A day or two later; a rainy weekend late afternoon/early even; Carmen's family van;
Carmen-
"Why are we here again!?" screamed our youngest son, Mateo (10).
We're in our family van going to a local restaurant we've been hearing about; it's the same family van that brought us here.
"We already told you, Matty," says my husband, Ricardo, "you're mom and I got new jobs that made us move here."
"But we hate the school here, Pa-pa!" Complains Liam (14), our second.
I can't say I blame him. Without warning, we up and moved to the other side of the country for, admittedly, a pretty lousy fake reason given to us by those federal agents. They're in a brand new school in a brand new town at the very end of the school year, so making friends has been real difficult.
We haven't even tried looking for my half brothers, Donny and Chester, yet and we've been here for three weeks already. I'm not sure where or how to look and until we can figure that out, Ricardo and I decided it best to not yet tell them that they have two uncles they never met. We're not even sure if they remember when I told them I was adopted, it was so long ago, but Noah almost certainly remembers.
We pull up to the strip mall where the restaurant is. Apparently, it's a burger place inside an art gallery; it's called the Art Bistro. At least that's what our next door neighbor told Ricardo; Chad I think he said his name is. Ricardo chit chats with him from time to time. Between the two of us, my Ricky's the more sociable one. He can make friends with anyone in no time flat.
"We'll talk about this later, boys," I say to them, "let's just enjoy our dinner at this nice restaurant." They stay quiet as Ricky pulls into the parking lot.
After we park, we make our way onto the sidewalk before getting into the store.
"Wow, it looks like quite the night life for such a small town," says our oldest, Noah (17), "y'know I've been hearing stuff about gentrification projects like this."
Noah's turning into a very well-read, handsome young man. He's an amazing role-model for his brothers, he's very accomplished at both academics and sports plus he's quite the lady killer. Noah's only one of the five of us that was actually excited to move here from San Diego.
I don't know where he gets it from because neither me nor Ricky are as patient, wide-eyed and optimistic as he is. I do know he has Ricky's pension for making friends, except Noah's more reserved. Now that I think about it, Noah could've gotten these traits from my birth family.
We enter the store and take in the atmosphere. It's quite a busy place it seems.
"Let's find us some tables and then we can wait in line, yes?" Ricky says and we do just that
A few moments later;
"Okay, I'll admit, the one good thing about this town are it's burgers." Liam says after we've been sitting and eating for awhile. We chuckle. Liam's the comedian of the family.
As I look around, I spot something. In several parts of the walls of the store, there's banners saying, 'Congratulations to Donny and Linnie!' Could it be the same Donny? My brother? Russ did say that he just got engaged. Maybe this is the first lead to finding my brothers and tell them what's been happening with our father, Russ.
"One second, guys, I'll be right back." I say before excusing myself and making my way to the art gallery part of the store. I approach black woman who's wearing a suit jacket with the company logo and a tag that reads 'Ashley, Store Manager'.
"Excuse me, ma'am," I say, "could I ask you a couple questions?"
"Sure, honey," she says with a welcoming smile, "my name's Ashley, I'm the store manager and co-owner. You need help browsing our selection?"
"No, no, thanks," I reply matching her pleasant demeanor, "I had a few question about those banners." I point to the various banners I mentioned a second ago. She looks at where I'm pointing to
"Those signs?" she asks, "Oh my, I forgot to have them taken down after that party. I hope they're not too distracting."
"No, no, not at all," I say, reassuringly, "I was just wondering who they are?" She gives me a look like she's a little surprised by the question.
"Y'all visiting or y'all just moved here?" Ashley asks
"We've been living here a few weeks but obviously we're still a little new," I explain, but then I have to ask her, "why? Are they local celebrities or something?"
"Somethin' like that," she answers, "Linnie is my partner here at the store and Donny's her fiancé."
I'm about to ask something else when I hear Noah saying 'mom'. He's right next to me. How long has he been standing there. He's like a ninja.
"I know who Linnie is," he says, "or rather, the whole world does."
"Noah, don't be rude, I'm asking this nice lady a few questions." I say and then I turn back to Ashley, "I'm really sorry, he's normally more tactful than this."
"It's alright," Ashley waves it off with a smile, "he must've been looking at our brochures."
"That's right," Noah says, "this Linnie is 'Pantsuit Powderkeg'."
"Oh!" I instinctively cry own in realization, "That famous video!?" How could I have not put two and two together? I remember there being a Donny in that video. As if reading my mind, I see Noah pull up the video. Yes! Donny looks like the picture that Russ gave me. I turn back to Ashley, "do you know where I could find this Donny?"
"Yeah but why?" she asks. Fair question, she's never met me before and I come snooping around and asking suspicious questions.
"It's a personal matter." I say
"Hold on, you ain't another ex girlfriend of his coming to stir some shit up, are you?!" Ashley's tone and demeanor changes in an instant. "We've had enough of that shit 'round here to last us a lifetime. We don' need no more drama." I try to correct her when Noah interjects before I can say anything.
"No, Miss Ashley," he says, "he and Chester are our uncles." At first, I'm shocked as look at Noah utterly stunned, but I shouldn't be surprised. He's quite observant and perceptive. So I don't even ask how he knows because he probably heard me and Ricky talking about it.
"Huh? 'Uncles'?" Ashley asks with a confused look on her face.
"They never met me, but I'm their half sister," I say to her, "my name is Carmen."
"Shut the front door," she says, not believing what she's hearing, "hold on, girl. I'm calling Donny and Linnie right now." She's on the phone
"Hey, girl, is your man there?" Ashley asks into the phone and then walks away out of earshot. After a few minutes, she comes back, "Stay right here. They comin' right over."
"Oh, are we going to meet 'Pantsuit Powderkeg'?!" Noah asks excitedly, I've never seen him this excited. By now, Ricky, Liam and Mateo have joined us. I'm going to have to somehow explain to our two other boys one of the real reasons we moved here.
I turn to Liam and Mateo and kneel down a little to face them
"Do you guys remember me telling you that Grampa Glen and Gramma Susan aren't my real parents?" I ask them. Liam nods while Mateo shakes his head. "Well you guys are in for the same surprise as I am. This is why we moved here! We're going to meet one of your new uncles!" I see Liam and Mateo look at each other and they both shrug their shoulders as if to say, 'ok, whatever'.
For some reason the anticipation for this feels a little anticlimactic.
End of Chapter. Please comment and vote.