Never Make A Promise

Never Make A Promise 4

.........................................................................I was gonna say something, but then I forgot what. Eh, oh well. Maybe I'll remember when I'm done posting this.

I didn't say anything, just sat there in front of Joyce. Frozen. Did she really just ask what I thought she asked?

"How would I feel about meeting who?" I asked, eyes wide open. She sighed.

"Your father. It just came to me yesterday at work. I was thinking, you haven't seen him in god knows how many years-"

"Twelve years," I said quietly.

"And I know that you've wanted to see him all these years-"

"Not a whole lot now."

"And you've wanted him to come find you-"

"And he's had twelve years to do that."

"So I thought, why don't you surprise him and come to him instead?" she finished.

"Uh," I hesitated, trying to decide if I should be nervous or excited. I haven't seen the man in twelve years and then suddenly I'm supposed to call him and plan our big reunion. HE was supposed to find ME. He promised that he would find me and that I would see him again, but he never found me and I haven't seen him since the day mom carried me out of that manor.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't want to or if you're nervous. It's just that I..." she started trailing off, rubbing the back of her neck.

"You what?" I asked, dreading whatever it was she was going to say. It was going to be bad, I knew that much.

"I kinda already...found him," she said, her voice growing small toward the end. I nearly spit the sip of coffee I just took out.

"You what?!" I choked.

"I thought you'd be more excited than that," she said, nervously taking a drink of her coffee.

"I haven't seen or heard from him twelve years and now suddenly you want me to talk to him again?" I freaked, some people close to us were staring by now. "Go back to your business, nothing to see here," I told them.

"Hayley," Joyce said. I looked back at her. "I know that you're angry he hasn't tried to look for you after all these years."

"You bet I am. He...he..."

"He promised you that he would see you again. And by seeing him again, he's technically keeping that promise."

"No," I said. "He promised that he would find me. If we're the ones finding him, then he still broke that promise."

"Hayley-"

"Joyce, I know that you're trying to help, but I don't know if I'm ready to see him quite yet."

"Okay," she sighed. "Just know that I can give you his number when ever you want it."

"Wait, you already found him?" I asked. She looked down guiltily. Now his promise was really broken. She pulled out a sticky note from her purse and a pen and wrote down the number. She handed the note to me.

"Just so you have it," she said. I sighed and put it in my pocket. We didn't discuss the subject any further and when we got home, I went straight up to my room. I took the note out from my pocket and set it next to the stone. I reached in the collar of my shirt and lifted the pendant out and hung on to it. Should I call my father? What would I say if I did? 'Oh hey, you might not recognize my voice, but I'm your daughter, Hayley. Yeah I know we haven't seen each other in twelve years and stuff, but I really wanted to catch up with you. And here's the thing, you promised me that you would try to find me after mom took me away from you all those years ago and you never did. What's that you say? You have a new family? And you forgot about me? Oh, don't worry! That's completely understandable!' I scoffed. Yeah, that's a good one.