“Who is Kevin Duffy?!”
The man at the bar was curious.
“Maybe the future of America, who knows. He’s one of the ones that make sense and he backs it up with real results” the bartender chimed in.
“Oh yeah, another one huh? We’ll see, change we can believe in and all that…” he was still skeptical.
“Just listen to him” she said serving him his first drink. “He might just change your mind.”
The man wasn’t convinced he was more interested in her than the TV.
“Where you from?” He asked.
Here we go she thought. As he threw back his first shot.
“Silver Spring,” she replied
“No I mean where was you born?” He asked clarifying.
“Holy Cross Hospital,” she said.
The man chuckled. Still making eye contact. The kind she encouraged. The kind that came out after the first shot and a joke they thought was well timed and funny. The kind that said they were flirting and she allowed them to show their interest by ordering more drinks and tipping with a smile.
“No I mean what’s your heritage?” He asked not deterred.
She tried to sidestep,
“You’ll have another, Yes?”
“Yes! Yes another and yes I got it, you’re Ethiopian!” He said excitedly
“No. Close but no. I’m from Eritrea, it’s next to Ethiopia.” She corrected him.
And now she was going to have to explain.
“You know what I’m Carlos, what’s your name?” he asked.
“Dina” she said reluctantly.
“That’s a pretty name,” he said smiling.
Here we go, she thought. She tensed up waiting for him to try his hand.
But upstairs on the rooftop bar relaxed and smiling Kevin was a true believer. He was sure of himself in a way most politicians were but his belief was purely mathematical. He believed in numbers. And his were excellent. Approval ratings in the 70’s through his first six months in office; his confidence was only masked by his self deprecating humor and his humility. He was being interviewed for the first time after his landmark senate victory.
The skyline behind him — the Capitol dome glowing ivory against a late-March dusk — looked almost staged. But the man in the simple navy suit didn’t look staged at all. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, like he’d rather be anywhere else than on national television.
The rest of the rooftop was assembled for a small crowd to watch the interview up close and personal. Regulars, supporters, fans. Kevin’s mother and his son. Downstairs a crowd had started to gather in the Autozone parking lot across the street from the bar. You could see right up on the rooftop, the lights the cameras. Word had gotten out, “Duffy bout to go live”
People who knew him well were excited and nervous at the same time. Would America see what they saw? Was he just a local phenomenon? Kevin was about to be introduced to America at large. He was ready.
Margaret Brennan smiled into the live feed.
“Senator Duffy, most Americans don’t know you. Who are you before the title — and how did a kid from the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast D.C. end up here in the U.S. Senate?”
A soft laugh rippled from the crowd gathered on the rooftop. Kevin didn’t return it. He took a breath.
“I’m really just a dad looking out for his kid,” he began. “I grew up in a neighborhood where you had the well-off on one side of the avenue and the not-so-well-off on the other. When I had a kid, I wanted to put him on the well-off side.” He said matter of factly.
He shrugged like it was obvious. Like every senator started that way.
“If I wasn’t so good with tech, I would’ve gone to Woodson. I was good, so I went to McKinley. But I was lucky. A lot of the guys I grew up with… they weren’t into tech like me.” He said
Brennan nodded. “But you weren’t just really good. You were a prodigy.”
Kevin winced at the word. “I wouldn’t call it that. Things just made sense to me that nobody else could get.”
“I’d say so,” she countered. “You started your own IT company when you were nineteen.”
“Nah,” he said, waving it off. “It started way before that. Before I even got out of high school. I was always the guy who could set up computers, unlock phones — all that. But my big break came in 2012. I was going to a tech school getting an IT cert, and when I got off the 90 bus right down the street, I stopped to talk with one of the guys from the neighborhood. As we’re talking, somebody inside this bar is waving at me. I wave back — she gives me the ‘come here’ signal. Now mind you, I was only 18. A lot of the bouncers knew it. So when she waved me in, I was cautious. But she asks me, ‘Are you the guy who knows how to work the iPhones?’”
Brennan smiled. “And what’d you say?”
“‘Yeah — for a price. What do you need?’”
People in the crowd laughed — a lot of them knew him and already liked him.
“She tells me she bought this iPhone and forgot the password. Wants me to unlock it. And I’m like, ‘Are you sure this is your phone? People steal phones and want me to unlock them — I don’t do that.’”
“Boy stop playing! This my phone! This my bar! How you think I let you in honey.” She laughed at his obvious humor.
“Okay. Let me take a look.’’ He said.
Kevin pulled out his laptop and opened it up. She handed him her phone like a new dad handing a baby over to be changed. Smirking he pressed the home and power button simultaneously, waited 10 seconds and released the power button. The screen went completely black.
“Wait is that normal?” She asked alarmed.
“Yeah it is” Kevin chuckled as he connected the computer up to the phone.
“What’s so funny?” She had caught the chuckle.
“How you handed me the phone”he said
“And how did I hand you the phone” she asked.
Another smirk.
“Clickety clak!
clickety clak!
clak clak !!”
Kevin’s fingers flew as he answered.
“Like you wanted to get rid of it instead of use it”he said jokingly.
“Well this technology is confusing “ she complained.
“It can be” he said
“And?”she asked wanting more.
“Clak!
Clak!”
“If you let it,” he said
Kevin pointed at his laptop screen. Her 4 digit passcode was there.
“How did you do that!?” She asked
“I just went around the security.” He stated.
“Just like that” she asked surprised.
“Yeah just like that, Apple got certain types of security that’s easy to get around if you know what you doing” he explained.
“Ok, so what’s so special about this phone? My brother got it for me and it’s just been a nuisance, does it do anything other than call people and lock me out?” She whined.
“Hell yeah! Watch this, go to settings” he said handing her the phone.
“Ok,” she said tapping the gears icon.
“Now go to General, and now Accessibility”he said.
She tapped on both words fingers flying frantically, happy she was learning something about her phone.
“Ok now tap that toggle button on. Place your phone facedown on the bar and put it on silent. Now call that phone from the bar phone.” He said.
She picked up the bar phone, dialed her number and the iphone flashlight pulsed.
“Now when it’s loud and dark in here, you can see when you get calls or text messages” Kevin explained
“Damn I like that, I NEED that” she said excited.
“Now let me show you something else, hold down that button on the bottom until you hear a sound “ he directed her.
She did.
“Ding! Ding!” And a microphone appeared on the screen. Underneath it was a question: What can I help you with?
“You can set reminders, you can dictate texts, now when you got your hands full all you gotta do is hold that button and bam!” Kevin said demonstrating with his hands.
She looked skeptical, but leaned into the mic. “Remind me to order kegs at ten tomorrow morning.”
The phone beeped again, a little text box appearing with the exact calendar entry perfectly formatted. Siri's robotic voice confirmed it.
“No typing, no opening the calendar app while your hands are full of glasses,” Kevin said, closing his laptop and sliding it into his backpack.
“That’ll be fifty bucks.” He said joking but not joking. “And if anyone else need help with their IPhone you know where the 90 bus drops me off.”
——-
“And just like that I had more clients than I could handle. Somebody tells me I should hire a few clerks just to manage paperwork — then actually incorporate so I could protect and grow my money. That happened right after I turned nineteen. I rented a booth in PG Plaza fixing phones and tablets. That work — paperwork, scheduling, customer service — that’s what I taught my employees. But the tech part? That was all mine.” He said with an air of confidence.
Brennan leaned back, studying him — the surprise success story, sitting right there, breathing.
“So before the Senate… you were just a neighborhood tech guy?” She asked.
“Yeah, I wasn’t a 9-5er a little more free lance than that but yeah.” He said nonchalantly.
Silence. Respectful, heavy.
America heard him.