Get your own Free Home Page
"Would you like some more coffee, miss? Miss?"
"Oh, yeah, um sure, thanks," Lauren answered, handing her cup over. She glanced quickly at the young man sitting next to her and wondered if he had a father. She wanted to ask him what he looked like, and what kind of things he liked to do...but she figured if she did, she'd look like a huge weirdo.
After much deliberation and sleepless nights, she had finally decided to go to Florida. Her mom had given her as much information as she knew, which wasn't much. She had told her boss at Holt Renfrew that she needed a little while to figure out who she was. He had been really understanding and told her that she could take as much time as she needed, and she could always come back to her job.
Leaving her mom was the hardest of it all. Just before she had left, her mom had said, "I just want you to know, that I really hope you find what you're looking for out in Florida....but I don't want you to be disappointed."
The look in her mom's eyes was one that Lauren would never forget. It was sadness and sympathy all rolled into one.
But here she was, on the air plane, on her way to try to find her dad. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the piece of paper in which Joan had written his name, and phone number where he had last been at. It was at that very moment that Lauren realized that finding Robert may be impossible.
"This is your captain speaking......we are scheduled to land in Orlando within the next twenty minutes....please return your tray tables and seats to the upright position and fasten your seatbelts...thank you," the Captain announced.
Butterflies swarmed around in Lauren's stomach. She began to fidget anxiously as she felt the plane slowly descend. In twenty-five minutes, they had taxied to the gate and began to unload.
She walked like a stranger into the airport. No one was there to meet her; no one even knew or cared that she was there.
She soon hailed a cab to the hotel which she planned to stay at. She arrived, and dropped off her suitcases. "Oh God," she said out loud, sinking down onto the bed, "what am I doing?"
Lauren looked around the foreign room, feeling like a stranger in a strange land. "Well," she sighed, to an empty room, "I may as well get started....if I'm going to be disappointed, I may as well find out now rather than later!"
She called information, and asked if they had any listings for her father's name. They had only one listing, and she got the address and phone number. "Thank you," she said, as she hung up the phone. 'I guess I'll be on my way,' she said to herself.
She clasped the paper in her hand as she hailed another cab outside the hotel. "1425 Westover Street," she told the cabbie.
Within 10 minutes, she arrived outside the house. She waited a minute before she got out of the cab, soaking in this whole experience. She stepped outside, and the cabbie drove away, leaving her all alone.
She took in a deep breath, and started for the front door. It was a nice house; old-fashioned looking, but medium sized. There were flowers planted in the front garden, and many exotic looking plants lined around the house. All in all, it looked like somewhere a family could live.
Before she rang the doorbell, she took in another deep breath. Her hand shook, as she reached for the doorbell. 'Maybe he's not home,' she thought to herself, trying to calm down, 'maybe it's the wrong guy named Robert and this whole thing will just be a learning experience.'
But as she rang the bell, she got this awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. The door suddenly opened, and there stood a man, holding a remote control to a TV.
"Can I help you?" he said, looking somewhat disturbed.
Lauren just stood there, not knowing what to say. She wasn't even positive that this guy was the Robert she was looking for, but something told her it was. "Uh...I, uh......I'm looking for Robert?" she finally managed to say.
"Yeah, I'm him," he answered, looking confused, "what is it you want?"
Lauren took in another breath to try and steady her breathing. "The, uh, Robert who used to date a woman named Joan?" she said, her hands shaking.
Robert's face went white. His eyes were now fixed on Lauren, and his breathing, too, became unsteady. "Yeah..." he answered softly.
Lauren bit her lip as her eyes glazed over with tears. "I'm your daughter," she finally said.
IF YOU KNEW WHAT I KNEW MAIN PAGE
Get your own Free Home Page