HP 3

CHAPTER 3

“So Canada then”, Jack said, two days after my 18^th birthday.

“Yep, Canada”, I pile the plates atop each other as we get things ready for the dinner rush.

“Did you get all the papers you need?” he stirs the pot with the spaghetti sauce.

I turn to look at him and for the first time I really look, beyond the brown teeth and the old age which annoyed me most of the time, now I really looked and I saw the wrinkles caused by old age, his hands that looked over used, “Why do you keep cooking? You’re rich enough”, I say turning back to the plates.

“My daughter’s favorite thing was my food” he says and I drop a plate in surprise, catching before it shatters.

He glares at me and I look away guiltily, “I didn’t know you had a child”, I say after a while.

“Well I had, twins and a wife too”, he sighed and put the pot down, “I met my wife when I was 18 and we were very in love, I know that English is bad Mr. School but I couldn’t find a better word. At 20, I married her and our first were twins, girls, Rae and Rebecca, beauty blondes, my wife was from a rich family so she couldn’t do more than cleaning her ass after taking a shit, so I did it all, cook, clean, and everything needed in running the house but I was an ugly man, and when our kids were 5, Rae said to me, “The only thing mum and I like about you is that you can cook”. Rae was more like her mum so I believed her mum would have said something like that”, he stopped and sniffed.

I turned to look at him and saw him wiping a plate furiously, “Hard to hear that stuff when you are in love”, I say

“Rebecca said “no daddy, I love you for all of you”, and she hugged me, that day I cried on my 5 year olds body and in the evening I went to my wife, “hey babe, what’s up”, she looked up from her nails that she was filing and raised perfectly plucked eyebrows, yes that was my wife always on flick, I told her about what happened with Rae and she burst out laughing.

I looked at my love for 5 years and she was laughing at something that obviously hurt me so and she burst out laughing and then she turned back to her nails, I was so pissed that I dragged her by her hair and she screamed till she stood, I was just so pissed, and then I forced her to have sex to this guy she hated.

The next day I woke up to and empty house, few hours later, the police were in my house being led by the high and might William Smith, he was friends with my wife’s side lover, turned out all these years she was cheating on me and the twins might not have been mine as a matter of fact, but to me they have always been mine, when I came out of prison, all I could do was cook, in hopes that the twins might find me soon enough, but apparently not all wishes could come true”, he let out a sarcastic laugh.

“That’s why you hate him”, I finally said.

“I don’t hate him, I hate that he had the power”

“One and the same thing”, I said turning back to my arrangement, since I had moved to putting the chairs down.

“You grew up to be smart mouthed boy, and a fine young man too”, I turned to him smirking.

It was true that surprisingly I had turned into this guy that wasn’t me, my hair had become a better shade of brown and I grew out muscles and height, I even started getting extra tips from females customers and even a few had slipped me their numbers.

I was awesome, but I still couldn’t smile, “We weren’t even talking about that at all”, I say.

“What’s the first thing you’ll do when you get to Canada”, he says still avoiding the main topic.

“Well I’ll change my name and fix my teeth”, I humor him.

“Teeth I can understand but name?” he said as he wipes the board and writes down today’s special.

“Well I can’t be called Long when I go to meet William Smith”, I say shrugging like that was an obvious fact.

“Oh boy, you have this whole fantasy going on in your head”, he says and I shrug not saying anything as the first few customers start coming in.

“Don’t let them fuck your life up”, he whispers close to my ears.

“Oh they won’t get the opportunity, I was going to deal with those fuckers after I take the power”, I say back before I turn and start taking orders.

That night goes as every night had gone, good business and large tips, and of course the numbers, the only thing different was my heart, the thought that I was going to be in Canada by this time tomorrow mad my heart beat twice as fast.

Morning came faster and I was packing my real tiny load and was getting ready to leave, when I was done, I looked round the restaurant, thinking about how it shaped a larger part of my life, “Boy, come here”, I heard Jack shout, I slung my back pack over one shoulder and turned to him.

“Hope you aren’t stealing my shit boy, because I am capable of finding you and whooping your ass”, he says.

I pass my bag to him, “search it”, I say.

“No, I don’t want your dirt on me”, he says, then he put his hands in his pocket and brought out a black card.

I stepped back in shock and rose my hands up, “where did you get that?”

“It isn’t a gun boy, it’s a black card, lose that look, you were saying you need to leave an impression, so be a scholarship kid in a rich way, wear nice things and live good, when you make your money you can merge the account with your new name but this one is in Anthony Long and that’s who you will ever be to me”, he says.

I put out my hands and take the card, “I won’t say no to do this”, I say pocketing it quickly.

He nods and I see the tiniest bit of smile on his face, “Be good, don’t let anyone take that from you” he says.

“I lost my goodness years ago old man Jack”, I say as I turn back and walk out.