Hey everyone! Thanks for reading and enjoy the story! Let me know what you think in the comments!

"Do you want to see the rest of his books now?" Soo-Ling asked.

"Not yet," I replied, "Can I spend some more time here first?"

"Of course you can! I had a copy of the key made on rush. It should be done by the end of today or tomorrow morning at the latest. It's for you. You're welcome here whenever you want." he pat my shoulder and stepped outside with Mei. I could hear them talking in some dialect of Mandarin in the hall, but ignored them as I sat at my dad's desk.

I opened the big bottom drawer and found a stack of notebooks. I would have to flip through those at some point.

I opened the middle drawer and found a few books with sticky notes and tabs fanning out from all three open sides.

I opened the top drawer and froze. I had never seen a real one before and it was kind of scary to think my dad owned one. I guess this is a bad neighborhood so he probably needed the protection, but I quickly shut the drawer and decided to ask Soo-Ling about it later.

I opened the top drawer of a dresser and found some clothes. They were musty and some of it had moth holes in it, but most of it was okay. There were sweatshirts, jackets, t-shirts, etc. I assumed this was all my dad's clothes. When I picked up the last sweatshirt I dropped it almost immediately and shrieked.

"Ellie?!" Mei burst into the room and Soo-Ling had some kind of metal arrow head of a string in his hands. I was very confused.

I pointed to the drawer and Soo-Ling let out a breath as he moved the dropped sweatshirt aside and found what I had. There was a gun, money, a blood crusted knife, and a pack of condoms. I wasn't sure which part of what I discovered was the most scarring.

"Let's look at the rest of the books okay?" Soo-Ling gave a sheepish laugh and started to lead me away to the other room.

After hours of looking through my dad's things and finding out that the other room had originally been my Uncle Griffin's, I sat on my dad's bed and picked up his pillow. I hugged it to my chest, burying my face in it. It smelled musty, but being with things of my father's was making me very happy now.

I found a discontinued bottle of cologne in the bathroom that Soo-Ling said belonged to my dad and I sprayed it in his room, wondering if this was how it was when he still lived here. I wondered if the sound of foot steps carried between the two bedrooms, what kind of sounds bled into the room from outside in the night. I wondered if the neighbors were nosy or noisy, maybe both, though this seemed like the kind of place where folks kept to themselves. Most of all I wondered what dad did here. If he read books all night or slept like a log. I wondered what he wrote about in the notebooks I had yet to dare and open and what kind of life he led. He was only seventeen when he lived here.

"Ellie?" Mei poked her head in the door, "Soo-Ling says he has somewhere else he wants to show you."

"Coming!" I said as I picked up my backpack from beside the desk. I looked at the first notebook in the pile and wanted to take it with me. Soo-Ling said I could have whatever I wanted from here and that I could have a key.

I decided to take the notebook with me. I could come back and read through them and my dad's books one at a time. Maybe once I finish I'll understand him better than I did before. Maybe talking to his friends like Soo-Ling and whomever it was he led will help me understand too.

The next place we went was pretty far away, way up on 59t street. Soo-Ling said this was where my dad lived with Mr. Eiji until the day he died. This apartment was sold by my grandfather when he acquired it after my dad died. There wasn't much in there anyway, just generic things. Soo-Ling explained that he actually bought it in the first place so that he would be able to do his work better. I have no idea what that meant I assumed it must mean his old neighbors were noisy or this place was closer. We couldn't go inside, but I could see the building itself and imagined that faceless man in my head with blond hair and green eyes starring out the windows many stories above street level, smiling at the view.

"There's one other place I want to take you, if that's okay," Soo-Ling said, "And there are some people who really want to meet you."

"Did they know my dad?" I asked.

"Very well, they were there with me and him and Eiji in his final days and for many years before that." Soo-Ling replied.

"Then yes, I would like to meet them, very much so." I smiled with an eager nod.

"Follow me." he told Mei as we got on her bike following after him.

We arrived to a run down street and parked near the middle of the block where a few guys were standing around smoking cigarettes.

"Boss!" One of them waved to Soo-Ling and jogged over after stamping out his dropped cigarette.

"Yang!" he yelled something at the man in Mandarin and he nodded, turning around and running off down a set of stairs and we followed after him at a much less hurried pace.

"He's going to let everyone know we're here." Soo-Ling said, "I hope he also manages to calm them all down a bit. I've never seen that lot so excited before."

"Really?" I asked.

"I didn't mention you were Ash's kid, just a relative who wanted to know about him, so for all they know, you're his cousin." he replied.

"Is it okay if they know I'm his daughter?" I asked.

"Only if you're ready to deal with a room full of grown men crying and falling all over you."

Mei laughed and we headed inside.