we just go with plan B”.

Ashton agrees and we finalise the plans for how the day is going to go ahead, the press conference at 11 am with interviews coming all day that will be recorded played across the news tonight and the shows across the week. I make a few calls to Isaac and can’t get through and know that there are plenty of people calling him.

I get organised for everything and the press conference goes well enough, there are plenty of questions regarding Isaac not being there but we just put them down to him having played last night and the exhaustion that came after that.

After the Press Conference, Dad fires up “Where is your damn brother? He should have been here this morning” he says clearly angry and I see that Mum is not in a good mood about things either. “Look, I’ve left him a few messages, he’s probably at home after spending a night celebrating the win, I’ll make sure nothing has happened to him and I’ll deal with it”. Mum goes to say something but Dad intervenes “Not good enough, I want him at the house at 4, MAKE SURE he is in the front door then”.

Dad wanders off as I walk out hands running over my face stressed as Sarah walks up to me “Where was he this time?” she says not surprised by anything going on, I take her into an empty meeting room and close the door and lock it to make sure we’re not disturbed. “You cannot tell anyone about this alright, I’m not doing myself any favours by covering for him again” Sarah rolls her eyes at me “You can’t be Isaac’s protector all the time, he just has to suck everything up and just act normal”.

“Sarah, you know full well that’s what I have told him so many times but you know him, gotta be the cool kid” Sarah not looking impressed as I say that with this still sense of loyalty to him “Alright what happened then?” she says almost not wanting to hear the story.

I let out a massive sigh “He was in an accident last night, crashed his car into a poll and then left it’” I say trying to stay calm but Sarah getting really agitated now “It gets worse… he wasn’t alone in the car, he was with a prostitute” exasperated I continue “It keeps getting worse I’m afraid… it was another guy, he’s been seeing him on and off for about 12 months with apparently some drug-taking and sharing going on” Sarah’s face is getting angrier and angrier as I say this all. ‘But with the accident, he put the guy in the driver’s seat when it was Isaac who was driving”.

At this point, Sarah is beyond angry with Isaac “I could fucking wring his neck if he was standing here right now” I put my hand up “I know I know, Dad doesn’t know every detail yet and I’m hoping for Isaac’s sake that he doesn’t and I’ve got Billy sorting everything out again for us but this is the last time”.

Sarah heads out as I check my phone and ring Isaac for one last time and get his smug arseholed personality (see chapter 1 for the conversation). I lay down the law to him and give him the ultimatum about things which deep down I think everyone knows what happened last night so I think he might have blown his last chance.

I organise the car to be at his apartment at 3:30 before going to have some lunch and take some time for me. I sit there and take a few moments to myself before Dad comes and joins me and looks at me sternly “So were you going to tell me about the accident last night?” I sit there umming and ahhing for a moment.

“I had it all under control yet again, I knew that he was going to be wild last night so I got Billy to patrol around following him for as long as I could and he was the first on the scene and he dealt with the accident to cover what happened so basically all that anyone thinks is that the person found behind the wheel had stolen the car, and was the one who lost control and crashed it, that’s it”. I say to Dad who doesn’t look convinced at me and sits there silently “Dad? Dad? I’m sorry I didn’t tell…” he puts his hand up to stop me “I’m not angry with you Brendan, far from it actually, I’m just so annoyed that your brother doesn’t learn” I nod in agreement with him “So you told him that I want him at the house at 4?”.

I nod “Yeah I did, I organised for a car to pick him up from his apartment at 3:30 which I’ll be in to ensure that he gets in it, I did warn him that this was his last chance so I’d like to think that he has worked out how serious this is although we all thought that the last three times”.

Dad looks across at me “This chat this afternoon is it, I’ve got people ready to make a move on things which will include his withdrawal from the scholarship and all college funding, changing the locks at his apartment, and just cutting himself off for a while”. I sit there a bit surprised “Are you sure about that? I mean it would make news everywhere” as Dad shrugs “That’s just how it has to be, I need him to learn, we need him to learn a very tough lesson,” Dad says rather sternly which surprises me because any sort of cut off to the family will make news for sure but it’s something that must be done I suppose.