Through the Dark

Chapter 40

As the minutes passed I was getting more and more tensed. There was a probability that I could meet with my real family for once. I knew that there were many predicaments in that way but the idea of it becoming true was haunting me to a level that I did not know was possible.

"We're here," Jason said as he parked outside a park.
"Here?" I asked in a perplexed way.
"Yeah," he simply stated.
"If you say so," I added and got out. 

"Jason you do realise this is a park," I said as we were walking through the area. He did not answer me at once but kept on walking.

After a few more steps, Jason stopped in the middle of the ground.

"Her name is Manny. She's in my class. Manny can find out about all of it," Jason said with confidence while we stood a couple of yards away from a peculiar looking girl. It was not that she looked out of place, but he sitting style and distant behaviour made her stand out. The girl called Manny, was all in black and was sitting with a very diverse couched position, one that I have not seen before.

"Hey Manny," Jason greeted as we approached her.
"I suppose she is Vianna, the one you were talking about?" Manny asked Jason, and began to sit straight from the contortionist position she was in a while back.
"Yes she's the one I told you about," Jason added.

"So what's the name?" Manny inquired, coming to the point without beating about in the bush.

Jason and I went to seat ourselves beside Manny. She was a real straight forward girl and opened her laptop promptly to get to work.

I told her the scrape information that I knew and for the next couple of minutes Manny was engrossed in her laptop. I stared on the screen intently but if I was being candour then I would say that I did not apprehend a single thing.

All of us were silent. The only difference was that Manny was working while Jason and I were looking at what she was doing with queer futile expressions.

"Found it," Manny announced after a little while and I could not be more anxious to know.

"Your mother's parents are alive and I've found about them. On the contrary, there isn't much that I can say for your paternal grandparents," Manny stated.

I did not mind at all. The previous day, I did not even know that I had a family. Just within a day I had found out about them and possibly even located where they were. It was more than enough to get to know what I was about to.

"It seems like they are live somewhere in New York at the present," Manny stated.
"New York?" I asked to confirm it.
"Yeah that's the place," added Manny with confidence.

Not that I was surprised but the idea of meeting them seemed to drift away. It was not that I did not want to meet them, but I could not just go there to meet a bunch of people who might as well could be said to be strangers.

"Can you tell me anything else about it?" I inquired.
"There isn't much that I can find out by using only a name," stated Manny.
"Anyways thanks Manny. I really appreciate your help," I expressed my genuine gratitude.

"I'll forward the information to Jason so that it's with you," she said and smiled in return.

"Thanks Manny," Jason said again before we left.

"New York, that's not far," Jason said once we were walking on our own.
"I don't even know if they were aware of my existence," I stated meaning that I would not just barge in on them after all these years.
"Maybe it's for the best that we don't meet them," added Jason.

"Did your fever increase?" Jason asked out of nowhere once we were inside the car.
"Yeah it's much better than before," I replied honestly.

"Jason are you hungry?" I inquired right after.
"You wanna go eat somewhere?" he asked. I grinned looking at him which gave Jason the answer to his question.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked.
"I'm craving ice-cream," I said. Jason chuckled hearing my reply and began to drive somewhere. After a couple of minutes Jason stopped in front of an ice-cream parlour.

I ordered two scoops of cookie dough ice-cream and a large cold coffee while Jason took a waffle. After such an exhausting day ice-cream coupled with coffee was the best medicine.

"Vianna you are coming to the bonfire this weekend right?" Jason asked amidst our eating.
"I haven't heard from my friends if they are going or not. Let's see," I replied.

"Firstly, they will go. Secondly, you are going even if they are not," Jason announced. I did not usually like when people made decisions for me because I was a pretty self dependant person. Nevertheless, I was sort of elated to know that Jason wanted me to go.

With Jason's presence and the mouthwatering ice-cream, I was having a moment of tranquility that was long gone. However, all of a sudden the sight in front of me took me by surprise.

"Did you just see a ghost or what?" Jason asked as he saw my bewildered expression.
"No just I saw someone that I wasn't supposed to," I told Jason.

It was Finn's father!

I was about to tell Jason the reason behind my perplexed face but I realised that he did not know the whole thing about Finn's father going into jail and so on.

The last time I knew Finn's father, Mr. Asher, was inside of jail because of the felony he was accused of. I did not know that he was released and bailed out. As far as I was aware of, Finn was still talking with the lawyer who was supposed to fight for Mr. Asher in the court.

Initially I had thought that Finn forgot to mention about his father's release. However, when I saw the one other woman kissing Mr. Asher, I was not so sure. There was Finn's father with another woman while Finn was distressing over finding the money for his lawyer so that he is released from prison.

Finn did not mention anything about him. It may also be possible that the others knew about it but I did not know as I was not attending much of the handouts since the past few days. But  I did not suppose that one could forget to tell about one's father's affair to his best friends.

Did that mean that Finn did not know about it?

If that was the case then I had just discovered one of truths that Finn ought to know.

"Who's that?" Jason questioned as he caught me looking at Mr. Asher.
"That's Finn's dad," I replied blandly.

"Do you have a history or something?" Jason simply asked.
"What?! No!" I chuckled hearing Jason's assumption.

"So?" his questions perceived.
"There's another woman with him, who I suppose is his secret girlfriend," I mentioned.

"So that means he's cheating on his wife?" Jason continued.
"No Finn's parents are separated," I stated.
"What's the problem then?" Jason quizzed.

"It's more complicated than that," I stated. Jason did not question further about it. I was contended with it because I did not want to tell him about Finn's father's prison problem neither did I want to lie to him.

Shortly afterward, Jason insisted on paying the bill following which we went out of the place to head for home. The thing that I did not know was that another horror would be waiting for me back home that needed to be dealt cautiously because it was held precariously.