The Long Shadow

Blair Fairchild leaned against the glass of her high-rise office window, the storm outside hammering against the pane with relentless force. She looked at the calendar sitting on her desk. September 3rd. The 50th anniversary of the day she’d last seen Evelyn. She took a breath and tried to return her attention back to the papers in her hand, but it was no use. The rain outside and the calendar inside had transported her for the zillionth time since that night. She lowered the papers in her hand and let her memories pull her back half a century to the last time she’d seen Evelyn.

Blair had been thirteen years old—Theresa Blair Kennedy at the time— long before life and 3 divorces and a dead husband had hardened her into Blair Fairchild— the fixer and political operative that scared the fear of god into most smart politicians in Chicago and a few of the dumb ones too. Back then though, the last night she had laid eyes on Evelyn, her world had only been shattered once and she hadn’t yet comprehended the dangers that lay ahead. She had been a bundle of anxiety and trepidation unmoved by her fearless 16 year old big sister Evelyn’s plea.