THE ENGAGEMENT.

CRASH.

OLIVIA.....

I hardly slept through the night. My thoughts were all with Roman. I needed him to know how sorry I was. I needed to be there looking after him, praying by his side that he gets better real soon.

The alarm I set on my phone sounded at 4:30 a.m. exactly. I woke Mia up and we started to prepare to leave the hotel in order to catch our 6 a.m. flight. I took a shower then phoned Robert to make sure he would pick us at 5:15 a.m.

The fifteen minutes drive to the airport was a silent one. I was not in the mood to speak and thankfully Robert took the hint and didn't try to engage me in conversation. All my good memories of Vietnam evaporated as they were replaced with me leading Roman to the hospital after I couldn't trust our relationship.

At the airport, Mia did all the check in work. All I did was present my passport and air ticket to the annoying bureaucratic airport official. At 5:45 a.m. we boarded the plane and spent frustrating twenty hours in the air.

ROMAN.....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..... I woke up screaming after having a bad dream that I was in a car accident.

My body ached all over. Why was my body aching this much? Was this still part of the dream? I needed to wake up from this awful dream that was consuming me.

"Roman, Roman," a really deep voice sounded over me.

I patted my eye lids together to get a clear sight as the lights in the room were too bright for my liking. So this wasn't a dream, my body actually ached but why and who was this old man standing over me?I could see his mouth moving but I don't remember what he was saying as I was trying to make sense of what was going on.

"Are you okay son?" Son? What was happening? I was so confused. I couldn't remember anything not even how I got myself to this hospital.

"Are you my dad?" I asked him. The look on his face dropped to fear. He rushed out the room calling out for a doctor.

The doctor rushed to my side and started examining me. He lifted my eye lids open and got so close to my face to get a clear look into my eyes. Personal space much. Then he opened my mouth and torched into it checking for something. Crumbs from my last meal, I presumed.

The doctor led the old man out of my room and shut the door behind them. As I lay there still confused about the whole situation, a fine looking man, well dressed in a black and gold Gucci print shirt, marron dress pants and black shinning dress shoes walked in and looked at me sadly. Who was he?

"You look very dapper," I told him and he smiled. "Are you my brother?"

The smile on his face faded and was replaced with confusion. Why was every one acting this way?

"No," he finally replied.

"Step brother at least," I pleaded.

The door opened once again and the old man walked in. He led the dapper looking man away and they talked for a while. Something he said must have hurt the dapper looking man because he turns to me, his eyes filled with tears and rushes out of the room.

"What did you say to him? He looked upset. Is he my brother? He seems cool" I asked the old man.

"Are you hungry?" the old man completely ignored my question.

"I have so many questions but they can wait. For some reason I feel like having carnitas fajitas,"

"That's your favorite dish," he spoke smiling warmly. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed someone.