In the meantime she would have to stay strong and in good spirits so the children wouldn’t suspect her disappointment. ♣ Chase was only nine years old, but he heard his mother trying to contact his daddy again, he knew something was wrong but couldn’t quite work out what it was, he feared his daddy wasn’t coming home even for Christmas. He would often confide with his elder sister Destiny, as she was at home most evenings in her room listening to her loud music. He couldn’t approach Ella as she was never home. Ella often treat him like a baby, like he was still five years old, although he loved his eldest sister, he became a lot closer to Destiny, she treated him like a teenager like herself. It was Destiny who helped him with his train set, she never once showed the least bit of frustration, her patience was long and often when he was supposed to be asleep in his room he would secretly spy on her in his train room trying to figure how all the trains worked. Chase admired his sister for this as she was the only one who generally displayed any interest in his hobby, he often wished Destiny was a boy a big brother, how he longed to have a brother, he would often imagine he had with Destiny and she didn’t seem to mind behaving like a boy, as she dressed like a tomboy aswel.
Chase remembered from a very young age he felt alone in this world, there seemed to be something missing in his life, but he didn’t know what that something was it was, only something he sensed at times. He missed his father deeply and often associated it with this. In adolescence Chase got mixed up with the wrong crowd at school, a group of older boys who were in to skate board, he got in to all kinds of trouble, stealing bikes, smoking cannabis, stealing money from his mothers dresser, shop lifting and often fighting with rival skaters. All this gave him the popularity he was secretly seeking from his absent father. He became popular with the boys as he always had money to buy cannabis, beers, and designer skate label clothing, he had many friends he could hang with at any given time. He was also popular with the girls as he was tall, well dressed and extremely hansom with his masses of shiny black curly hair and big baby blue eyes. But he showed little or no interest in them.
♣ Jeannie pleaded with her son to stop and come to his senses as he had a great future ahead of him, as he was exceptionally intelligent, always scoring straight “A´s”
Wilhelm had already put the money to one side for Chase’s university education, little to Chase’s knowledge. Chase was unaware he was breaking his mother heart, as all he wanted to do was rebel against his father more than anything, hoping his rebellion would bring his father home sooner or later. The money his father sent him each month he would blow on whatever he could, usually booze and cigarettes to please his crowd of followers. He remembered the day the divorce papers came through from his father who wanted to divorce his mum and couldn’t understand why! He was far too young to understand, but it didn’t stop him listening in to Ella and his mothers hushed and private conversations when he was younger, he wished he hadn’t. He also remembered when his mother met Charles five years later and witnessed his mothers smile return, the way it was on all the photographs she shared with his father. He thought it strange to have a new step-father moving in and taking his father’s chair at the end of the table that no one had ever sat in before, except his father. He also noticed his mother stopped asking him to lock the doors at night as he had always done beforehand. He wondered if Charles would take over his role as being the man of the house and felt quite jealous at first. Surely nobody could share his deep sense of protectiveness over his mother and sisters? But soon his worries and concerns about being the man of the house diminished as in time he befriended Charles, sharing a bond together he never thought possible.
Charles happily took the burden off Chase’s shoulders, letting Chase focus on other things such as his future. Chase soon accepted Charles in to his family, he considered Charles to be a good solid man, who managed to make his mother laugh and smile again and wished Charles could have been his biological father as he had all the traits of a good, honest, and reliable man, everything he was struggling, yet striving to become. He just didn’t feel the need to be the attention seeking fool he had once been with his dodgy crew and felt he needed to move on, so he cut all ties and decided to take his promising future in to his own hands with the encouragement from his mother and Charles.
♣ Jeannie encouraged her son all she could, she knew he had a natural intelligence and he would get in to Oxford. However what was bothering her most was that he would often confide in her about his feelings of loneliness and she wondered if it was time she told him the truth or her theory as to why he became to feel like this. After dinner she would take him to one side and gently explain, she hoped she was doing the right thing.
“Chase there’s something I’d like you to see, come and take a look, but before you do I want to explain, I think I know why you’re having those feelings of loneliness!”
She handed him a small, old worn envelope.
“Inside this envelope I think you’ll find your answers my son!” Chase looked at his mother with a confused expression. “Mum , I don’t understand, you’re beginning to scare me. Why don’t you just tell me what’s inside? What’s with all the sudden secrecy?”
“Just open it sweetheart and you’ll see!” Chase could feel his heart race, his adrenaline pumping through his body, making him a shaky, he suddenly felt unsteady on his feet, and sat down. Preceding with caution he slowly opened the envelope, the first photograph looked like a pregnancy scan photo black and white, however upon further inspection he could see the outline of two nearly developed babies and he looked at the date and asked, “Who are they?”
Jeannie took hold of his free hand and gently whispered, “You’re brother and you, sweetheart!”
Chase could feel his whole body tremble while trying to fight back the onset of tears that were trying to force themselves out, he couldn’t find any words, he was in complete shock.
A few moments of disturbing silence followed.
“He was your twin, his names Chad!”
The tears came rolling down his cheeks; he sat and looked at the photo for several minutes before he could find his words again. “I had a twin brother? Why did you never tell me? What the hell happened to him mum?”
Jennie sat up straight trying to compose herself, bracing herself once and for all for her heartbreaking revelation. "He died when you were one and a half years old sweetheart, he had a hole in his heart, the doctors did all they could to save him, but he was too young to undergo another operation!”
“Jesus, mum, I had no idea, I can’t believe it!” “There are other photos of you both if you can bring yourself to look, you were both identical twins. I feel you’re old enough to know the truth now and I hope this helps you, it’s the hardest thing I have ever had to endure in my life, I lost a son and you lost a brother. Chad was a real little fighter, even until the end, he proved all the doctors wrong and out lived all their predictions of only lasting until the age of six months. You both share the same eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hair, it was very difficult to identify who was who, sometimes you’re father and I would have to take a guess as there were no clues to differentiate the pair of you. The only thing you didn’t share was Chad’s weak heart sweetheart, thanks to God, he spared you. You boys were inseparable and the most beautiful boys in the whole of this world, it broke mine and your father’s heart when Chad died, however we were eternally grateful to still have you and you were extremely healthy, never showing any signs of your brother’s illness.”
They both began to cry together, tears of sadness at their deep loss, Jeannie cradled Chases head on her chest the way she did when he was young and waited patiently for his tears to stop, while stroking his masses of curly black hair to try and calm and reassure him that she would be always there for him. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her son, she hoped it would give him some answers and would help with his fears of loneliness. She silently hoped she had done the right thing.
Chase reached for his mo
thers trembling hand and squeezed it tightly and whispered, “Thanks for confiding in me mum, it explains why I have been feeling so alone and lost!”
Chase finally had some clarity and asked curiously, “Did Ella and Destiny get to meet him?”
“Yes they did but they were so young and I don’t think they remember him in any other way than been in hospital, they’ve never spoken about him!”
“And dad, how did he deal with the loss?”
“Your father was heartbroken, however he hid his grief very well, and he threw himself into his work a lot more than usual!” “Why doesn’t that surprise me, is this when he became a workaholic?” “Yeah I guess it was, but your father was hurting just as much as me, he found it difficult to express his feelings especially to me as I was so heartbroken and lost, the only thing that kept me going was you sweetheart, you needed me more than ever, as I did you!”
Chase felt an overwhelming feeling of peace in his heart, he finally had some answers, most of his frustrations he felt most of his life suddenly made sense. He was absolutely devastated that he had lost a brother and would have donated any part of his body to bring him back, just to have one more moment with him, all he could do now was treasure his brothers memory in his heart forever and treasure the old photographs.
“Thanks for confiding in me mum, you don’t know how much this means to me, whenever I get those lonely feelings I´ll just remember my twin brother, he will always be a part of me now!”
Jeannie held Chase tight and whispered, “You’re welcome; I know your brother is never far away from you and you never have to feel alone again, just remember you are the biggest part of him and in you his memory lives on!”
Chapter 12 Oxford University accepted Chases five Advanced higher a level results in mathematics, chemistry, economics, computing and biology and invited him for an interview and various mathematical aptitude tests. Oxfords admissions criterion was a lengthy procedure that would put Chase in good stead to prepare his aptitude and technical skills. He hoped he would pass as he had spent the last two years of his life preparing his entry in to university. His desired course would be maths and computer science. When he got the long awaited good news that he had been accepted into Oxford, he ran in to the large kitchen where his mother and Charles were seated shouting out the good news, jumping up and down in excitement.
Both Jeanie and Charles joined in and began to sing, “For he’s a jolly good fellow!”
The same evening Wilhelm called to congratulate his son on the good news. “Chase let me take this opportunity to congratulate you dear son, you’ve over exceeded all of my expectations and I can’t tell you how proud I am, well done. I have arranged to come over to England next week on Monday in the hope you’ll maybe accompany me to London’s World Architectural Festival on Tuesday and Wednesday, providing your free of course?” Chase let out an exaggerated deep breath, he had been holding. He hated speaking to his father on these boring long distance calls, where the echo of his own voice would repeat itself.
“Thanks dad, I have worked so hard for this for the last two years! Yeah I guess I’m free next week. What time do you wanna meet up?”
“I’ll pick you up at home around ten in the morning. Don’t forget to bring an overnight bag. I have a little surprise for you!” Chase gathered all his courage to ask, “Will it just be the two of us?” “Yes son it will , I promise, be sure to ask your mothers permission before hand, perhaps if you haven’t made any other plans we could spend the whole week together?”
“Cool, sounds like a plan! I’m sure mum will approve, but I better ask in case she and Charles have made any plans I don’t know about. Can you call me back because they’re not home at the moment?”
“No problem, I’ll call you in the morning don’t forget we are nine hours in front here in New York!”
“Oh yeah, I always forget the time difference, ok I´ll speak to you in the morning, bye, dad!” Chase hung up the telephone receiver making sure it was placed back on the handset. Thinking it was typical of his father to call and congratulate him on his good news, as he recalled his father had done the same with Ella and Destiny. Would his father only ever be a glory supporter when he approved of something?
The last time he had spent time with his father was over in New York for Christmas last year with Ella, Destiny, and his young new wife Felicity, it had been awkward as he felt his father had become more of a stranger in his life as he only saw him twice a year. Their conversations were strained and it was clear that Ella and Destiny were uncomfortable in the presence of Felicity as was he was to some degree, he couldn’t help but notice his father was drinking a lot more whisky than usual on their annual visit. Chase always sat silently observing his sisters, whenever they were in the presence of his father they would often fight for the next conversation always eager to gain the man’s approval in some shape or form, Chase had no time for this, he secretly disliked his father for abandoning him as a child, it was only his mothers much persuasion that had him go there in the first place, he always dreaded those short family holidays with his sisters acting out and the pretentious Felicity, not to mention his father actually behaving or pretending to be a father for a few days in the year, he didn’t know which was worst. He reluctantly agreed to next week’s meeting with his father as he knew it would be all about his architecture work old and new, although Chase admired his father’s work, he often had to remind himself that was why he was absent most of his childhood and he resented his father for this to some degree however he felt obliged as it was tradition that his father had treat both Ella and Destiny when they received their a level results, he would go along with it and let his father have his moment of glory and he would try to enjoy it so long as the ultra fake Felicity wasn’t joining them.
In the mean time Chase buried himself into various volumes of books, relating to complex mathematics and computer science, the days soon passed by and it came to the morning his father was due to pick him up. Chase admired his tall lean reflection in the full length mirror, he wore a pale blue silk tie matching the colour of his big oval shaped eyes, a pristine white shirt along with his tailored grey Armani suit, he looked older than the eighteen years he was, blessed with his mothers high chiselled check bones and fathers square strong jaw line, he could of passed for at least twenty one. The only thing he didn’t like about himself was his thick amounts of curly black hair, even with hair gel it remained unruly, he considered shaving it all off, however he thought better of it, he didn’t want to be labelled a rough skin head and spoil his chances of scoring with the girls, so he kept it as short and neat as he possibly could.
Jeannie knocked at his bedroom door waiting to be let in. “Oh my boy, you look so grown up and hansom, just like your father when he was your age!” Jeannie carried a small decorated box with a blue ribbon around it and handed it to Chase.
“It’s just a little something I thought you’d like and would be the perfect...”
Jeannie stopped in mid sentence, stepping back to admire her son. “Oh don’t listen to me wittering on, you know how terrible I am at keeping surprises, just go on and open it please before I spoil it and reveal the contents!”
Chase gently removed the thick red wrapping paper, careful not to tear at it too much, inside the paper there was a black suede Goldsmiths box that contained an 18 carat yellow gold men’s Rolex watch. He gasped in disbelief at the watches beauty.
“Oh mum I can’t believe it, it’s absolutely amazing, oh my god thank you so much, I never expected this, it’s so extravagant!” “You’re welcome sweetheart, it’s a present to a congratulate you on all your hard work, determination, and success over the last several years, I know it hasn’t been easy with all the changes in your life but you’ve made it and I am so very proud of you.”
Chase hugged his mum and asked her to put it on his wrist as she did he felt incredibly proud; he vowed never to take it off. A sudden beep of a car horn, echoing through the window startled t
he pair of them. Chase made his way to his bedroom window and saw his father sat behind the steering wheel of a shiny black Audi sports coupe, he hated that his father was always punctual; it was exactly ten o clock.
Chase grabbed his bags, kissed his mothers check and made his way down the stairs, waving goodbye to Charles who was sitting at the kitchen table reading the daily news paper.
Wilhelm got out of the car and shook Chases hand firmly. “Chase it’s been too long, you must have grown four inches taller since the last time I saw you, Jesus how tall are you now son?"
Chase returned his father’s strong handshake. “Six feet three inches and still growing I may a dd. Hey dad it’s great to see you again. Nice car by the way is it yours or a hire car?”
“It’s mine son, I bought it last year in Cumbria whilst visiting an old friend, he keeps it in his garage on my return to England, very good old chap, Wallace is his name.”
Wilhelm took hold of Chase’s small suitcase and put it the back of the boot. “Are you ready for a little adventure son?”
Chase nodded excitedly.
They soon got into a long conversation about cars, their favourite models, makes and so on.
Chase estimated the time their journey was going to last it would be several hours before they reached London and another hour of navigating to the hotel on Piccadilly Square give and take the amount of traffic delays if any.
“So tell me Chase how’s your mother and sisters?”
Chase thought it strange his father was asking after his mother and took a few moments to reply. “ Oh mums really busy with Charles buying more apartments to lease or sell, she has a real business head on her shoulders, I was quite surprised to find out she has enrolled at night school to study business and accountancy!”
He witnessed his father’s deep expression and added , “Ella’s never around, she out most of the time, I hardly ever see her, apparently she’s been apartment hunting, as she longs to be independent, however I think she may struggle with her low wages at the boutique unless she gets a promotion pretty soon. Destiny as far as I am aware is loving her second year at St John’s, she writes and telephones home every week, apparently she has become engaged to some fellow called Spencer Pratt would you believe, he is several years her elder, I can’t wait to meet him, mums invited him over next weekend for dinner.”
Addicted To Greed Page 20