The Retirement Curse

Chapter 1 The executive meeting began with the clap of the gavel. The president of the company, set at the head of the table. He looked around to all his people ...knowing privately he had let them down. They just didn't know it yet! These were people he or his father hired individually. They didn't come from a temporary service, they were friends and family. They were people he loved. People he trusted and people who trusted him. He looked at his right hand man, Bill, a man he has known for forty years, since grade school. He felt almost irritated because most of these people looked ready to retire, and they deserved to retire. Including the "worker’s" who were retiring. They spent the majority of their lives here, working for him! They didn't know he pilfered so much of the pension money, and how could he tell them. He had to think of a way to get that money back without hurting any of these other executives. So he set at the head of the table, listening to reports from his constituents, thinking, thinking, thinking. The head of the budget committee was speaking and, looking around the table, Lenny thought everyone looked tired and bored and especially old! All the heads of departments had a report for each other. They each tried to look interested in other department’s reports. Then the head of human resource was giving her speech and talking about all the "worker’s" who had signed retirement papers. She also asked for a moment of silence for a employee who had recently passed away. As heads were bowed in prayer, the president got his idea. He had to get a hold of as much of this retiree pension money as he could. He had to get it back in the executive pension fund before these guys, who by looking at them, were ready to retire now! He needed to find someone in human resource to do some checking for him. He needed to know how many of the retired workers didn't have family left, how many with no family were taking a lump sum. He needed a numbers cruncher! He didn't even know what all he needed, but he knew he needed a solid plan. First of all, he had to tell Bill and hope he didn't turn him in. They've had other secrets over the years and he never told a soul. He needed him more now than ever. Then he would have at least one person he could talk to about this, it was killing him, not having anyone to talk about it with. After the meeting, he called Bill into his office...