About an hour later, Mom and Dad ushered me into Dad’s study. It was a cluttered room filled with floor-to-ceiling bookcases overflowing with books. Every surface in the room was covered in piles of books, magazines, large manila envelopes, and dozens of lined yellow pads of paper. This was Dad’s inner sanctum and a place that was absolutely offlimits to the kids. He’d told us on more than one occasion that if he caught us in his study, “the belt will wail tonight.” (He borrowed that line from a Bill Cosby routine, but none of us doubted that he meant it. Nor did we think it was funny when he said it.)

Being allowed to use the study didn’t mean I could sit in Dad’s desk chair. That was still strictly off-limits. Rather, he pulled a chair into the sacred room and cleared a small section of the desk, moving the phone so I could reach it from where I sat. Scott listened in on the upstairs phone. Mom stood behind me.

–Brian Russell,
Meeting Dad
Accents Publishing

More from Meeting Dad and Brian Russell:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Meeting Dad reviewed by Barry George
• Meeting Dad at the Accents Store

Brian Russell spent more than 20 years working in the theater as a director and producer of plays, musicals, and operas before shifting his focus toward writing. He was artistic director of Chicago’s American Theater Company from 1997-2002, where he directed more than a dozen shows. In 2007, he graduated with honors with a BGS from Roosevelt University, where his short story, “Rutherford” won the first Annual Keenan-Kara Writing Award. In May 2010, he graduated from Spalding University’s brief residency MFA in Writing Program. His prose, poetry, and critiques have recently been published at Public Republic and at the review review.