I Remembered a Storm-tossed Night

Chapter 5

Dawn came and I slowly opened my eyes. Lo behold, I saw lovely golden rays of sunshine! Yet as I looked out of the window and into the far horizon, I saw storm clouds gathering and moving right back in. And I knew with a heavy heart that the rains would be back before the day's end. -Jolly

HBHBHB

He still remembered that storm-tossed night. Only this time, the memories lacked the heaviness it used to have. A ray of sunshine had broken through the thick dark clouds.

His brother lives!

The family had abandoned their dinner soon after Laura finished decoding the letter. How could they even think of eating then?

He had been skeptical at first, but the hope that Joe survived despite the incredible odds had won out. No body was ever found! There was a possibility. A tiny possibility, but still a possibility. And in his father's home office, he began his search. Schwarz, his mom told him. Her sister had married a Nigel Schwarz. So he searched for Paul Schwarz. There weren't many of them, and he hit pay dirt on the third one. Who would have thought his little brother would have his own homepage on the net?

'Paul's Adventures; Living Life to the Fullest.' The heading read.

He stared at the photo of the blond headed young man with deep blue eyes on the computer screen before him. It was an older face, the features more angular, but it was still Joe. The name beneath the picture said 'Paul Schwarz', but he knew in his heart it was Joe. His younger brother whom he believed dead for the past six years was still alive! It was his brother there in the wide and generous Joe-smile that was looking back at him from the screen. And it was Joe's vibrant blue eyes twinkling with barely contained mirth that were looking back at him from the screen.

A feminine hand reached past him to touch Joe's cheeks on the screen. He turned and looked into his mom's tear-filled eyes. He knew his own were also shining suspiciously bright. Behind his mom, his dad was staring at the picture, hope warring with disbelief on his face.

"Dad, that is Joe," he said his voice firm with conviction.

Three pairs of joyful hopeful eyes turned back once more to the photo on the screen, absolute in their belief that the family will be whole once more. It was just a matter of time.

He sat there for next half hour, his parents next to him, reading Joe's lively and often witty narration of his trips and experiences. He could almost feel his brother there right next to him, and hear his voice animatedly recounting that journey down the Grand Canyon, and the trek up to Manchu Picchu.

So much of his brother's life that he missed!

Suddenly, a wave of self-loathing swept over him, and caught him by surprise. If only he had not given up so easily! He knew Joe always had the devil's luck, and yet he had so readily accepted his death. He now recalled his easy acceptance at Joe's memorial service a mere week after the incident, and that knowledge clawed at his conscience.

Then the logical Frank took over. He saw how it happened. The coast guard had searched for three days over thousands of square miles. The sea was known to keep what it took. There was no way he could have possibly known.

Those rationalizations salved his conscience a little.

Suddenly, he heard his mother gasped. He turned and saw the pain in her eyes. He wondered why. His mother reached for the mouse and clicked at a link. He saw and read:

'In memory of my loving parents.'

It was a eulogy, written for…

They were killed in a boating accident.

He skimmed through the beautiful prose, and he could feel his anger building with each word. They stole his brother from him. She stole her sister's son. How could they?

'But they also saved him…' a tiny voice at the back of his mind reminded him.

But he could not forgive them. Not yet. And possibly not ever.

He heard his father gasped and the implication hits him. Sarah had sent an encrypted letter to his mother for help. And now she was dead, killed in an accident. Like his father, he did not believe in coincidences.

"Frank… looked up the newspaper articles on that accident… quick!" Fenton requested urgently.

He was already doing that, his fingers moving smoothly across the keyboard. Within minutes, he had pulled a number of articles from the various papers in the United Kingdom: The Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, etc. He scanned through the articles, sorting them chronological sequence. He knew his mother was having difficulty keeping up, but he didn't care. The accident happened three months ago. He reached for the worn envelop from London, and felt his apprehension went up a notch as the postmark showed that the letter was mailed just over three months back. He cursed at the fates… the letter must have gotten lost in the mails. Three months! Plenty could happen in three months!

The earlier articles had mentioned possibility of foul play, though eventually all articles had concluded that it was an accident.

'No…'

Panicked, he ran another news search specifically for Paul Schwarz, and heaved a sigh of relief. 'Paul' was still alive. No articles on Paul dying or missing. Thank God. For some reason, the supposed someone who was supposed to want Joe had not made his or her move just yet.

He frowned.

No! Whoever they were, they would not get their hands on his brother! He vowed.

"Frank… can you go back to that article on the Guardian? The name of the detective in charge of the investigation sounded familiar… I'm going to see if I can contact him for further details…" his father said to him.

He did as requested and got the name: Detective James Conner.

"Dad?" He called out.

His father looked at him.

"What are we going to do next?"

His mother responded instead, "we'll go and get him and bring him home..."

His father smiled but shook his head. "Laur, we can't exactly do that…"

"What do you mean?" his mother demanded, her hackles on the rise.

"Laur," my Dad said gently to her. "Joe does not remember us, your sister's note mentioned 'permanent amnesia'… and Joe is now … no Paul is the scion to the Schwarz shipping empire… he's not someone we could just walked up to and say 'hey you're Joe we're your real family and we want you home' … we might have to go through official channels for this one … and we still have to figure out where he is now and what happened…"

He was half listening to the exchange between his parents, preferring to read up more on Joe's life over the last few years. It was a soothing balm to his hurt soul, and it made him feel, for a short while, as if Joe had always been there with him. Strange, wasn't it?

Then he clicked on the next link and…

"Uh-oh," he called out to his parents. "I think we have complications… Joe's married."

They turned to him enquiringly.

Together, the three of them held their breath and waited for the wedding photos to load onto the webpage.

The woman was beautiful in her wedding finery. She was slim and almost as tall as Joe, with rich brown hair and a heart-shaped face. But what caught all their attention was her eyes and it gave them hope like never before.

"Oh my!" His mother breathed. "She got your eyes, Frank. She got your eyes…"

NB: This chapter is for Liz and her perspective on Frank's character. Without that, this chapter would never come to be.