Ordeal by Cheque by Brooke Taylor

  Mr. Lawrence Exeter signed the check to Hollywood Mortuary with swollen, blood-shot eyes .  His head was pounding.  He had no sleep the night before.  He woke up in a sweat after awful nightmares of his son's death.  How could he have perished so soon?  It was such a shame that they had become so distant recently.  Just the a few weeks before they had met to buy a car to fix up together!

  Before Lawrence Exeter's life was a tragedy, it had seemed almost like a fairy tale.  After Lawrence met his future wife Marie at Stanford University where they were both studying business, his life was turned around.  He used to be a womanizing party boy, but there was something about Marie that made him settle down.  He wanted to get his life in check.  Marie pushed him to take his studies seriously.  He then became an independently wealthy business man at the fairly young age of about 30.

  He recalled all of these memories as he was picking out baby clothes with Marie at the Goosie Gander Baby Shoppe.  His nine month pregnant wife looked like she was about to explode.  However, he still loved her just the same, and admired her even more.  It was amazing to Lawrence that they had spoiled their child rotten and the baby wasn't even born yet!  He had an outfit for every day, in every season, for every climate.  Once the baby was born, they could not contain their joy.  It was a baby boy. They decided to name their son Lawrence Exeter, Jr.  They soon found out that he was jaundice.  The doctor said that it would fade in time, but the couple found that time would not cure this abnormality.  They started paying visits to the best pediatrician they thought they could find.  His name was Dr. David M. McCoy.  He kept track of the child's liver function to make sure that all was well.  He assured them that everything was completely normal.  Lawrence Sr. and Marie continued to spoil their child.  They bought him the newest toys, the coolest bike, and enrolled him in the best school that they could find, Palisades School for Boys.  It was no secret that Lawrence Jr. got distracted easily in class.  They decided to hire him a personal tutor to help him after school in order to keep him on track.  Her name was Miss Daisy Windsor.  The couple hired her under one condition.  They would not pay her for her duties until Lawrence Jr. had graduated from high school and gotten into a good college.  Lawrence Jr. began to exhibit horrid behavior in the classroom.  He would vandalize desks, bully children, and talk back to the teachers.  His parents decided to switch him into the Columbia Military Academy.  There, he continued to get distracted, but Daisy did not stop tutoring him.  They had become old pals.  Lawrence Jr. had never been very close with his mother, and things that he could not tell his father, Lawrence Jr. decided to tell Daisy.  She always comforted him whereas his mother would just scold him.  Lawrence Jr. never really felt a true sense of belonging in his family.  He truly was a spoiled brat.  He would never listen to his mother without Daisy's encouragement to do so.  In school, kids alienated Lawrence Jr. because of his jaundice.  Daisy became the closest thing he would get to a true best friend. She was also the only person that had not given up on him.  She had hope that he had the potential to be a great scholar and man one day.  Her diligence paid off when he graduated with Honors from the Military Academy.  As a generous graduation present, Lawrence Jr. got a Cadillac from his father.  Then, his father even paid nearly $300.00 for the interior of the car to be customized to his own liking.  Lawrence Jr. had applied and been accepted to his father;s alma mater, Stanford University.  After his parents paid off Daisy, Lawrence Jr. never spoke to her again.  It was a sad thing.  Lawrence Jr. lost his will to succeed because his biggest fan  wasn't there cheering him on.  He lost focus, but wanted to try something new.  He wanted to go to France to study abroad.  His father paid for him to go to France and study.  However, Lawrence Jr. became preoccupied with something else.  He had met someone in France.  Her name was Rose.  She smelled as sweet as one, and her lips were just as soft as the petals of one.  She saw past his skin discoloring and seemed truly love him.  What Lawrence couldn't say in French words, he said in flowers.  He flattered this girl by buying her bushels upon bushels of beautiful red roses that he afforded only because his father actually paid for them.  Then something unexpected happened.  Lawrence Jr. decided to drop out of college.  Rose was now his biggest fan.  She encouraged him to buy a house.  They decided that they would build a house on the land that they bought through the Riviera Heights Land Company.  After the house was completed, they beautifully decorated it with the help from the Renaissance Interior Decorators.  Their whole home was paid for by Lawrence Sr.  Then the time had come.  With the financial help of his father, Lawrence Jr. bought the engagement ring that he would give to Rose.  Lawrence Sr. paid for the cruise to Hawaii on which the proposal would happen.  Lawrence Sr. decided to give his son a nice lump some of money to take on the trip so that he could spoil Rose.  As soon as Lawrence muscled up the courage to ask Rose the big question, she immediately said yes and it was "smooth sailing" from there on out.  Then, another unexpected thing happened.  Lawrence had never really been a drinker, but one night, he decided to go down to the Ambassador Hotel lobby to have a drink or two.  Those one or two turned into about 9 or 10 after he had gotten carried away talking to a woman that he had met that went by the name of Flossie Wentworth.  They had gone back to her room and the next thing Lawrence Jr. admits to remembering was waking up with her on his chest, under the covers in her bed.  Something must have gone right that evening because Lawrence Jr. decided to buy another master suite along with the master suite that he had already bought for him and his then fiance, Rose.  Rose eventually found out, as all women do.  So, Lawrence did the only thing he could think to do which was to flatter her with bushel and bushels of rich red roses that had cards attached that had cheesy love sayings written all over them, all paid for by his father.  For a belated Valentine's Day gift, he bought her the next best thing that he could buy for her which was chocolate.  By this point in Lawrence Sr.'s life, he had just given his checkbook to Lawrence Jr. because he had gotten so tired of writing checks for his son.  Even though Lawrence Jr. was getting Rose back, he still hadn't forgotten about Flossie.  He bought her a beautiful dress from the Parisian Gown Shoppe.  Then. Rose witnessed him buying a very little something from the Anita Lingerie Salon.  She had naively thought that it was going to be for her but she had never received it.  She then got a package from Lawrence Jr.  It was a divine dress from her favorite store, the Parisian Gown Shoppe.  Lawrence then went to the Moderne Sportte Shoppe and The Bootery to get supplies for a hiking trip that Lawrence Jr. was going to take Rose on because that had been something that they had always meant to do.  Over the course of the trip the started to reconcile.  They looked to the help from a relationship counselor by the name of Tony Spagoni.  They only had to see him twice before things started getting better between Rose and Lawrence Jr.  He sent Rose a bushel of rich red roses to remind her of the romantic times that they had had back in France.  Things were better than ever and so they decided to talk about marriage again.  He bought her the wedding ring at the Broadway Diamond Company.  It was the most beautiful cut that he had ever seen and knew that it was meant for Rose.  He paid Flossie to keep her mouth shut in order to prevent any more problems to occur between Rose and Lawrence Jr.  He thought that that was the end of Flossie Wentworth, but it wasn't.  Rose saw that there was a check made out to Flossie and so she assumed the worst.  She filed for divorce at Wall and Smith, Attorneys at Law, and since Lawrence Jr. just wanted Rose to be happy, he let her go.  Lawrence Jr. then made out a check for a lump sum of money in order for him to get back on his feet after the heartbreaking divorce.  Lawrence Jr. started to drink heavily and often.  After the divorce was finalized, he became known as a functioning alcoholic.  While he was drunk one night, he decided to stay at his parents' home which was closer to the tavern that he had been drinking at then his house was.  His mother attempted to talk some sense into his, but Lawrence Jr. slapped her and violently beat her.  He tried to pay her to keep her mouth shut about it, but being the smart Stanford graduate that she was, after she got the money she filed a law suit against him at the same law practice that he had gotten a divorce through.  Lawrence Sr. thought that his son needed a hobby other than causing havoc, so they bought a beat up car that they thought they could fix up together.  Lawrence Jr. paid a couple more visits to Tony Spagoni for counseling, but he was still drinking heavily.  He went to the tavern one night and, after drunkenly making a check out to the bar tender for his good service, Lawrence Jr. started to walk home.  He got a very sharp pain in his side.  He was found lying in an alley by Peter Ventizzi, the bartender.  By the time Lawrence Jr. had gotten to the hospital, he was dead.  Lawrence Sr. was left with a hospital the bill.  He then paid off his bill to Dr. David McCoy, Lawrence Jr.'s pediatrician who had said that the jaundice would go away.  He clearly lied.  If Lawrence Jr. had been treated properly as a jaundice child, his liver would not have shut down as abruptly, which would have given Lawrence Jr. potentially enough time to reach the hospital to be saved.
  Lawrence Sr. now had to endure the pain of seeing his only son die.  He had to bury him.  He had to long for him, and miss him everyday now, knowing that if he had payed for an even better pediatrician, he would not have to endure this kind of pain.  I guess this story has turned out to be more of a comedy in a sense.  I mean isn't it funny how one check, made out to the wrong person can change the course of your entire life?