Finding Home, G.E.Wenner [bill gates books to read .txt] 📗

some very nice people at work. An old man who sits around telling stories of World War II and a lady who talks about her life for hours about her life making it on two dollars a week during the Great Depression. I help make them lunch and in turn, I get lifetime friends…okay so maybe only their lifetime, which in retrospect is now considerably shorter than mine, but still, you get my point.

So on the walk home from work, realize that I need to call my father at some point. Okay, I have made the elective decision that I will call him when I get home. Yeah… that’s a good idea. When I get home. After I take the long way home from work that is.

I reach my front steps once again. Walk to the door, unlock it. Okay here goes. I head for the phone when I suddenly decide to check the outlets in the home just one more time before I make that fateful phone call.

Alright, there’s no more avoiding it and I know it. I pick up the phone and dial. Rings once, twice, three times and I get a voicemail. Thank god. I leave a brief message and quickly hang up the phone.

I think I'm in the clear when suddenly, seemingly out of thin air, the phone rings. Our house phone never rings. This cannot be good. What do I do? Do I answer or throw the phone and run in the other direction?


I'm just about to take option two when I click talk. Here goes nothing.

“Hello?”
“Annabella?”
“Yes...”
"Hi Annie, it’s your father.”

Wow he really does think I'm oblivious doesn’t he? Great this conversation is going very well already cant you tell?

“Hi.”

“So Annie, I was thinking that you may want to come down to San Fransisco for a few weeks? Spend your birthday here? I know Holly and Jake would really like to see you.”

Great, the “steps” want to see me. Lucky me.

“Ummm…”

“Really think about it Annie, I think you would enjoy it. You would have your own room here and everything. And I know you do well enough in school to take a few days off. I don’t know, it’s just a thought. Why don’t you take a few days to think about it, run it by your mother and give me a call back? I can have a plane ticket waiting for you at the airport whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay Dad, I’ll think about it.”

And so ended our first conversation in about a year.

Now the question is, will I consider it? Yes, I think I really will give it some thought.

***

Okay, so here is the deal. I gave my fathers proposition some serious thought last night and this is what I came up with. My mother will not miss me. My school will not miss me. And really, there is no one else here to miss me. I can have my letters forwarded so I can keep in contact with Elizabeth, and that is everyone who will even notice. Plus that conversation with my mother on Friday really got to me. She doesn’t have enough time for me, so maybe my father will.

Here goes nothing. I pick up the phone and call my father again. He answers on the first wring.

“Hi Annabella, have you considered my offer already?”
“Yeah Dad I think I did and…”
“And?”
“And how fast can you have my ticket here?”
“Tomorrow if you like. What did your mother-“
“Okay then Dad, I will get to the airport tomorrow.’
“Sounds great Annie, I will meet you at LAX tomorrow evening. Who knows, maybe Holly and Jake will join me.”
“yeah Dad, sounds… okay I’ll see you then.”

And so ends our second conversation in a year. I will pack tonight, making sure I get my converse and Kissing Doorknobs ready to go. I decide to pack a lot, I mean, who knows how long I really will be there.

***

The next day, I take a cab to the airport. I walk up to the teller and he informs me that I have a ticket at the American Airlines counter.

About thirty minutes later I am sitting on a plane to California. Comfy, I must say. First class even. Wow, this could work out just fine.

I fell asleep for a while and awoke as the captain was announcing our decent into LAX.

After landing, I found the luggage, and then my father found me. Wow, he has started to gray. Not suprising, a double life can have that effect on a person.

Anyway, just as I get to my luggage, my father reaches me. A friendly hello and he says something quite common in this situation.

“I am so pleased your mother was okay with you coming all the way here Annie.”

What he does not know, I decided what with her work and oh so busy lifestyle, she wouldn’t even notice I was gone. I guess we will see if she finds out soon enough.

***

So just as my father had predicted, the whole family was there. Great, the steps want to see me. Lucky me.

I did have time to duck and run because I saw him before he saw me, but I decide that there was no point in it. Especially because by the time I formulated the full thought in my head, he saw me. Well, here goes nothing. Holly practically runs up to me to introduce herself, which kind of happened while she was giving me a hug, which was a little weird. But at least she is friendly. Jake just kind of meanders up and gives me a little head nod thing. Again, a little weird, but I'm guessing its just his age. My father finally makes his way to the front of the pack and practically suffocates me in a hug. Great, my dad is going to kill me and I just got here.

Well, the luggage took about five years to finally get to us and by the time it did I realize I am exhosted and my dad decides its time to hit the road. Finding the car also takes a bit longer then planned, but we do eventually reach a red Toyota Hilander. For some reason I am not surprised at this car. It’s a family car that still shows hes not lacking in money or style.

It’s a good hours drive to his house, some two story yellow suburban thing. Nice really, just a bit too ordinary. To every his own right?

Okay, so I had just walked up to the front door when this huge beast lunges out the door and practically eats my face off!

Alright, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point I think. A mammoth of a Golden Retriever runs out and puts his front paws right up onto my shoulders.

“Buddy, get down!”

Good old dad to the rescue! And with such an original name! wow what have I gotten myself into?

Well, we finally make our way into the house and I must admit, its pretty nice inside. Quite modern, with a conventional feel to it all the same. If Holly decorated this place, she sure did a nice job.

We make our way upstairs and as promised, I did get my own room. Nice one too. There is a four poster bed in the middle of the room with a table on one side topped with a lamp. There is a walk in closet on one wall, the one opposite the bed with a full length mirror on the front. On the wall in between there is a window and underneath the window is a desk and matching chair, all a deep redwood matching the bed frame. On the desk sits a new Dell laptop and another lamp. Besides the lamps, there is a ceiling fan with light. And opposite the wall with the window is a wall with several shelves tacked onto the walls, staggering along the wall. At the very end of that wall is a bookshelf, already full of books. Finally, the floor is carpeted in thick white matching the down comforter on the bed with an array of colored pillows.

Quite nice I must admit.

My father looks at me expectantly, like he wants me to say something which leads me to believe they did this room up for me. Some of the added comforts anyway.

“Wow, Dad, not bad.”
“Well, the style was mostly Holly, but we both put it together yesterday.”

While I was thinking of something nice to say, we hear Holly call “Dinner!”

My Dad gives me an apprehensive glance (which I understand to mean ‘Here goes nothing’) and we head downstairs.

When we reach the kitchen, Jake confirms my suspicion about Holly. She doesn’t cook. Ever evidently. This is a special occasion to them I guess.

We all take our places at the table and Holly brings over a bowl of some delicious smelling chicken riggies. I am soon to find out that not everything that smells good actually tastes the same way.

She places the bowl on the table with a huge smile on her face and I cant help but notice the concerned glances from my father and Jake.