Before we get started on this new chapter, I would like to thank SamandDianefan10, iloveromance, and LoisAndClarkSuperfan for reviewing and being so supportive of this story. Thanks guys! Also, I have poll up on my profile. The question might seem weird, but my mind has been creating alot of backstory scenes and I was just wondering if you readers would be interested in reading those. (It won't hurt my feelings if you're not :0) ) But, I do plan to post more polls throughout the story so be on the lookout!
So, on to the next chapter!
All through dinner, I had to concentrate on not confronting my mother. Small talk was exhausting anyway, but when something as big as that was gnawing at me from the inside, it became painful.
We were through with dinner by seven-thirty, so I asked Frederick to take me to see Diane at Cheers. He dropped me off and I walked down the stairs and into the bar. Normally Uncle Sam wouldn't let someone so young into his bar, but since I was his goddaughter he made the exception.
"Hey, kiddo." Uncle Sam greeted as he wiped down the counter. " What brings you here?"
"Nothing much," I lied. "Is Aunt Di around?"
"In the office."
I walked to the back and let myself in.
"Aunt Di, I need your help."
"Didn't Lilith teach you how to knock?"
"This is urgent!" I slammed my hands down on the desk. "What do you know about a man named Frasier Crane?"
She stopped typing. In fact, she completely froze.
"Where did you hear that name?"
"I saw it on my birth certificate. He's listed as the father." I said. "What do you know about him?"
She didn't say anything. She started to bite her lip like she was debating whether or not to tell me.
"What, did my mom put you under her gag order, too?"
"Analeigh, yes. I knew your father." She said, turning away from the computer and facing me. "But, the entire thing is a really long story. A story that I will tell you when you're older."
I huffed in frustration. I started to walk out of the office, but I stopped dramatically as I put my hand on the door knob.
"Aunt Di?" I asked, trying to look innocent.
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember when you told me that as my godmother, you would always be there for me and that I could always come to you if there was anything that I didn't feel comfortable talking to my mom about and that you would never turn me away and that you would always be honest with me and-"
"Analeigh, don't pull that card." She said. "When I said that I was thinking more along the lines of boyfriends and underwear and things of that nature."
"All I'm saying is that by breaking such a big promise such as the one you made, you are going to single handedly cause me to have a hard time trusting people and I will not have any successful relationships and I will become even more introverted than I already am and I will become a hermit and live alone with nine cats. " I said, throwing my hands up. "Now, is that what you want?"
"You definitely your mother's daughter." She said.
I walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair and propped my feet up, satisfied. "I know."
From there she told me the story of how my parents got together, and how she gave my mom a makeover and my dad realized that he was in love with her. She showed me a recording of a talk show they were both on, and, while most teenagers would be uncomfortable watching their parents make such obvious ineuendoes, all I could focus on was the mystery man sitting opposite my mother who I knew so well. My mind kept thinking that somehow, I was half of each of those people. I kept picking out the physical traits that I inherited from each parent; while I realized that most of them came from my mother ( my fair complexion, my dark hair, my petite stature), my blue eyes came from Frasier Crane.
I was so mesmerized by all of this information Aunt Di was giving me. I found it slightly ironic that the man that was never in my life introduced my mother to all of the people that were so influential in my life. He was the person that brought her to the place that, besides school, I spend more time at than at my own house.
I had always wondered who my dad was and now I was looking right him, well a younger version of him. But know that wonder had been turned into a need.
"Aunt Di, I have to meet him." I blurted out.
"Analeigh, this is why I didn't want to show you. " She said. "You are never satisfied with just a little taste, you want the whole thing."
"I'm just like any other normal human being tring to fill a void." I said. "You can help me fill that void."
"I have shown you way more than I am supposed to anyway, let's not push it." She said, going back to her computer work. "Besides, he ives across the country."
"You know where he lives?" I exclaimed. She winced as if she was realizing that she had said too much.
"I don't know the exact location. The last I heard was that he lives in San Francisco." She said. "And do you really think that you would make it across the country without Lilith noticing?"
"Aunt Di, do you remember when you told me that as my godmother-"
"Analeigh," She interuppted. "I'm sorry, but I can't. You could just wait until Frederick's wedding over the summer. Surely he invited his own father."
"Because I just know that my mom is going to make sure that I don't meet him." I explained. "She isn't going to let fifteen years of trouble go down the drain."
"Analeigh-"
"Please Aunt Di. All I want is to see him in the flesh. Just to meet him." I pleaded. I wasn't even faking it this time, this was real. "Don't you think he deserves to know? Don't you think that he should be able to choose if he wants to get to know me?"
She sighed and put her hands down on the desk.
"Okay. I'll help you."
"Thank you thank you thank you!" I said as I hugged her.
"But you have to figure it out. I will only help you put your plan into motion."
"Sure thing."
I walked out of the office more excited than I have ever been in my entire life. But that went away when I realized what she had said.
How was I going to make it to California and meet my father before my mom could stop me? I sat down at a bar stool and grabbed a napkin and a pen. I had to think like my mom. I had to think about every possible factor that could come into play.
After checking my calendar, doing some research on my phone, and calculating the time difference, I had my plan and went into the office and presented it to Aunt Diane.
"Look," I said. "It takes about six hours to fly from Boston to San Francisco. We'll say that it will take us about an hour to get through security. That's seven hours and fifteen minutes from my house to San Francisco. I'll find his address in the Whitepages, that way we can have it and go right to his place when we get off of the plane."
"And what about your mother?"
"I'm getting to that part. Being on the east coast, we are three hours ahead of him on the west coast. We need to leave on a Monday, that's my mom's day off. She'll sleep in until about eleven or twelve. That will give us plenty of time to get there without being caught."
"How exactly?"
"Now, stay with me here. If we leave at midnight, it will be nine at night for him. It will take us about seven hours to get there, meaning that it will be around four in the morning west coast time. We'll have time to check into a hotel and rest for about two and half hours. But, we need to get an early start in finding him before he leaves for work.
"By this time we have an hour, maybe two, before my mom wakes up on the east coast. That should give us just enough time for me to meet him and get to talk to him. When my mom wakes up, she will probably take about thirty minutes to realize that I'm not there. If she calls, I'll just tell her we decided to go shopping and probably won't be back till late that night so I'll probably just crash at your place. If we leave San Francisco at ten that morning, it will take us another six hours to get back. With the time change, we should be back in Boston by seven p.m. eastern time."
"You told her we were going shopping, she'll expect us to come back with the things we bought." Aunt Di pointed out.
"I said that we would get back at seven our time. That's plenty of time to go shopping."
"What about school? The school will call if you have an unexcused absence."
"Winter break is coming up, we'll go then. During the downtime between Christmas and New Year's."
She sighed in what I was hoping was defeat. I had only spent thirty minutes making this plan and she couldn't find a flaw, I was quite proud.
"Fine." She finally said. "You win. I'll take you."
"And my mother will be none the wiser." I said with a smile. "I just hope that it goes as easily in real life as it did on paper."
"Me too."
I looked a the clock and realized what time it was.
"I have to go home, will you drive me?" I asked.
"Yeah." She said, handing me the keys. "You head on out there, I have to finish this real quick and I'll be out there in a minute."
I took the keys and walked out of the office. I waved goodbye to Uncle Sam. While I did so, I didn't see where I was going and ran right into a waiter.
"Sorry, " I said, picking up the cracked coffee mugs. Luckily there wasn't anything in them.
"It's fine." The young man said, his hands moving in what I recognized as sign laguage when he talked. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." I said, signing as well. "Are you deaf?"
He nodded. "You?"
"No. I just like signing." I admitted.
About a year ago, my mother took me to a lunch with one of her colleagues over the summer. His wife was an ASL interpreter and taught me a some. Since then, I've been absolutely in love with sign language and continued to learn new signs.
"My name's Adam." He signed. "My Uncle owns Cheers."
"Analeigh." I signed. "Sam and Diane are my godparents."
We got up off of the floor and he walked me to the door.
"It was nice meeting you." He said. "Will I see you around?"
"Yeah."
With that, I walked up the stairs and around the corner to Aunt Di's car. I unlocked it and got into the passenger side and turned on the radio. My mind was no longer focused on meeting my father (but I still wanted to do that), but on getting to know more about Adam.
I hope you liked it! Sorry about the late update. I was hoping to post it last week, but it just flew by and this weeks was jam packed. Anyway, now that you've read it, please review!