Journey Back to England

On the morning of July 20^th, In the city of Chicago, the air was high in terms of temperature, the streets were packed with traffic, and the population was bigger than it had been in the past few weeks. Maybe it had something to do with it being summer vacation, or maybe it was at the time of day when most people were off from work. Whatever the case was, everybody in the city seemed to be ready to enjoy the lovely day, especially young Richard Brown who was wrapping up with his job at the CarMax.

 

It was just almost five-thirty and Richard was dying to get to his apartment in downtown, after sitting at his desk for almost nine hours. While walking down the street of Hillside Ave, when he received a text from his younger brother Joe saying, “Yoh Rich, meet me at the Ghirardelli ice cream store in an hour, there’s a big surprise for you.” Richard was startled, “A surprise for me?” He said to himself, “I wonder what it could be.” Without asking any more questions, Richard walked to the Ghirardelli on N Michigan Ave.

As soon as Richard arrived to the Ghirardelli shop, he pushed the doors open wide to find out what was inside. The store seemed quite for the moment, but there were still several workers at the front counter, as Richard walked towards the front counter, the cashier pointed him to the upstairs level. When Richard got to the upper level, several voices shouted “Surprise.” And Ricard was stunned. “Happy birthday son,” said Richard’s dad, Ron. “Told you there was a big surprise here.” Added Joe. Richard was very pleased that everyone remembered his birthday, and at his favorite place to get ice cream.

Everyone Richard knew was there, his mom, Linda. His aunt Alice, His uncle Copper, his Grandmother, Susan. Even his two twin cousins, Larry and Jeri. It felt good for everybody to be at Richard 32^nd birthday and to have their faces stuffed with ice cream after a while.

It was soon 9:30 p.m. and Richard was walking to his apartment with Joe. When they arrived at Richard’s apartment on Sheffield, a Stranger in a black suit and tie was waiting for them. “Excuse me,” asked the man. “Would your name happen to be Richard Brown?” Richard responded “yeah, who’d like to know?” The man answered, “Apparently a young boy in England named Felix would, sir.” Richard was both shocked and at the same time confused, for he had never known any child who would like to know him. Speaking in a non-straight voice, Richard asked “And why would a boy from England like too know, about me?” Taking a deep breath, the man answered, “Well, you’re gonna find this difficult to believe, but Felix is your son.” As soon as he heard that, a big laugh came right out of Richard’s voice, “A son, I have a son, Ba ha ha ha ha ha, oh yeah, that’s a killer!” Continuing laughing, Richard told his brother Joe, and he joined in the laughing as well.

Soon the man in the suit was getting very annoyed and he began to burst out. “Seriously Sir, you have a child in England, who is expecting you. Does that not raise your concern?” Richard being fed up with the person replied, “No, because I happen to know for a fact that I have no children.” “None that you know of.” Answered the man. As the man in the suit continued, he explained to Richard about the time he was in England 11 years ago. While there, Richard and his father went to a bar one night and he meet this young lovely English woman named Olivia. After playing a few rounds of dart games with her, Richard bought Olivia a drink, then went escorted her home. Olivia grateful to Richard, decided to invite him into her flat where they shared a romantic night.

Apparently, that love was what brought Felix into the world today. Hearing this, Richard realized that if this boy Felix was truly his son, he would need to find him and bring him home. Without delay, Richard went back inside his apartment to look for his passport, he knew that this would be a journey back to England. Excited, Joe decided to tag along with his brother Richard. He knew that if he really had a nephew somewhere, he would need an uncle’s care as much as a fathers.

 

And with that, both the brown brother accompanied the man to England on a United Airlines. The excitement on Richard’s face was getting bigger and bigger. He knew he was about to invite another person into the family, and he knew he had to tell everyone. But the first step was to find the boy, and that was the purpose of this Journey.