Getting to Know Each Other: A Short Story About A. Kelly

Aidan would go to bed early and be ready for her first thing in the morning. Imagine, seeing his daughter after 30 years! His stomach had been going from fluttery to lead all day. He should have taken the day off, he couldn’t even concentrate. Then he could have had all the lunch things delivered and all put away, ready for tomorrow. But there’d been that big presentation. Who scheduled presentations on Fridays? The senior vice president, apparently. Well, everything could be delivered in the morning and be fresh. Now he was home, he could relax.

He’d ordered those new gourmet cheeses on special. And some smoked salmon and specialty lettuces. And he’d remembered creamed vegetables. Faye had loved creamed food when she was little. Wouldn’t eat anything until they’d poured cream on it. He’d ordered some tapioca, too, very creamy. But then he worried she’d think he still thought of her as a baby, so he’d also ordered a rum cake. That was very adult. Would make a nice dessert with the specialty teas and chocolate liqueur candies he’d ordered. Maybe these would loosen him up, help him feel less awkward around her.

What does a father talk to his long lost daughter about, anyway? They’d spent hours emailing and talking by phone since that first time he’d called her. He’d received a card in the mail. She’d written to him, writing that her mother was Nan Kelly and giving her date of birth. She thought he might be her father. If he was, would he call her? He’d been so nervous, but, of course, he called.

And now she would be here tomorrow, and he would finally see her again. Erase the long years wondering where she was, how she was doing. Faye’s mother had wanted sole custody. Her new husband would adopt Faye. Aidan had been a struggling musician, unable to provide anything for a child. He’d agreed.

Okay, rehashing the past wasn’t helping him sleep. He had to get some sleep. He wanted to be rested up for the big day. He would have a leisurely breakfast and clean the kitchen, make sure the dining room was neat and spotless. Again. He’d been straightening and cleaning all week. There was really nothing else to do. Except the delivery.

The clock ticked loudly and the fan whirred, but his mind raced with the memories and questions. Would Faye look like her mother? Or maybe like his sister or his mother? Or would she look like no one at all? He’d recognize her anywhere, wouldn’t he? Wasn’t that the way it was supposed to be? Surely a father knew who his child was. But what if he didn’t?

The banging on the door startled him awake. Aidan jumped from bed and ran to the door. Oh lord, he’d overslept. How could he have overslept?

 He threw open the door, startling the young man holding his delivery.

“A. Kelly?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s me.” Aidan nearly snatched the parcels from the young man’s arms. “Thank you!” he remembered to yell as he slammed the door.

He had no time now. She’d be here soon. Not only had he overslept, the delivery was a little later than he’d expected. Later than they had said it would be. He had to shower and dress and shave. Crap, crap, crap. This was NOT how he expected things to go. He needed coffee. Now.

He stuffed everything into the refrigerator. Not everything needed to be in there, but he would sort it as soon as he had his coffee and showered. He turned on the coffee maker, then ran for the shower.

After he had washed and shaved and dressed, Aidan felt better. Now for some coffee. He still had time to sort through things before she arrived. She lived only six hours away. Not so close she could come all the time or they could see each other every week, if they wanted, but not too far to be an obstacle to frequent visits. Once a month maybe? He wondered if she’d driven over yesterday or was getting up super early this morning. You could never tell with young people. Wait, she wasn’t technically young. She was 35 after all. Right? Yes, he’d been 20 when she was born and he was 55, so that made her 35. Goodness, his daughter was a grown woman.

Aidan took the creamer from the fridge, prepared his coffee, then took all the parcels from the fridge and placed them on the counter. Let’s see, the cheeses needed that new cheese board and cutter he’d recently bought. And he had his mother’s antique china plate for the rum cake. And the canned vegetables, hmm, would he heat them now or wait until she arrived? Better wait.

Aiden opened the first package and discovered three boxes of specialty unsalted butter, pastry flour, and a large bottle of almond extract. Well, that wasn’t on his order. Hoover’s Market must have accidentally mixed some other items in with his. The service was new, after all, so maybe whoever packed the parcels was in training. Here, these surely were the canned vegetables. He opened another package and instead of vegetables pulled out canned soups. And a couple cans of chickpeas. Was someone planning for a power outage? Who needed two dozen cans of soup? And those terrible thin wheat crackers. He’d ordered specialty herbed crackers to go with the cheese. And olives and nuts, the smoked salmon and pate. Where was his stuff? Here were packets of ready-made meals to pour over rice or pasta. And packets of microwaveable rice and pasta. The last package held a Trivial Pursuit game and a cookie press. Well, that explained the butter and flour.

It dawned on him that he’d been given the wrong package. He looked at the order slip and saw his name, A. Kelly. But the address was wrong. And the list of items was wrong. This was some other A. Kelly. Someone who liked salt-loaded soups and crackers, Trivial Pursuit, and looked as if they would be baking cookies until the cows came home.

His heart started racing, and he felt his face flush. Those idiots at the shop! No, that idiot young man with the goofy grin who banged on his door. And was late! He’d call them and tell them exactly what he thought. Then his brain felt numb. He couldn’t think straight. How could he call them? Surely they’d already delivered his stuff to the other A. Kelly. And if he called the shop to order more, first, they probably wouldn’t have the gourmet special order items he’d wanted, and second, they wouldn’t be here before Faye arrived. And there was no time to go out and get back before she came.

Aidan sat and gulped his cold coffee, surrounded by someone else’s stuff. That butter is going to get soft, he thought absently. He was frozen. Unable to do anything but sit and wait for the day he’d thought would never happen to go horribly wrong.

Could he call A. Kelly? Where was that person? He looked at the address again. Well, that was a whole 20 minutes away, 40 minutes round trip. There was just no time. He pictured the card he’d picked out and asked them to add to his delivery. It had seemed to capture his hope in a new beginning that might happen now that they were reconnecting. But that card was driving toward another house and would not be there to help him communicate his regret and love to the daughter he’d let go of 30 years ago.

The doorbell rang, and he saw a blurred silhouette at the door’s frosted window. Dark brown at the top of the figure, orange clothes. As he stared, the figure’s head changed shape, as if turning. Was she as nervous as he was? Certainly not as sad. He stood up, rubbed his clean shaven face, and his own dark brown hair, and headed for the door.

When they talked about it later, it was just a great story. They would laugh and reminisce and marvel at their memorable reunion. “Remember that cookie press?” she would say. “It would press out four or five cookies and then the next one would just be a big blob. Where did you get that recipe again?” Even though she knew. She’d been there.

Aidan opened the door and looked into a younger version of his own face. A dark haired woman in an orange knit dress stood there, looking at him searchingly. She had the same color eyes as his sister.

“Come in,” he said. They hugged tentatively. They were strangers after all. “Come in,” he repeated shyly.

“So I have to confess,” he began, and her face took on a worry that he hurried to erase. “No, nothing bad. No big family secret. Not yet,” he joked. “But I made such wonderful plans for our lunch today, and the delivery driver gave me the wrong package. I only just realized what happened, you see. So I was just trying to get my head around it when the doorbell rang. Surprise,” he finished weakly.

“Oh!” she smiled. “Is that all? No big family of half siblings waiting for me in the other room?” She joked back. “What was delivered?”

Aidan explained to his daughter that he’d planned a nice adult lunch with some of her favorites like creamed vegetables and gourmet cheeses and a nice buttery rum cake. But what had arrived instead were cans of soup and microwave meals and some kind of cookie making set or something. “I don’t really have much else here to eat. We can go out instead, I guess. Anywhere you like.”

“I’m flexible,” said Faye. “But if we go out, it might be too loud to talk.  I don’t mind microwave meals and soups. Besides, I’m allergic to cheese. And cream.”

“When did you become allergic to cheese?” After he’d said it he realized what a stupid question it was. How much could he know about her, anyway?

“Well, I actually found out just a few years ago. It wasn’t a fact of life you would have missed out on.” She smiled. “We could eat this food. And I know a great way to make cookies using chickpea liquid. Let’s try out the cookie press.”

“Well, it actually belongs to someone else. All of this does, really.”

“Hoover’s Market kind of owes you for the mix up. They can give another cookie press to the other A. Kelly.”

And so Aidan Kelly and his daughter Faye started with a course of tomato soup and wheat thins. Then had a course of microwave stew on rice for Faye and microwave cheese sauce on pasta for Aidan. And topped it off with chickpea almond cookies using the cookie press. While in between cookie sheets, they played Trivial Pursuit.

And that day Aidan learned that the daughter who had his hair and his sister’s eyes also had his sense of humor and was smarter than his sister. That making cookies and playing Trivial Pursuit with his newly discovered daughter was surprisingly fun and a good way for them to get to know each other. Among other things.

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Cheese plate by Eveline de Bruin from Pixabay/filtered from original
Alarm clock by Free-Photos from Pixabay/filtered from original
Cake by e2grafikwerkstatt from Pixabay/filtered from original
Welcome mat by YouComMedia from Pixabay/filtered from original
Hat rack by Bertsz from Pixabay/filtered from original
Cookie dough by RitaE from Pixabay/filtered from original