And Marcus, yes. Patricia doesn't know I was going to ask you first. A pause. I wanted to know what you'd say. He held the phone.
Did I pass? He said he heard something on her end. The sound that had been on the phone line that Sunday night when he'd agreed to Monday at 10:00. Not quite a laugh, something older than a laugh. Call it day 60, she said, and hung up.
Marcus set the phone down on his desk, looked at it. Then he got up and walked to Patricia's office and knocked on the open door. She looked up. Mrs. Bennett's office is going to call you today, he said.
A commercial real estate publication wants to feature the building. They want your perspective as the primary operational voice. Patricia stared at him. Primary? She repeated.
Your name, your work, your documentation. He held her gaze. You built the operational knowledge base that made everything else possible. That story exists because of you. I just wanted to make sure it was told right.
Patricia sat down her tablet. She looked at him for a long time. You went to bat for that. She said it wasn't a question. You went to bat for this building for 8 months before I showed up.
He said, "Least I could do. " She nodded once slowly. The kind of nod that carries years of context. "Okay," she said. "Okay," he said. He went back to his desk.
That evening, he picked up Deshaawn and they went to the park the way they did on Thursdays when the weather allowed Deshaawn running the perimeter with the focused energy of a small person who had been sitting inside all day. Marcus walking behind him and thinking and not needing to fill the silence. Deshawn circled back at some point and fell into step beside him. "Dad," he said. "Yeah, I told my teacher about Clare that she came to my presentation. " Marcus glanced at him.
What did your teacher say? She said it was nice that you had someone. Deshawn looked straight ahead. I said she wasn't just someone. Marcus was quiet for a step.
What did you say she was? He asked carefully. Deshawn shrugged the way 8-year-olds shrug when they're saying something important but don't want to make a big deal of it. I said she was the person who showed up, he said. And that some people show up and some people don't.