by Randy Dyess
“Don’t beat yourself up. We are no different from most people,” Kelly said knowing she would be in the same boat as Mark. They had the illusion of material wealth but no real wealth, no real friends, and no close family members outside of their parents. While she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she didn’t know much about her own kids. She wouldn’t have been able to brag on either of them if she had to have the same conversation with someone.
“Maybe that’s the problem,” replied Mark. “We are like everyone else around here. Maybe we need to spend a little more time developing the human side of our lives and less time on the career and materialistic sides. Maybe we need to reevaluate our thinking, if we think things are more important than people. I don’t know the answers yet, but I do know all I want to do now is to go get the kids and spend some time with them. Maybe spend the day at the park, at the ball game, at the zoo. I don’t care what we do as long as I can act like a real father for once in my life.”
Mark walked to the door separating the laundry room from the garage and stopped and hung his head. Kelly thought he heard him sob. “What’s wrong?”
“How long have I had this car? Two years right?”
“Yea, so?”
“I’ve had this car for two years and I just realized that the kids have never been in it.”
“That’s why we bought the Escalade. We needed something to hold everyone. Your car is for those times when we don’t have the kids. We deserve your sports car and we had fun showing it off to our friends,” Kelly said before she thought what they had been talking about all this time. They were so selfish they both wanted a car that would be more important to their friends than it would be to their family.
“Once again, it’s all about me isn’t it? I haven’t even considered my kids in my ‘grand’ design for life. I wonder sometimes why we even had them. It seems neither one of us are parent material.”
“Don’t say that!” Kelly replied angrily.
“I’m going to say a few questions out loud. Remember, I am talking to myself more than you.”
“Okay,” Kelly said with an angry look on her face.
“What are the kids’ best friend’s names? Where do they live?” Mark asked. “All I can say is that Cheyenne’s friend lives in the third house on the right on Maple past the park. I usually drop her off and rush off to whatever I had planned. I have never gone up to the door to talk to her friend’s parents. For all I know, it could be a crack house I’m leaving her at.”
“Don’t be silly, they are wonderful people.”
“You’ve met them?”
“Not really, mom thinks highly of them though.”
“My point exactly. Our parents are the parents to our kids, not us. What about their friends? I think Cheyenne has a friend named Cindy. Or is it Sally? She talks about her once in a while but I really don’t pay attention. Does Dakota have any friends? I know she’s young, but doesn’t she talk about anyone at day care. She’s five. She has to talk about someone at school she buddies up with. We just don’t know who it is, do we? Surely someone has invited her to a birthday party at some time. We really don’t pay attention to their lives, do we?”
Kelly sobbed, “No. You’re right. I can’t remember the last time I thought about anything my kids do each day. I just pass on everything to my mom or your mom hoping they will take care of it so I won’t have to be bothered. ”
“Ready for the next question?” Mark asked with a sad look in his eyes. “If we had to throw each kid a birthday party tomorrow, what would the theme be for each one? I mean, what does each one of them like? I know what they like changes with every Disney movie our parents take them to, but what would it be? And come to think of it, when was the last time we took them to the movies?”
“Don’t worry. I don’t know the answer to those questions either.” Mark then said before Kelly could reply. “I don’t even know their favorite colors. Ok, final question. This should be something at least one of us knows. What are their shoe sizes?”
Kelly had tears in her eyes when she answered, “I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time I took them shopping. Mom usually just says they need something and I leave her a credit card. I don’t remember buying them anything lately that didn’t come from a gift shop at some place we were visiting.”
Kelly wiped the tears from her eyes and said, “Let’s go get our kids and have some fun. I want to be with them. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Me, either,” said Mark. “But before we go, I have something else I need to tell you and will make your day even worse.” Mark told Kelly about the fuel shortages at work. He talked about the project to move the entire IT department offshore and how he thought he had maybe 30 or so months left at his job. He even told her about the research he had been doing on the web. She seemed worried about the job situation, leery about the fuel shortage he told her about, and down-right skeptical about all the other stuff he mentioned. She said she would be willing to spend some time next week researching the same topics to see if she came up with the same answers.
“What are we going to do about it?” she asked when he was done.
“I don’t know and really don’t want to think about it now. I need to finish my research and then we can have one last ‘selfish’ time together to come up with a master plan. Right now, all I want to do is go get my girls.”
“I’m with you there.”
Mark looked at her with a tear in his eye. “We’ll have to take your car. Even though I’m a father of two kids who still need a booster seat in the car, I don’t own any. I own five complete sets of golf clubs. I have four tennis rackets, two squash rackets, and a complete set of paint gun gear I used last year at the company retreat. I also own a bag of adult sized softball bats for the company league I played in three years ago. What I do not own, is one spare booster seat. I couldn’t even pick them up from school or anywhere else if I wanted to. I don’t know what we are going to do about the future,” Mark went on. “But starting this moment on, I will never place a job or own desires above my family again. And I am going out first thing and getting a booster seat so I can pick up my kids from school and daycare when I want to.”
Kelly just smiled and opened the door to her SUV and while getting in said, “We can stop and get one on the way to my mom’s.”
The Turner’s had a wonderful day. Kelly’s parents were shocked Mark and Kelly picked the kids up so early and then announced they were going to spend the day at the zoo. All Dakota could say the entire day to everyone she met was “Mommy and Daddy are on vacation and now they have time to play with me.” Mark and Kelly just hung their heads in shame each time and tried not to look like the worst parents in the world. It would get to them now and then and they would excuse themselves and walk away for a little while to wipe away the tears.
The next day, the fun continued. Mark and Kelly made a giant breakfast with their limited cooking skills and played in the pool all morning with the kids. For lunch, they ordered everyone’s favorite pizza and watched two Disney movies. Mark even found time to have a tea party with Dakota while Cheyenne took a little nap with mommy. The following day was a school day and meant the end to their little “vacation”. The kids were a little disappointed they couldn’t spend another day with Mommy and Daddy, but Mark and Kelly promised them they would spend time together after school. Mark surprised everyone when he traded cars with Kelly for the day and took each girl to school that morning. They were also surprised when he left work early and picked each one up from school in the afternoon. He continued the pattern for the rest of the week to the delight of the girls and himself. All Mark wanted was to play with them for a few hours before they went to bed. He was trying to make up for all the times he spent pursuing his own goals over their welfare. While Mark spent more time with the kids, Kelly tried her best to catch up with Mark and his research. Like Mark, it didn’t take her long to figure out the global economy was headed south. It did not seem like t
he American government could get themselves together long enough to do anything about it. It also maddened her to see they were basically being lied to by the government and the media on how bad things were. She quickly saw a stumble here and there could spell the end of their dream and leave them in the same boat as John and Susan.
Kelly repeated some of her research while at work that week and starting seeing a pattern of the company closing down some restaurants without really telling anyone. They would quietly get rid of everyone in small batches so they didn’t have to report it to anyone. Since Kelly did not really do the day-to-day HR stuff anymore it was no wonder she missed it. In fact, given her level, she was able to look deeper into the company’s books late one night and what she found during her research worried her a lot. The company was about to announce the closure of a whole line of restaurants Kelly always thought was the cream-of-crop. It seemed like the higher end places were suffering from an unannounced recession or depression. On Friday night after the kids went to bed, Mark and Kelly finished their research for the night and she said to Mark. “I see what you mean. We are only a few inches from being like Susan and John.”
“Yeah. And what it is scary is it will not even be our faults when we lose our jobs. We have spent more hours at work than anyone else we know of and have always done everything, and more, our companies have asked of us. This problem is not just going to be about those who are slacking off or have certain jobs. This fuel shortage problem and the economic issues it is causing are going to affect everyone in the service industry. No extra money means no one will want our services. With America being a service nation in which one person is working at a job that services another person. The whole country will go down the tubes quickly.”
“I agree with you now and don’t think you are a crackpot like I did last week,” she smiled.
“Thanks honey, I appreciate the fact you have my back. If I tell this to anyone else, they will think I am crackpot. I will be shunned like the homeless guy downtown who shouts bible phrases every time he sees someone walking up the street.”
“Like you know any bible phrases,” she laughed.
“I could always shout out database phrases like demoralization rules,” he laughed.
“Then everyone, including me, will definitely think you are mad.”
“The mad DBA will be all over the news.”
“Seriously, what are we going to do?”
“Fancy playing hooky next week and try to figure out a ‘Turner Action Plan’ to save our collective butts when the shit hits the fan?”
“Don’t you mean when TEOTWAWKI happens?” Kelly smiled.
“What is TEOTWAWKI?” asked Mark.
“You didn’t see the sites using that phrase? It means THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.”
“I don’t think it will be an ending with zombie mutant bikers,” Mark smiled. “Just a world with a lot of poor people who can’t find jobs or feed their families. People who no longer can find a place to call home and are having a hard time keeping the hope alive that it will get better. And I don’t think our mighty government will step in and save the day like some super hero. They are too busy saving their own butts and getting richer and richer from the ‘legalized’ bribes we call campaign donations.”
“I hear you,” replied Kelly. “I think I feel a very nasty series of migraines coming on and may not be able to make it in next week.”
“Owen is out next week at the data conference in Miami. I’m not wasting my days off. I’m just going to block off all days with fake meetings and answer a few emails now and then like I am bored during the meetings. See how long anyone really misses me.”
“You bad boy.”
“Maybe you can do something about that,” he sneered as he took her hand and headed upstairs to their bedroom.
Chapter 5
True to their words, both Mark and Kelly did not go in to work on Monday. Both stayed home to put together an action plan for their future. Kelly called in sick with a migraine and Mark faked his way out of going in work by replacing his current meeting schedule with new bogus meetings. He was able to get out of his normal meetings by claiming he needed to be in meetings for a new project given to him by the executives. His staff was used to him being unavailable and the executives just thought he was working extra hard on the out-source project given to him earlier. He figured if he checked emails a few times a day, no one would question where he was. His direct reports were used to him being out-of-pocket with higher level meetings. The executives were too busy with the fuel shortage to care much about anything else.
After dropping the kids off at school, Mark and Kelly started setting up a mini conference room in their dining room. They figured this would be a multiple day discussion, so they wanted somewhere they could spread out and work in relative comfort. Kelly took out several whiteboards and placed them on easels around the room, while Mark set up a large TV to act as a monitor for both of their laptops. He was able to configure the monitor so all they had to be was to use a KVM switch to switch from one laptop to the other. This setup made the planning go faster as one of them could look things up while the other displayed something on their screens.
After setting up their little conference room, Mark and Kelly got down to business. “I’ve given this a little thought ever since I found out John committed suicide. I know I fell apart that day, but it was like someone lifted a veil from my eyes. I was able to see the person I had become and I did not like that person one bit. I have turned into one of the people we used to make fun of in college. You know the ones we always called fake or stuck-up. We despised them all those years but ended up exactly like them.“
“I know,” Kelly frowned. “I’ve come to the same conclusion over the past week as well. I never thought we were neglecting the kids until Dakota kept telling everyone we were on vacation because we took a Saturday off and played with them. Really, a Saturday off to play with our kids! It wasn’t like we went out with them on a work day. It was a weekend for god’s sake.”
“I know. I think we have started changing that part of our lives already. I’ve thought about this and I desperately want to start becoming the father I always dreamed of being. I want my family to come first instead of my job and my career. My family will always be there and I’ve learned over the past few weeks what I thought was a solid financial future is actually weak. I also realize now as much as we think we are in charge of our future, we are not. At any time a company can cast you aside when they think that getting rid of you would be better for the firm. They would not think twice about doing so if it helped the bottom line. No company is worth losing your family over. At any time, some event out of our control or even out of humanities control can alter our society in ways we can’t imagine. Why should I give up my present life with my family when three years down the road everything can change in a heartbeat? I don’t want to be one of those people whose last words are regrets for spending too much time at work and not enough time with their family. What I want to do is to start either taking the kids to school each morning or picking them up each afternoon. I could do one and you the other. Another option would be to pick a day and work from home or have a short work day to be with the kids when they come home after school.”
“There’s only four weeks left in the school year. Since you always complain your group at work doesn’t get going until after nine each morning, why don’t you take the kids to school. I will pick them up each afternoon. It would be easier for me to drive to work early and leave early and easier for you to go in late and leave late each day. This way I’ll miss most of the morning rush hour and can start leaving earlier and miss the evening rush hour as well. You will miss the morning rush hour and can come home after the evening rush hour if you need. You’re closer to work than I am so the evening rush hour shouldn’t be a problem for you. You should be able to get both kids in the car for the short ride to the day care and Cheyenne’s school now that you have car seats.�
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“That’s fine, but I’m still going to be home by 6:30 each night. I’m not going to miss out on things anymore because of Plains Airlines,” Mark said as he looked at her. “I’m also going to try to figure out how to work from home more. I spend most of my time in meetings in which at least half the people are dialed into a conference number anyway. Why not join them and call in to the meetings instead of being there in person.”
Kelly agreed, “Deal. What about summer? What do you want to do then?”
“I think we will work on summer when the time comes. Between me working at home more, vacation, camps, your parents and my parents, I think we can still stay somewhat with our new schedule. I’ll take them where they need to go each day and you pick them up from their last event or from our parents or your parents. Anything happening during the day can be a combination of all of us and whoever is free at the time can play taxi. As long as one of us is always involved during the morning and evening events we can call it a success. I have a feeling with everything going on at work I will be spending a lot of time working from home anyway. I keep getting this feeling my days at Plains are numbered anyway.“
“What about dinner each night? I did Taco Bell on my nights and you always ordered pizza on your nights, our parents fed them the other nights. Don’t you think we need to make sure we have more family dinners?”