2004

Art called him the next afternoon.

"How did it go?"

"Terrible!" Alan complained. "The first two women I met were nuts, and let's just say that the third had objection from family members, namely her husband."

"I'm sorry to hear that man! Art comiserated. "Maybe you could join a club or something?"

"Maybe" Alan sighed.

"You could go today!"

"I've got to volunteer at the shelter" Alan reminded him.

"Maybe you'll meet a rich widowed benefacteress." Art teased.

Alan rolled his eyes.

2005

He turned to Dawn"You're lucky to have had a mother who didn't lie to you"

Taken aback, Dawn, Greg, and David didn't quite know what to say.

"She made me miss so much!"he began to complain again. The alcohol made the anger, resentment, and hurt come out more. He turned to David"Would it have killed her to let me see you on the weekends at least! It was our right!"

David couldn't help but think about how it might have been harder for Alan to deal with. Neighbors would have noticed the sight of an outsider picking up Charlie every weekend.

"If nothing else, your mother loved you!" Dawn argued, though part of her kind of blamed Margaret, as she always sense the woman was the reason the reunion Dad wanted was delayed for so long.

"It was a love based on lies!" Charlie snapped and drank some more. The trio looked at each other. Greg was reminded of David when he got angry.

"At least you had your mother for longer than I did!" Dawn pointed out. She had been a teenager when her mother was killed by the drunk driver. "And she left everything she knew to go with you to Princeton.That's gotta mean something"

"She only gave me more attention because of my genius." Charlie had drunk so much that he had gotten cynical and even more brooding. "I was a mistake!"

"Don't you say that!" David scolded him. "You are not a mistake!"

"I'm the result of an affair! How am I supposed to feel!" Charlie snapped. "How would you guys feel if you had found out that everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie and that you were the product of a affair?"

"Charlie, remember what I said about trying to focus on the here and Now?" David reminded him. Charlie ignored him and drank more.David continued softly"Your mother was human, like everyone else. Kids don't come with instruction manuels."

"She had twenty nine years to realize that I should have been told the truth!" Charlie argued. "Sure I would have been angry, but it's better than finding out by accident!"

"Sometimes, it's easier to deal with things with time and distance." Greg remarked. "Maybe she worried about how it would have affected your relationship with your stepfather and older brother..."

"Don" David said.

"I mean, would Don have felt as responsible for you, if he had known you already had two siblings?" Greg continued.

"How would Alan have handled everyone including you, knowing about this?" David added in agreement with David.

"I've got an idea!" Dawn suddenly said.

"What?"

"Why don't you write your mother a letter, telling her what and how you feel. Then, you can put it in a bottle,and throw it into the ocean?" she hated to see her brother in pain.

"Isn't that littering?" Charlie didn't really feel like writing letters.

"That's what I did when my mother died, and it did wonders!"

Instead of answering Charlie brooded some more.

TBC