Secrets from My Twilight Zone

Could Rod Serling Be My Father?

The scent of alcohol and cigarette smoke was hanging in the air, a stark contrast to the dreams that swirled in my mother's head. Escaped from the harsh realities of her childhood, raised by her grandmother in the shadow of Pittsburgh's steel mills, she found solace in this rural Pennsylvania roadside hotel and banquet hall tucked away off the old William Penn Highway in Cresson. Her Uncle Tom, the manager, had secured her a job as a waitress, a chance to build a new life far from the troubles she left behind in the city. A secret pregnancy was a consequence of a fleeting encounter before arriving here and weighed heavily on her. Her new boss, a loquacious kind-hearted (divorced) businessman, offered an unexpected solution – an unofficial marriage, a shield from judgment in this small, conservative town. She would be his secretary.