Turning 2.0 Season 2: Chapter 4 This Is How A Heart Breaks (Rob Thomas)

Previously
In a phone conversation with my mum, I told my mum that I was having dreams about my father. And how I think my father may be dead already. This was the point when my mum got all serious and said that there was something I should know. She told me that I have another father………..

“The truth can become a lie in a matter of seconds. When that happens and your whole world comes crashing down, what do you do? Do you accept the new truth and try and adjust your life to the new information that you just found out? Or do you simply discard the new piece of information and pretend like nothing ever happened? Either way, life will never be the same again”

20th January 2007, Tokyo, Japan

She told me I have another father. And the father that was in my birth certificate isn’t my real father. As it turned out the single memory I had wasn’t about my real father but it was of my second father, the one that my mother married so that I could have a birth certificate with a father’s name on it. As it turned out, my biological father was a gangster and he was murdered before the two ever got a chance to get married. As it turned out my biological father was murdered when I was three years old. Now, all the pieces of puzzle that didn’t fit before was slowly making sense.

I used to visit this stranger’s house when I was around 9 or 10. My mum would just leave me there for one whole day. They were all so nice to me. The kids played with me. The aunties treated me like their own son. There was this old lady that used to speak to me. As it turned out, that was my biological father’s sister’s house.

My mum used to ask me to talk to this stranger on the phone. He was a man with a rough voice. He would ask me about my life and how I was doing. At first, I just thought that it was one of my mother’s friends so I tagged along. As it turned out, that man was my biological father’s brother who was just released from jail.

I once found a photo of a burial service in my aunt’s (she is actually an Indonesian woman that is not really related to us but for the past many years, she has been helping my mum out so we called her auntie ever since) room. I was actually curious to find out what she was hiding behind her locked room so using a pair of scissors, I broke into her room. As I went through her stuff, I found this photo album of a Chinese burial service. Inside this photo album, I found this picture of this man in his coffin. That picture freaked me out and that picture even appeared in my dream once. I just thought it was some weird fetish my aunt had. But as it turned out, it was the picture of my biological father.

It all began to make sense. The reason why I never had a single memory of my biological father was because he was never around. My mother never introduced him to my grandfather and my mother’s family never knew of him.

My mum said that he used to take me out and buy stuff but I could not remember it. Perhaps, I was too young. My mum said I attended his funeral service but I could not remember it. Perhaps I was too young.

My mum said that I knew him but I could not remember it. Perhaps I was too young.

My tears began to flow. The next thing I know, I was already squatting on the ground with the phone in my head, but my head was else where. I began to cry. I didn’t know why I was crying. How could I cry for a man I never got to know? I just didn’t know what else to do. I told my mum I would call her back in five minutes and I went to my room. As I almost reached my room, I stopped in front of Ihsan’s door. After he opened the door, I took a pillow and began to cry again. That was the first time I ever cried in front of a friend. I didn’t know who else to turn to. The world that I knew of no longer existed. Everything changed. I no longer know what was true and what was false. Nothing seemed right anymore.

After getting a grip of myself, I was back to the old self. It barely took 10 minutes. I went to call my mum with my usual cheerful character and told her not to worry. I told her I didn’t understand why I cried. And then I told her that I would be fine.

That night, I went to my room. I lie on my bed and I realized one thing. Things might no longer be the same anymore.

As I shut my eye, I wondered if I would enter the university of my choice or not. The result was coming out the next day. Keio University's result was coming out the next day.

Although that was on my mind, it was not that important to me anymore cause I finally realized why I broke down into tears. After working so hard to fit the pieces of puzzle, the puzzles were torn apart again. And now I have to start from scratch.

But this time, I won’t be alone anymore. I have friends with me to rebuild it, whether they know it or not.

Next Week:
The last chapter of Turning 2.0 Season 2. How did this new information change my life? A better question, did it change my life? Find out next week as I enter university.