True Story by Michael Finkel

Author:Michael Finkel
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 0060847026
Publisher: PerfectBound
Published: 2011-05-15T16:10:50+00:00

A few months after Zachery's birth, Longo accepted another promotion from Publishers Circulation Fulfillment. His new position, Midwest field manager, placed him on what Longo called "the executive fast track." He traveled on business nearly every week, overseeing the efficiency of New York Times delivery in a region extending from Nebraska to upstate New York. "I was spending my evenings in top-notch restaurants & multi-star hotels," Longo wrote, "all of my choosing & none of which came out of pocket."

His salary was excellent. He bought himself a pool table, a car, and a high-end suit for every day of the workweek. The family moved out of their apartment and into a newly purchased three-bedroom home. MaryJane left her job and devoted herself to mothering Zachery. Soon she was pregnant again. "It seemed as if our prayers were answered," wrote Longo. "To me it was exactly how a proper family should be run…. I had followed in the footsteps ofmy Dad." He was twenty-three years old.

But the new job also brought unexpected changes. Over the first four years of their marriage, MaryJane and Chris had spent precisely one night away from each other, when Longo attended his great-grandmother's funeral in Iowa. Now Longo traveled three or four days a week. This lifestyle, he wrote, quickly grew monotonous. He was away when Zachery took his first steps, away when he spoke his first words. "I really started to worry about what else I had missed or was going to miss," he wrote. "The lack of physical contact had a distressing effect." He compared himself to the father in Harry Chapin's song "Cats in the Cradle," a man who was too busy working to guide his son through the difficulties of adolescence. "I kept getting on those flights at the outset of each week," he wrote, "but now I just wanted to be home."

On April 30, 1998— a day that Longo made certain he was home— MaryJane gave birth, this time sedated, to a daughter. They named her Sadie Ann. The following morning, Longo was called away on business; a newspaper-carriers strike was looming in San Francisco, and Longo's help was needed. There was no way out of it. So he left his wife, son, and newborn daughter and flew to California. He was away for two weeks. "It was at this point," wrote Longo, "that I determined that I would soon quit this job." He vowed to MaryJane that he would not miss Sadie's first steps.

He kept his word. He walked away, he said, from a promising career at Publishers Circulation Fulfillment. (The human resources department at PCF confirmed that Longo had been an executive of the company, but would not comment on the reason for his departure.) Longo took a new job selling fireplaces to the home-building industry for a company called Fireplace & Spa. He was promised a decent salary, though less than he was previously earning. The real benefit of his position, he wrote, was "being able to be w/ my family every night.

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