Excerpt: Semi-Charmed Life

Part One: Ends of Things

Chapter One

Five. That was how old I was the last time I remember loving my dad. People called my father "Charm" Hadley. Mostly because of his way with women and the boyish dimples that formed in his cheeks when he smiled. We called him the sperm donor, or the A-hole depending if my mother was in the room.
But mostly, we didn't call him anything because he was never around. The last time we saw him, I was six, Luke was four and Marshall was two. Mom was pregnant with what would have been Charm's pride and joy - his first daughter. They'd picked out Alison for a name.
The last memory I have of my father him driving our rumbling Toyota station wagon up to the front entrance of the hospital and ordering me to help my mother and brothers inside while he parked the car.
Charm Hadley never parked the Toyota station wagon. Mom nearly died due to complications of child birth and Alison was still born.
Outside of pictures, we never saw our father again. And I never missed him.

I walked into Rick Karsh's office, clutching my briefcase with clammy hands. I had a good idead why I'd been called into his office on two o'clock on a Friday, especially with the toll the economy had taken on the Big Three, but I still hoped I was wrong, still hoped maybe they were just cutting out benefits or freezing our pay or something, anything but the drop of the ever looming axe.
Rick Karsh had an exquisite office high up in the GM building. The collection of round spires that had formerly been known as the Renaissance Center, were an icon in the city of Detroit, the centerpiece of the downtown skyline. The centermost and tallest building was adorned with the GM logo, another icon for the Motor City. If only the company could've remained so.
Ordinarily, I would've been enthralled by the magnificent view Rick's all glass exterior offered. I loved the energy of cities, found them invigorating. I loved to visit new ones, big or small. All the different people pursuing their daily lives made me feel as if anything was possible.
But I couldn't enjoy the view today, and I was anything but energized as I sat down across from Rick. On the contrary, the life had been sucked right out of me and I had to struggle to take in each nervous breath.
I tried to smile, but it was weak. My mouth was dry and my heart was pounding somewhere up by my Adam's apple. Rick scowled at my briefcase. "Do you ever go anywhere without that thing?" he asked.
I rubbed it lovingly. Linus with his blanket. "My whole life's in here."
He raised his arm and the fabric of his white shirt stretched tight over his muscular bicep as he scratched his shaved head. "You should get a Blackberry."
I forced a smile. "I keep hearing that." Maybe this wasn't the end after all.
Rick let out a regretful sigh. "I won't bullshit you," he said. "You probably know why you're here."
That was it. Hopes and dreams crushed. The bottom fell out of my stomach and images of missed mortgage payments and rising credit card balances danced through my head. I noticed how warm it was. Didn’t he run the air conditioning in here? It was July outside after all. The slight scent of Rick’s cologne was suddenly overpowering.
Rick shook his head and continued. “This economy … I didn’t think it could get any worse. The bailout didn’t do shit. They call it a market correction but what they really mean is nobody had as much money as they thought they did and no one knows where it’ll all end up when everything is done ‘correcting’.” He seemed genuinely disgusted. “We’re hemorrhaging, Scott, and of course the guys upstairs think we can fix it by cutting more salary.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I asked a stupid question. “Is it my job performance?”