Once again, I am very grateful to my friend Gayle for her willingness to edit my work, particularly during the holiday season. You are the best!
Please be aware that this story contains ANAL. Those opposed should probably avoid.
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Has anyone ever asked you a rather innocuous question, but intuitively you could tell there was greater meaning by either their tone or facial expression? Something like, "You're not related to a Shannon Kelly, are you?" may have sounded innocent enough to others, yet somehow you instantly knew the inquiry went far deeper than just the spoken words. I, too, recently had just such an experience, and my world has simply been rocked to the core ever since.
My name is Brian Kelly, and I am a 41 year old husband and father of one daughter. My wife, Bridget, and I met in college and we were married soon after graduation. We had planned to hold off starting a family for a few years so we could first establish our careers, yet only two months after our honeymoon we found out Bridge was pregnant. Our daughter, Shannon, was born eight months later, and in spite of the fact that our plans had gone somewhat awry, we both fell in love with her instantly and formed quite the happy little family.
Right out of school, I landed an auditing position with a major public accounting firm. The pay was decent compared to what most of my classmates were making, but the hours were simply brutal. To make matters worse, much of my free time the first couple of years was spent studying for my exams. As a result I didn't get to see my young family nearly as much as I would have liked, yet I cherished every minute I got to spend with my two girls.
Just as soon as I completed all the requirements towards my CPA, I left public accounting and found a job in financial management with a manufacturing firm where I still work today. During our busy seasons I often worked longer hours, but for the most part I was nine to five. As a result, I was lucky enough to spend far more time with my family, and was usually home in time for dinner.
Bridget, on the other hand, played stay-at-home mom until Shannon went off to school, then accepted an entry level management position with a retail clothing chain. Over the subsequent years, she worked her way up the organization and is now a senior buyer and today often works longer hours than I do.
There were times Bridget and I talked about having more children, but we truly felt blessed with little Shannon. After Bridge went off to work, we decided that one would be enough, so our family never expanded. There were times I longed for a son, but those feelings usually passed after spending mere minutes around my daughter.
As her dad, I'm clearly biased, but I think Shannon is simply the most perfect person I've ever met. Anyone looking at her would instantly see she was stunning, yet she was so much more than just a beauty. She consistently made top marks at school and was just a sweet a kid as you could hope for. Both her mom and I are considered intelligent and attractive, but Shannon surpassed us each by leaps and bounds.
In high school, Shannon was of course a part of the popular crowd, and always seemed to be surrounded by numerous friends. In spite of the fact that she was extremely attractive, it didn't appear that she dated very much, something which candidly pleased me to no end. She had a couple short-term boyfriends, but none seemed to last more than a month or two. Both Bridget and I assumed Shannon was a virgin when we dropped her off at college, and hoped she would continue to make good choices when she was so far away from home.
At first it was difficult adjusting to life without our daughter in the house, but Bridget and I soon settled into a new routine. With Shannon gone, my wife and I seemed to become more intimate than we had been in ages, a dynamic I truly loved. Bridge was still a lovely woman and I relished our renewed sex life. It almost felt like we were dating again, which was more than okay for me.
Shannon's freshman year flew by and before I knew it, she was home with us for summer break. It was wonderful having her around as the house seemed more like a home. I noticed that Shannon seemed much more confident and mature than she had been only a year before, and I secretly wondered about the cause. Had she just grown from experiencing independence for the first time or was it something more?
Earlier that Spring, senior management of my firm made the decision that we needed to finally get ages worth of hand-written journals and reports into our computer system. Most were at least 20 to 25 years old, but apparently rooms full of notebooks needed to be tossed and replaced in digital form. Unfortunately, this responsibility ultimately reported to me.
We hired a number of temps to handle the data entry, and set them up with laptops in a large conference room. I assigned one of my junior staff to oversee them, but I popped in every now and then to check on the status so I could report back to management as needed. There were eight temps total, six women and two males. Jeff, one of the guys, was not as fast at data entry as his colleagues from what I observed, but for some reason rapidly seemed to be their unofficial leader.
According to his resume, Jeff had graduated the previous year from a quality private college. I joined him in conversation on a few occasions, and found him both bright and engaging. At times while we chatted, he appeared to lament his liberal arts degree because he thought it was a liability in finding meaningful work. He was clearly hard-working and intelligent, so I made it a point to keep my eye on his progress.
Just about the time Shannon arrived home from school for the summer, most of the data entry project was complete. As a result, we whittled the temp staff down and kept only those who were tops in both quality and quantity of output. Even though he was not a top producer, I saved a spot for Jeff as he managed the group better than the permanent employee I had assigned to the task. Two weeks later we were down to just a bit of clean-up work, so we let go all the remaining temps, save Jeff.
Since he was now working alone in the large conference room, I popped in to check up on him from time to time. I knew Jeff didn't have a lot of money, so one afternoon I called in Chinese takeout for the both of us, and joined him for lunch. I asked him about school and his family, and genuinely enjoyed our interaction. I was about to tell him all about my family, when he asked, "Mr. Kelly, you said you're from Springfield, right?"
I had told him to call me Brian on a number of occasions, but I ignored the salutation and responded, "Sure am."
Jeff paused for a moment, then slightly cocked his head before asking, "You're not related to a Shannon Kelly, are you?"
I'm not completely sure why, but for some reason I could almost feel the tension in his voice. Jeff also appeared to go stiff for a moment, something I had never previously observed from him. For nineteen years I had been amazingly proud of my daughter, and freely pointed out all of her achievements to anyone and everyone, yet suddenly I felt a pang of doubt deep within my belly. For whatever reason, I felt compelled to lie, "Never heard of her, but then again there are about twenty other Kelly families in Springfield."
A cold sweat broke out over my entire body when he chuckled softly and replied, "Well, that's good."
I had to catch my breath for a moment, and fought to remain as calm as possible to not give myself away, before I asked, "Why is that?"
Jeff looked a bit more at ease for a moment, and then said apologetically, "Sorry, it's probably not appropriate conversation for the workplace."
My interest was completely peaked, so there was simply no way I was going to let this go. I took a deep breath and stated, "It's just us guys here, don't worry about it."
