Secret Affairs

I was born and raised in Spring Hill, a north side suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My father was a German immigrant and my mother an African American. I was the only child. My father was a bricklayer by occupation and my mother worked for a dry cleaning store in our neighborhood. Money was tight for my parents because my father did not always find work due to the nature of his job.

Despite the hardship, we were a very close family. I loved the closeness of my parents but I wanted the money and fame they were lacking. Because of my parents’ hardship, I wanted to be rich when I grew up. I said, “I will only date and marry a rich and powerful man when I grow up and be a virgin until I marry.” I thought being a virgin would give me normal relationship as my parents.

In elementary school, I was very shy and never got in trouble so my parents would not have to come to my school. I thought if other kids saw my parents, they would know how poor we were. I did not associate with many kids so they would not have to come to our very small two bedroom brick house. I believed my father built it himself. I only had one close friend growing up. Her name was Sharon and her parents were German. We had nothing much in common but we were very close.

Her parents were educated and worked for the school district. Because of her parents’ occupation, I saw Sharon as a rich and important girl. Sharon was like a sister to me and we played all the time. She shared her lunch with me most of the time because I did not always have enough food to eat. I spent weekends with her sometimes. She was an only child and her parents were very fond of her.

After graduation from elementary school, Sharon and I went to the same district school. I was afraid of losing her initially because I thought her parents would send her to a private school in a neighboring suburb. I asked Sharon why she came to district school because I expected her parents to send her to a private high school.

She said, “My parents cannot afford to pay for private school.”

I was skeptical of her answer but I kept it to myself because other kids looked at her as a rich kid.

In high school, I did not date or socialize with any boys because I did not want to fall in love with a poor kid. Most kids in my school thought I was weird and others thought I would grow up to be a nun. Despite their assumption, I stayed focused on my education. Sharon dated a few boys but she did not go steady with any of them. Some of the kids Sharon dated had similar background like her.

After high school, I went to Pittsburgh State University and Sharon went to an out of state private university on a full scholarship. I was very sad to lose Sharon’s friendship because she was the only true friend I had. We kept in touch for the first year in college and lost contact by the beginning of the second year.

Sharon rarely came home once she went to college. Every holiday, I would go and visit her parents and ask about Sharon. After a while, I stopped going to her parents’ house because I felt bad that Sharon never called me.

By the third year of college, I started dating one of my management class’s professors. He was a tall, dark skinned man. I loved him but not enough to fall in love with him. He introduced me to some aspect of business and taught me how to rise up in cooperate America.

He said, “You can rise to the top in any corporation if you know what you want and go for it without fear of who got there first.”

I learned so much from him that I decided to pursue an MBA after a BS in management. During my MBA program, he moved to a different state to start his PhD and left me alone to find my way in graduate school.

I got a few grants and scholarships during my undergraduate work so I did not have a student loan to pay. I was also lucky in graduate school that I got enough grant money to pay for the entire program. Toward the end of the graduate program, I applied for an internship in New York. I got a chance to do my internship with one of the largest magazine companies in New York because I was very smart. After graduation, I moved to New York to start my internship. My parents were very proud of my achievements and me. I started a new chapter of my life in the big city and I loved it.

A year after I moved to New York, I invited my parents to come to New York to visit me and to give them a chance to taste the good life. I was not making enough money, but I was able to save enough money to buy their plane tickets. On the way, their plane crashed and they both died in the crash. The news that my parents had died in plane crash and the fact that I’d invited them was too much for me to handle. I did not know what to do or who to turn to for help. I called the airline hot line designated for the tragedy to find out what to do. They gave me instruction on my options. It was an agonizing wait to hear back from the airline officials.

A couple of days later, my phone rang. I answered it. A familiar voice came through; it was Sharon, my childhood friend. I was happy to hear from her after so many years of separation.

Sharon said, “I heard about the plane crash on the news, I called home to check on my parents and you.”

I thanked her for asking about me. I asked how she was doing.

She said, “Fine; my parents told me you lived in New York and I located you in the phone book.”

She asked about my parents, and I told her they were among the passengers who had died in the plane crash. She was saddened by it. After a moment of silence, she expressed her sympathy and asked what she could do to ease my pain.

I said, “Nothing right now, but thanks for asking.”

She said, “I moved to New York right after college and work for a real estate management company in Manhattan as a broker.”

She asked for my address, and said she would come and see me right away. We talked a little on the phone before hung up. I was happy to hear from Sharon and happier to know she lived in New York too. She came that evening, and we were even more surprised to know we lived only a few blocks away from each other. We talked about life in college, how fortunate to have a chance at a good life, and how happy we were to find each other again. The joy of seeing Sharon shifted my thoughts from my parents’ death to the joy of finding my lost sister.

A few months after my parents’ death, the airline called about the settlement and reward to each deceased passenger’s family. In the settlement, each deceased passenger received $300,000 death benefit. Since both my parents were in the plane, I received $600,000.

I called Sharon to tell her the news. She told me not to sign or agree to anything until I got a second opinion from a lawyer. Before we hung up, she said, “My friend is a lawyer and I will tell her to call you.”

I said, “Okay.”

The next day, a woman called and introduced herself as a lawyer. She said, “My name is Monica, I’m Sharon’s friend and she told me about your case. How can I help you?”

I greeted her and thanked her for calling. I briefed her about my case and she advised me to take the money because I would lose more if I hired a lawyer to look into it. I thanked her and told her I was looking forward to meet her in person.

She said, “Likewise.”