Searching for your Identity
When an unexpected discovery makes you question your identity, you must begin a journey in search of it, which will probably be disturbing and at times painful. On that path you will have to protect those you love, but it will serve to reaffirm how brave, generous, loving and lucid your spirit, your heart and your talent are. I invite you to follow Chandler's journey.
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 1
It was a Thursday afternoon, early March 2005, and just before leaving the office, Chandler received a call from Nora.
"Hello son, how are all, the children?"
"Everyone fine and have you already moved to Cadaques?"
"I'm working on it, I wanted to let you know that I managed to sell the Park Ave penthouse. And at a very good price. I don't want any of the furniture that is there."
"And what are you going to do with so many things?"
"On Thursday a moving company is going to come, they are going to take everything to a warehouse where they will be in charge of selling them, but first I need you to go to the apartment as soon as possible"
"So what?
"First there are five very valuable original paintings, you keep them, you hang them or sell them, if you decide to sell them go to Sotheby's."
"Son, let Monica accompany you, the entire set of impeccable dishes is over there, my mother brought it from London, it's the one we used every day at home, remember? There's also the silver cutlery and the glassware."
"Mom, if the dinner set that Monica and I bought when we got married, she only wanted to use it when visited us the Queen, she wouldn't even let us look at these" Chandler said laughing.
"And you don't use those?" Nora asked.
"No, after I convinced her to use them for Thanksgiving, I dropped the box and they all broke."
"God, Chandler!, poor Monica!, well, maybe tell her to take whatever she wants, including the furniture where they are stored, bring everything in and if I remember correctly it will match your furniture"
"OK, I'll go and tell her to pay attention to these."
"Take the paintings with you that same day, they are too valuable, but for the furniture and dishes, tell the moving company to take them to your house, let them know on Monday, since on Tuesday they start packing everything."
"OK, on Saturday morning we go and decide"
"Son, now the only thing I'm interested in keeping is in the dressing room of my suite, on a shelf above everything there are five blue boxes, those are personal, I need you to take them to your house, keep them for me, three have documentation and the two others have photos. Check the boxes of photos, I'm sure there are yours, Charles's, Grandpa's Bing and Grandpa's Tyler, keep as many as you want, I don't even remember what's there, but I'm sure the babies will love them when they grow up. They would like to see them"
"So many instructions boss!" Chandler said, laughing.
"Shut up! I never ask you for anything. Give Mon and the children a big hug. Oh! What a fool, I forgot. I'll call you for your birthday, which I never forget, right? And now the baby's birthday is added. to be one-year-old! How quickly time flies…"
"When I am settled in the new house, I will give you the address. I would like you to come and see it in the summer, July or August, the beaches are beautiful, you will fall in love with the place and for the kids, getting to know the sea will be fun."
"Monica will probably be happy to go, on Thursday I'll go around the apartment and call you to tell you how everything went, kisses"
"Kisses all"
When he got to his house, Chandler told Monica about the call.
"We can go on Saturday morning, we see what we might be interested in bringing, so on Monday I inform the moving company, the paintings come with us on Saturday and also the boxes that mom wants me to keep for her, then we can take the kids go to the park, this spring is coming warm, then we'll have lunch there."
"Yes, perfect, I'll see if I like something. Actually, in all these years I never went to that apartment, you never took me there," said Monica.
"I didn't go back into it either since I moved to apartment 19, it wasn't a place with good memories, every now and then when mom asked me I would go by the concierge to see if everything was okay, they always took care of the maintenance"
"Honey, if you feel that way, maybe it would be better not to bring anything," Monica said.
"No Mon, the things we had in that place are not a problem, it is the place I did not want to return to, but one last visit can serve to definitively bury those memories" and he continued "I sincerely want you to choose what you like"
On Saturday morning the family left for Manhattan.
When he entered, the doorman greeted him kindly. "How are you, Mr. Bing, your mom told us that you would be coming for some things and on Tuesday the mover is coming to start packing."
"Yes, Donald, I'll bring something today."
"Do you need help sir?"
"No, thank you, it's just some paintings and a couple of boxes"
"Do not hesitate to ask me for anything"
The elevator left them on the 21st floor. Upon entering, Chandler turned on the light in the hall, and everyone entered the living room. Chandler rushed to open the curtains and the place was flooded with sunlight.
Monica found herself in a huge room, an incredible view, although the decoration was not to her taste, a lot of mirrors and gilding, but there were several interesting pieces of furniture.
She left the babies in the stroller, where they had fallen asleep peacefully.
In the living room there were three of the paintings that Nora referred to, they were very colorful, modern art, Monica thought that they would look good in her house, at least a couple of them, then they went to the dining room to see the dishes and other belongings.
When Monica entered, she found a huge table, for 14 people, even if the dining room of her house was twice as big, that table would never fit.
"Honey, what a huge table!"
"Yes. it's huge, imagine me as a 10, or 13 or 14-year-old eating alone every day at this table, in the chair next to the headboard."
"Did you eat here alone?" Monica asked with open eyes.
"Yes, breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, every weekend I left boarding school and mom wasn't here," Chandler answered, and ended up reflecting.
"You see, this is one of the things that, even if we lived in a palace, I would never take with me."
"But why so big if you didn't use it?" Monica asked.
"It was used when mom had meetings, invited friends or boyfriends, when she had large parties" …. Those nights I ate dinner in the kitchen."
Monica stayed silent, she couldn't understand leaving a child alone like that.
"Mon, look, this is the cabinet that contains the dishes, let's see if you like what's in it."
Chandler brought out some beautiful plates with perfect floral decoration.
"They are beautiful," said Monica, "now I understand when you chose ours, they had flowers…"
"Ha, yes, and you returned them" … "the choice was probably unconscious, I ate on these plates the entire time I lived here, with the silver cutlery, the only thing I didn't use were the crystal glasses, the maid to drinking brought me a simpler glass," Chandler said.
"Wow, I really married a Kennedy, did you eat with this crockery and silver cutlery every day?
"Yes ma'am, but I was alone and I was not happy…"
"Look, in that other door is the glassware and in the center the drawers with the cutlery"
"Look, if you like them and we take them it is with one unavoidable condition, we will use all this when we have visitors, dinners with friends, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, without excuse, and everyone will be able to cut the food on the plates, if anyone It scratches or breaks, it doesn't matter, the only thing we can't allow to break is our love, and of course the children, you promise." Chandler told him firmly, but with his seductive smile.
"OK, I promise," Monica said with a sweet smile.
"Mon, you like the furniture, because there are many pieces and everything fits here"
"Yes, it's very nice, I like the style, it won't clash with those at home."
"OK, then on Monday I'll let the company know to pack and bring all this to our house" …. "Look, here are the other paintings that were missing. I'm going to take them down, then we'll see which ones we like, how many of them we have room for, and we'll sell the rest," Chandler organized.
"Honey, I would like to see your room," said Monica.
"Ha, I don't know how much is left of it, some things I took with me and others I gave away, let's see" Chandler said.
"No love, it's not to take anything, it's just to see where you slept, where you studied…" said Monica
"And where did I bring the girls until I moved in front of you" … "well actually when Mom wasn't there I took them to the suite, it was more comfortable" he said with a mischievous smile.
"I don't want to know anything about that, I want to see the boy's shelter, not where the hot teenager slept," Monica said, laughing.
After touring the house, while Monica was checking the kitchen, Chandler found the five blue boxes that his mother wanted, three of them were quite large, so to carry them to the car along with the paintings he asked Donald for help, the work took them three trips, since both the paintings and the boxes were heavy. -
Chandler closed the door of the apartment behind him, to which he never wanted to return.
When they returned home it was late and they were tired, Chandler arranged the pictures and boxes in his office until they decided what to do.
The next day they had a barbecue with friends at Ross and Rachel's house.
On Monday, after work, together with Monica they decided which paintings they would hang at home, they decided on three of them, two in the living room and the largest in the dining room, which would be located above the new cabinet with the dishes. The other two were left in the office waiting to be taken to Sotheby's
On Tuesday Monica had the night shift, so Chandler, after putting the children to bed, went to take a look at his mother's boxes that made him curious.
Three of them were full of papers, contracts, some manuscripts, he only looked at the contents from above, and secured them with a rope so that nothing was lost.
The other two were full of photos, some just thrown inside and others tied with ribbons with a piece of paper on the front that had the year on it, "Wow," he thought, "these must be important if Mom took the trouble to arrange them for years."
The first looked in the box of loose photos, which were generally of his mother with her friends, or at parties, or with her occasional boyfriends or book presentations, there were many of these last two types. He looked through it all, but in that box he didn't find anything about the family.
In the other box, in which the photos were well arranged, found photos of his mother as a child and teenager, a couple of his father when he was about 16 years old, there were also photos of his grandparents Bing and his grandparents Tyler, In some this grandparents had him on their lap, in them he was three or four years old, and there were others with his grandparents where he was already older. Chandler separated all those photos, which he didn't even know existed, he would save them for his album.
He stopped at a package that said "1967", it was the year he had been conceived, he found 2 photos of his mother with his father on campus, there were also photos of a party that he assumed was the engagement, photos of his parents' wedding, and one of his clearly pregnant mother taken out at Christmas evidently because of the decoration of the room.
As he looked he saw that all the photos on the back of it had the date they had been taken. The one with his parents on campus said June 10, the one for the engagement said September 12, and the one for the wedding was October 5.
He smiled when he saw that, in the photos of the engagement and wedding, his father's face did not seem very happy, "poor man" he thought "how bad he would be having it without being able to shout what he felt" on the other hand, his mother seemed happy, pure laughter, her situation was being resolved in the best way for her.
He found another package that said "1968", in that package there were photos of him as a newborn, with his mother, his grandparents, there were also photos of him as he grew up with his father, and in these Charles did seem happy, always smiling at his child. Seeing those photos made him feel good, his dad didn't love his mother, he didn't want to be married to a woman, but evidently his face showed that he loved his son.
He also put away all those photos, he would keep them.
He was already finishing his search when he found at the back a small group of photos, tied with a ribbon. They were his mother with some friends and several of them with a young man with long curly hair, which fell over his forehead and did not allow almost any moments seeing their eyes, they were clearly on a beach and the romance between them was noticeable.
When Chandler looked at the back of those photos the dates were from June 20 to July 15, 1967.
He stayed looking at the photos and trying to understand, none of those photos was his father, just that guy with his mother. In the photos of the group of friends his father was not there either, but the guy always had his mother by her shoulder or waist, in several of them they were kissing….
He was born on April 8, 1968, necessarily conceived between mid-June and mid-July 1967…. His mother must have got the year wrong, otherwise this doesn't close as it should.