Chasing Abby(23)

The flushing finally passes. I open my eyes and the first thing I see is a wedding picture. Caleb continues to fan my face until I snatch the photos out of his hand.
The pictures he’s using to cool me down are obviously from my birth parents’ wedding. It’s a picture of my father kissing my mother on the forehead as they stand on an altar surrounded by beautiful flowers and glittering lights. They look exactly like they did in the other pictures where they’re holding Baby Me. They must have gotten married soon before or after that day. Why did they give me up if they were so in love when I was born?
“I want to meet them.”
“You will,” Caleb replies as he slides the bottle of water back into his glove compartment.
“No, I want to meet them now… Today. I want you to take me to meet them today. Can you check the memory card and see if there’s any contact information on there?”
Caleb slides the memory card into the slot on his phone, then he browses through the contents. There are about forty family videos and one text document. My fingers tingle as he opens up the document and it contains a brief note.

Dear Abigail,

We hope this letter finds you well and that your eighteenth birthday was everything you hoped it would be. This is the second time we’re visiting the safe-deposit box since your last birthday, and we will probably do it every month or so for a while. We don’t know if you’ve read any of our letters, but we hope you have.We know you probably have a lot of questions, and the answers are far more nuanced than a letter can convey. If you’d give us the opportunity, we’d be honored to meet you at any location you choose. We are always here if you wish to talk.

Sincerely,Chris and Claire Knight

Underneath their names is an address and phone number.
Caleb sits back in the driver’s seat, placing his phone down as he gazes at me across the space between us. “Are you sure you don’t want to give yourself some time to think about it first?”
I turn in my seat a little so I can face him head-on, then I look him straight in the eye. “I don’t know when I’m going to die.”
“Come on, Abby. Let’s not have that conversation again.”
“Listen to me, Caleb. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, my heart could give out for good at any moment. And there’s no guarantee they’ll find a donor in time.”
“You don’t know that. I think there’s a very good chance they’ll find a donor when the time comes. You have O-negative blood type and you’re young and healthy.”
“Stop. Just listen to me, please.” He heaves a long sigh and nods for me to continue. “The point is that I need to make the most of this opportunity. I need to meet them before it’s too late. Will you please take me?”
The muscle in his jaw twitches as he clenches his teeth, then he nods slowly. “You know you don’t have to ask. I’ve been wanting you to do this for ages.”
I smile and reach forward to place my hand on his cheek. “You’re amazing. You know that?”
He shrugs and grabs my wrist so he can lay a soft kiss on my palm. “You don’t have to butter me up, sunshine. You know I’ll give you anything you want.” He places my hand back in my lap, then he grabs the stack of photos and sticks them in the glove compartment. “Let’s go make some 3D memories.”


PART II: THE KNIGHTS

Chapter 12 - Chris



FAITH IS A double-edged sword. A little faith is healthy, even essential to get us through difficult times. Too much faith and you’ll appear delusional. And you risk falling. The loftier your beliefs, the harder you’ll fall when reality knocks you off your cloud.