The day after as planned Me and Alis venture out to find my uncle's cafeteria. The main problem was that neither me or Alis could drive which lead me to ask my dad to take us. Needless to say that it was a hard no because he's full of work. Which takes me to plan B...
"I apologise for dropping like this on you, but I need someone that can drive us there" I say strangely asservely hoping to sound persuasive enough to convince him.
"Let me get this right, so your father gave you some pictures and from them you recognised your uncle's cafeteria and now you are hoping to get there but have no means of transport?" Says Josh leaning on the side wall with an arm and gesticulating trying to sound more eloquent that he already does because of his pronounced British accent, "use public transport then." He gets of the wall and makes way to put on a coat and grab the keys from his table. In all of this he avoids my eyes until he's done and looks up inviting me and Alis to the driveway. A big smile froms on both of our faces and we enthusiasticly head towards his car.
"Thank you" I say softly as I fastent my belt. He turns around as I'm sat on the middle of the backseats while Alis is say at the passanger's seat, and smiles 'No problem'.
"Here's the address" Alis connects the phone to the car and Josh starts the engine. The drive is a little long and zone out if the conversation a lot, thinking about what could happen. Shivers of adrenaline spike up and down my spine camouflaging my anxiousness for some sort of energy rush.
'What if I do see my uncles, how do tell him? Will I just bring up the letter, or possibly lead up to it gradually?' Many thoughts are clouding my mind and I start to drift more and more until Alis takes me back to the present saying "You good?" with an exaggerated frown on her face. She looks at me for a minute and then begins "It's going to be fine, really.... Worst case scenerio he doesn't live there anymore and we look elsewhere... Okay?"
I calm my nerves down a little and nod so hard that my head could uscrew from my neck. I appreciate her trying to help me so much and I'm grateful to have her as a friend. After a time we have finally rechaed the place. I can almost feel my legs melting as Josh pulls up in the parking lot in front of the cafeteria. The building looks quite old, it doesn't have the life it did in the picture. The colours are a bit faded but the sign is still holding up strong. We get out of the car and approach it, possibly looking for some sort if note or may info tied to my uncle.
"The inside is pitch black but there's a paper on the door, it so old that the print has faded though... I think it might be best to ask around" Josh suggests trying to keep up a smile at all times, I know he's trying to help me keep faith that we'll find some answers.
"What did you say again about the worst case scenario Alis?" I tease expecting a snarky comeback from her but receiving none. I look around and realise that she not here. Taking a good look I notice her talking her a lovely old lady by the looks of it. She just about shorter taht Alis, with long platinum blonde hair. As me and Josh approach them Alis spots us and invites us to hurry up.
"Joy guess? She was a good friend of your uncles as she used to be a regular customer there..."
I heave a sigh of relief and and greet the lovely old lady with a hand shake. "I'm his niece, I remember he used to work here and hoped to see him again."
"What a beautiful young girl you are, unfortunately he doesn't work here anymore he closed his business around decade ago...nobody has bought the place since. He moved out of town too to join his new family but he left me his phone number to keep in contact with, I can give it to you if you want." I thank her and she gives me his number and then leaves after saluting us.
"Call it." I look up to Josh and see him gazing at the number on the screen in front of me. I shake my head and then tap on the big green icon underneath it.
"Hello", answers a voice after a few rings. I can't recognise it at all but I try to push past that.
"Hello, I'm Rosaline Edwards' daughter, your niece, do you remember me?" I'm hesitant at first but then I know what to say.
"Joy?"
"That's my name, I need your help to find my biological father, I saw pictures of all of us in front of your cafeteria and hoped you could help..."
"You mean Richard Morris? I lost all contacts with him over a decade ago, sorry I can't help much with that. But I'm glad to hear from you again, wish I could have helped though..."
"That's fine, you have given me a name at least, I'm glad I heard from you too, take care uncle, hope to see you again one day" I end the call and look up to my friends, "We have a name, Richard Morris"
"That's great news, but it's a pretty common name that one, how are we going to narrow it down?"
"I don't know Josh, I think I have to put this whole brother business to the side for now, I need to focus on my studies because we have our exams when school starts and the charity project coming up before that. I tired of getting constantly nowhere with this"
I am happy to have a name to my biological father but for now it feels like that's enough. The name Richard Morris is quite common and realistically I don't know how to go ahead from here. I need a break.