"Mr. Norris, you have two visitors out here who say they need to talk to you," said Layla at the front desk to one of the assistant vice presidents at Commercial Credit Union in Houston, TX.
Andrew Norris glanced from the computer screen he was reading to his appointment book. He was pretty sure he didn't have an appointment for Monday at 9:30 a.m. but figured he should double-check. He hadn't looked at the book since just before he left for the weekend last Friday afternoon at five.
Feeling better that he hadn't forgotten an appointment, the 36-year-old Norris told the office receptionist to send in the visitors. As they got to his doorway, the blond blue-eyed AVP rose from his desk to his full six-foot height and came around his desk with his hand extended.
Entering his office were a pair he had never seen before: a tall handsome older man with a combination of blond and gray hair and a young blond woman who looked to be in her early 20s. They looked to be grandfather and granddaughter, Norris noted, and he wondered why exactly they had specifically asked for him.
After shaking hands with both and introducing himself officially, Norris asked the pair to sit in the chairs across the desk from his chair before the older man spoke.
"You might want to close the door. What we have to discuss is personal, not business," the older man said.
Norris raised both eyebrows at that announcement, but did as suggested and then returned to his seat. He looked attentively into the light blue eyes of the older man.
"We're sorry for taking time away from your job, but this seemed to be the best time to do this," the older man said. "I don't know how much you know about me, or us. My name is Magnus Andersen, and this is my daughter, Genevieve. I'm your biological father, and Gen is your sister, or, at least, your half-sister."
Norris froze in his seat, with his jaws open but no sound coming forth.
"I'm guessing then that your parents, or maybe just your mother, never told you about me," the older man said.
Norris did his best fish out of water routine, sucking air voraciously, but not being able to manufacture words.
"I can assure you, Son, that what I'm telling you is the absolute truth. Your mother and I had a nearly year-long affair 37 years ago, and you are the end product. The man you think of as your father didn't know anything at the time, and either he still doesn't know shit or agreed to raise you as his own.
"If you want to verify what I'm saying, it might be easiest to do an Ancestry.com DNA test. I have taken an Ancestry test, and my results are in the system, along with my tree. I'm thinking at this point that your mother wouldn't tell you the truth. As for the man you think of as your father..."
"Don't you dare disrespect my father, you old fucker!" Norris yelled at the other man, causing both him and the young woman to flinch back in their chairs.
"I know this must be hard: some stranger walking into your office and claiming to be your real father, but it's the truth," the older man said quietly. "I'm sorry to lay this on you after all this time."
"If you're so sorry, then why are you doing it?" Norris asked harshly.
"I had hoped your parents, or at least your mother, would have told you earlier, and you would have tried to find me earlier. But I gave up that hope after 20 years.
"But now my time is limited, and I could no longer wait for you to come to me. I have the beginnings of dementia, and I am trying to put my house in order before my life as I know it goes away."
Drew Norris looked at the pair as if he were seeing ghosts. He noticed that both visitors had the same coloring as he did.
Growing up, Drew always assumed he just had more of his Nordic mother than his southern European father. He had the same coloring as his mother and his mother's basic look, but with both people sitting across the desk from him, he could see himself in both of them, as well.
"I am Norwegian on one side, and Finnish on the other. My roots go back to the Vikings," Andersen said with more than a little pride.
"I have four children: three with Gen's mother, and you. You are the oldest and Gen is the youngest."
"Do you mind if I ask how old you are? You look almost too old for my mother," Norris said tentatively.
"I'm 74, about 10 years older than your mother if I remember correctly. She was a young secretary in the history department at Harvard. I was a tenured professor."
So far, everything the older man had said was in line with what Norris knew about his family, except for the father part. His parents had lived in Cambridge, MA, for several years in the early part of their marriage, and in fact, both he and his older sister, Lucy, had been born in the city. His mother did work for the university, and his father was a mechanical engineer, working in the city.
"After your older sister was born, I remember your mother being self-conscious about the weight she had gained while carrying the baby. It was only about 20 pounds, but she was always worried that your father would be unhappy with her because of that. She was talking about that at lunch one day in the cafeteria at a table right next to where I was sitting, and I remember thinking that your father was a putz if he couldn't see that your mother was a beautiful woman.
"I started making it a point to stop by the history department office and compliment her. I knew what my end game was. I was always a ladies' man. I knew what to say to eventually get them into bed, and what to do once I got them there. Yes, I was already married, but for me this was only a little more than just sex. I knew, though, that your mother kind of felt it was more than that. We had even discussed her leaving your father for me, but then my wife got pregnant with our first, and I just couldn't leave her. Fortunately, your mother hadn't said anything to your father, so she could just continue on with him like nothing had happened.
"She never told me if she was going to tell your father. I didn't ask because I didn't want to intrude. That was between them. It was their marriage."
"That was nice of you, not wanting to intrude," Norris said more than a little sarcastically.
"From what Traci said, she truly loved your father. It was just that she was feeling a little dumpy, and I was there to bolster her confidence when she was feeling low. We started our affair about a year after your sister was born, and two months later she was pregnant."
Norris exhaled after the older man finished his story, not realizing he was holding his breath.
Norris' parents moved to Indiana about a year after he was born. Two years after that his younger sister, Janet, was born.
"Even though I wasn't invited to be a part of your life, I kept track of where you were all these years," the older man said.
Both Norris and his younger sister favored their mother and had their mother's pale coloring. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that both children could take after their mother's side of the family, Norris thought to himself.
Norris sat quietly for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, a half-minute.
"Bottom line--what do you want from me, Mr. Andersen?" Norris finally asked.
"Just your acknowledgement that I actually exist--as your father, at least biologically. Apparently, your parents or your mother never wanted you to know about me, and that was their choice, but I've always known you existed, and that you are a part of me."
The older man had tears in his eyes as he stood up, with Genevieve following. Norris stood up as well, not exactly sure what was happening. He assumed the meeting was over and stuck his hand out for a handshake, but Andersen grabbed the hand and pulled the younger man into a hug that lasted about 10 seconds.
