Fine chance

"Let me tell you about Doug…"

Jim pulled a sheet of paper from his inside pocket, unfolded it and faced his audience.

"It's true that we've known each other for most of our life, but that makes it sound too ordinary. It wasn't ordinary. We had a friendship that more-or-less ended for a period then started all over through the oddest coincidence. We never fell out or argued, but we lost touch with one another after I left the New York company where we'd been salesmen together. We were at the same college before that and it seemed we'd be buddies for life, but… well you know how things happen when you get a home and a family. My career was going well, and my time was full up. I guess I'd be doing the same old work - still a Sales Manager, perhaps, or maybe a director - if I hadn't met Doug again."

"I was working for Rourke and Riordan at the time and the chief decided to hold one of our conferences in Ireland, of all places. You can guess from the company name that there was some Irish ancestry in the firm, and I think the CEO had a fancy for chasing his roots. Anyway, this place was about as far off the beaten track as you can get in Western Europe. Any further west and we'd have been in the Atlantic and drifting back home. We were in a real castle that someone had turned into a hotel, and I flew out a day ahead of the event to make sure everything was set up right. It suited me to go early, because I hate rushing straight into meetings after a transatlantic flight.
Excuse me a minute…"

Jim raised a tumbler of water to his lips and looked around, recalling a name for every face that was looking up at him.

"I slept a couple of hours after I got there, then I wandered out to take a look at the grounds and soak up the sunshine. They get a lot of rain over there, which is why it's all so green - but it looks great when the sun does come out. Seeing the sun so bright I wandered out without my jacket, but I soon wished I'd dressed for the cold. The wind wasn't very strong, but the chill bit right into me, so I only walked a few hundred yards round the outside of the castle before I started looking for a quick way back in. That's when chance took a hand."

"There were some steps leading down into a bar at the back of the hotel and I fancied something strong to get my blood flowing. The bar-room had one of those rustic doors with the kind of latch that makes a rattling noise when you push it up, so I couldn't slip in unobtrusively. The barman looked up at me as soon as I walked in, and the guy sitting just in front of him turned round on the stool. Every time I remember that scene it happens in slow motion… the back of his head looked a bit familiar, but as he turned and saw me, his face lit up. He jumped off the barstool and we moved towards one another with hands outstretched. It was Doug - the same warm, real-nice guy that I'd been missing for all those years. Even in that bar, with not a customer in sight, he was wearing a jacket and tie. You know Doug - you'd never catch him looking untidy. He had been travelling down from Galway to Cork and for no special reason, he chose that out-of-the-way hotel as a place to stop-off. His home was in Philly at that time, and I was living in Chicago, but we arrived in that castle on the same day and gravitated to that same little bar"

"It was a good thing for both of us, because I don't think he or I would have started the business on our own. With his skills and my enthusiasm we were on to a winner and the company soon took off. I used to sneer when people talked about fate but I believe that chance meeting was meant to happen. As it turned out I got the best deal in the end because I'm still free to enjoy it. He got as much money as I did when we sold our shares last year, but here I am, and there he is…"

Jim took out a handkerchief and dabbed his cheek.

"Doug, wherever you are now, I hope you can hear me. I want to thank you for being such a great guy - and I want to pay tribute to all that you did for me and all these people here. We're gonna put your casket in the ground any minute - but none of us will ever forget you."