Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

Then Ambrose’s eyes fell on Eugene. The boy – for that
was how he always thought of Eugene Weller – had not
enjoyed Lydia’s interruption. Pity. Eugene would do well to
hook his horse to a woman. At least then he would have
someone to concentrate on besides Ambrose and somewhere
to release his nervous energy. Tonight he seemed even more
preoccupied than usual and his intensity was wearing. Perhaps
it was because he had come late to the meeting; his normally
unflappable demeanor had been disturbed by the breach in his
scheduling. Annoyed, Ambrose finished his drink, and set
aside the glass, missing the marble coaster and landing it hard
on the fine wood.
“Better watch it, Ambrose. Lydia is going to have your head
tomorrow if she sees a water ring on that wood,” Jerry
laughed.
“Lydia’s displeasure is a thing to be feared, Jerry,” Ambrose
agreed as Eugene swooped toward the glass.
Ambrose waved him away and rectified the situation
himself. His impatience with the boy was starting to feel like
the pangs of old age, a speculation he would keep to himself.
Age was going to be an issue in the coming election, and it
was up to Ambrose and his team to minimize it. His next
thought was that his response to Eugene was something else
altogether. It might be the itch of familiarity; the feeling a man
who has risen to a certain status gets when he looks at the wife
who had been his rock but has become his millstone. Perhaps
his disappointment was simply a reflection of his belief that
the greatest sin was to be reactive. The world was filled with
Eugenes waiting to clear up messes and when they finally got
the chance, their actions were out of proportion to the need.
Case in point, the simple act of misplacing a glass required
only that it be put onto the coaster. There was no need for
Eugene to lunge for it as if he were saving Ambrose from an
assassin’s bullet.
Ambrose wiped the watermark slowly as he considered that
small men with myopic vision populated the world. His
observation was not an arrogant one; it was objective. The