Familiar - Part VI
Serialized Fiction
This is part six of a series. If you have not read the first five parts, please start here:
Part VI
Dani lay in a warm ray of sunlight streaming through the sunroom windows onto her bed. Beyond the door to the outside, the beach spread out as far as she could see. She wanted sea glass and seashells to fill a jar for her shelf, so she rose and walked out to the shore, jar in hand. To the right, tidepools dotted the higher slope of the beach. Dani could not resist the urge to peer into them and discover the small creatures that lived within, so she headed in that direction.
She found hermit crabs, live sand dollars with their purple, fuzzy coats, starfish, and sea slugs. The tidepools had been one of Dani’s favorite things since she was a girl. She reached into a pool to pet a slug, and it slid onto her hand. She gently tried to release it, but it hung on. Setting her jar down, she pulled at it with her other hand, but the slug came apart, turning into smaller versions of itself, many still clinging to her. She felt disturbed and somewhat panicked as she continued to pick off the slugs, leaving smaller and smaller ones behind. She thought of leeches, and the thought made her stomach turn. Eventually, all that remained were tiny purple dots, and she used her skirt to wipe them from her hand and forearm, relieved. She decided to move away from the tidepools and back to the sandy shore to hunt for the glass and shells she wanted.
As she walked, she realized she had gone quite far from the sunroom and saw that the beach was backed by tall cliffs. Oh no. Dani knew the tide would begin to come in. She knew because this was what always happened when she had no way to escape the beach. She began walking purposefully toward the sunroom, seeking a way out. Her eyes spotted a dog coming down the cliffs ahead. It was making its way down a switchback, and Dani felt relief that there was a pathway out if she didn’t make it back to her house. As she drew closer, she saw that the dog was quite big. Not a dog. A Wolf.
Dani threw her head back and laughed. “You always find me when I am lost.”
“I try,” he told her. She dropped to hug him, burying her face in his coat. He smelled of bergamot and sandalwood. “Are you ready to go home?”
Dani knew Wolf meant for her to climb onto his back, and so she did. Her fingers curled into his beautiful, thick fur as he ran along the shore. She watched the ocean as she rode, fearing a wave would suddenly wash them away, but it only continued its slow rise as Wolf carried her home. At first, she had to hold on tight to keep from falling off, but after a while, she relaxed and even drifted off to sleep.
The next thing she knew, they had reached the familiar windowed structure. Wolf, now a man on two legs, was still carrying Dani on his back. They entered the sunroom, and he put her down.
“We need to lock it up,” he told her, and they began locking the door and all the windows. The ocean had made its way up the beach and was now a foot deep across the room’s floor-to-ceiling glass. Dani watched in wonder as it continued to rise, swallowing them in blue. The sunroom was now an inverted aquarium, with fish and coral all around them. This fascinated and delighted Dani until she noticed the deep dark in the distance.
Wolf wrapped his arms around her, and she closed her eyes against him, afraid of what was out there, afraid of what she might see in the depths.
“Look,” Wolf told her, and she did. Sunlight filtered through the water into their room, casting golden waves over them and the small, colorful creatures swimming all around. Dani was still wary of the deep, but she did not want to miss this. The sparkling light everywhere felt like being surrounded by a thousand fairies. She spun around, laughing.
“What do you know about aquariums?” she teased Wolf. It was meant as a play on his habit of showing up and making things right in any situation, and on the time he built a spaceship to come find her. In this dreamy logic, it was funny, and they both laughed. She no longer feared the deep as they watched the ocean around them.
The water began to recede, and Dani grew anxious to see the state of her house. The sunroom, made of glass, was intact, but she knew the house, made of wood, would not have fared as well. When it was safe, they opened the door to the house and found it gutted. Many studs had been ripped away, leaving only a partial skeleton of the former structure.
Sea glass and driftwood lay in piles along the house’s foundation. It was a beautiful mess. Dani felt her throat tighten and her eyes well up as she wondered where she would find the materials to repair the house. She could not afford to buy new lumber, and there wasn’t enough left to fix what was broken.
Wolf began gathering driftwood and glass. “There is so much of this,” he told her. “We should use it.”
Dani was struck by how obvious it seemed once he said it. There was plenty of material to fix the house if you could look beyond the conventional. Dani measured and cut the wood and glass, and Wolf used a welding torch to melt sand into glass, fusing the pieces into columns and fitting them into window frames. The textures and colors were magical.
“What do you know about building sandcastles?” Wolf teased, and Dani chuckled. They looked around, satisfied and enchanted. The old wood that remained was still there, a beautiful contrast to the softer colors and textures shimmering in the light.
Dani put her hands into Wolf’s. “Thank you.”
“What’s next?” he asked her.
She woke to her alarm.
***
Dani walked into her office to find a small plastic astronaut with an oversized head sitting on her desk. Below it was a Post-It note.
Saw this at a gas station
this morning and thought
of you.
The handwriting was Jason’s. Dani smiled, held the note to her chest, then slipped it into her pocket. She and Jason shared an interest in space exploration and all things NASA. Her interest had been piqued even more after moving to Houston and visiting the Space Center. She figured most people living in what locals often called “Space City” had at least a mild attachment to the space program. She set the astronaut next to her pen holder, then turned on her computer.
Her phone chimed.
Stephanie: Sorry! I fell asleep early last night. Is everything OK?
Dani: Yes, but I need to talk to you!
Stephanie: Meet me in the warehouse in five.
Dani opened the next page of her notebook and began scheduling her work for the day. Five minutes later, she walked out the back of the building and into the warehouse. Stephanie was holding her coffee mug with the Dunder Mifflin logo on it, looking expectantly at Dani as she approached.
“What’s going on?”
Dani wanted to blurt, “I made out with Jason last night.” But she felt she needed to tell the whole story. Partly because building the suspense was delicious, but mostly because she didn’t want her friend to judge her. She needed Stephanie to know about Jason and his wife’s troubles and that they were planning to separate before she got into the short but steamy minutes they spent at her car.
“So, he says they’ve been going to counseling for a year and that they’re both ready to call it quits,” Dani explains after dropping the first bombshell about her and Jason confessing their feelings for each other. She emphasizes that her first reaction was to point out to Jason that he was married. She wasn’t just going to slip into some sordid love affair because he had a fight with his wife. This was more than that. Plans were being made for a separation.
“Oh my god,” Stephanie’s eyes widened, “I thought they were happy. He has photos of her all over his office. They always look so cute together at the holiday parties.”
“I know,” Dani agreed, feeling a little less sure about revealing the rest of the story. Jason did have photos of Kayla all over his office. Many showed the two of them on trips together, pinned to the fabric of his partition walls. One he kept of just her, looking at the camera, sultry and sleepy-eyed, with one bare shoulder showing, on his desk in a frame. Didn’t everyone always comment on how adorable Jason and Kayla were after the holiday parties? They always had the most photo booth pictures in the scrapbooks put together by the admin team. The books were left in the lobby after the parties for Hydra employees to flip through and sign next to their own photos. There were ten of these books in the Hydra library, and five of them had at least three pages of Jason and Kayla Voss looking like two beautiful people in love.
“Oh god,” Dani said, her stomach in her throat.
“What?” Stephanie cocked her head, concerned.
“I fucked up, Steph.” Dani wanted to take it all back. Rewind everything she had told Stephanie, go back to the bar the night before, and leave after Steve high-fived her on his way out. But there was no going back, and Stephanie was her friend. “We made out in the parking lot.”
Stephanie’s eyes bulged at this. “Oh shit, Dani!”
“Yeah.” Dani covered her face with her hands. She waited for Stephanie to say something else, but nothing came. She took her hands away and looked at her friend with regret. “Please say something.”
“Dude,” Stephanie put her hand on Dani’s arm. “I am not judging you.”
“I know.” Dani put her cold hands against her cheeks, which were hot and flushed. “I stopped it before it went any further, but I didn’t want to. In the moment, it didn’t feel like the worst thing because he told me they were separating.” Dani bit her bottom lip and corrected herself. “He actually said they were talking about separating. Oh God, Steph! I’m that woman!” She pointed four fingers of her right hand at her chest, leaning toward her friend.
“No, you are not.” Stephanie was stern as she gently squeezed Dani’s arm. “This shit happens all the time, and you could have let it go much farther. Do not start beating yourself up about it. It’s done, it’s over. Wait… is it over?”
“I told him we needed to wait until he was separated.”
“See?” Stephanie held up a palm. “You’re basically Mother Theresa.”
Dani snorted. “Gah, why do I have to feel this way about him?”
“Because you’re dumb, baby,” Stephanie cooed as she rubbed Dani’s shoulder. They both laughed, and then she pulled Dani in for a hug. Dani melted into her friend’s embrace with a sigh.
“Thank you, Steph. I love you so much.”
“Love you, too.” Stephanie patted her friend’s back, then waited a beat before pulling back. “You good?”
“I’m good.”
“Look, Kyle and I are going to that boozy arcade downtown on Friday.” Kyle was the plumber who had become Stephanie’s official boyfriend after months of hooking up at work. “We’re meeting some of his friends, and I know at least one of them is single and not bad to look at. You should come.”
“Sounds good.” Dani didn’t need to think about it. She always wanted to hang out with Steph.
“Yay!” Stephanie smiled like a toothy emoji, rocking side to side. “Now, let’s get to work.”
Dani slipped into the ladies’ room on her way back to her office. When she came out, she almost ran into Jason in the hallway. Their eyes locked, and they smiled at each other, a conspiracy on both of their faces.
“Thank you for the astronaut,” Dani said, feeling suddenly shy.
“You’re welcome,” Jason put his hands in his pockets, as if trying to keep from touching her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m all right. How are you feeling?”
“Like I wish I could fast-forward the next six months,” Jason said meaningfully.
Dani shot him a sideways smile. “We’ll see.” She walked around him and back to her office, feeling his eyes on her. The ache was there. Of course it was, but she wanted to keep the temperature down on this until it was safe. Her aversion to obsession reminded her not to let the embers burst into flames that could consume her.
Jason, however, did not have the same restraints on his passions.
Jason: I wanted to lock myself in that restroom with you. Do you know how hard it is not to touch you?
Dani felt her body respond. Molten lava, surfacing from her core and pouring into her chest, legs, and arms. Damn it.
Dani: You have to stop.
Jason: Do you really want me to?
Dani: That doesn’t matter.
Jason: It matters to me.
Dani: I’m putting you in my drawer now.
She tossed the phone into her left drawer and closed it, then got back to her to-do list. She heard the phone vibrate once, but she fought the urge to take it out. She had to focus. She needed to discourage this. At least for now.
The little astronaut watched her as she wrote emails, reviewed spec books, and drafted subcontracts. She had two new projects and one leftover from a recently departed project manager. There was plenty of work to keep her mind from wandering where it shouldn’t. She glanced at the clock and checked her calendar. In twenty minutes, there was a production meeting with Todd, the special projects field leadership, and the project managers to discuss manpower for current and potential projects.
Dani was looking forward to this. Her dream had stirred something in her mind, and an idea was taking shape that she was excited about. Something she felt would be worthwhile and beneficial to everyone. The thought of sharing this idea with her peers and supervisor exhilarated her. She decided to make some notes to bring with her so she wouldn’t forget any of the points she wanted to highlight. When she had finished, it was time to make her way to the conference room.
Inside the room, most of the attendees had already arrived, and Dani took an open seat at the table. John, the field production manager, spoke to her first.
“Welcome to the team. What made you come to this side?”
“More opportunity to advance,” Dani admitted. “None of the senior PMs in new construction are going anywhere, and they’re not discussing expansion right now.”
“What makes you think you’re ready to advance?” John was a shit talker who loved to mess with people. Dani knew he wanted her to give as good as she got.
“I mean, they promoted you, and you can’t even read.” The men around her laughed, and John did too as he nodded.
“Fair enough.” He said, smiling.
Todd came into the room, two minutes late.
“Sorry I’m late, y’all,” he said, setting down his laptop and folio as he took his seat at the head of the table. “My last meeting ran to the last minute, and I needed to use the restroom.” A few guys chuckled, and several said it was no problem.
Todd passed out the agenda and then introduced her to the group, although she already knew everyone, and announced that she was now officially a special projects employee. A few of the men cheered, and Dani smiled and said, “Thank you.” Then they got into the meat of the meeting, discussing upcoming projects and probable work, along with their current workload. Todd used his laptop to project a graph on the wall that showed a line marking the “sweet spot” for their available manpower, and another line showing the actual. The actual number was about twenty people over where it should be, and it stayed that way for months. Additional incoming work would only keep it there or worsen it.
They had been supplementing as best they could with temp labor, but most of the people coming from that pool were inexperienced, at best. Many didn’t show up again after the first day, and many had no drive to work. The need for skilled labor was not a new problem, but it was getting worse.
“Leadership has decided to roll out a new initiative to help attract talent,” Todd announced. “If any of our employees knows someone who could fill any of Hydra’s openings, and there are many in the field right now, as you can see, they will get $2,500 after that person has been employed for 90 days. So will the person who is hired.”
The men around the table murmured and nodded in approval. John spoke up first.
“That’s great and all, but it’s not going to work.”
“Why do you say that?” Todd asked.
“Because the problem isn’t finding the people; it’s that there are none to be found,” John answered. “There aren’t enough experienced plumbers, pipefitters, and tin-knockers to fill the need. You can pay them a couple of bucks more than they’re getting elsewhere, and they might come, but only until they get a couple of bucks more somewhere else.” Heads around the room nodded. “This might be good for office roles, but not for the field.”
Todd considered this with some agitation. “So, what do you propose, John? You can’t just point out problems without offering solutions.”
Dani sat, watching the men exchange words, waiting for an opening. When John said, “Why don’t you ask your new project manager?” he motioned to Dani. “She’s looking to get promoted. Maybe she has the answer.”
“I do have some thoughts,” Dani said, startled by being tossed into this, but it was as good an opportunity as any.
“You’re kidding.” John laughed in surprise, and she smiled at him.
“It isn’t an immediate answer,” she continued. “But immediate answers aren’t good for the long haul, anyway, as John so eloquently stated.”
Todd looked amused. “Go ahead.”
“We are targeting only half of the population,” Dani stated.
“What do you mean?” Todd asked her, and John groaned, putting his head back.
“She means women,” John responded before Dani could.
“That’s right,” Dani said. “What if we could increase our truly skilled tradespeople by even 10% over the next five years? That would literally fill the gap we have now.”
Todd snickered quietly and shook his head. “This is not a new idea. We’ve been involved in women’s construction groups and initiatives before. These aren’t jobs women want.”
Dani felt the heat rise in her chest. “That is not accurate,” she said pointedly. “The efforts put into attracting women to skilled trades have been bullshit. A puppet show to satisfy the need to look like we’re pushing diversity. Not an honest attempt.”
“You know that for a fact?” Todd challenged, “How do you know they weren’t honest attempts?”
Dani knew Todd was part of the so-called diversity committee at Hydra and realized in this moment that he had probably been part of the laissez-faire efforts of the past.
“I’m just saying maybe we should try again. Differently.” Dani corrected herself, but it was too late. She had pissed Todd off. She had challenged him in front of his direct reports, and that was not something he was going to shake off easily. She looked at John, who was chuckling and shaking his head, and felt dread.
She had challenged her boss on her first day on the job because she had let herself get so excited about an idea. She believed that Wolf, her subconscious, had given her a message. Not to try to fix the problem with something that wasn’t there, but to look at what was already there and untapped.
It was true. Bringing women into the trades wasn’t a new idea. But from what Dani could see, it wasn’t being done in earnest by most, and usually not by women. To attract women to the trades, you needed women. People need to see others like them in those spaces to feel safe and know they belong. You also needed to invest in them. Nobody was really doing that. Just showing up at job fairs wasn’t enough.
Todd had dismissed the conversation, and Dani heard little else afterward. Her head felt as though it were stuffed with cotton, and she stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting. If only she had stayed quiet from the start. How was this going to play out now? Did she expect Todd to promote her, now that he knew she was willing to challenge him?
The meeting ended, and Dani picked up her notebook and headed for the door.
“Dani,” Todd called out to her while still sitting. “Can you stay behind for a few minutes so I can talk with you?”
The wolf returns! And someone is in trouble…
I feel as if I’ve been a fly in the wall of that conference room. Well done, Mand. I can’t wait to see what happens next.