The Last Hope
Chapter 2
"The windy city"
Candy was working for doctors without borders for months now. She loved working for those who needed help. In third world countries, there was never too much humanitarian help. Albert had finally found her trace in July after her departure. She was in Laos, in a clinic, helping the poorest patients. Some needed very expensive surgeries and Candy was paying for it with her money.
Albert arrived at the hospital and he saw her. She had her back turned and her hair were tied in a pony tail with a rubber band. The sun had made her hair lighter. She was talking to children. A nurse went to tell her that someone was looking for her. Albert had approached her and he was smiling. Candy turned around smiling too. Her eyes got wide opened, she was surprised.
- Albert! She said jumping to his neck! Oh Albert! I've missed you so much!
Albert looked at her surprised and he hugged anyways in arms against him.
- Candy…
- How is everybody? The great aunt? How's her rheumatism?
- Candy…
- Oh Albert… wait…
She let go of him and put her arm on her back, showing her prominent belly… She was breathing…
- Candy… you're…
- Pregnant, yes I know that,… she said continuing breathing hard.
- But …you're breathing… are you having contractions, by any chance?
- How did you guess?
- And you're still working? Candy, you're really not reasonable!
- I work in a hospital Albert, I won't have to go far when the time comes…
- You're going to please my by going to lie down on a hospital bed, right at this moment!
- Yes daddy, said Candy smiling, let's go, I'm going to lie down, before Terry comes…
- Terry? Oh…
- You get why I couldn't stay right? Especially after he got married…
- You could've told me instead of disappearing like that…
- I miss you all, believe me, but seeing Terry married was beyond my strength…
- If I calculate correctly, you bubbly joy at Thanksgiving is what produce…
- Terry…
They arrived in the maternity ward where a single room was waiting for Candy. She went to change and went to lie on the bed.
- You came to get me, said Candy
- Yes…
- I'm not coming back Albert, they need me here…
- We also need you…
- Not like the people here… there is so much misery Albert, we have to help them…
- You're spending money, that's how I finally found your trace…
- I pay for surgeries for the less fortunate, I save their lives.
- I'm not reproaching you my darling… I want to help you… Your goodness makes me think about my sister, Rosemary, Anthony's mother…s he had created a foundation to help the poor in America… wen can open a branch to help those who are in third world countries. You could take care of it and decide which case is urgent or not…
- Oh Albert… it would be wonderful…
She stopped to breathe a little. She was in pain. The doctor came in…
- Candy! Finally! I thought you were going to give birth standing up!
- Oh Michael, stop joking! Terry is coming very soon…
- He's in a hurry to come to this world… it's only been eight months…
- He's in a hurry to run in the streets…, said Candy
She looked at Albert and she said:
- Michael, let me introduce you to Albert, my father…
- Pleased to meet you, said Albert
- I'm happy to meet the famous William Albert Andrew, said Michael shaking his hand.
- Albert is going to open an foundation to help the less fortunate with the necessary surgeries…
- You have no idea how much that's going to help people, said Michael moved, thank you so much…
- You're welcome. I want to help to get all those people better too…
- Thank you Albert, said Candy
Albert stayed with Candy and he was with Candy when she gave birth to Terry…
- It's a girl! Said Michael smiling, and she's got some powerful lungs!
Candy was smiling in sweat. Albert cut the umbilical cord and a nurse cleaned up the baby and gave her to her mother.
- Hello you! Said Candy smiling, hello Terri-Ann! Yes, that's your name… like your daddy and my best friend… Here's your grandpa…
- Hello you! Said Albert smiling, welcome to the world!
Candy was so happy. She had her little girl, she was helping the less fortunate, everything was for the best in the best of worlds…
oOoOoOoOoOo
Years passed and Candy started having weird dreams. Terry needed her… She woke up in sweat. What was that all about? Terry was married to Susanna, he didn't need her at all… The poor families from third world countries, needed her, Terry was a big star, filthy rich… he didn't need her!
Terry-Ann was now eight years old and she was helping her mom in the kitchen. They were baking cookies together. There were a lot of little girls in Candy's kitchen, who were taking the cookies to sell them… they had eaten enough of them, but their first reflex was to sell the cookies to give the money to their parents. One of the little girls had an old magazine where she was cutting the pages to wrap the cookies for the customers. What was left was the end of an article on Terrence Grandchester and how his life had gone down in the dumps… Candy took the article and read it. She was breath taken. Terry had lost his little girl, Terri-Ann's sister and he had lost the will to live? Susanna had abandoned him? What about his mother? What the heck was going on?! Her heart exploded in her chest, her dream came back to her mind. Terry was calling her unconsciously… She had to go see him, she had to help him… It was time for her to get back to America… Albert was finally going to get what he wanted for years, his daughter and granddaughter back home.
Terri-Ann was playing with her friends and she was acting in a theatre they build singing… like her daddy, her daughter loved playing different roles and she loved singing. She had to go see Terry, she had to help him because he had lost all hope ever since his daughter, whom he adored, passed away…
"He would've love my Terri-Ann too, said Candy to herself.
So Candy made arrangements to go back to America. She left Michael in charge of the Rosemary Andrew's Foundation and she took her little girl to go back to America.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Have you seen the old man
In the closed-down market
Kicking up the paper,
with his worn out shoes?
In his eyes you see no pride
And held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She's no time for talking,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.
Chorus
In the all night cafe
At a quarter past eleven,
Same old man is sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his tea-cup,
Each tea last an hour
Then he wanders home alone
Chorus
And have you seen the old man
Outside the seaman's mission
Memory fading with
The medal ribbons that he wears.
In our winter city,
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn't care
Chorus
Terrence Grandchester had made a paper on that song when he was in school, but honestly, he never would've thought he would one day be one of those homeless people the song was taking about… He now understood better than anybody, why some people ended up in the streets, most of them had no choice, but some of them wanted to be there, because it was a way for them to escape reality…
Terrence Grandchester was with homeless people in Central Park. He liked spending time with people who were not asking him for any explanations, people who like him, didn't care about the world. He only ate so that his belly wouldn't hurt because it was empty and alcohol hurt less when his belly was full. He thought about drugs, but even with his depressed mind he was thinking: he didn't want to throw his money out the window with drugs. He didn't care for the moment but in his mind he was thinking that he could left his money to a cancer foundation or something like that… His little Nelly would've probably survived if they had found a new treatment… It was decided, he was going to leave all of his money to cancer research… So no out of priced drugs from the streets. He could've ended his days, but the religious education he got, was forbidding him from doing it. He maybe wasn't going to church every Sunday, but he knew that committing suicide was a coward way out and he wasn't a coward… at least not to that point, because he was a coward to have abandon everything by refusing to accept the death of his little Nelly and move on…
There was a group of gipsies who spent their time playing fortune tellers to passers-by in exchange for a fee. There were children with them and a little boy fell on the floor crying. His mother was busy playing the fortune teller and wasn't paying immediate attention to her child. Terry walked to get the boy up and console him. When the mother was done, she ran to them.
- Thank you so much sir…
- Terry, call me Terry
- Thank you Terry, she said, and for your kindness, I'm going to tell you your future for free…
- I don't believe in those things…
- You believe in destiny, don't you?
- No, I don't believe in destiny, otherwise I wouldn't be here in a park wandering like a homeless man…
- Destiny is us, Terry, it's up to us to make sure it's beautiful
- Poppycock!
- The windy city… you'll find your answer in the windy city…
- What? What do you mean by that?
- The windy city Terry… the windy city… good bye and thank you again!
The gipsy woman left with her son in tow. Terry was a little unsettled… The windy city? What was that? He didn't think about what the gipsy woman said, and he continued his day doing nothing… he was bored doing nothing! So he started picking up empty cans, he needed them to exchange them for money. He fell on a group of young girls talking…
- You're going to Chicago? The windy city?
- Yes, I found a place near the med school…
- But Andrea, Chicago is so far away…
- I have to get away from my family, if I want to become independent and this is the opportunity to do it officially, my parents can't say no, because I'm pursuing my studies…
- I'm going to miss you…
- I'm going to miss you too Anna…
Terry's heart jumped in his chest. "The windy city" was Chicago? Of course! What an idiot he was! Living in the streets made him stupid too! Chicago? Candy's city? His destiny was in Candy's city? But where has Candy been during all this time? Yes, he was married, but she could've sent him a condolence card, or something to express her sympathy. He had looked among the mail, but there was nothing coming from Candy. How could she be so cruel and abandon him when she needed her the most? His little Nelly was gone, she too had abandoned him for ever, like his mum, like Candy… Women he loved kept abandoning them… But his destiny was in Chicago? What were the two girls names? Andrea and Anna? Coincidence? Or was it a sign? A sign of what? Candice White Andrew and Annie Brighton? Chicago? No, it didn't mean anything… But he had nothing better to do with his days anyway… Chicago…
He heard the two girls say:
- You'll come to see me and we're going to sing that song from Frederic Francois in French… remember? We learned it in school…
- I remember…
And they started singing:
Chicago Chicago Chicago
Quand je vais revoir mon vieux grand-père à Chicago
When I go see my old grandpa in Chicago
Il sort ses histoires son révolver son borsalino
He tells me tales about his guy and borsalino
Et deux verres sur une table et mi-vrai mi-fable
And with two glasses on the table half-true, half-tale
Il me raconte la prohibition
He would tell me about the prohibition
[Refrain] :
Alors moi je me vois près de lui à Chicago
So I see myself near him in Chicago
Jouant toute la nuit au casino
Playing all night in a casino
Alors moi je me vois près de lui à Chicago
So I see myself by his side in Chicao
Tout le monde m'appelle Franky Borsalino
Everybody called me Franky Borsalino
Chicago Chicago Chicago
Dans un vieux sous-sol près du palais il se cachait
In an old basement near the palace where he hid
Fabriquait l'alcool qu'il revendait au juge de paix
Makin alcohol he would sell to the judge of peace
Un peu hors la loi
A little outlaw
un rien de maffia
A slight of mafia
Voilà pourquoi il est toujours là
That's why he's still there
[Refrain]
En mille neuf cent vingt quand il a quitté le pays
In 1920 wen he left the country
C'est tellement le vin qu'il fabriquait était trahi
It's only the wine he made that betrayed him
A peine débarqué sans avoir parler
Barely offboard without talking
C'est de whisky qu'il s'est occupé
He took care of whisky
[Refrain]
Chicago Chicago Chicago
- I'm going to buy Borsalinos and I'll wait for your visit !
- All right, I can't wait!
All right, if Terry was refusing to listen to that gipsy woman, that son was screaming loud and clear for him to go to Chicago to search for his destiny. In the end, the cans he picked up were going to serve him after all. It was either that or go back to his place to get some money, and he really didn't feel like talking to his assistant and his mother or see anything that would remind him of his little Nelly. He continued picking up empty cans and bottles too because he needed money to get to Chicago, the windy city…
The scene had just changed for our young protagonist, it was now time to go to the windy city where his destiny was waiting for him, but did he make the right decision? The windy city will tell us when the time comes…