Reality Over Expectation

Clearing The Mind

Clearing The Mind

I paced back in forth in my hotel 'What am I going to say?' 'Should I wait another hour? 'How will he react?' 'Is this a good idea' I was having second thoughts. The mini version of this conversation was bad enough. Dwayne took it well and all, but me bringing it up a 2nd time, what will he think? Probably that I'm not happy he is my real dad, and that is the farthest thing from the truth. I flopped on my couch, Joe came out of the bathroom. "Le'ia, you still haven't called him?" he asked.

"Its not that simple!"

"Explain why not." He said, folding his arms.

I sighed. "I already brought up a mini version of this conversation before."

"And? Did he storm out? Did you cry?"

"None of that, he wasn't defensive about anything, none of that stuff."

"Then why haven't you made the call?"

"Cause Joe! What will he think? This is not a simple topic to talk about. How does an adopted child ask their biological parents why they didn't keep them? How does an adopted child let their biological parents know their true feelings!"

Joe then started to laugh. "I don't mean to laugh, but do you hear yourself? You sound like a cliche movie. This is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson we are talking about. Not some crackhead, or teen mom that had to give up their child so they could live their lives without the responsibility of a baby. Any celebrity, or even random person off the street can tell you that Dwayne is a great guy! Trust me when I say this, tuafafine, he may not have been there physically for 16 years of your life, but he has always cared about you and always will. Now, gimme your phone!"

Joe then snatched it out of my hands, and dialed Dwayne's number.

"Uso, its Joe, I'm with Bianca right now."

Joe stopped and listened to his reply.

"I'm doing fine, just stopped to pay my little cousin a visit, but she needs to tell you something."

Joe then passed the phone to me.

"Hi dad." I said sheepishly.

"Hey, is something wrong?"

"Yeah." I then became silent.

"Well how am I gonna be able to fix the problem if you don't tell me?" he chuckled.

"CJ, cheated on me." I said, avoiding my true reason for calling him. Joe shook his head.

Dwayne's tone then got more serious. "He did what now?"

"Its fine, dad. I broke up with him."

"No, it isn't. You don't disrespect women, now I know I have had my fair share of taunting women onscreen but that was acting. I will never endorse the things these young men put women through, its actually very disgusting."

"I know, dad. But I'm a Johnson, so I knew how to handle the situation."

"I'm proud of you afafine. Is there anything else you wanted to talk to your old man about?"

I sighed, this was the moment of truth. "Yes, I'm still trying to grasp the fact that you left me." Dwayne became silent. "I know you love me dad, but I just- I just don't know what to think, and I don't know why you did it."

"Well nows the time to tell the tale of how you were conceived."

I giggled "I know how reproduction works."

"Well, then I'll just skip that part." he chuckled, but then he got serious. "We met at a frat party, you know how I played football at the University of Miami, well back in the day I was a rowdy kinda guy. Hell, the whole football team was a rowdy bunch, so many of the rules in NCAA came from our antics, we sure knew how to wild up a crowd! But enough about that. Like I said, I was at a frat party, and I was drinking. And then a lady comes up to me, never met or seen her on campus, but my drunk goggles said she was the one for that night. We chatted each other up, drank a little more, and then well, intercourse happened. A few months later I get a knock on my dorm door, and I see a pretty little pregnant woman, thought she was my roomates doing but she was mine. We went out to lunch and we discussed you, the baby. She said she wanted to keep it, and I was for that at first. But then it dawned on me, I was in no type of relationship with this woman and had a football career to look forward to, so I politely declined. She then said, she would raise you with the help of her momma. Came February and the most beautiful baby girl I had ever seen was born. And there were also two other people there, you know them by the names of Tony and Patricia, a middle aged married couple. Your mom then told me she had to pick adoption because, well the doctors said she wasn't going to live after having you. I don't know all the medical details, but I was grief stricken, my little girl wasn't going to have her real mom or dad in her life. Tony and Patricia explained to me that they would love it if I was able to stay in your life, and I did at first. Every month I would visit and bring you a gift.But then NFL didn't work out too well, so I moved to Canada for the CFL, which also didn't turn out good. I was in your life for a good two years, but stuff happened."

I was crying, my biological mother never even lived to see me yawn for the first time. "What- what was my mom's name?" I asked sobbing between each word.

"Bianca." I cried even harder, "She wanted to name you Taylor, but then we agreed to change the name when I heard she was dying."

"Why didn't you stay with me dad?"

"I was still looking out for myself, but don't think there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about my little girl. That is why in '96 I was glad WWE hired me, I was making decent money, but because I was traveling I never could physically see you. But I wanted to provide for you, Tony and Patricia didn't need the extra money but I insisted that my little girl got whatever she needed and wanted, so I helped out. I got more famous, and then got more money. There was a time when I stopped giving your parents money, and that was because Simone was born, so all my resources went into making sure I was there for her unlike I was for you."

By this time I was laying in Joe's arms bawling my eyes out, he just patted me on the head trying to comfort me. "How is Simone doing."

"She wants to see her older sister again, you know you both live in Florida, right."

I let out a little chuckle. "Yeah, I should make plans to see her."

"And I'll try to be there too, for both of my girls."

"Dad, I'm sorry I ever doubted that you loved me."

"Bianca, I understand. I never told you the story, but I should've the day I was reunited with you."

"Dad, I love you. Don't ever leave me again."

"It wouldn't be my choice if I had to. Now, I don't think a young beautiful, future WWE Diva should be wasting her time talking to her old man."

I wiped the tears from my face and replied "And I don't think an international celebrity should be wasting his time talking to his 23 year old daughter."

He laughed, "Trust me, anything dealing with you, won't be wasting my time."

That made me smile, I can't believe I even thought that he didn't want me. I had the greatest dad in the world.

"Love you dad, stay in touch this time, alright."

"I'll make sure of it, love you afafine." He then hung up the phone. I got up from Joe's arm.

"He loves you." Joe said, in a mocking tone.

"Yes, he does." I said with a smile.

"Well one emotional bond done, one more to go." He said while stretching his arms.

"I think I'll put that one on hold."

"Why is that?" He asked, confused.

"I need to straighten my mind before I talk to Tony. I'll be honest, maybe things were taken out of context, my mind was so clouded from prior events, that I may have jumped the gun."

Joe then got up and gave me a hug. "This is the Bianca I know, the down to earth, sensible one."

I then pushed him off of me. "I don't need a hug from you."

"Right in the heart." Joe said clutching his chest.

"Gasp, Roman Reigns has a heart?" I said sarcastically.

"You're so funny." He said in an annoyed tone.

"I know right." I said with a wink. Joe just rolled his eyes at me.

This is what I needed right now, my mind and body to be free of stress. This is what the vacation was for. 'Thanks for the vacation, JBL' I thought to myself.