Round 4: Brennan

Liam Brennan and his wife Dawn Brennan are Adults.

* * *

Everything felt strange with Autumn gone. She had been a constant presence in their lives since before they had even really grown up. Now she was gone – just a few blocks away, it was true, but it might as well have been a million miles.

Liam and Dawn found themselves arguing and getting on each other’s nerves a lot more often. And always, hanging unspoken between them, was the question of what to do now. Neither of them had forgotten Dawn’s suggestion of adoption, even though neither of them wanted to be the first to bring it up. They each thought about it in the night, when they thought the other was sleeping. Were they ready to open their lives to another child and everything that would bring? Or was it time for them to figure out who they were when they weren’t responsible for anyone but themselves?

Then  one day Dawn came home with news – she had gotten the big promotion she had been aiming for since before Autumn had moved out. For her, it was a strangely bittersweet moment. She felt relieved at the concrete evidence that her life was still moving forward even now that her daughter was off on her own. But at the same time, it made her realize that although she never wanted to give up the happiness she had found in the corporate world, it also wasn’t the only thing she wanted in her life. She wanted something else to fill the years besides the next promotion and the next.

Liam, for his part, found himself to be much more jealous than he had expected. He had thought he had begun to put that behind him; he had even forgotten to scan the usual websites for job postings this week. But on the day Dawn announced her promotion, he had spent his day scrubbing the toilets and cleaning spoiled food out of the refrigerator, and as he listened to her go on about all the responsibilities this new job would give her, he knew he needed something of his own – something besides cleaning and household repairs, something that could feel like a real accomplishment at the end of his life.

That was the day they decided to adopt.

The adoption agency had too many children to choose from – too many children who had been left with no one in the world – and Dawn and Liam both felt almost a physical pain at the thought of not being able to care for them all. In the end, they brought home Kaitlyn, an unusually quiet and self-possessed little girl – barely old enough to start school – whose parents had died in a house fire.

Liam immediately threw himself into the task of raising Kaitlyn. She wasn’t ready to start school yet – she was barely speaking, even to Liam and Dawn, and it was clear that she still needed a lot of time to adjust – but Liam spent his days reading to her and coaching her on the skills he knew she would need in kindergarten. The house got a little messier, but neither he nor Dawn minded.

Intent on correcting what he saw as his failure with Autumn, Liam wanted to make sure they did whatever they had to do to give Kaitlyn a successful career as an adult. It was never too early to start thinking about these things, after all. That was the mistake he had made when Autumn was a child – he had let too much time slip through his fingers, when he could have been using it to prepare her for life. He wouldn’t let that happen with Kaitlyn.

As a start, he bought her a chemistry set for her room – Autumn’s old room. Immediately, she started spending hours in there concocting potions that bubbled and sparked. When he watched her with the chemistry set, it was almost like she was a normal happy kid.

Day by day, Kaitlyn came out of her shell more and grew more comfortable with the family. When Liam and Dawn saw her outside playing with Dzika Fish, they knew she was as ready as she would ever be. The next week, they sent her off to her first day of school.

She came home quietly proud, with a folder full of homework for Liam to help her with. Liam, of course, did so easily.

Between her new position at work and their new addition to the family, Dawn should have been just as happy as Liam. But she had a problem, and that problem’s name was Efrain Felix.

She had known Efrain ever since she had started her job, and she had never really given him much thought. He was always there in the background, a friendly face across the office, someone to eat lunch with. She barely noticed as the friendship became closer and closer, until her latest promotion placed her directly under him. It made work that much better to be able to work for someone whose company she genuinely enjoyed.

When he asked to come by her house at eleven at night, she should have known something was up.

When he showed up, he had the strangest expression on his face. Concerned, she asked him what was wrong. He responded by taking both her hands in his and confessing – out of nowhere, it felt like – that he had had feelings for her for years. He had tried to keep it hidden, he said – he knew that she was in a happy marriage, and that they had just adopted a child. But last night he had gone to a psychic who had told him he needed to share what was in his heart, and so here he was.

Dawn was appalled. She yanked her hands away and told him to leave immediately. What right did he have to come here and try to break up her marriage? To Dawn, it felt like a betrayal.

Efrain didn’t try to stick around – but when he drove away, Dawn was left with the uncomfortable knowledge that she was going to have to see him at work every day after this, and that he could easily make things difficult for her if he wanted to. And even more uncomfortable was the memory of the fight she’d had with Liam a few weeks ago, and the fantasy she’d briefly entertained about leaving him. In her daydream, Efrain had been the one she had run to.