N&M Chapter Three

Secrets revealed

Chapter Three

The Family Secret

 

            It only took Anna five minutes to say goodbye to all her friends and Dylan. I waited patiently in her car as time tick away. It was already two-fifty which meant we only had fifteen minutes to get to grandpa’s house. I was dreading seeing grandpa all day. He wasn’t too fond of me. He hardly talked to me. He would simply stare at me with those old brown eyes of his.  He always staring at me as if he waiting for something. Sometimes I would have to leave the room.

            Now grandma was the completely opposite than Grandpa. I was always her favorite even though she never said it. I just knew by the way she smiled when I visited her. She had a smile that could calm a hurricane. It was hard for anyone to be angry around her.  She always smelled like freshly baked raisin oatmeal cookies. She passed away a couple months back, Grandpa took it hard. Anna entered the car still flashing white pearl smile at everyone.

            “Let’s get this done and over it.” she said unhappily. That smile quickly faded away as she fell into the driver seat.

            “Wow, you seem really happy to see Grandpa.” I said. She silently closed the car door and started the engine. Like always she pretend like I was invisible. I hated when she does that. She had thing about only hearing what she wants to hear. It drove both me and Mom crazy all the time.

            “I should be here cheering on Dylan as he beat the new bratty kid.” She said. The fact that she called some else bratty made me want to laugh. Then I realized that this might be bad and I should probably stop this. At least that was my first thought. Then I started thinking this was none of my business. I silently watched as Anna pulled out of school parking lot.

            “You think Dylan could beat this guy?” I asked her stupidly. I should have already known her answer.

            She replied “Of course he can beat him. You’ve seen Dylan play basketball before.” Yeah, Dylan was a great player. He has only lost to one person. Yes, I was the only one who ever beaten him.  Sometime until this day, he refused to admit to.

            “Hold on basketball game?” She sighed as if I should already know all of this. That’s my sister for you, she doesn’t tell me anything.

            She said “The kid-“

            ‘Darius,” she looked at me, “What? His name is Darius.”

            She continued “Whatever, he has been kicked out of many schools and he doesn’t want to be kick out of this. So Dylan though they should a play a friendly game of basketball to settle their differences. Is Dylan the best?”

            Lucky I didn’t have anything in my stomach. Otherwise I would have thrown up in my mouth. Somehow I got the feeling that Anna wasn’t getting the whole story. She was so gullible. She would have believed that sky is green and grass is blue if Dylan told her. I guess the saying is really true. Love is blind and stupid.

            I couldn’t help, but wondered if everything Dylan said was completely bullshit. I knew the whole basketball game was Dylan’s idea. He probably had the advantage over Darius in that area. However the whole I can’t beat him up because we get in trouble excuse that wasn’t him. Dylan had inferior complex. He’s not happy unless every guy in school was afraid of him. He really didn’t care if the principal found out.

            Could Darius been kicked out of multiple schools? Weirdly I could picture him fighting off a large group of guys. It would explain why he didn’t want any problems. He actually wanted to stay in school and Dylan is giving him such a hard time. Maybe this basketball game would be a good outlet for them. Dylan would win of course and then leave Darius alone. Then again Darius might flip out and punch Dylan in the face. That would be great too.

            “Anyway did you get Grandpa a present?” Anna asked as we pulled up to neighborhood where he lived.

            I replied “I got him a nice watch.” I saved up at least two months to get him this watch. I pulled the small wrapped blue box. Anna looked at it. “No, I’m not sharing credit for this.”

            We arrived at Grandpa’s house. Dad’s car was packed in the driveway. I guessed he and Mom was already here. There was also a couple of more cars right next to their car. I guess my Uncle Peter was here along with Aunt Lydia and my cousin Chloe. Anna parked right behind them. I took a long deep breath as I looked at the house. It was big and old fashioned. It was passed down from one family to another.

            Anna was first to get out of the car. I followed right behind her as we walked to the porch. She knocked on the door and after a few seconds for the door opened up. On the other side of door was Aunt Lydia looking very pleasant. Her skinny figure was underneath her business style dress. Her brown hair was long with brown eyes.

            “Oh thank heaven, you are here.” She was obviously taking to Anna. Then she hugged her making me feel a little awkward. “He has been asking for you.” Then she turned to me.

            She said “Oh hello Alan” She didn’t sound too please to see me. “Come on in.” She moved out of the way letting us in.

            We walked through the doorway into the grand hall. I could hear the laughter of my father coming from the living room. We entered the room. The whole family was there sitting in their furniture.  Mom was sitting next to Dad. She looked very bored until I entered the room. Her eyes light up like a Christmas tree when they fell on me. I gave her slightly nod of the head before moving toward Grandpa. He was sitting in his favorite chair. Like always Anna was the first one there.

            “Happy Birthday, Grandpa.” She said sweetly. Then she hugged him.

            Grandpa smiled “Thank you, sweetie.” The smile quickly faded away as his big brown eyes laid on me. He released Anna and then stood up. Anna quickly got the hell out of there as even she knew something bad was going to happen. Now he was a tall as giant and almost as big with his beer gut.

            “So you’re here too.”

            I ignored his comment and held up his present. “Happy birthday, Grandpa”

            He looked at the small blue box as it might explode in any minute. Then he simply took the box. He never even saying thank you for the present or even sorry for his comment. I walked away trying to stay in control. I really want to hit him, but all that will do is cause more problems. I walked back over to Mom and Dad. They were waiting for me with Anna. Mom wrapped her arms around me. It made me feel a little more welcome.

            Uncle Peter took control over the situation standing up. “Come on guys let’s get this dinner started shall we? I’m hungry.” He rubbed his beer belly.

            Everyone started getting up from their seat and started heading toward the doorway. However grandpa had other plan. He held hand high in the air. Everyone stopped moving as they turned to him.

            “I have announcement to make. Today, I turned sixty-four and I have a feeling I should reevaluate my will.” Everyone held their breath. Although Grandpa’s will wasn’t the biggest thing on everyone’s mind. It was still there.

            Dad was the first to spoke. “Dad, you have many more years before that become important. You haven’t even retired from the force yet.”

            Yeah like my dad, Grandpa was decorated police officer.  He was also the Chicago’s head of the police department. James “Hard A*s” Steven was the most decorated police officer in Chicago. He looked at all of us with his hard police face. It felt this was no longer a party, but an interrogation.

            “Yes, but I just found out that someone has been harbor a dark secret.” He looked around everyone, but only the adults looked ashamed.

            Uncle Peter spoke first “Fine I will say. Dad, I am gay.” Everyone looked surprised even me. I had no idea he liked guys and I was one of the few people who spent the most time with him. I turned to Grandpa who wasn’t surprised.

            “Son, I already knew you were gay since we had lunch last week and I noticed you checking out the waiter’s a*s.” Grandpa said. Uncle Peter looked at him strangely. “You are not the person I am talking about.”

            Aunt Lydia sighed as it was her turn next. “Fine, I’m divorcing Robert, but he will be sending over the papers for me to sign.”

            Another secret the family expected no one seem surprised about this one. Robert and Lydia had been married for fourteen years. For those years, she treated him like s**t. She practically yelled at him every little thing he ever did. She wanted the perfect family. Uncle Robert was not perfect. I knew it was only a matter time before he gave up.

            “He wants Chloe to live with him.” she said tearfully. I turned to Chloe who looked at her mother without any emotions. It looked like she wanted to go to her father. I didn’t blame her too.

            Grandpa for one was a little surprised “Okay, I didn’t know about that, but I wasn’t talking about you, sweetie.”

            “Then who are you talking about?” Aunt Lydia said surprisingly calmly. Grandpa became silent. He scratched his brown bushy beard.

            “You, Chloe, Peter, and Anna go to the dining room. We will join you in a minute.” Then he looked at me and my parents. “You three meet me in my studies.”

            We walked back to the grand hall and upstairs to the hallway. All I could think about was why I was here. I knew that Grandpa and I didn’t get along. I didn’t know why we get along. Maybe that was what this dark secret was about. Maybe he would finally tell us why he didn’t like me. My parents were dead silent as we walked down the narrow hallway. Grandpa’s office was last door on the right. I remember I was never allowed to go in there. No one was expected Grandpa and Grandma.

            Dad put his hand on the door knob. Before opening it, he turned to me. “Alan, I want you to remember that I love you no matter what.” Then he opened the door.

            Damn! Now I felt like we were going to trial. A normal size office that looked both classy yet comfortable. It was full with things that my grandpa would enjoy; cigars, scotch bottles, and whole lot of books. I began looking around like a kid at a candy. There were so many exciting things. My dad looked around the room too.

            “I have been here before at least one. I just got done fighting some kid who kept picking on me. We fought right in the middle of street. The neighbors ran over, broke it, and told your grandma. She was so angry didn’t even talk to me. She just sent me up to the studies. She let Dad handle me. I remembered feeling dread of knocking on that door and I still have feeling.”

            Then from behind us, I heard my grandfather said “Good, that means you learn something. You had no right fighting that boy. You should have just ignored him.”

            Dad turned around “You don’t know what you are talking about. After I fought him, he left me alone all school year. I was able to walk home without getting pick on.”

            “Maybe, but that’s not what this all about.”

            Mom said calmly “What is this all about then, Dad?”

            “Don’t play innocent with me. I know everything.” Mom’s eyes got big as she stared at Grandpa. He reached in his desk and pulled out a vanilla folder. “I always had doubts about the boy so…”

            So this thing was about me I thought to myself.  I looked at the folder. I wondered what he was talking about. What exactly did he doubt?

            Dad interrupted “Don’t do this!” Grandpa looked at my dad like he was confused about something.

            “What is going on here?” I said looking at both men.

            Grandpa said “You knew all long. You knew that this boy isn’t…”

            “Please don’t do this, okay. Not in front of Alan.” Mom inserted looking at me. I couldn’t understand what was going. “Just let him leave and I will explain everything.”

            I said “No, I want to know.”

            “Alan, we can talk about it later.”

            Grandpa said “No, I think Alan has the right to know about. He is almost a man. He should know where he comes from.” This was one time Grandpa and I actually agreed on something. “If you don’t know then this will show you.”

            He passed the folder to me, but Mom quickly grabbed it. Dad was staring at Grandpa almost like he was daring Grandpa to say something. Grandpa closed his eyes before taking a deep breath.

            “Fine, I will tell him the truth then. Alan, we both know that you and I have never gotten along. It’s because I don’t believe that you are really my grandchild.” I could believe he said that then I realized that he wouldn’t unless it was true. “It turns out I was correct.”

            My heart skipped a beat and looked at Mom who was still holding the folder. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She avoided eye contact. So I looked at Dad, he looked pissed. He looked like he was about to attack grandpa. I grabbed the folder, but she still had a tight grip on it.

            “Let me see it,” I said, “I need to know if it’s true.” I could already tell that it was true. I had to see the DNA test.

            Mom said “It’s true, Jack isn’t your father. It was only a couple of year after Anna was born and we driving each other crazy. I need a break to rethink everything so I left the house. I moved into the vacation house near the mountains. I was still closer enough that if Anna needed me I could be in seconds. I just couldn’t live in the house.”

            She continued talking, but I didn’t listen anymore. I quickly jumped up from my seat and started heading out the door. I couldn’t hear my mother mumbled out something.  I kept moving out of the room. Right now I didn’t want to see anyone of their lying faces again.

Author's Note

Once again, please tell all the problems with this chapter.

Reviews

[Layla J Omorose]

That sucks to find out that your father wasn't really your father. Though it was kind of predictable by the way the family was treating him and by the fact that his mother's eyes lit up bright when she saw him. This was a good chapter and informative. It is also a good set up for the next chapter to come. With that being said there were a lot of errors that I saw, some more annoying than the others. I didn't point out every one I saw what I did instead was do enough so that you could see what I was talking about. They are just common errors that are made by everyone when they are in the heat of passion of writing. So with that being said here are some of the things I noticed.

The first sentence your wrote "tick" when it should read "ticked". In the same paragraph when you wrote "staring at me as if he waiting for something." you just forgot the "was" between "he" and "waiting". "She had a smile that could calm a hurricane" i wonder what kind of smile that would be. That was a great description. The second paragraph in the beginning should mention that the grandmother is dead and have a more sorrowful tone, more like a memory then speaking as if she was alive. The last sentence in the second paragraph should be a line by itself.

The wording for this sentence is confusing, the tenses are jumbled together. "I hated when she does that". It is either "I hated when she did that" (for past tense) or "I hate when she does that" (present tense).

"Sometime until this day, he refused to admit to." should say "something" not "sometime".

"However the whole I can’t beat him up because we get in trouble excuse that wasn’t him. " there should be a comma after however. It should say "got" instead of "get"

"Dylan had inferior complex." forgot "an" between "Dylan" and "had"

"Could Darius been kicked out of multiple schools? " it should say "Could Darius really have been kicked out of multiple school?"

"I saved up at least two months to get him this watch." should read "I saved up for the last two months" something like that.

"She knocked on the door and after a few seconds for the door opened up" should be worded differently such as "she knocked on the door and waited a few seconds for the door to open. Of course not those exact words but something like it.

"I gave her slightly nod of the head before moving toward Grandpa." should say "I gave her a slight nod of the head."

"He never even saying thank you for the present" should say "he didn't even say thank you for the present" or "he never even said thank you for the present". Either way it works.

"I really want to hit him, but all that will do is cause more problems." should say "I really wanted to hit him, but all that would do was cause more problems."

"He held hand high in the air." should say "he held his hand high in the air" There were a lot of other mistakes like this. Some words used in the wrong tense and some missing letters.

Like I said before these are all simple errors and easily corrected with another read through and edit. I look forward to the next chapter.

[Shep]

Great story on the edge of my seat great. Now I really want to turn the page. Same problems found. Wrong word usge. Mostly. But not enough to keep me from reading more. I have hope that you will fix theses promblems soon. I fix my problems the same day or two days at the most ni matter if is one word,coma,priod or qoutaion mark. Is out of place and fix on the main manusript as well so I don't have to latter.

[melissa]

Wow I feel sad for Alan because he just found the man that raised him with his mom is not his dad so far this is an amazing book I can't wait to read more