Searching for your Identity
I hope you like de story, and that you tell me his opinions, through them I know if I'm on the right path.
Remember English is not my native language, I hope the translation is correct, check it, but sometimes I miss some incorrect personal pronouns for the phrase, sorry.
I reiterate, I do not own the characters of Friends I only rely on them for the pure pleasure of writing stories without any economic interest, and Monica and Chandler they inspire me
Chapter 6
A week ago Timothy Burke received a call from his father's oncologist, Dr. Lewis.
"Hello Timothy, I have good news for you, we have just obtained a compatible donor, next week we will surely be able to start the transplant treatment for your father."
"Oh, what good news, it's great, and the compatibility is good? Timothy asked.
"Yes, excellent, when I see you I'll explain to you, tell your father that he has to be admitted on Tuesday of next week."
"Ok, thank you doctor."
The news spread like wildfire in the Burke family. Richard was excited and hopeful that the transplant would work, he knew that compatibility was an important factor in the success of the transplant.
On Tuesday of the following week, Richard was admitted and began receiving transfusions. He had to remain in the hospital to avoid infections or complications for at least a couple of months.
Richard slowly began to regain his spirits, and two months later he was strong enough to return to his house.
A couple of weeks later, as Timothy saw his father better, told him that the donor's compatibility was the same as what they could have had.
"So much?" … "And how is that, who is he? I would even like to thank him."
"Look, the donor showed up at the hospital specifically to be your donor, but he demanded to sign a confidentiality agreement, they can't tell us who he is."
"That's very strange…" Richard said.
"Yes, apparently it was specifically for you, obviously he was sure he could help you," Timothy replied.
"Yes, but who… some patient…. a friend…" Richard wondered aloud.
"The only thing they told me is what I told you, that the compatibility was as high as that of a son, he was a man of about 38 years old, I don't know more, and although I asked they told me that they would not say anything else" and he added
"Dad, I can ask you a question, don't be offended or feel hurt, but the only alternative I can think of is that that man is your son," Timothy concluded, uncomfortable with the question.
"Son, I never cheated on your mother while we were married for almost 26 years, I only started dating women after we separated, and I could never have a 38-year-old son from those relationships," Richard answered firmly.
"Dad, I know you didn't cheat on Mom, but because of the donor's age, you could have dated girls before the marriage. You got married at the end of '68, right?" Timothy asked.
"Well, yes, during college I dated a couple of girls, but when I broke up with them they were still in college and weren't pregnant…" Richard answered confidently.
"And outside of those girls, you didn't date any other girls, under any other circumstances that you remember."
"Timothy, no woman has ever told me that she was pregnant with me," Richard answered, showing annoyance at his son's insistence.
"Dad, I had a "kindness" with one of the laboratory employees, he did not know the name of the donor, but he told me that, due to the great compatibility, they did the DNA and it turned out that you two share 50 percent of the DNA. DNA between each other, exactly the percentage corresponding to father and son" said Timothy
Richard turned white, "How can it be that I have a son and don't know it, and at the same time that man who came specifically to donate to me clearly knows that I am his father," he said with a surprised face,
"Dad, you have all the time in the world to try to remember who you were with, think that if the man is 38 years old he must have been born in during 1967 or 1968… try to remember what you did in 1967, or 1968 before you got married" … "Dad, understand that "I am not judging you in any way, but there is a man out there who is your son, who is my brother and who did what he had to do to save your life."
Richard remained silent, his head was in an uproar, he felt better, but that didn't mean he was completely clear enough to think.
Thanksgiving passed, the Christmas holidays passed, and a couple more weeks, Timothy went to visit him, they were sitting on the couch in the living room when Richard spoke.
"Son, I was thinking about what you told me, about the donor, and I remembered that in the summer of 1967 I went on vacation to the beach, in the Hampton's, I went with some college colleagues, there were three of us, Lucas was dating the girl who lived there, there were more young people in the house, in total there were about 20 of us, among whom there were several girls, and I had an affair with one of them, she was a very pretty blonde, small, happy and friendly." And continued
"I remember telling her that I was dating, that I would get married the following year, and she also had a boyfriend, I think he was the son of a family friend of her parents, or something like that, but that situation prevented neither of us from being together"
"Dad, do you remember what her name was?"
"Some of the girls called her Nora, but there were a couple, apparently closer, who called her Eleanor."
"Well it's a preview, and do you remember the last name?" Timothy asked.
"No, not at all"
They both stayed silent, Timothy didn't know how to continue.
"A few days later he asked his father if he remembered the names of his classmates from college, maybe one of them would remember the last name."
"Yes, one was James Arnau and the other was Lucas Ricco, he was the boyfriend of the owner of the house"
"And do you know that he was theirs?" Timothy asked.
"If they both graduated as doctors, James went to work in Seattle, he is an obstetrician, and Lucas is a cardiologist and works in San Francisco," Richard answered.
"So you have kept in contact with them? Timothy asked again.
"Several years ago I lost contact with them, we never spoke again, I would have to look at the agenda"
"Look for them there while I try to see if they are on Facebook by name."
The phones in Richard's address book no longer belonged to his old colleagues, and Timothy found information on Facebook that Dr. James Arnau had died in 2000. Regarding Dr. Ricco, he found his email.
Timothy helped Richard send an email to Ricco, greeting him and asking him if he remembered the last name of the young woman named Nora with whom they had been in 1967 on the beach in Hampton, since he needs to contact her.
A couple of days later Ricco replied that Alice, his girlfriend at the time, might have known, but after they broke up he never had contact with her, he only found out that she had married a Frenchman and had gone to live in France, but that was over 30 years ago, and he has no other way to help him.
Richard did not want to insist with more questions, he simply thanked Lucas for having responded and told him that now that he had his email they would surely resume contact.
A little over a month later, Richard was reading the newspaper and saw an advise from the Barnes & Noble bookstore announcing the soon-to-be release of the latest book by writer Nora Tyler Bing, and inside the ad was a photo of Nora. -
All the time since his suspicions began, he had been thinking about that vacation, trying to remember something about Nora, her face had been etched in her mind, and now there it was in a newspaper advertisement. It was her, it had to be her. Plus, the name matched.
He called Timothy who at night went to his father's house who showed him the ad.
Timothy entered Wikipedia and Nora's page immediately appeared.
"Here is dad, there is her date of birth, her maiden name is Eleanor Tyler, she was married to Charles Bing, three other husbands also appear, and she has a son named Chandler Bing born in April 8 of 1968." "She seems to be a renowned writer of erotic novels…" Timothy read in your discharge.
Richard turned pale, "that place where that information is, seriously? Richard asked.
"Yes dad, of course, because, what's going on?
"You don't understand, maybe Chandler is my son," Richard said, trying to sound calm.
"Find out when she comes to New York, you have to ask for an interview for me, gives my name, phone number, I have to talk in person"
Timothy called Barnes and was told that the presentation would be on March 2, 2007 at 3:00 p.m., 20 days away.
He also logged into the Facebook account and sent Nora a private message, where he requested an interview with his father, Richard Burke, when she was in New York, which was for a personal and very important matter.
Nora received the message, she didn't know what to do, she hesitated to call Chandler to tell him this news, she decided not to, it would only worry him and she could handle the situation with Curlers, and depending on how the meeting went she would tell him.
She answered Richard, well for her it was Curlers, who was waiting for him on Monday the 27th at 6:00 p.m. in the lounge of the Plaza Hotel.
Nora arrived in NY on February 24, Chandler went to pick her up at the airport, and took her to the Plaza Hotel where she would stay. Nora on the way to the hotel was jovial and tried to appear calm, she didn't ask anything, he had told her that everything was fine and no, she wouldn't ask him anything else regarding his identity. She agreed with Chandler that the next day he would pick her up to go to his house, so she would be with Monica and the children, who would be 3 years old in a few months.
The children were unmanageable and fun, it seemed like they carried Chandler's blood, the adults chatted about everything, Nora asked how Charles was, Chandler told her that very well, that the previous month he had been with Fred, at night Chandler took her to the City, they arranged that she would visit them the next Saturday before leaving because during the week she would be extremely busy with the presentation.
On Monday at the scheduled time she sat down in an armchair in the Hotel, about 5 minutes later she saw a tall, very thin, gray-haired, somewhat pale man approaching her, along with a young man of just over 30 years old, despite after some time she knew it was Curlers.
He recognized her immediately, despite the years she was still as beautiful as he had known her.
Richard greeted her and introduced her to his son Timothy. -
"Curlers, how many years has it been, God! "We were children" she said smiling.
"And at that time we considered ourselves old," Richard answered, returning the smile.
"You know," Nora said softly, "a couple of years ago I sold my apartment in the City, now I'm living in Cadaques, near Barcelona, and I found in a box a list with our full names and telephone numbers, I had kept it when I returned from the beach and I had never seen it again, when I looked over it I knew what your full name was, since for me you were Curlers, if it hadn't been for that list I wouldn't have had any idea who was asking me for a meeting.
"I don't know where my list is, if I had had it might have been easier for me to locate you" Richard answered.
"And how did you do it?" asked Nora.
"Because of Barnes' advertisement in the newspaper, there was your photo and I recognized you immediately, and that's when I knew your full name, since you were just Nora to me, and that publication was miraculous since a few months ago I was trying to locate you." Richard explained.
Nora had known for years how to keep her composure, although inside she was beginning to worry.
"Tell me what you need from me?"
"Last year I was diagnosed with leukemia, I needed a bone marrow transplant, but my children Timothy, because he had hepatitis B, and Michel, because she was pregnant, were not suitable, so I got on the waiting list for a donor…" he remain silent for a few moments…" But surprisingly, a person showed up at the clinic who wanted to be a donor specifically for my case. After all the studies, it turned out that he had the same percentage of compatibility that my children would have had, only that the man wanted to sign a confidentiality agreement with the clinic. That prevents them from telling me their name."
Nora had become paralyzed; she was trying hard to keep her face still even though her heart was beating madly.
Richard continued, "This in itself was surprising, since finding a donor outside the family was like looking for a needle in a haystack, Timothy was somehow able to know that the DNA result between the donor and mine was 50/50 % that is to say that that man was my son, he was also able to find out that his age was 38 years old, and added to the fact that he showed up to donate especially for me, it made me assume that he knows that I am his father and wanted to save my life."
Richard looked Nora straight in the eyes, but she could no longer hold his gaze, Chandler had been the donor, he had saved his father, but in total silence and anonymity, if her son wanted anonymity she was not going to find out.
"I don't understand, why are you telling me this, what do you need?" Nora said softly, trying not to let her voice or her hands shake.
"Nora, I think your son Chandler is my son. He was born on April 8, 1968, Timothy found out, and our romance lasted almost a month, from mid-June to mid-July of '67, the accounts are clear, your son Chandler was born exactly 9 months later."
"Richard, I understand that you are shocked by what you went through and want to know who helped you, but Chandler couldn't be, I assure you he is not your son, when I returned home I was with Charles and that was when I got pregnant, I'm sorry that you believed find the person who saved your life, I'm sorry you haven't found your son, but I assure you that Chandler is not."
"Madam, this is very important for my dad, and also for me since he would be my brother and I would like to meet him, that's why I ask you to be honest," Timothy told her.
"Look son, if you read my biography, and you know about my books, I am not a prudish woman who is scared of having had a child because of a summer slip, if that were the case I would have no problem telling you, but it is not, and it is not I would like you to approach my son with that assumption and alter his life. "I'm sorry I'm not the person you were looking for, Curlers, you were very handsome, seductive, you've probably had other girls, try to remember, but forget about me, I'm not that girl."
Nora stood up, "Well, I'm glad to see you after so many years, and I'm also glad that you're recovering well, and Timothy I wish you luck in your search." She greeted them with a smile and left.