Three paths to forever

CHAPTER 1

For the second time since he stepped out of the car onto the pile of snow and the tiny flakes slowly amassing everything he could set eyes on, Lawrence Adjusted his frock coat and tugged at his head warmer. Perhaps, to see if they were still in place. He was cold. Very cold. He had stayed in Cairo for the past two years and had not been braced for the cold that he had to face back in New York. The sun had cracked the sky open and had peeked out lazily but did not give warmth.

"Like the English sun during winter, this sun shines but never gives warmth."

He muttered under his breath as he reached for the door of the car. He had asked his chauffeur, Williams to never open the car for him, not when he was bubbling with energy and could do it himself and so Williams always did well to let him open doors by himself.

"What did you say, sir?"

Williams asked as he turned to the driver's seat.

"I was commenting on the weather, Williams. It is nothing to concern yourself with."

He replied dismissively. Williams knew better than to press the question or even make another comment. He started the car and drove out of the Airport.

Lawrence tried severally to convince himself that this was the same New York he had lived with his father as a boy before moving to San Francisco for high school and eventually to France where he attended high school and then proceeded to spend a few years in Cairo. He had liked the sun and the heat and the dryness of Africa and he had become tanned. He had tanned so much that one could easily take him to be an Egyptian or one who has resided in Egypt for a very long time. He liked it. His friends, Salem and Vladimir had been the fun-loving tourists who constantly took him into the most rural parts of Egypt for endless tours and camps. He had spent a good two years of his life not doing business _for the first time in ten years_ and he had had fun. As the driver peeled through the busy streets and headed for his home, he found himself looking out of the window intently. He had been away from New York for twelve years and for all the years he had been away, he had only seen his father three times when he had come for meetings in France. They had met and he had felt too grown up to get too close to his father so he had extended a hand for a handshake which his father disregarded and instead locked him in a tight and embarrassing embrace.

He sighed. He had missed his father and now, he would wake up every day with the man under the same roof. He could not be any closer.

"A lot has changed about New York, Willams. I have not stepped into this town for the past twelve years and here, there have been so many changes I can't even keep up with the pace. I can't even spot my favorite waffle houses and Kebab spots."

He said. Williams nodded.

" So it is, sir. A lot has changed indeed".

He agreed. They rode in silence until they arrived home. The house did not seem like anything he remembered. The house had been remodeled and it now wore a new and different look from what he had imagined he was coming back to. He was pleased.

He took the few stairs into the terrace and the butler opened the door even before he could touch the doorbell. Williams had his bag behind him and he smiled at every chance he got. Everyone was glad to have him. Lawrence Was surprised to find that his father had retained the same domestic staff over the years. Most of them had become too integrated into his home that he could not have the mind to replace them and none of them, from what Lawrence saw, seemed to want to retire yet. Right from when Williams had appeared at the airport with a sprinkling of white hair and a face that had grown a bit saggy and lips that had thinned from age, he had suspected that his father would never let his domestic staff retire. Not when he saw them as family.

The cook, I remained as ebullient and happy as ever as she appeared with her apron to say hello to Lawrence. She did not seem to have aged. She had the same color of apron that Lawrence remembers seeing every time as a child. Pamela had a habit of always being in her apron and no matter what was said to her, she would always appear with her apron. They were happy. At last, Lawrence Knew he would have good homemade food from Pamela whose meals did a good job of tickling his taste buds.

No sooner had he settled in his room than his father called. The man had been in a business meeting in New Jersey and had cursed and swore over not having anyone good enough to represent him in every single meeting. Lawrence listened to him only long enough for him to vent.

When the old man returned, Lawrence was tense. He did not know what one said to a father one had not seen in four years. The old man did not make it any difficult for him as he locked him in an embrace and shed a few tears.

"I am glad you are back son. You mongrel, why stay away from home so long?"

He asked. Lawrence was going to tell him that he was an adult and would visit whenever he wanted to like he always said over the phone but he decided against it. It did not make much sense to him that he should mention that to his father now.

"I have been working away from home and you know it. The branch in France had taken me three whole years to set up so it could start functioning on its own independently".

He said instead. He did not have any excuse and he knew his father would not stop until he had made him speak the exact words he wanted to hear.

"That does not answer my question, Lawrence. I have asked why you had refused to visit home all these years and you intend to hide under the guise of work?"

"I'm not trying to hide under anything, I have been busy sir and the most important thing is that I am here now, just like you wanted,"

He said as he lifted his hands in mock surrender. His father smiled. The same smile he had only seen his smile a few times on the video calls when he promised to visit home soon

" Tomorrow, you resume work. Ever since Cheng had to go back and oversee the branch in China, there has been no one competent enough to run the headquarters here in New York. By next week, I will retire".

JANE OSCAR

The first time Jane had to wait tables and run errands for Mr. Frank, the owner of the bar in downtown New York, she hated every bit of it. The stares of the leery men ogling her and the indecent smell of cigarettes mixed with gin repulsed her. She hated everything that the bar shoved at her face. She had hated the job more when one of the men sitting on a barstool asked her if she would spend the night with him for a measly $50. She had been so angry that she had thrown him a threatening look before stomping off. The man had watched her leave without uttering a word. At the end of the day, Frank had paid her well, enough for all her pains and discomfort for the night and she had gone back home with head banging and feet aching from having to wear her flats all the time she was at work.

"Where is Chris?"

She asked Tricia, the moment she stepped into their two-bedroom apartment where she shared a room with Tricia while Chris had a room to himself. Tricia was sitting at the dining, scribbling away in a notebook. She was the book warm. The one who would go to college and was happy at the prospect.

"He left with Josh and Pete early this morning while you were yet to return".

Tricia said without looking up from her book.

"Did he say where he was going with those punks? Told him never to hang out with those two, didn't I ?"

"Guess you did, sad that he does not listen to anyone around here,"

Tricia said as she finally lifted her head and looked up at Jane. She tucked a few strands of hair behind her ears and smiled up at Jane.

"Let us not talk about Chris now. He will mess up our mood. How was work? Was it really easy as Naomi had said it would be? "

She asked. Jane scoffed.

" There is no easy job out there. At the end of the day, it was worth the pay and that is what I am grateful for. I'll take only the night shifts so I can do something reasonable during the day. And yeah, Naomi works at McDonald's now! "

Jane said as she breezed into the room leaving Tricia wowed. She soon got over her surprise and continued to scribble in her notebook.

Naomi and Mckayla had been Jane's friends for as long as Tricia could remember and she had been told that the three used to do everything together when they were younger and still had their parents. Now Mckayla lives in London while Naomi works at McDonald's as a chef. That was a lot.

Jane did not have a steady job yet. She had quit her old job because she thought the pay was not good enough for her qualification and she had left when she did not get a raise. She had said severally that the cost of living in New York was high and she wanted something that could earn all three of them a decent life and some savings. She had not gotten the raise from her mean boss even when she had grown the company as an individual with her many contributions to different sectors and had even been a representative of the firm for a short time before she quit. Now that she had no steady job and the job offers she got were either from San Diego or Dakota, she had decided to stick around a little bit to see if there would be a good enough job for her in New York. She had used up her savings and they now owed the landlady but she was sure there would be a way to sort the bills.

As Jane stepped into the tub, she remembered the mail that had come from the landlady only two days ago and she had threatened to have her evicted from the apartment if she did not pay her rent in the next two weeks. How she was going to raise the money, she had no idea yet. Perhaps, she would ask Mr. Frank to lend her the money for the rent and then she could spend the rest of her life working for it. The idea seemed ridiculous. She just started working at his place and he would find it amusing that she wanted to get a loan from him. And what if he demanded that there be an interest and if she eventually could not pay up?

She shuddered at the thought. There were bills to pay. Tricia had been accepted by three colleges and she was yet to pick one of her choices. She needed money to fund Tricia's schooling. And Chris? He had dropped out of college just the previous year when things had become a bit too tough and he had taken to doing menial jobs around town until a friend helped him secure a decent job where he earned well for the next six months until he had had too much to drink one time and had messed up before his boss. He was fired. They were back to scratch again. These days, Jane worked extra hard to make sure they had groceries and everything they needed to be comfortable except their rent which was the latest cause for fear_.

She would take another job during the day before running down to Frank's at 8 pm to work her shift that usually ended by 1 am. She had been compassionate enough to stay with Frank and clean up the place with a few others and left by 6 Am. She had her head throbbing and her feet aching by the time she boarded a cab back home. Things could not be any more difficult than they already were For her. She did not make up her mind on what to do about her rent