Chapter 8: 1st Week of June, 2015

Selena Johnson had just gotten off the phone with James Gladrow to tell him that arrangements had been made for him to report to WSGG June 8th, the Monday after his graduation from Polytech. He would be there for a two week paid internship to prepare to start his job in September 2015. The preview had helped her, even though she had done it earlier when they were short handed during a school break. It was a get acquainted with The City primer and also provided a clear picture as to what to expect in September. She had him booked into an Extended Stay Hotel nearby where he could walk to work if he chose. Although they had only added recruited partners 4 times (Selena, Jamaica, Heddy and Clarke, and now James) they had come up with a sort of “system”. Slim had been added on reputation, which might never happen again.

The market had been sluggish with buyers and sellers keeping net gains and losses at a minimum, but with the world seemingly in a constant uproar somewhere, their eyes were fixed on the political and economic climates in every continent. Selena remembered that her old friend and supporter Charley Ford used to say, “when things are sluggish, that’s when they try to slip the fastball by you. Eyes open, ears peaked at all times”. She, Slim and Jaye were rustling the bushes deep to look for signs. John Branniff and Trace Fountain were down to 3 half days and were setting dates for retirement. Heddy and Clarke were thankful for the “slow” period to get more accustomed to the flow of information. Trace had given his office over to Heddy, letting her move in, but it was all his when he came in for his short stints. John Branniff was a bit too anal for that to happen. He didn’t like “his things” moved and would give up his office when he left. There were now work stations in The Stacks for either of them to work when it was needed.

It was a Monday, a day Selena and Alexis would meet for lunch each week. When Alexis was working down the block they met 2 or 3 times a week, especially when the weather got nice, but now that she was firmly ensconced at Fox Financial she wasn’t as flexible.

Selena picked up her phone to call her at the station to confirm when her cab might arrive so they could go.

Selena didn’t even identify herself when Alexis picked up her private line.

“Any time between 12 and 1, just get your butt over here. Let Berkley know when you’re on the block.” She smart-assed into the phone.

“I can do that, but I should warn you it’s Career Day for Upstate schools. There are a bunch of High School juniors in groups on the street getting tours of different New York occupations. We had 3 groups of 4 or 5 in here wanting to get into broadcast journalism. I have one more group scheduled for later on. We’re reapplying for our license so we have to be real community minded right now.”

“We don’t participate because it would be fruitless, we don’t like outsiders in here anyway, you know the story, just pick a time and I’ll be ready.” Selena said impatiently.

“OK, but all the kids are pretty “with it”, as they say. You’ll have lookie-loos after you. Each group here asked about you, #1 for the 911 thing, and #2 because you’re doing the FNN report and the horny boys want to see a hot chick.” Alexis explained.

“I don’t need that. Fuck, I was hungry too.”

“Nice talk, potty mouth. Order a pizza and call me tomorrow.” Alexis laughed.

“I just might and SORRY I don’t have my best mouth on when I talk on the cell. It’s a bad habit, I know.”

“OK, let’s do it tomorrow, I can jumble my schedule. I have so much to tell you.” Alexis said.

“I’ll call you Lex.” Selena said as she hung up.

Just then a knock came to her door and Selena impatiently called out, “Come.”

Heddy opened the door and felt like she had interrupted something.

“I’m sorry, Ms Johnson. I was just going to ask you if you wanted anything. We’re going to Abrahams Deli.”

“So sorry for the snotty command, I was just frustrated by something. I didn’t mean to be so rude and abrupt. Yes, get me a Number 4, mayo on the side. Wait,” she said fumbling in her desk for an envelope. “Who else is going?”

“(laughs)The newbies, and Ms. Centofranchi.” She said.

“Here, take this (handing her a 50 dollar bill) and buy the 4 sandwiches, if there’s any left, put it towards the tip. My treat.”

Selena hated herself when she did things like commanding the impatient “Come!” She really liked to believe they were all basically equals in the office. She tried to shake her uncomfortable feeling as she went back to work on a connection she was trying to link between Copper mines and a Biophysics firm trading stocks in a way that made them look like partners, but they were separate entities trading under separate stock symbols. It smelled heavily of insider trading that would affect Copper prices, that were already at record highs. She didn’t want to be a whistle blower so much as to protect 2 of the largest folios they were monitoring. Copper was being used as a host for Petri studies in one particular Bio firm and it was in such quantities that the price was being affected. After lunches she planned on sitting down with Slim to see if he might agree it should be looked at.

A knock came to her door a few minutes later. This time she called out, “Please come in.”

It was Jaye. “Here, I have your sandwich. It wasn’t necessary for you to buy, but thank you. I’ll return the favor. How come I’ve been here for a couple years and never knew about Abrahams? Heddy and Clarke showed me where it was today.” She said as she let the door almost close. She popped her head back in to ask,

“Hey, not to gossip, but do you think those two, uh ... are involved?”

Selena smiled, saying, “No, I think there might have been a little frustration letting when they were here for the internship. I thought I detected a little something then. But, now they are just friends who may know a bit more about each other than most of us. No harm, no foul. Heddy lives 4 or 5 nights a week with a producer or something at Fox Financial, pretty serious from what I see, and I think she’s much too smart to play at work. Clarke has an old friend, Patsy, I think, who comes in from out of town on business. Not serious, but friends with benefits. He’s not as geeky as we may have thought; he may even be a player.”

“Selena! Do you have them followed?” Jaye asked, startled.

“NO! Just little things you pick up on when you talk, you know, ask how the weekend was or overhear in a lunch time phone call. We don’t just keep our eyes and ears open for market action, you know.” (Chuckles as Jaye leaves)

She had finished half of her sandwich and contemplated wrapping it and putting it in the cooler when her phone rang. She saw it was Berkley Quarters.

“Ms. Johnson? I’ve just let a person in the inner office.”

“Do they have an appointment with one of us?”

“No, I thought it was you when they came up the steps and buzzed them in.”

“BERKLEY! I’ve been here all the while!” Selena said frustrated.

“Uh, ... she says she’s your daughter. Can you come out here?” Berkley asked furtively.

“I don’t have time for this crap!” She thought to herself as she got up and tried to see what scam Berkley had fallen for.

When she opened the outer door to the vestibule there stood a woman, a girl who looked 14, maybe 16, but it was a picture of herself when she was a Polytech Freshman.

The young girl extended her hand as she smiled and Selena saw her lips quiver as if in fear.

“Hello, my name is Dana Langston. May we speak privately?”

“NO, you have no appointment. What’s your business?” Selena asked ready to scold Berkley for her faux pas of opening the door to an outsider.

As that thought crossed her mind a realization began to come over Selena as Dana spoke again.

“I was adopted in 2002 and...”

“Here, go in the conference room. Berkley, this is confidential, no calls. Understood?” She said glaring back at Miss Quarters with exchanged nods.

Selena pointed to a chair for Dana to sit.

“W–w-w-What are you trying to tell me?” Selena asked as now her lower lip trembled knowing this was a moment she felt impossible to ever happen.

“I have every reason to believe that you are my birth mother. I’ve done a lot of research and with few assumptions I...”

“Wait!” Selena said as she became light headed and had to pause and let her mind catch up with reality.

“How are you here? Where are your parents?”

“I’m here with my junior class for Career Day. I wandered away from my group when we got close to here. My Mom is deceased, she was killed in an accident while we were on vacation in January 2013, and my Dad is severely disabled from the same accident. I was born in the same hospital where some of your recovery took place. I think you had me when you were hospitalized or in a coma following the 911 attacks. I took what little I knew about you and began research. Physically, we could be sisters, but now I’m positive you are my mother. It began with the resemblance from your news conference at your home.”

“Wait, wait, this is all too much! I’m going to pass out.” Selena said as she began to pitch back in her chair.

“No, No, here let me help you!” Dana exclaimed and went to her side and got her to bend forward and let blood rush to her head.

Dana knelt beside her and spoke gently to her, “Deep breaths, deep breaths, fill your lungs. There, ... your color is returning.”

Selena sat up as Dana remained knelt beside her chair as she became more cognizant.

She was looking at her face to face now, Dana’s care for her obvious. Selena looked at her closely.

“My God it’s like looking in the mirror in my dorm at college. You are so beautiful.”

“Just like you.” Dana said softly as her eyes became tear filled.

“After my Mom died I began to search for my birth Mom and I had already thought and fantasized it could have been you, but it was wishful thinking at first, but when I read about your being a prodigy, like me, all of the pieces began to fall together. I don’t have any doubts.” Dana said, crying now.

Selena swallowed hard. “I think you may have jumped to lot of conclusions. There is nothing in my story that says I was ever pregnant, ever gave birth. If I had, don’t you think I would know?” “Selena said not wanting to admit to too much, still afraid to let herself believe this was happening.

“Please don’t deny this. This began as a fantasy for me when I was barely 10 after I was told I was adopted. We saw your news conference in Current Events class and I fantasized that I could be the daughter of this heroic woman. It’s not that I wasn’t happy with, or didn’t love my own mother, she was so perfect and I know she’s an angel at my shoulder now. I found her at the accident and she was already dead, but still warm. As I held her broken body I know her spirit went into me.” Dana said as she began to cry uncontrollably.

Selena sat up to the kneeling girl and hugged her to her chest to comfort her. As she preened her hair something came over her that told her that, yes, this WAS her daughter.

Selena wanted to jump for joy, but she knew there so many hurdles to jump to prove it and still know how much a part of her life she might become, if she wanted it, if her father would allow it. It was all happening so fast; her head was spinning again, when the intercom in the conference room rang.

“Ms Johnson”, the intercom blared. “We just got a local Amber Alert and I think it’s for the girl with you.”

“OK, Miss Quarters, I’ll handle it. “Sine que non sub rosa” (An old legal latin phrase loosely meaning confidential ask no questions, as always)

“Dana, we’ll have to call the police soon, I’m sorry.”

“That’s OK, I knew they would be panicked looking for me, but this was the one chance I had. You see, my Dad is in a wheel chair and can’t do much. He needs 24 hour care in a rehab when I can’t stay with him. I stay with a neighbor Monday through Friday and they bring my Dad home on Friday night and I care for him on the weekend before the van comes for him Monday morning. (She begins crying again) He’s dying, they found inoperable liver cancer.” Dana said sobbing.

“Do you have a legal guardian?” Selena wondered.

“Right now the folks I stay with during the week are like foster parents, they are responsible, but I have no other relatives. I’m very mature, but, I am still 13 and I know I don’t look it, but neither did you at my age. I found pictures from newspaper stories and magazines at the library.” Dana said with total confidence that Selena Johnson was her mother.

The intercom opened once again, “Ms Johnson, the Police are canvassing on the block, should I let them in when they come up?”

“Yes, show them in. We will come out in a few moments.” She answered.

“Dana, leave me DNA of some sort and your address and ways to contact you. As of right now, do not tell anyone what you think. You haven’t told anyone else of your suspicions, have you?”

“Only my Mother when I first got the idea from seeing you. She laughed and didn’t think it was plausible. Ummmm, Let me see scissors to give you some hair, and I have gum I chewed in a tissue. That would all work.” Dana said as she wrote down her cell phone number and address.

They heard the call buzzer ring and knew their time was short.

Selena looked to her and her eyes welled up. “Dana, it is very possible I am your mother. Let’s do this when we are sure and have more time to deal with things. You should know that if it is true, you were born of passionate and true love. My husband is the best man in the world, believe me.”

“Ms. Johnson, they are here.” The intercom blared.

The 2 stood and hugged cautiously as Selena opened the door.

“Good afternoon officers, young Dana here got separated and came to our door. We were sorting things out when the Amber Alert came through. We were about to call 911 when we saw you on the street.” Selena said.

The two officers who came in the building were familiar with Selena from her celebrity when she first came back to WSGG, and knew her from the TV.

“Luckily she fell into good hands; she’s only 13, although she looks much older.” The cop said in a low confidential voice.

“Understood.” Selena said as she waved to Dana as she left.

The police took a few details from Berkley and Selena and left.

Selena watched them leave through the window and then turned to see Berkley staring at her.

“Berkley, it’s a long story and I think you’ll soon know all the details, but until that time,...”

“Sine que non sub rosa, I know. You know I can be trusted.” She added nodding.

Selena went directly to her office and pressed the speed dial number for Joe.

“Hello, my love. I was just going to call you to see if you had a preference for dinner.” He answered, knowing it was her.

“Hang on to your hat, ... I just met our daughter!”

“What on earth are you talking about?” He asked baffled by her claim.

Selena gave him the short version of what took place, but he was skeptical.

“At first I was too, but if you saw her you would be a believer. I’ll get a still from the cctv cam in the front.” Selena bubbled.

“OK Essy, like before, I don’t want you to go overboard on all of this. This may end up being nothing. The situation now is the same as when you woke this morning. We know she exists, we have no right to contact her.” Joe warned.

“Joe, she hugged me like she knew me, like she wanted me to mother her.”

“Ess, her parents may have different ideas. Don’t assume anything. Even with her information, you STILL can’t contact her. She has to contact you.”

“JOSEPH, YOU DON’T EVEN SEEM TO BE EXCITED BY ANY OF THIS!”

“Of course I am! This is the way I wanted it to happen, for her to figure it out, but we have to look out for someone trying to pull a fast one. Trust no one.” Joe warned.

“I was careful, I had her give me DNA samples. Philly knows the name of the parents, call her and confront her.” Selena demanded.

“We’ll do that tonight, OK?” Joe promised.

Just then the all stations intercom opened. “In the Great Room, 5 minutes.”

“OK Joseph, but I’ll bring home a picture and when we call Philly we should have proof.” Selena insisted.

“Put the DNA samples in a courier envelope, I’ll send someone to get it later and get it to a lab, fair enough?”

“Thanks Joey, so you’ll wait to call Philly, right?” She asked, showing some paranoia that Joe and Philly spoke of Selena’s mental health in private.

“YES! When was the last time I lied to you?” Joe said perturbed as he hung up.

Selena may just as well have gone home from that point during the day. For the first time she was not able to turn her outside life on and off for the sake of work. Her mind was totally preoccupied with Dana Langston. She could barely get over the moment of meeting her when she had no time to prepare herself, and the fact she hugged her and she hugged back with feeling made her absolutely joyous. While there was no official word, Selena was convinced that the mature, pretty, 13 year old who acted like a grown-up she met early that afternoon was her own flesh and blood fathered by Joe Johnson. She looked so much like Selena that when Berkley saw her on the outside monitor she didn’t even wait for a ring, she just buzzed her in.