Whenwe get to the records room—without anyone questioning us along the way, soIguess the “ladder” thing worked—Itap my badge to the reader and the door lock clicks.Weboth go inside, trying to not act like we’re sneaking, and close the door behind us.Jacetold me what last nameTadmentioned was on the file box, along with which decade it was filed in, soIdon’t think it’ll take long to find.
“Okay,”Isay as we start walking toward the back of the aisle on the right, “Jacesaid we’re looking for the last name ‘Winfield,’ in the two-thousand-tens.”I’mscanning the names that people have scrawled onto the boxes way before my time here. “Gotit!”Isay, pretty triumphant. “WinfieldConstruction, two-thousand-eleven.”
Ipull the lid off the box asDaisysays, “WinfieldLimited, two-thousand-sixteen.Oh, and here’s aWinfieldCorpfrom two-thousand-ten.”
Istart scanning all the other boxes on the shelves and find anotherWinfieldConstructionand aWinfieldTrustfrom two-thousand-twelve and two-thousand-thirteen.Wekeep searching and find a total of eleven boxes, all with the name “Winfield” on them, and all from the two-thousand-tens.
“See?”Isay. “Thisis whyTadisn’t good at his job.Hedoesn’t pay attention to details.”
Daisynods. “Younever know when someone iseavesdropping, so you should always be specific in your narration of what you’re doing.”
Ismile, loving that she’s playing along. “Exactly.Hecould’ve said something like ‘SoI’mgoing to place this evidence of our wrongdoing in the file box that saysWinfieldLimited, two-thousand-twelve, which is on the third shelf up, five boxes from the end.’”
“Imean, it’s only courteous.”
Wetake the lids off all eleven boxes and look at the first file in case he took the easy route and put it right in front.Hedidn’t.Sowe start searching through all of them.
Itdoesn’t take long beforeIhearDaisychuckle quietly andIlook over at her.WhenIdo, she says, “Thisjust takes me back to my childhood.”
“Youspent your childhood going through boxes of files?”
“Well, not mywholechildhood.Actually, not very much of it at all.Myparents are… let’s call them ‘impulsive.’Andnot exactly fond of putting down roots.Sowhenever they got an idea for a business venture or a job that would be fun and interesting in some other location from where we lived, they’d get all excited about it, and we’d be packed up and moving to that place a week or two later.
“Onetime, whenIwas about seven or eight, they thought a super fun business would be a time capsule service.Sowe packed up and moved toAsheville,NorthCarolinabecause they thought that’d be the best location for it.Allthey could talk about was how much fun it was going to be to help people create personalized time capsules filled with photos, documents, keepsakes, and meaningful objects.
“Theyassumed the business would be a quirky blend of nostalgia, adventure, and preservation.Whatit turned out to be was a whole bunch of sifting through people’s dusty file boxes.”Shelaughs again. “Thatbusiness only lasted for… six weeks?Maybeeight weeks?Thenmy parents started talking about how much fun it would be to open an alien abduction experience and stageUFOsightings.Aweek later, the van was loaded up and we were on our way to callingRoswell,NewMexico‘home.’”
Irealize that my hands haven’t moved from the file they were on somewhere during that story andI’mstanding frozen, staring atDaisy. “Wait.Thiswas really your childhood?”
Sheraises three fingers, touching, and says, “Onmy honor, it really was.”
“Girlscout, huh?”
Shenods. “Onlyfor one summer, though.Thesame summer we lived inAspen,Colorado, because my parents were running a luxury yurt glamping service.”
I’mlooking at her, and as outlandish as it sounds,Iknow she’s telling the truth.AndIwant to know more.Iwant to know everything there is to know about her. “Whatother adventures did your family go on?”
“Um, let’s see.Whenwe lived inNewOrleans, they ran a voodoo-themed escape room, where visitors could solve spooky puzzles while learning the history of the city’s folklore.Fromthere, we went toBarHarbor,Maine, so they could run a whale-watching photography school on a boat.”
She’slooking through files as she talks, like this isn’t the most mind-boggling story ever, soItell myselfIcan manage to work whileIlisten, too.
“Oh, and inSedona,Arizona, they became crystal healers and vortex tour guides and offered wellness retreats.Oneof my favorites, though, was inKeyWest,Florida.Theydecided to be ‘pirate historians.’Weall dressed in pirate costumes and gave interactive tours about shipwrecks and buried treasure.Andit was fun!Westayed there longer than anywhere else.Probablya good nine months.”
Mymind is being blown andI’mhaving trouble focusing on the contents of this box. “Andyou really went all over theU.S.?”
“Yep.Weeven went toJuneau,Alaskafor a while so they could be ice cave explorers and survival instructors.Oh!Isthis it?”Shepulls out a manila folder of papers from the box she’s looking through and hands it to me.
Iopen the folder and thumb through its contents.Itcontains twenty-six pages of contracts that are not part of the 2014WinfieldPropertiesdocumentation.It’sall contracts relating to another company, and they each haveTad’sinitials and a recent date stamp. “It’sdefinitely it,”Isay.
Weclose up the boxes we still had open, push them back to where they were, and head to the front to make copies. “Sohow well did you handle moving all the time?”Iask her as we walk. “Thathas to have affected you a lot.”
“Itmade me get good at going with the flow.Itdidn’t do the same thing for my sister,Laurel.Itmade her crave consistency and stability pretty fiercely.Shetried to find ways to get that—for both of us—everywhere we went.Iguess it was pretty helpful as a kid to not be too fazed by the constant changes to our environment, but of the two of us,Laurelgot the more helpful traits for adulthood.”
Ipull my head back in surprise and confusion.Especiallybecause she sounds like she’s regretful of the skills she’s developed. “Youare spontaneous and adaptable.Thoseare some of the most incredible traits of all, andI’min awe of your ability to do both.Iwould love to have a fraction of your skills in those areas.”
Shegives me a curious look like she’s maybe never considered the fact that they are positive traits, and it’s baffling to me that she has seen them as being negative.
I’vebarely placed the pages of the contract on thedocument feeder and pressedstartwhen my coworker,Cameron, comes in.
