It was an anxious moment as Suxes stood steel, waiting for the confrontation.He took a deep breath to relax but all in vain. Kevin as a student who was so drawned into learning human behavior, he couldn't wait to be left behind. He continued to copy each and every thing Suxes did with his gesture from taking a deep breath to humbling himself on unsteady barefoot.
"Brittany, I...."
Dubious, before Suxes figured out a humble sentence, just a few steps away, "didn't I tell you to stop showing your face to me?!" In a wrathful voice the lady known to be Brittany questioned out of heavy spite.
"Brittany, we....," Suxes tried to speak but he wasn't let to.
Before his sentence got to the middle, "look, if you don't leave instantly, you won't like my next move _ leave!" She barked.
"Hi, Brittany...," politely Suxes redesigned his address by greetings, "please meet my friend Kevin Moore!"
Trying to pick up his confidence and at least be heard.
"You think I care!" Loud and angry, Brittany gave him an attitude. "You wanna go back to jail? Okay, stay and wait for the police."
As Brittany turned her back angrily quick on Suxes, on her third step back to the cafeteria, perhaps to find means to call the police on him, suddenly he grabbed her hand, hard at first and suddenly released it gently not to hurt her.
"Alright, I'm leaving," Suxes said extremely humble, "I was only trying to help my friend here to find his father."
"None of my business. Your friend not mine!" She gave a tough response.
Suxes: "Your kindness is the memory stuck on my mind that made me think wrongly _ that maybe when I bring my needy friend to you, you can help him get answers to unanswered questions lingering in his head.
This is why I lead him here..."
As humble as kitty eyes, Suxes got the lines.
Brittany: "No! I don't want anything to do with you! Him being your friend is enough reason for me to hate him as well. Stop looking out for me! Else, you'll make me regret my actions against you!"
Brittany pulled her hand out of Suxes' fingers. "And you," she confronted Kevin _ a stranger she didn't know, "my life has been messed up enough by your so called friend here. If I were you, I would choose wisely....."
Brittany looked at Kevin from head to toe with judgemental eyes and concluded, ".... but as the saying goes; bird of the same feathers, flock together."
It was a tough word spit indeed.
However, the more she looked Kevin straight in the eyes, his iris turned blue and suddenly,
"What exactly do you want me to do for you?"
Brittany found her heart softening to render a helping hand out of the blue.
"What do you want?" In a commanding voice tone, she asked again while looking closely in Kevin's eyes.
Sealed silent, Kevin's Moore's mouth.
Suxes hurried up to Brittany and humbly, "his father's name is Sean Moore as written on this piece of paper, probably a diver twenty to twenty five years ago. Just search about him on your internet computer.... that's all."
Brittany: "Only this and never ever show your faces to me again!"
Suxes: "Only this once and we'll vanish without trace I promise."
Suxes smiled gladly for the assistance granted. Angrily, Brittany grabbed the piece of paper out of Suxes' hand and hurried back inside the cafeteria. Suxes took another deep breath followed by a sigh, for the challenge he had just surpassed.
With a compassionate smile, Kevin Moore looked at him like, "Darn, whatever you did to the lady to hate you this much must have been so dangerous."
All Suxes could give back to Kevin Moore's stare at the moment was a sorry glance. He was too speechless.
...
After a little while, Brittany walked back.
"It is said that twenty-five years ago, after a long trip from the black sea, Sean Moore discovered he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It is further more said that he went for a surgery which didn't go well and after a few months bedridden he died. Since he had no family member known, he had a friend named Gang Du who never left his side, that took responsibility of his burial."
Brittany informed them.
"But Gang Du still lives, it is said and you can find him on this address", Calmly, Brittany spoke and handed over the piece of paper on which she wrote Gang Du's address, not to Suxes but to Kevin Moore and she left, back to her duties.
.....
"Aren't you sad about the bad news of your father's death?" Suxes asked Kevin Moore while they were still looking at the cafeteria, who seemed unbothered.
"I never knew my father from when I was born until today. I thought I would feel the same way I feel when I don't see mom for short moment. But I felt nothing. Me and father did not have a strong bond. However, I am happy that I have something to tell my mother when I return home_ maybe it will calm her heart to know that father never abandoned us intentionally."
"Wow....!" Suxes blurted, touched by Kevin's spirit.
"I had a good job and a female friend who loved me unconditionally," miserably Suxes began to narrate as they turned away out of the cafeteria premises, "but I stupidly ruined everything."
With emotional memories he turned a gaze at the cafeteria while they walked. Suxes seemed to have a regretful story between him and Brittany.
"I had a good job and a female friend who loved me unconditionally," miserably Suxes began to narrate as they turned away out of the cafeteria premises after nearly failing to collect any help from Brittany, "but I stupidly ruined everything for me and her."
"My mother believes," Kevin told Suxes, "that everything happens for a good reason."
"I was in prison for three good years, I've been homeless for three more hard knock year and in those years since I came out of prison, matters are worse that; not even a church is willing to employ me _ I have a criminal record that is what everybody says," Suxes said, " if all this is happening to me for a good reason, I don't need the good reason in it any more, it's not fair."
"...." Kevin kept silent.
"What is the meaning of life if I came out of prison when my five year old beautiful daughter is born, but I wasn't allowed to see her upto date?" In tribulation Suxes asked, but Kevin wasn't the right person for answers.