Elisabeth Lewis-Gornham went through the huge pack of letters which had been in her letter-box. Not that she expected anything special. She got advertisement and bills anyhow everyday. But when her gaze meet a black envelope she hesitated. Who the hell would send her a black envelope? She looked at the backside and let the letter fall down with terror. She hadn't read this name, had she? After a few seconds she looked again at the envelope on the floor, hoping she read wrong. But she hadn't. At the backside stood JULIE Cooper-Nichol. Elisabeth did know only one person with this name.
Michael Lewis sat on his couch watching football, like everyday. What should he do otherwise? His girlfriend had left him three weeks ago and he had lost his job also. So why bother? His life was a mess by hook or by crook.
25 years ago he had had a family. A wife and three daughters. Elisabeth, Abbie, Cindy and Julie. The four women in his life. Until he had lost his job and had fallen into drinking. Elisabeth had thrown him out after he had slapped Abbie. Michael had never forgiven himself for this slap in the face. He had shown up at her doorstep many times trying to apologize. But Elisabeth hadn't let him. She had taken his kids and had moved to another adress. His kids. Abbie, the eldest and reasonable one. Cindy, the little rebel. And Julie, his little babygirl. All three had been great kids. He just had been to blind and drunk to see it.
He remembered the night of his moving out like it had been yesterday.
Abbie, who had been 19, had encased herself in her room. Cindy, 17 years old, had been sat on the steps crying. Julie, just 14 or 15 years old, had been trying to stop her mother from throwing out her dad's clothes. But she hadn't achieved anything. Elisabeth hadn't listened to her.
Only years later he had heard something from his family. Abbie and Cindy had married and had gotten children. Michael had visited them ones or twice.
Julie had married, too. But not some guy from Riverside. She had fished herself one of the richest guys of Newport. Michael had been proud of her first. She had been the only one of the family who had gotten out of Riverside. Julie had become a mother also to a little girl named Marissa. God, she had been an adorable thing, just as her mother.
But Julie hadn't forgotten. She hadn't forgotten her dad hadn't cared over the family for years. And she had let him feel this. She had told him at Marissa's first birthday to leave. Forever.
A knock on his door got Michael Lewis out of his thoughts. He forced himself to stand up and opened the dor to see his neighboor holding a black envelope in his hands.