Текст книги "Gemini"
Автор книги: Penelope Ward
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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
She looked like an angel that day, wearing a pink dress, her hair blowing in the wind, her cheeks pink from the shock of seeing me sitting on her front steps. Late that same night, I got a text from her.
Cedric, I really appreciate your
taking the time to explain everything
to me through this letter. I need time
to absorb all of this and ask that you
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please not contact me until I have had
that opportunity. Thank you for the
ring. It’s beautiful, although I am not
sure if I can wear it, but I will cherish
it.
It hurt so badly to hear her tell me not to contact her, but I was relieved that she read everything I had to say. I had been completely honest and for the first time since I met her, I had nothing to hide anymore.
That was five months ago, though, and Allison was nowhere to be found now.
Mom told me she had taken a leave of absence from working with Callie three months ago, but assured her she would be back. I still don’t know how Allison managed to keep working with Callie for the first two months after the letter, but she did. She was amazing like that.
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Walking back into the kitchen, I noticed that Stephanie was already sitting down drinking coffee and eating her waffle.
“Sorry, I took so long.”
“No worries, Blue Eyes.”
I suddenly felt nauseous when she called me that. It was what Allison said she used to call me before we met.
My mind switched to thinking about whether taking Stephanie to my mother’s today was a good idea.
“So, what’s the verdict on today?” she asked.
“Do you like pork?”
“Is that what you guys call it these days?” Stephanie winked.
“Ha…no, I mean actual pork, as in pig meat.”
“Yeah…it’s okay. I prefer chicken.”
“My mother has a cookout every Labor Day and we roast a pig. It’s kind of a European tradition she picked up from her 574/727
grandmother. Would you want to come with me? I sort of can’t get out of it.”
“Is the pig alive?”
“Oink. Oink.” I winked. “Just kidding…no, it’s already dead on arrival.”
“Oh, thank God.” She sighed.
“Don’t thank God, till you see its face.
It’s still pretty gross, but the meat tastes great when everything’s done,” I said taking a bit of my waffle.
“Sounds like a plan. I’d love to meet your family.”
Hearing her say that made me cringe because I knew I wasn’t ready for this with Stephanie, but I just didn’t have the energy to get out of it.
Not knowing what to say to that, I repeated, “Sounds like a plan.” CHAPTER 34
ALLISON
Three Months
Earlier
The harmonious fire Moon brings interesting people crossing your path, Gemini.
Their conversations are enlightening and leave you inspired over their encouraging words. You feel refreshed and motivated to continue on the course of those pushed-aside dreams.
The fasten seatbelt sign lit up and my heart was racing in anticipation of what would greet me once I left this plane. I 576/727
always hated flying but mostly takeoff and landing.
As the plane slowly descended, I prayed that it wouldn’t hit the ground in a ball of flames. My nerves were acting up for a lot of different reasons right now.
When the jet touched down, I mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to the man upstairs and realized that my breathing was still rapid, even though the plane had safely landed.
Thanking the pilot as I exited, I walked slowly down the long hallway that led to the inside of the terminal.
I didn’t know what they looked like, but they said they would find me. I hoped this wasn’t a mistake as I looked around and saw that no one made eye contact.
Suddenly, I turned around and saw a smiling woman who looked about sixty wheeling
an
equally
beaming
man
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approaching me slowly. The looks of amazement on their faces confirmed that I had found them.
“Allison!” Elaine said as she hugged me tightly, then pulled back to examine my features. After a stare that seemed to last forever, she said, “You are stunning, honey.
Oh my God.”
I must have been blushing. “Hi Elaine.
It’s great to finally meet you,” I said nervously.
I bent down to hug Ed who was in a wheelchair. I knew he was being treated for cancer, but was surprised to see how weak he actually was. When I pushed back, Ed’s tears were flowing, as we made eye contact.
“I can’t believe this. It’s surreal. I am sorry for being so emotional. I know this must be strange for you,” he said.
“Don’t worry about that. I understand,” I said as I took his hand, still bending down.
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I stood up and the three of us walked silently together to the baggage claim and I separated from them to get my luggage. The few minutes alone were enough to grab my bearings again.
We resumed walking to the parking garage, as I wheeled my suitcase and Elaine wheeled Ed.
“We thought we could stop for lunch on the way home,” Elaine said.
“That would be great,” I said even though I was hardly hungry, as nerves had taken away my appetite.
Ed turned around to face me in the elevator. “Do you like pancakes, Allison?” I smiled down at Ed. “Yes, I do.”
“There is this great Pancake House right off the highway on our way home. You can get breakfast or lunch and the best pancakes you’ve tasted anytime of day, lots of different kinds too.”
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“That sounds great, Ed.” I could tell he probably wasn’t feeling well and hoped he wasn’t pushing himself being out like this.
As Elaine helped Ed into the car, I loaded my suitcase into the trunk. The ride to the restaurant was quiet, with Ed occasionally looking back at me and smiling as we made small talk.
“Was the flight okay?” he asked.
“As good as could be. I don’t really like to fly.”
“I don’t blame you.” He laughed.
When we got to the restaurant, the smell of the food helped bring some of my appetite back. I ordered blueberry pancakes per Ed’s suggestion.
I sat across from Ed and Elaine as we waited for our food, looking around the room to avoid the awkwardness of staring right at them as they examined the similarities between their dead daughter and me.
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“So, Allison, is there anything you want to ask us?” Elaine asked.
After a long pause, I started to recall the questions I had gone over in my head prior to the trip.
“I guess I want to know how long you knew about me and why you never tried to find me sooner.”
Elaine looked down to gather her thoughts and then raised her head. “We knew for several years…probably from the time Amanda was five that there had been a twin, because a friend of mine who worked at the adoption agency confided in me after she left her job. We had no idea prior to that. She made it clear that there was no other information about your whereabouts. In retrospect, I wished that we had looked for you sooner, so that you could have met your sister. We made a decision when Amanda was young, though, that we would tell her when she was eighteen and let her decide whether she 581/727
wanted to find you. I am so sorry, Allison,” Elaine said.
I looked over at Ed and he was starting to cry again.
“Ed, please. It’s okay. You need to save your energy. I am not upset with you, I promise.” I reached over across the table and grabbed his hand and we stayed like that until the food arrived. I had just met these people, but my heart broke for Ed and I wanted to comfort him.
The three of us ate quietly untilled said, “Mandy used to love this restaurant.” I let that sink in for a minute, and then dropped my fork. “Did you just call her Mandy…was that her nickname?”
“Only Ed called her Mandy…that was his nickname for her,” Elaine said, as Ed smiled at her.
Chills ran through me as I recalled the song that played at the diner the very first 582/727
time I saw Cedric: it was Mandy by Barry Manilow.
I picked up my fork and ate again in silence as I thought about that eerie coincidence and seemed to feel her presence in this booth. It might have been my imagination, but I felt like she was here…now…I could sense it. And Ed’s use of the name today and my recollection of the song could be her way of showing me she has been here all along. I kept this realization to myself.
Ed
interrupted
my
thoughts.
“Allison, I want you to know, we thought we were doing the right thing all those years. If we had known what would have happened, we would have handled things differently.” I closed my eyes briefly and nodded.
“I know.”
After a bit more silence, Elaine asked, “Can you tell us a little about your childhood?”
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I smiled as I recalled my mother.
“Sure. I had a great childhood. I guess you could say Amanda and I were both lucky to be placed in good homes. My mother, Margo, was single and always wanted a child of her own. She made a good living and was on a waiting list and one day out of the blue got a call about a baby girl. I was hers ever since that day. She was my everything and provided a great life for me. I never had a father, but she was enough. She worked, but she never missed a dance class, never missed a soccer game. And when I grew up, there was nothing I couldn’t confide in her about.
She died from cancer a couple of years ago.
So…it’s been hard. She was my best friend.” As I started to cry, Ed reached across the table and grabbed my hand again and joined me in tears, saying, “So you lost your everything and we lost ours.” I nodded. “Yeah,” I said sniffling and over the course of the next hour, I 584/727
reminisced more about my mother. They shared memories of Amanda, who, it turns out, was a cheerleader in high school and won some competitions. She also studied abroad in Spain during the summer before her senior year in high school and was a grade A student. She had been majoring in journalism at Northwestern.
The lunch was emotional but the ride to their house was quiet.
When we pulled up to a beautiful but modest home in a nice suburb of Chicago, I realized my sister must have had the typical suburban upbringing.
Elaine brought Ed inside to his bedroom upstairs and when she returned I followed her down some stairs off of the kitchen into a converted garage that had been made into a bedroom.
“This was Amanda’s room. I thought maybe you would like to sleep here. It’s not exactly how she left it, but some of the 585/727
things, I didn’t touch, like the bulletin board of photos over there and the items on the chest of drawers. I donated her clothes some years back, so the closet is empty. Feel free to hang all your things. It’s been a guest room for many years now.”
I looked around the pretty pink walls and décor. It was the epitome of a feminine room. There was a pink bedspread with small white flowers, vintage Pottery Barn and the wallpaper had thick pink and white lines.
There was one window at the front of the room, which let a lot of sun in and a light summer breeze came through it.
“I’ll let you get situated. I am going to run upstairs and get you some towels and things,” she said.
“Thanks so much, Elaine.”
Left alone in Amanda’s room, I sat on the bed, looked around and then closed my eyes relishing the breeze. If I thought I could 586/727
feel her presence at the restaurant, it was definitely out in full force right here. This room would be the epicenter, actually.
I immediately walked over to the bulletin board that hung on the wall. There were dozens of pictures held up by thumb tacks: Amanda’s high school graduation, cheerlead-ing shots, a prom picture with a blonde boy who looked like Zach from the show Saved By the Bell. Then, I noticed the same picture that I had found of Amanda in Cedric’s binder. I took it off the wall and looked on the back.
To my gorgeous girlfriend, thank you for agreeing to pose for me. Love you, baby.
Cedric.
I swallowed hard at seeing Cedric’s handwriting and from seeing the words ‘Love you.’
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I stuck that photo back onto the board noticing another one of a young Cedric and Amanda, smiling from ear to ear, wearing St.
Patrick’s Day hats and green shirts. It was always hard to see his beautiful face, but it was even harder to see him looking so happy with her, especially when she looked identical to me when I was eighteen. It was all so strange.
I turned that photo around and noticed that the date was March 2002. It was taken a month before she died. I felt tears start to form as I tried to block the accident and how she suffered before she died out of my mind.
She was so young. And she wanted to find me…she wanted me there. I had no idea she even existed and I was probably sitting in a mall food court eating taco bell when she died.
I returned to the bed, clutching the photo in tears. There were so many 588/727
unknowns…would she and Cedric have gotten married and had the baby? Would she and I have met and become close? I would never know. As I continued to stare at the photo, my confused emotions continued. The photo made me jealous because he clearly cared for her, but it also made me mad because he was possibly going to break up with her a month later. And was she pregnant in the photo?
Just then, Elaine startled me, when she returned with the towels and saw me crying. She sat next to me on the bed and saw the photo in my hand, taking it gently away and looking at it.
“Cedric told me everything, you know,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Honey, we had put him in a very difficult position, Ed and I, asking him to be the one to find you. We never really considered, his feelings…how he might feel about you, 589/727
what should now be obvious…that he could fall for you. We just wanted to know you were okay and for you to know about Amanda, because that was her wish. Cedric was already in Boston and with Ed so sick, it made the most sense to ask him to confront you.”
“What exactly did Cedric tell you about us?”
“He called sometime after you found the photo at his mother’s house. He was in tears, Allison. He confessed that he had found you months before, but had kept it from us and that you two had grown very close all those weeks. He was devastated because he knew he’d lost you.”
“That was a real shock, Elaine, finding out about her that way.” I sobbed.
Elaine put her arm around me. “I know it must have been…I am so sorry.” After a pause, she continued, “I asked him 590/727
something that night though and I think you should know about it.”
I turned to her suddenly. “What?”
“Well, I could hear how tormented he was. I asked him if he was in love with you.
He didn’t even hesitate, Allison. He told me he was.”
I let out a deep sigh. That was hard to hear. Even in his letter, he never used the word love. He had never said those words to me at all.
“Can I ask you something, Elaine?”
“Sure, honey.”
“How have you been able to forgive Cedric so easily? I mean, he thinks he’s to blame for the accident, but how do you feel?”
“Oh, honey. He wasn’t to blame for her losing control of the car. He was a kid who made a bad choice, like so many others.
Cedric stayed by her side every second in that hospital. He would have given his own life to save hers and told me so many times. I 591/727
do believe she was his best friend, but they were kids. Amanda was eighteen and Cedric was only twenty-two…he was older, yes, but still so young and immature. Deep down, I cannot be sure they would have lasted had the accident never happened. Neither one had lived their lives yet. Even if she had survived and had the baby, I still think it would have been too much for them to sustain their relationship at that age.
“How did you feel when you found out she had been pregnant?”
“We were shocked, of course. But we found out after she had lost the baby and while she was fighting for her life, so the issue wasn’t dealt with in the same way it might have been had she and the baby been healthy. I knew my daughter was on the pill, because we talked about that so I don’t know what
happened…I
guess
nothing
is
100-percent.”
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“Thank you for answering my questions, Elaine. I know it must be hard to relive everything.”
“It’s okay, Allison. You know, when Cedric told me how he felt about you, I have to be honest. I didn’t understand how he could fall in love with someone so quickly.
But now that I have met you, I think I understand exactly how that could happen.”
*** My trip to Illinois was only supposed to be a few days.
We spent most of the time at the house, making meals, playing cards and getting to know each other. Elaine cooked Amanda’s favorite Beef Stroganoff for me and showed me how to make it. They also showed me some of Amanda’s childhood videos and we all cried for different reasons: 593/727
Ed and Elaine for what they lost, myself for what I never knew.
Overall, it felt as though I was visiting a long lost aunt and uncle. We got along well and they made me feel like part of a family, especially, Ed whose calm and welcoming demeanor got me to open up about everything that had been bothering me these past couple of years.
I poured my heart out to him about Nate, dropping out of grad school, losing my mother, finding my purpose and about falling hard for Cedric. He gave me some good advice and urged me to take one day at a time and that everything would work out. He told me to only worry about the day at hand.
And today, there was no place I felt more wanted or needed than this brick home in Naperville.
The day before I was supposed to leave, Elaine had to work and someone had come to the house to stay with Ed. Elaine 594/727
had told me that Ed had to quit his well-paying job as a technology consultant when he began receiving cancer treatments. Elaine, who never had to work during their marriage before, now had to return to the workforce to help pay for medical expenses, so she worked as a teachers aide at a local school. Part of that salary also paid for a visiting nurse type person to help take care of Ed while Elaine worked. This person would also help make meals and take Ed to appointments.
Elaine had mentioned that since I had been around, Ed seemed happier than he has been in a long time and he seemed to be stronger.
As I sat drinking my coffee, while a woman named Alicia tended to Ed, I had a light bulb moment. Why couldn’t I stay a little longer? I wasn’t exactly eager to get back to Boston and if Ed was in good spirits with me here, maybe I could help take care 595/727
of him for Elaine and save them from having to hire help?
That night at dinner, before I had a chance to propose the idea to Elaine, Ed must have been reading my mind.
“Allison…I really wish you didn’t have to go so soon. I feel like we were just getting to know each other.”
“Well, it’s funny you say that. I was thinking of something and wanted to run it by you both.”
“Oh?” Elaine said.
“Well, I was thinking…maybe I could stay for a while. Not just to hang around…but maybe I could be the one taking care of Ed while you got to work? We could play cards and I could keep him company during his chemo…what do you think?”
“My goodness, Allison, that’s quite a sweet proposition, but don’t you have a life to get back to…what about your two jobs?
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“The diner won’t miss me and I can take a leave of absence from my other job.
Sure, my clients need me, but I think right now, Ed honestly needs me more. Besides, I owe it to my sister. She would help if she could be here.”
Elaine smiled but looked hesitant to accept my offer, untilled spoke up.
Ed turned to us, clearing his throat.
“Elaine, if I might give my two cents on what Allison is proposing?”
We both looked at him and let him speak.
“Aside from losing Amanda, battling this disease has been the darkest time of my life. Allison, whether you know it or not…your being here has taken that darkness away. I don’t want to keep you from your life in Boston, but if you are serious about staying here…there is nothing I would want more.”
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My mouth formed a huge smile and I got up to hug him.
“It’s settled then,” I said.
*** I needed them as much as they needed me. That’s what it came down to.
Two and a half months later, Ed’s treatments ended and he was in remission. I had been there every day, with him for every treatment and it was safe to say, I had a new number one fan.
I think my bond with Ed, more so than Elaine, had something to do with the fact that I never experienced having a father.
My mother couldn’t be replaced, but there was no competition for the role of Dad.
Ed quickly became very protective of me and the advice he gave me was more to the point and blunt than I remember getting from my Mom. Overall, I was figuring out 598/727
that even though I never felt I needed one, it was pretty damn cool to have a father figure.
One night after dessert, Elaine was cleaning up in the kitchen and Ed and I were sitting down in the living room when he turned to me. “I want you to know something, kid. If I knew that your birth mother had given birth to two girls, I would have adopted you too that day you were born. You would have been my daughter. It would have been for the sheer fact that you were Amanda’s twin. But I never got that opportunity. But let me tell you, now that I know you and the type of person you have become, I know that the right person raised you, because she did a tremendous job. I also know that I would choose you as a daughter today for more reasons that just the fact that you are genetically related to Amanda. You are the best kind of human being, the kind that always puts others before herself and I would have been so proud if your sister 599/727
turned out to be just like you. I want you to know that from this day forward, you are not a fatherless child. You have a father. I want nothing more in this life to give you back just a fraction of the love you have shown me these past several weeks.” Tears flowed heavily as I put my head on Ed’s shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you, Ed.”
He squeezed me tightly and turned to me, “That being said, Allison, as much as I don’t want to lose you, I think you need to face your life in Boston. I know that you were running away from all of the hurt and that hurt let us have you for a while. But I think until you face what you were running from, you won’t have the same kind of peace that I have found in facing you.” He continued, “We haven’t told Cedric you have been here all this time, because I know that’s what you wanted. I know that you don’t want to face him…but when 600/727
Elaine gave me the phone the night you confronted him with the photo, I heard the tears and pain in his voice. I knew then that you must have been pretty damn special for him to be so torn up about losing you. He loves you, Allison. I couldn’t have told you whether or not he truly loved Amanda the same way…but he loves you…that I know for sure.” I thought about what Ed said. Cedric was in bad shape that night, barely unrecog-nizable when I walked in on him with that long beard and his normally translucent blue eyes were dark and tired. Could he really have been that torn up over me?
Did he really love me?
Did I love him?
I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
***
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We decided that I would stay another couple of weeks and head back to Boston the day before Labor Day.
The plan was for me to fly out to Chicago again to visit in a couple of months and then Ed and Elaine would come out to Boston for the holidays.
I notified both the diner and Bright Horizon’s that I would be returning after Labor Day if they would have me back and requested that I be placed back with my original clients, although I was still waiting to hear on that.
My last day in Naperville, I wanted to go somewhere that I hadn’t been yet, but needed to visit before I left: Amanda’s grave.
I asked Ed and Elaine if it would be okay if I went alone, so Ed let me borrow his car.
As I drove into Pinewoods Cemetery, I followed the directions that they carefully wrote out for me so that I could find the plot.
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I had stopped at a florist and picked out pink roses, which Ed told me, were Amanda’s favorite. I remembered the dried up pink rose in Cedric’s binder, the same binder where I found the photo and wondered if he took it from her burial service.
After driving up a hill and admiring the grassy scenery, I finally found the exact spot where my sister was buried.
Upon seeing the terracotta colored granite headstone, I immediately broke into tears, placing the roses down.
Amanda Rose Thompson June 2,1984-May 1, 2002, Loving Daughter It crossed my mind that had we known each other, it might have read ‘loving daughter and sister.’
I started to pray silently and willed Amanda to forgive me for all of my conflict-ing emotions surrounding her. I told her that I loved her, even though we had never met 603/727
and promised that I would always look after Ed and Elaine.
Staying for about fifteen minutes, it dawned on me that my fresh flowers were not alone, not by any means. There were dozens of flowers, some old and some new strewn about.
Ed and Elaine had told me that with all of Ed’s treatments, they hadn’t been there for several months, so I found it peculiar that some, not all of these flowers seemed fresh.
They weren’t planted; they were just laid down, like mine. Someone has been here…very recently. I wondered who it was, if not Ed and Elaine. I was happy that someone was thinking of my sister, though and visiting her.
As I turned around to leave, I took one more look back at the stone and blew a soft kiss. It was returned with a soft breeze and I liked to think that maybe it was her kissing me back.
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When I returned to the car, I felt sat-isfied that I could now return to Boston having covered all of my bases here in Illinois.
I couldn’t wait to get back to Ed and Elaine’s and tell them about the flowers.
Maybe they would know whom they were from.
As I started the ignition, the car hesitated and wouldn’t start. That was strange. I tried it again and the same thing happened.
Was the battery dead? I knew nothing about cars.
Shit.
I didn’t want to bother Ed and Elaine.
Thankfully, I had AAA and immediately took my card out of my wallet and called the number. AAA said the approximate wait time would be twenty to thirty minutes, so I could handle that.
Twenty minutes came and went and as I sat in my car, I noticed another car pull up behind me. It was an older rust colored 605/727
Toyota Corolla. It was pretty desolate out here, so I crossed my fingers that it wasn’t someone shady.
A teenage boy with shaggy brown hair and tattooed covered arms got out and walked slowly over to the headstones. He was carrying purple hydrangeas and my heart dropped when he stopped right at Amanda’s stone.
Oh. My. God.
This was the person leaving the flowers. But who was he? He couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen.
He stood in front of the stone with his head down and then kneeled down to place the flowers down.
I stared at him for a few minutes and my curiosity was about to kill me, so I got out of the car, slowly approaching the boy.
“Hi,” I said.
The boy jumped and turned around.
“Oh…hey. You scared me,” he said.
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“Sorry…um…did you know Amanda?” I asked as I approached him.
The boy was silent for a few seconds then spoke. “Yeah…um…well, not really. I didn’t really know her, but—”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I mean, I never really met her. I don’t even know what she looked like…but she was related to me.”
“Related? How?”
He looked me up and down. “Who are you?” he asked.
I hesitated, and then decided there was only one answer. “I am her twin sister.” The boy stepped back as if he was scared of me and squinted his eyes as if to examine me.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Allison…and you are?”
He seemed stunned by my answer and didn’t immediately respond.
“Jake…my name is Jake.”
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“Are you the one who has been leaving all these flowers?”
He nodded. “Yeah…well, not just me.
Me and my Mom.”
“Who is your Mom?”
The boy didn’t say anything…his hands started to shake and he took out a cigarette and nervously lit it, blowing the smoke away from me. He then slowly turned to look at me and I got the first real look at his eyes. They were amazing…green with gold speckles.
They were my eyes.
“Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you my brother?”
He paused, took a long drag of his cigarette, and then blew it out slowly.
“Yeah.”
***
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I had a brother… a brother…Jake.
And he was a badass.
He figured out right away what was wrong with the car and had it fixed well before AAA ever showed up.
We stood outside leaning against the parked cars, just staring at each other and without the distraction of the broken down vehicle, we were faced to discuss the inevitable.
“How did you find out about Amanda, Jake?”
“About six months ago, this investigator guy came to our house. We live on the south side of Chicago. His last name was Samuels. He asked my mother if she had given birth to twin girls in 1984. I was like…what?”
“So, what did your mother say?”
“She just looked at me, like she was afraid to say anything, like she wanted me to leave the room. And then I nearly shit my 609/727
pants, because she started crying…like really hard and told him, that yeah, she had. I was like…holy shit. She told him she was messed up then, ran away from home and was on drugs and that some dealer had gotten her pregnant.”
I nearly fell to the ground at that revelation and felt like I was going to vomit.
That answered one of my questions. My birth father was a drug dealer.
Jake continued as I listened stunned.
“She wanted to know why he was looking for her and asked if they…you know…you…the girls were okay. The investigator told her that one of the girls had died in an accident a long time ago and that the other one lived in Boston. That’s you?”
“Yeah…that’s me,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief.
“So, Mom was like hysterical because he said Amanda was dead. Then she asked, how he found us and the investigator 610/727
explained that Amanda’s parents hired him to find the other sister and that in the middle of all that he found my mother, even though they hadn’t asked him to.”
“Your mom…what’s she like?”
“She’s cool, Allison, really cool. It’s just her and me now. She was real messed up when she was young, like when she was my age, but she ended up getting clean, went to school, became a medical assistant and met my dad, but he died in a motorcycle accident when I was five, so it’s just us.”
