Ramifications: Day 13

Word Count: 78,022

Summary of Events:

Dom got a call from Samuel, which he took outside because the dishwasher was running; once the call was done he was accosted by a biker, as was one of the other regular volunteers at the Shelter. Lachlan tracked the attacker — a rival gangster, whom he'd shot to protect Dom — who'd fled the scene and crashed near Liam's nightclub; Liam had the crash cleaned up before the cops got there and Lachlan stole some papers from the gangster's motorcycle. Dom called Lois to make an inquiry about the party on Samuel's behalf, only to have her call it off and rescind all her support of the Shelter — which was the money they used to buy food every day; after telling everyone else about Lois' action Dom then got called by a grocery store owner who'd been invited to the party wanting to know why the party had been cancelled . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

""Well," Dom replied. "There's six daily volunteers here at the Shelter, myself, my wife, and four others, and she wanted all of us to attend the banquet, which, unfortunately, takes place at the same time as one of our regularly scheduled meals. I told her my wife and I could attend, as well as some other representatives of the Shelter, but not all of us daily volunteers could abandon the dinner service, especially because the volunteer group we have coming in on that day is a first-time group, not to mention there's liability involved too."

"Really," Mr. Arnold said. "That sounds awfully unreasonable of her."

"Yes," Dom said. "It is. I think she's mostly become unreasonable because of the fact that my parents, Walter O'Shea and Marina Herczeg, gave the Shelter a million dollars, and I think she's jealous because of how much they gave all in one shot, even though, over the years, she's given pretty close to twice that or more."

"Is she a generous giver to the Shelter?" Mr. Arnold asked.

"She gives us five hundred dollars a day, which buys our food," Dom replied. "Because we refused to abdicate our responsibilities here entirely she not only called off the party, but rescinded all her support, effective immediately."

"I'd presume that has a profound effect, based on what I heard on that interview of you the other day on the news," Mr. Arnold said.

"Yes," Dom replied. "But God has always provided for us before, so I'm fully confident we'll be able to get on well."

"That's good to hear," Mr. Arnold said. "The Shelter's been open for some time hasn't it? I mean, Lois has been supporting it for years."

"I think it's nearly thirty years the Shelter's been running," Dom replied. "I don't know exactly, I wasn't here when it started."

"That really is a testament to how much God has blessed your work," Mr. Arnold said. "My wife and I are Lutherans, but we've heard about your work, and our church has had a couple fundraisers."

"Which church is it?" Dom asked.

"St. Peter's," Mr. Arnold replied.

"Must've been awhile ago," Dom said.

"Yes, Margaret was still in charge," Mr. Arnold replied. "And she was murdered, wasn't she?"

"Two years ago," Dom replied.

"Terrible shame," Mr. Arnold said. "I'm sorry to hear that Lois would do such a thing to such a wonderful work. If you don't mind, I'd like to call you back later."

"Just to warn you, if you call after two we'll be having a meeting of the Executive Board to discuss Lois' actions and what, if any, damage-control we might need to do," Dom said. "So you may have to leave a message."

"That's fine," Mr. Arnold said. "I will talk to you later.""