Gemsicuted

Written by Julian Robov


Twenty


Ben sat with a bunch of brokers at her office in the TD building, as several parcels of rubies, ovals and cushions (shapes) were shown for her opinion. She had an eye for differentiating Thai from Cambodian rubies by their color. THE SILENT EXPERT!

She ran the office in the absence of Winston Lord. Brokers and dealers respected her like Lord, not because she was the wife of a big ruby dealer, but due to her disciplined approach. Anyone, big or small, was treated equally when she was in the office. Even though Lord didn’t share her views all the time he never disapproved her stance if she made a deal or requested his approval. Usually, she never went wrong, either with price or quality. THE BRILLIANT GEM!

Ben was his third arm. Her Chinese background also helped at times closing a deal. Lord arrived at his office with Gordon Wong, a Hong Kong buyer, whose specialty also happened to be in rubies, but for the rich Mainland Chinese businesswomen. He only selected rubies of half a million dollars per carat and above. Ben had a few selections, and Lord left Wong in her hands. She provided him a convenient table close to the window so that he viewed the gems in skylight, and moved around the room to check the rubies under fluorescent and incandescent light. As they became busy viewing rubies, Lord settled quietly in his private room for a short nap. He tried to sleep, but couldn’t.

After gazing for sometime at his own portrait embedded with rubies and other colored gemstones, he decided to call Den Rubyhall, his good friend. He checked once again if the mobile was on.
“Den, haven’t heard from you for some time. How are you? How is the market?”
“Listen Winston, you know the problem. Ris is mad as a madman. I just don’t understand why it all happened. We could have worked it out in a more amicable way rather than hurting each other like wild animals,” Den answered.
“You understand that, but not your fucking big brother, Ris,” Lord conferred.
“Everyone is getting heat-treated (burned) with this craze, aren’t they? Why don’t we talk about it at my home?” Den requested.
Both of them knew it was very difficult to tame Ris. The first thing was his ruby craze. At times he would mess up his other lucrative businesses, which have brought him bundles of money in order to fetch a ruby, if he liked it. Lam was supposed to handle the international division. Instead, Ris assigned Lam to concentrate on this one 37carat Burmese ruby, till he saw the gem on his table.
After a pause, Lord asked, “Okay. How?”
“I want you and Ris to sit together, and make the everlasting peace. This feud is not good for the business,” Den said. “And after all, aren’t we friends?”
Lord had heard these statements countless times before, and the more he remembered he wanted to kill Ris. The way Ris treated him at the London auction, Lord couldn’t forget. The humiliation was too much for Lord to succumb.
“Are you there?” Den asked, as the line went into a dead silence.
“Yeah. I’m listening. I’ll think about it, Den. It’s not that easy to make peace with Ris,” Lord said thoughtfully, as he glanced at Ben and Wong.
Wong was running around the room with several rubies to compare their color under different lighting. As the dark clouds outside looked so dense, suddenly there was an interruption of skylight. He insisted Ben switch on the fluorescent light and incandescent light together in order to see the difference. Still, Wong wasn’t convinced. There was something wrong. Ben read his face, and she too didn’t understand what was going on in his mind, despite her experience with him.
Lord looked at them. “Den, I’ll call you back. I’ve a client in the office, and he needs some help.” He hung up the phone, and watched Wong from his private room on a closed circuit TV.

Wong was still in the same hot spot. Somehow he couldn’t make a decision. The colors and qualities were too close. Though experienced, at times the ruby colors had always some surprises behind their brilliance flashes. When he got the colors right, then it was the price. But Ben knew the unpredictable mood swings in price and quality, and decided to leave him alone for a while so that he had all the time in the world to reason and come to a realistic decision. After all, when it came to money everyone took care of their interests without hurting each other. Now Wong was convinced with the hues of rubies, and Ben’s task was to close the deal at the right price. Lord joined Ben, as she punched the numbers for Wong on a calculator.
Finally, Wong nodded.