THE MICAWBER FAMILY
"Something will turn up!"

 

By Dennis E. Power

 

 

    The Micawber family emigrated to Australia voluntarily, having suffered many financial setbacks in England. In Australia Wilkins Micawber's fortunes changed, he accumulated wealth, position and power, eventually becoming a Magistrate. The family has always been rather evasive about how the family fortune began. Two most common stories were that they had struck it rich by making roadrunner traps or by a gold strike. The later claim seems to be more credible since the Micawber's complicated financial records indicate a steady rate of gold exchanges going on for several years. The financial records also indicate that in 1909 to 1942 the family income and the gold exchanges became intermittent. From 1942 to 1946 there was a steady decline in the Micawber family fortune although expenditures do not seem to have risen dramatically.

    It was in 1909 that Marvin Micawber disappeared from the family holdings near Darling Downs. He left a cryptic note stating he was going to follow a man who threatened the family fortune. Not even renowned police tracker Napoleon Bonaparte could not find any trace of Marvin Micawber his trail ended right at a sheer cliff face. Diligent searching turned up no more traces of him, it was as if he walked up the wall and disappeared into a spiral design on the wall. A thorough search could not however find a hidden cavern or entrance to one.

    With Marvin missing, heading  the Micawber family business fell to Wilkins grandson David Micawber and then to his son James Micawber

    James Micawber married Regina Dawkins who also possessed the yellow flecks and sharp canine teeth of  Bendt Micawber. Regina Dawkins was the daughter of a sailor named Wolf or Death Larson and Olivia Dawkins. James Micawber steered Acme Enterprises through some hard times but lost money steadily because of the wartime shortages and because he refused to allow the family business to profit from the war effort.

    In 1946, twenty-one year old Bendt Micawber wrested control of the family company from his father, gaining control through stock manipulations. Bendt Micawber convinced the board of directors that the Micawber family business had been rudderless and he would steer the ship on a steady, visionary course that would have them sailing on an ocean of money. Rumor had it that Micawber Enterprises got a loan from a Mafia outfit to offset the shortfall that Bendt Micawber's take over bid had caused. Other sources state that the Mob had been used to launder illegal gold revenues from a hidden cache of gold.

    Bendt Micawber expanded Acme Enterprises into communications and shipping, he revitalized the dirigible as a mode of transportation. By 1978, Bendt Micawber was the richest man in the world. The only fly in the ointment was his daughter's choice of a husband. Despite his attempts to break up the relationship it had flourished. The son in law had used some of the training he had gotten as a private detective to  track down they couple's child which had been born out of wedlock and put up for adoption at Micawber's request. When the adoption was proven to be bogus, Micawber had paid a couple to pretend to adopt the child but had kept it in reserve should he ever need an emergency heir,  it had soured his daughter on Micawber even more.

    Micawber retained his position of richest man in the world even after the Stock Market Crash of 1987 but had taken a larger loss than anticipated.  Yet by 1995 Micawber had been surpassed by the computer moguls.

    There is an unsubstantiated rumor that Bendt Micawber caused the  Stock Market Crash of 2000 in an effort to regain his status as the richest man in the world. Although Acme and its holdings were to take an apparent big loss, Micawber had arranged to shift holdings into proxy companies that would in a short time be bought out by Acme. The proxy companies were also supposed to buy short and thus give Acme gains in key industries that it had previously been unable to crack. When the dust cleared Acme was supposed to have regained its pre-eminent position in the world market and to have gained controlling or influential interests in several key telecommunications, biotechnology and computer corporations.

    However a crucial break in the communications between Micawber and his proxies, due to satellite malfunction, caused Acme to be swallowed up by  hundreds of smaller companies which Micawber had no control over. His entire fortune was lost in a matter of hours.

    Shattered by the destruction of what he had spent his whole life building, Bendt Micawber disappeared, leaving a cryptic note about finding the source of the family's fortune. He was found dead of exposure in the Australian Outback two weeks later, near the site of his family's original holdings near Darling Downs. The original Micawber estate and the hills near it had been cleared for an air park that never came about, due to cost cutting efforts. Micawber had personally chosen the site to show his disregard for useless sentimentality.

    Had Micawber not disappeared immediately after it appeared that his fortune was lost he would have seen Acme rise like the phoenix from of the ashes. The hundreds of companies that had acquired Acme stock were all subsidiaries of six larger companies. These six companies, Uncas Enterprises, Jefferson Industries, Amalgamated Shipping, Kickatech, Allfoods, and Silverado Inc. merged into a Conglomerate known as Uncas Jefferson Amalgamated Kickatech Allfoods-Silverado inc. or by the unfortunate acronym of UJAKAS. Further consolidation was necessary and the new was Unified Silverado Uncas Kickatech that also had an unfortunate acronym USUK.  There was another consolidation and the new conglomerate name was Silverado Kickatech Realties. The new CEO was Jill Micawber Silver; she and her husband Greatheart Silver had emerged as the major stockholders in the new company. Jill Micawber and her hand picked board of directors renamed SKR to Acme Enterprises.

    Naturally the rumors flew about that Jill Micawber and Greatheart Silver had somehow managed to turn the tables on old Bendt Micawber. The new Acme is leaner with a new emphasis on clean technologies. The new corporation became renown for its  charitable activities, its commitment to education and job training in low income areas and third world nations and its leading edge environmental policies.

    Speculations abound what if anything spurred Jill to turn on her father. Among them were first of all the lust for power inherited from Bendt; he had after all done the same thing to his father. Others were that it was to prevent Micawber from causing another catastrophic stock market crash as in 1929 or 1987. There was also a ridiculous rumor that Micawber had spent millions on a cloning and mind transfer technologies that would allow him to continue running Acme forever. Since he would have no need for heirs, he intended to cut Jill and her family off without a cent. Moreover, he wanted to get back all the money he had wasted on her over the years, for food, shelter, clothing, education etc.

    Naturally enough Jill Micawber Silver and Acme Enterprises deny any of these allegations.

Created 7-8-01

 
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