Ask Again, Yes

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

     You just never know. If we all think back we might be able to define that one moment in time, that one coincidence that played a role in how our lives evolved. We might be able to answer a lot of questions about ourselves if we can pinpoint that one thing.

     For Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope if might have been the day they were paired as partners in the NYPD. Francis was already on the force, Brian just beginning. They weren’t together long but their conversations about their dreams led them to buy houses next door to each other in Gillam. It was here that Francis’s daughter Kate and Brian’s son Peter are born six months apart and bond deeply. When one inhaled the other exhaled.

     But what goes on behind closed doors can be very different from what people see when those doors are opened and the people let out. Peter’s life was spent trying not to be noticed, to be perfect, to not make any ripples, let alone waves. He was hiding from everyone but Kate and even she didn’t really know. They were just children, after all.

     When Peter was fourteen he and Kate made a plan to escape their lives and everything goes wrong. The Stanhopes move away and Kate is forbidden to see Peter. But two people who were so bonded don’t stay away from each other forever and when they do find each other again, it isn’t easy. Baggage can be heavy and though time sifts through the events of their childhood and presents the horrible events of one night in a different light each of them still must confront those memories and test their devotion to each other.

     This is a beautiful story of love.