Three Thousand Miles To You(44)
“I am sorry for that Alanna”
“It’s okay, but may I ask what happened, did I do something?”
“No, it’s not you it’s me,”
“I just get a little distant whenever someone gets close to me, and especially you.”
“Why?”
“I guess it all goes back to Alice, and the way she was with me. I don’t think that anyone wants to be good to me.”
“I see,”
“Anyway Alanna, there is something I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“The other day when you went off with that bloke what happened, I need to tell me everything, so I can protect you from him.”
“He had three pictures in a brown envelope, one of a man, another of women that I have seen before, and one of you.”
“This woman you know of, who was she?”
“I don’t know, I just saw her once before at the beach in the Hamptons.”
“What did she look like?”
“She was dark haired and was very skinny in the picture, but when I saw her at the beach she was quite plump and her hair was starting to grey. She looked as if she aged about twenty years, between the picture and now.”
“Alanna that was Alice,”
“What,”
“The photo and the woman you saw, was my mother, Alice.”
“How is that possible?”
“Why not,” Suddenly it all makes sense, the reason I was so drawn to her, was that she reminded me of Adrian. Why, did I not see it before?
“Adrian your mother is here in the vicinity of New York, how do you feel about that?”
“I have no feelings towards her, she means nothing to me.”
“But are you not surprised that she is here?”
“No she is from here, why would I be surprised.”
“I didn’t know Alice was an American.”
“My father was from London, when Alice was sixteen she ran away from home and went straight to London. He met her while she was working as a barmaid, in one of the bars in town. She said he took to her straight away and they quickly began dating after that.”
“There must have been some happy times then?”
“For them, yes, but as for me I only have one memory that is worth remembering.”
“What is it?” He takes a deep breath.
“I was eleven and it was Christmas time, Alice had gone out the night before drinking and it was so cold in the house that my hands were frozen solid. I went outside to steal some wood for the fire from one of the neighbors. Although it was, just an empty shell of a house in a rough neighborhood, there was one woman that always seemed to be helping others. I went over to her house and knocked on her door. When she came to answer, she was surprised to see me. She had tried to speak to me a few times out on the street, Alice had warned me not to speak to her, or encourage her to get friendly with us. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the woman invited me into her home, she sat me by the fire with her two boys, and she told us all a story about Father Christmas, she fed me with sandwiches and hot chocolate until I fell asleep by the fire. When I woke in the morning, it was as if I had a real family, she was there to greet me as soon as my eyes opened. She had no husband but she was all that the boys needed. She was caring and motherly and always put them first. Later that morning when I went back to my house, I saw Alice lying in pool of her own vomit and I wished that Sandra were my mother. I know it doesn’t sound like much Alanna, and to you it must seem so little, but to me that was the best memory that I ever had as a child.”
“Adrian, I am not going to lie to you but I never had to go through anything like that. I had a happy childhood, so I can’t begin to describe or understand how awful it must have been for you.”
“I don’t want sympathy, that’s not reason I am letting you know these things.”
“I know, I can’t help but feel it towards you.”
“Why?”
“I care about you; I hate to think that you have had all these things happen to you.”
“But I am bad Alanna; I can’t see why you would care about someone like me.”
“I have never seen anything yet that proves that you are bad.” Adrian sighs and he begins to say something. “Alanna I love you, but I don’t feel that I deserve to.”
“I love you too, and don’t ever think like that.”
“I can’t believe you said that, is it true? Or are you just saying it?”
“Of course it’s true, I love you Adrian.”
We talk for ages about many different things however; his childhood or anything that has happened to him, or the fact that he has a secret and that there are people after me, has not come up since. He talks to me about my life, asking me about my family, and telling me that I should try to mend things with Sophie. After all, she is my best friend, and I know that it is the right thing to do. Therefore, I have decided I will talk to her when I go back to Columbia. As for now, all I can think about is Adrian. How strange this all feels for me, I only ever saw him twice before, and one encounter with him was not the best experience. He was being rude, and I thought he was an arrogant ass. When the gifts were coming regular every day, I never thought for one second that it would be him. He never crossed my mind; he had no reason for doing it, as I thought that he hated me.