A NOVEL
Kimberly A. Diede
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Kimberly A. Diede
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9992996-0-9
Print ISBN: 978-0-9992996-1-6
To Mom and Dad, my first and my forever cheerleaders
Sometimes the roadblocks, setbacks, and heartbreaks of life
turn out to be the greatest gifts of all . . .
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Gift of a Wake-Up Call
Chapter 2: Gift of Closing Doors
Chapter 3: Gift of Wine and Reflection
Chapter 4: Gift of Space
Chapter 5: Gift of Time
Chapter 6: Gift of Focus
Chapter 7: Gift of Adventure
Chapter 8: Gift of Preparation
Chapter 9: Gift of Joy
Chapter 10: Gift of Generosity
Chapter 11: Gift of Family
Chapter 12: Gift of Suspense
Chapter 13: Gift of Traditions
Chapter 14: Gift of Encouragement
Chapter 15: Gift of Intuition
Chapter 16: Gift of the Unexpected
Chapter 17: Gift of Conversation
Chapter 18: Gift of the Tropics
Chapter 19: Gift of a Sunrise
Chapter 20: Gift of Night Waves
Chapter 21: Gift of Guidance
Chapter 22: Gift of a Stroll
Chapter 23: Gift of Incentives
Chapter 24: Gift of Home
Chapter 25: Gift of the Senses
Chapter 26: Gift of a New Lens
Chapter 27: Gift of a Mess
Chapter 28: Gift of Connections
Chapter 29: Gift of a Scare
Chapter 30: Gift of Hope
Chapter 31: Gift of Distractions
Chapter 32: Gift of Courage
Chapter 33: Gift of Science
Chapter 34: Gift of Spring
Chapter 35: Gift of Place
Chapter 36: Gift of Experience
Chapter 37: Gift of a Girls’ Day
Chapter 38: Gift of Trust
Chapter 39: Gift of the Leap
Chapter 40: Gift of Help
Chapter 41: Gift of Assistance
Chapter 42: Gift of Competition
Chapter 43: Gift of Expertise
Chapter 44: Gift of New Beginnings
Chapter 45: Gift of Summer
Chapter 46: Gift of New Friends
Chapter 47: Gift of Protectors
Chapter 48: Gift of Expansion
Chapter 49: Gift of a Grandfather’s Wisdom
Chapter 50: Gift of the Storm
Chapter 51: Gift of Rest
Chapter 52: Gift of Loyalty
Chapter 53: Gift of Concern
Chapter 54: Gift of New Ventures
Chapter 55: Gift of Neighbors
Chapter 56: Gift of Close Calls
Chapter 57: Gift of Attention
Chapter 58: Gift of a Pause
Chapter 59: Gift of a Heart
Chapter 60: Gift of a Sixth Sense
Chapter 61: Gift of Answers
Chapter 62: Gift of a Tribe
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
Gift of a Wake-Up Call
Renee Clements couldn’t have anticipated the tidal wave of changes one surprise phone call would unleash on her work life, family life and love life.
Looking back, the day started like any other. Fresh cup of coffee in hand, Renee sat down at her desk and fired up her laptop. She sipped the scalding brew, waiting for the heat and caffeine to give her system a needed jolt on the frigid Monday morning. She was ten days away from a week of vacation, but with Christmas and the company’s year-end approaching, her “to do” list was long. She needed to wrap up two large projects. Once those were done, the pressure should—key-word: should—be off.
She opened her Outlook calendar. Four scheduled meetings wouldn’t leave much time to work on her projects; she would end up taking a pile of work home again. One project stalled because costs came in too high and her boss challenged her to find cuts, the other was slow to progress because of some internal politics. It was hard to get things across the finish line. This wasn’t anything new, but rather a symptom of corporate bureaucracy. She should be used to it by now.
“Key-word,” she said aloud, “should.”
She tolerated the frustrations because, well, she needed her paycheck. The steady stream of bills gave her little choice. Some days were more tolerable than others, and she had no desire to end up a bag lady. A week off with her kids would finally break up the monotony.
A new Outlook invite popped up for a call with her manager and peers.
“What now?”
They would probably get another time-sensitive project to work on—she’d never get it all done in time. At least the call didn’t start for two hours.
She started pulling together a response to a request for a new report when her cell phone rang. Fighting irritation at the disturbance via a deep breath, she answered her daughter’s ring tone.
“Hi honey, how are your finals going?”
“Hey Mom,” Julie replied breathlessly. “I’m walking into my last test. I hope I studied enough. I was up until two this morning. Zoey kept her music on low the whole time, and it was so distracting.”
Renee sighed. Zoey was Julie’s best friend from high school. She was a good girl, but her study habits didn’t match Julie’s. Julie was used to having her own room and was still learning to adapt to a shared living space.
“What time will you get on the road?” Renee asked.
“We should get out of town by one, putting us home around five. It could take longer if traffic is bad.”
“You know it’ll be tough that time of day. Take your time and give me a quick call if you don’t think you will be in by six. I threw a roast in the crock-pot this morning, so we can eat whenever.”
This should give Renee time to swing by the high school, pick up Robbie, and get home so her daughter didn’t arrive to a dark house. Renee wasn’t used to going two months without seeing Julie. It had been too long since she popped home for that short weekend in October.
They said a quick goodbye, Renee wishing Julie good luck on her “final” final. Renee was glad her daughter would be done with classes. It would be fun to have her home without the stress of homework hanging over her head.
As Renee tried to get her mind back to the task at hand, her desk phone rang. It was turning into another typical day at the office where her time was not her own. Piles of work would go home with her again tonight. She may or may not pull them out once she got through dinner and caught up with Julie.
“Hey, Renee, what do you suppose our call is about this morning?” blurted her friend and colleague on the other end of the line. “I have so much work to do, and now Blaine decides to pull us onto a call? So rude, especially right before Christmas.”
“Oh, hi Kate. I don’t know what he wants, but I’m sure h
e thinks it’s important,” Renee said with a hint of frustration.
“I don’t know, Renee. I’m hearing rumors out here . . . about layoffs,” Kate whispered.
Kate’s office was in New York City. Renee stayed closer to home, not venturing farther than Minneapolis. She was asked to relocate three years ago to take on a bigger role, but she declined—she didn’t want to move her children any farther away from family.
Renee’s pulse quickened. “I can’t imagine they would do another round of those this close to the holidays . . .” But Kate’s words snagged her attention. Being the sole provider for a fifteen-year-old son and eighteen-year-old daughter was scary enough without acknowledging the lack of job security in their industry. Days of feeling like you could work somewhere your whole adult life and retire with a secure pension were long gone. But the sheer busy state of her life prevented her from dwelling on it. It was so much easier to think it could never happen to her because layoffs only happen to “other people.”
Renee didn’t want to speculate about the upcoming call. She tried to assure Kate it would be another “task” to complete before the holidays.
“I sure hope you’re right,” Kate sighed. “I don’t want to have to start over with another company. The thought of that makes my blood run cold. Guess we’ll know in an hour.” And she hung up.
Renee listened to the dial tone for a second, her mind wandering. She hung up and sat back, sipped her now-tepid coffee, and gazed out the office window she landed four years earlier when she moved up to a manager role. She recently “celebrated” her twenty-year anniversary with the company by ignoring her disappointment when she opened a small wooden plaque she received in the mail from HR on her anniversary date. It wasn’t even personalized. She remembered when they used to give out small gifts of money on milestone dates. Twenty years of her life, and they couldn’t bother to recognize her in person, or even give her a damn cake.
Renee shook her head to clear it again. The upcoming holidays must be making it hard to concentrate. She buckled down and was able to shoot off an email in response to a request for month-end sales results before a reminder ping sounded: time to jump on the call.
Taking a deep breath and ignoring a slight hitch of foreboding—blaming Kate for putting nasty thoughts in her head—she dialed in. If everyone was working today, there would be six on the call, plus her boss. A beep sounded as each person joined the teleconference. Renee was surprised to hear at least ten beeps.
After the beeping slowed, then stopped, Blaine’s voice came across the line. “Thank you, everyone, for joining our call this morning. I am sorry for the short notice. I need to take a quick roll call, then we can get started.”
Renee announced when Blaine called her name, then hit her mute button.
“Also on the phone with us today, we have Tom Jones and Rebecca Anderson from HR, along with Samantha Jensen. I’ll turn it over to Samantha now.”
Renee was surprised by the names on the call and puzzled to hear . . . was that a catch in Blaine’s voice?
“Thank you, Blaine. We have some important news to share with all of you. We would have liked to have been able to share this with each of you in person, but the time-sensitive nature of our news would not allow us to do that.”
Samantha was a seasoned executive, and Renee was always impressed with her ability to connect with her audience, regardless of whether it was over the phone or in person. But today she sounded stilted, as if she might be reading from a prepared script.
“As all of you are aware,” Samantha read, “our industry has been hit by a number of different headwinds. We are making progress in growing our revenue streams in an effort to offset increased costs. We are all committed to our shareholders to continue to improve our bottom line. Cost containment is an important aspect of this commitment. Staffing is one of our most significant areas of expense and much work has been done to determine where we can streamline some of our staff support areas. The decision has been made to centralize a number of functions previously handled by various departments across our footprint. The duties you and your teams have been handling will be transferred to our headquarters in Texas, effective immediately.”
Renee gasped in shock.
“Please understand, we recognize one of our most valuable assets is our people, and we will do what we can to help each of you find another position within our company if you are interested in continuing to build your career with us.”
“Does she believe this shit?” Renee wondered out loud, automatically glancing at her phone to make sure it was still on mute.
Realizing she was tensed up over her speaker phone, almost hugging it as her body naturally bent toward a fetal position to protect itself from the words coming out of the small black box on her desk, she took a deep breath—albeit shaky—and sank back into her chair. Samantha continued to drone on in an uncharacteristically flat voice. Renee pulled her attention back to the call.
“In addition to scheduling this meeting, we set up a second call that will start in a few minutes. We wanted you to hear the message first; however, we recognize you may be in a bit of shock and did not want to burden you with having to personally share this message with your staff. They will be joining us so we can share this same message with them as well.”
Renee could hear Samantha take a deep, rattling breath before continuing.
“You will each receive a personalized information packet via courier within the hour. This will delineate the individualized severance packages you are each being offered. Please take time to review the information carefully.
“You will be allowed to take the rest of this week off. Your severance period will officially start next Monday. HR will set up a call with each of you to review the severance offer and make sure you understand its implications. If you agree to accept the package there will be requirements you need to comply with to receive your payout. Today is not the day to go into those details. We understand you will need the opportunity to process this news. We do ask that you clear out your desks while you wait for the courier to arrive. Arrangements have been made in each geographic area for someone to come to your desks shortly. You will be asked to turn over all keys, electronic equipment, and company property and vacate the premise. Please stay on the line and wait for the rest of your teams to join the call.”
“Holy shit,” she said aloud again. “So this is what it feels like?” The proverbial rug had just been ripped right out from under her feet. How could she have been so stupid? She never gave this possibility serious consideration. Where was the loyalty? After twenty years, how could they kick her out the door two weeks before Christmas?
But Renee already knew the answer. “They” weren’t individuals, but “it” was a huge company doing what it needed to do to survive in this economy. When she allowed herself time to process what happened, she would need to face the fact it wasn’t personal. All her years she gave to the company meant nothing to anyone but herself.
She pushed away from her desk and stood, arms crossed, slowly turning as she surveyed what had been her home away from home. Her eyes came to rest on her anniversary plaque, too new yet to sport any dust.
She picked up the memento and dropped it in the trash.
Chapter 2
Gift of Closing Doors
First, the courier arrived on time with a thick white envelope stamped confidential in scarlet letters and addressed to Renee Clements. Her hand shook as she scribbled the stylus across the electronic signature pad.
Next, Joe arrived. Joe joined the local HR team in her office building right out of college. He rapped lightly on her door jam and poked his head in. His ears burned red, and he couldn’t make eye contact with Renee.
“I have a few boxes you can use for your personal stuff and a cart to wheel them out to your car,” Joe mumbled, not bothering to move the cart out of the corridor. “Let me know if you need any help when you have your things boxed up. I’ll be back in forty minutes to
collect anything you need to turn in.”
Joe started to back out of the doorway but hesitated, shoulders drooped. He didn’t know what to say. They exchanged small talk in the elevator on the way up this morning. Joe seemed as shaken by the news as Renee, and his unpleasant task was making him squirm.
“I’m sorry, Renee. You’ve worked here a long time and . . . it’s bullshit. Please know how bad I feel.” And with that, he was gone.
Renee grabbed the cart and pulled it into her office, closing the door quickly but not letting it slam. Did others on the floor know? Would they stop by to offer condolences while secretly thanking God they hadn’t received the same news? Would some wish the packet sitting on her desk right now was addressed to them instead? She wondered if others in the building had also been given notice. All Renee knew for sure was she needed to get out and get out fast, with her back straight and her eyes dry. There would be time to crumble later, when she was alone.
She scooped pictures of her kids off her desk and placed them in one of the boxes on the cart. She looked around—there was little else she even wanted to take from this small, dull room.
Two scrawled drawings, ripped out of coloring books years earlier, hung on her credenza. Smears of dark pink and turquoise marker ran haphazardly across heavy black lines that formed a Santa on one page and a Christmas tree on the other. She easily pulled them down, tape brittle with age. One page bore a carefully penned “Julie” on the bottom, the other a quick “R” dashed off by her then-toddler son.
More than anything else, these pieces of precious art gave her pause. So many years, dedicated to this company. Her eyes welled. She shook her hands and blew out air, fighting tears.
“Not now, not now!” she scolded herself. She refused to let on how broken she was feeling. “What do I need to take now while I have the chance?”
In a moment of clarity, she realized she needed to print out her most recent performance evaluations. She had meant to keep a file of them at home but never took the time to do it. She would want to have them to show prospective employers. Quickly she pulled up the electronic files and sent them all to the printer in the corner of her office. Thank God they hadn’t taken away her computer access yet. It was a little surprising, in fact. She certainly could have fired off a nasty email to a broad audience, expressing her anger and frustrations—but she only gave that tempting thought five seconds of serious consideration. No way was she going to burn bridges. She grabbed the evaluations and added them to a box. Finally, she tossed in a few additional personal items.
Whispering Pines (Celia's Gifts Book 1) Page 1