"Astrid, how nice to see you," Lyle gushed as he bent to offer Astrid his hand. "How long has it been? Thirty years, at least?"

  "More like forty, Lyle. What are you doing in New York? I thought that you hated the East Coast," Astrid replied dryly. Memories of his deception tightened her throat and she wished she had the strength of a 20 year old. She thought of how pleasant it would be to be able to land an uppercut on his jaw.

  "It's business, you know. Sometimes one has to do what is not exactly desired when it comes to being successful," he said in a nasal tone that he used to save for those lower than himself on the financial scale.

  Astrid's spine stiffened and she could feel the anger build up inside. She rose from the sofa to face Lyle.

  "You arrogant bastard! How dare you even speak to me after what you did in the name of success? Don't you care that you ruined the lives of hundreds of people back in Valley View?" Astrid asserted as she rose from the chair. "You may have your sacred dollars, but you took away the livelihood from an entire town. All in the name of personal success!"

  "Those people weren't important in the big picture. What does it require for people of their ilk to live? Little people with little lives! The town still stands, Astrid, and all those who lost their jobs have moved on. That's the price of good business!" Lyle spouted. "You never did understand and you never had the stomach to make hard
decisions!"

  A young woman who had been waiting in the lobby, looked up from her magazine. She watched what was transpiring with great interest.

  Astrid turned her back on Lyle and took a deep breath. Her heart pounded in her chest as she remembered the day that Lyle announced that he was moving the factory to Mexico. A pall had fallen over the little town in Upstate New York. Crestvale Industries had been the only industry for miles and had employed generations of people from the surrounding area. Astrid's own brother, Jim, ended up losing his job and eventually his home forcing him to move away in search of work. It was all so unnecessary!

  "The company was doing well, Lyle! To save a few bucks and get a higher profit margin, you sacrificed an entire town who had been loyal to Crestvale! Does nothing touch your heart but money and profit, Lyle? Have you grown so unfeeling and cold that you cannot see what you did?"

  "Damn it, Astrid, I did it for us, for you! I wanted to get you out of that one horse town and into a life style that you deserved!"

  "I loved living in Valley View, Lyle and  those "little" people that you so easily discarded were my friends and family! They had lives, dreams and hope for the future. They had families! Children, Lyle!"

  "You were the only thing that mattered to me, Astrid!"

  "No, Lyle, profit and greed ruled your heart. I was as disposable as the town that you chose to trash!

  After Lyle had closed the factory, he begged her to accompany him to California, but she had already decided she could not love a man who thought of nothing but money. He had lost his soul when he decided to worship at the altar of greed.

  "You are small minded, Astrid, with a bleeding heart for every sad case that ever walked the earth. We never had the same vision. That's why you're still in that backwater town and why I am living in a style that any man would envy. I have no regrets!" Lyle spat out as he looked down into Astrid's face.

  "Yes, Lyle, your wealth can be counted and calculated, but it is as cold and dead as you have become inside. While you were building your fortune, I was building a life. Did you ever marry, Lyle?"

  "No, I had no time for such nonsense!"

  "No, of course you didn't. That would require that you give something of yourself, something that doesn't exist beyond your wealth," Astrid said as she shook her head.

  "I have a plane to catch. I have a company to run. I would like to say that it was a pleasure running into you again, but that would be a lie. You haven't changed, Astrid, after all these years. It's a shame really. You had such potential!" Lyle said as he turned to walk out of the door.

  Astrid watched as Lyle walked away. She smiled inside knowing that forty years ago, she had made the right decision to stay in Valley View, to marry Albert and raise 5 beautiful children together. Fifteen grandchildren now filled their lives with laughter and the joy of continuance.

  The young woman who had been reading a magazine stood up and walked over to Astrid.

  "Grandma, who was that man?" she asked filled with curiosity at the exchange between Astrid and Lyle.

  "Just a shadow from the past, Julie," Astrid replied with a smile. "A reminder to me, of just how fortunate and full my life has been."

  Julie looked at her Grandmother and saw such serenity and peace reflected in her eyes.

  "The taxi is here, Grandma. Time to head back home," Julie said.

  "Yes, my dear, it's time to go back to where my heart has always been."

  They walked out of the door arm in arm, both a treasure to the other and Astrid knew that she had been blessed with wealth that no man could count, sell or barter away and she said of silent prayer of thanks as they drove away in the taxi towards home.