Chapter 2

A week after her eighteenth birthday Frankie returned home after an early dinner with her father at the Waverly Inn in the West Village. It was a regular Wednesday night date, just the two of them. It had been that way almost as long as she could remember, while her mother attended her charity meetings, Frankie and her daddy, as she still called him, had daddy/daughter night. After dinner Branson McKenzie had a few details to take care of for an exhibition at the gallery the next day, so he took the car and sent his daughter home with a driver.

Beth McKenzie looked up from her paperwork when she heard Frankie enter the room. She sat at a small writing desk in the den. Her face had been stripped of cosmetics and her auburn hair fell around her shoulders. At forty four years of age she had managed to retain all the beauty of her youth, her figure remained unchanged in form from her twenties, never having borne children. Her skin possessed a porcelain like quality that sat in stark contrast to her brown, almost black eyes and her full red lips.

Frankie admired her mother from the doorway, and hoped she looked half as good at the same age. She moved to her mother's side and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"Hey Mom" She said simply.

"Good evening Frankie" Her mother responded a little more formally. She despised the nickname her daughter had adopted as a small child but had learned long ago that to resist was futile. "How was your dinner with Daddy?"

"Same as usual...he's gone down to the Gallery for a bit. He said to tell you he won't be too late." Frankie began to retreat from the room.

"OK, thanks honey... Oh I almost forgot, there is a package for you on the kitchen bench. I think maybe you should take it somewhere quiet honey. It's from your mother." Beth had always known that this day would come, and while she felt no threat to her relationship with her daughter, a strange pang of uneasiness settled upon her. She watched her daughter walk away, down the hall towards the kitchen.

Frankie sat at the kitchen bench and stared for a long while at the package that lay there unopened. She lifted it gingerly and gave it a little shake; there was movement inside, quite a bit of movement in fact which indicated that the box wasn't very full. With a shaking hand she began to peel back the plain brown paper wrapping until she came to a plain postage box. On top of which a sealed envelope sat, her name scrawled across it in rushed script. Hesitantly she opened it and read...

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2008

Dear Frances,

My name is William Hutton and I was your mother's lawyer at the time of her death. Enclosed in this box you will find all of your mother's possessions at the time of her death, and a letter. This letter was intended, by your mother, to be given to you on your eighteenth birthday. Let me make it clear that when she wrote this letter she fully intended to be here for your birthday, and it was written in the hopes that you would wish to find her. I sincerely hope that this letter does not cause you too much distress. The contents of the box, though not much, were all that your mother possessed and are now yours to do with as you wish. If you have any questions or I can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me. I have enclosed a business card for your reference. I wish you well in the future.

Sincerely

WR Hutton

Frankie dropped into the nearest chair, the contents of the box before her contained all her mother held dear. Not only that but it contained a message from the grave. She didn't think she would be able to do it, open it...at least not alone. She considered the box for a long while, before deciding a course of action.

"Mom...Mom...could I see you in here for a moment." Frankie yelled down the hallway.

Beth appeared in the doorway to the country styled kitchen. "What's wrong honey?"

Frankie handed the lawyers letter to her mother and waited for her to read it. When she was finished Frankie spoke "I didn't think I could do it alone. Could you open it for me Mom...please"

Beth hesitated for a minute before speaking "Are you sure honey? This is a huge deal. I mean, it's from your Mom...are you sure you want me to open it?"

"No you're my Mom...she was my mother. I am thankful that she gave me life, I am sorry that she is not here to share it, but the fact remains that you are the one who raised me. So while she loved me...and I love her for it, YOU are and will always be my only Mom."

Beth smiled gently at her daughter, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She slid the box across the bench and settled it before her and again she asked, "Are you sure you want me to do this?"

Frankie nodded. Beth opened the box gently and inspected the contents. There was not much to speak of but each item was well worn and obviously much loved. She first removed a photo, it was of a young woman, full of joy and hope. She passed it across to Frankie.

"You look like her honey" She said smiling. "She was a stunning young woman"

Next she removed a tape. "I wonder what is on this. I don't think we even have a tape player anymore."

"No, we don't. Maybe I can borrow one from somewhere? Maybe Uncle Peter has one....he had all that old music playing at Aunt Edie's party"

"Hmm maybe" Beth said absentmindedly as she pulled out a bundle of well worn soft brown leather books. She pulled on the string that held them together and picked up the top one, thumbing through its worn pages. "Oh honey these are journals...Gina's journals. This should give you an insight to her, and the person she was"

"I'm not all that sure that I want to know" Frankie took the journal her mother offered and opened it to the front page where a photo had been wedged. She pulled it out and examined it closely. The only person in the picture she recognised was her mother. She flipped it over and read the tidy writing on the back.

June 1984

L to R: Paul, Dave, April, Doc, Rich, Me, Jon, Diane, Teek, Obie, Alec, Snake, Danny, Marie, Tony

 

Some of the faces looked a little familiar, though she couldn't place them. She focused her attention on her mother. Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes in the picture, not like in the other one, but she was a beautiful woman none the less. She laid the photo carefully back in the pages of the journal and put it aside as her mother examined the final object in the box, a plain white envelope.

 

"Are you sure?" Beth asked. Frankie nodded her affirmation.

 

Beth carefully opened the envelope and pulled a letter from its folds. A small gold locket fell from it and landed on the bench. Frankie examined the locket as her Mom began to read her mother's words.

 

My Dearest Darling Little Girl,

I guess you aren't so little anymore. I asked this be given to you on your eighteenth birthday when you would be, perhaps, old enough to understand what I did and why.

I was so excited to find out I was pregnant with you. In fact it was the happiest day of my life. I love your father dearly. We have been the best of friends for many years, but I loved him from the moment he walked into work that very first day. I was working at The Power Station back then, a small recording studio in New York as a session singer and his cousin had given him a job there as a gofer. For me it was love at first sight, but to my dismay your dad had a girlfriend then. I was happy to be his friend just to be close to him.

Relatively quickly, through our mutual love of music (even then I knew he would be a star....he's a very prominent artist now, and if I'm any judge of talent, he'll be a legend by the time you receive this letter) and our similar backgrounds we forged a close bond. We've always been the best of friends; at the start, to him I was just one of the guys, I'm not sure when that changed. He came to me with girl trouble, and I did the same when I needed a man's opinion. We've shared a lot of great times, your dad and I, and some not so great ones too.

We spent many a late night alone at the studio, while we both cut demo's, providing feedback for each other, working the board and even laying down each other's backing vocals when needed. His girlfriend never really understood those long nights, the commitment and the drive to succeed that was so very strong in him, in both of us.

Let me tell you that your father is the most passionate, driven individual I have ever met. There is never an obstacle too big; there is never anything that can't be done. When I am with him the world is full of possibilities. And honey, he has the biggest heart, always giving and so very loyal.

So I am sure you are asking why? If he's so great why aren't we a family? Why aren't we together? Well my love, it was never through lack of wanting that on my part, but unfortunately the fates had something else in store for us. Your father's music career took off, as we always knew it would. He was travelling all of the time, touring...promoting. He and his girlfriend broke up and for a while we got closer...we even went out on a date or two but the time commitment and stresses of touring soon put an end to that.

Your dad became more and more successful and we saw each other less and less, though we spoke on the phone every other day. He began to date a young starlet, but it ended badly and he soon went back to his first girlfriend seeking the familiar.

Yet we remained close through it all. I sang, uncredited, on his bands albums, I knew his family, I met and fell in love with his band...well most of them anyway, and one in particular, now he's like the brother I never had. And that almost brings us to the present day, and how you were created.

It was February, Valentine's Day to be precise, could it have been more perfect. Well maybe it could, but at the time it didn't seem so. The day before your father and his girlfriend had had another argument over the lack of time he spent at home, she had told him they were through...again. He called me looking for understanding, distraught and confused. He flew me to Alabama, where his band were performing, and we talked for hours, about his feelings and what he was going through... and he said he wished she was more like me. Well that was enough for me, I was sick of standing by watching her hurt him so I told him how I felt, that I loved him, that I always had, that he deserved better than her, that he deserved me...He asked why I'd never told him before, and then he told me that he loved me too. That was the night you were conceived...the first and only time we made love, I'll spare you the details my darling, but it was a magical meeting of souls and a night I shall never forget.

The next morning he flew to Georgia and I flew home. It was the end of April when I finally realised I was pregnant. We had both been busy and hadn't communicated in a couple of weeks. As soon as I got home from the doctors, I rang and left a message for your father but he never returned my call, I rang again the next day and his best friend, the man I considered my brother, answered the phone. He told me that your father had gone and married his highschool sweetheart in Vegas on a whim; I guess she had changed her mind and gone back to him again. I told my "brother" that I was taking an extended trip to Europe to visit with family and I would contact them on my return. They believe I am there now.

I was crushed, not only for the loss of him, but for the loss of you, for without him I have no means of supporting you properly my darling, so I organised this adoption. I hope one day you can forgive me, my heart. This is not something I ever wanted, but I know it is for the best. The parents I have chosen for you are good people, they will love you and raise you like their own and have agreed to give you this letter on your eighteenth birthday, so you may find me if you so choose.

Now, if my assumptions about your father prove to be true, and he is still active in his career, this revelation has the potential to be devastating to his career, so I have not decided to disclose his identity here. I fear I have already disclosed too much. Instead I ask that if you wish to know more, please contact me and together we can find him. Who knows, when this letter reaches you he and I may still be good friends...I hope that to be the case, because above all else that is what he has always been...but at the moment it just hurts a little too much to see him, so I intend to stay away for a little while until the pain isn't so raw.

It is breaking my heart to say this goodbye to you. I have treasured every moment of your growing inside me, the first tiny flutters of movement, to the amusing bouts of hiccoughs, to the very first time I heard your tiny heart beat and saw your precious form on the sonogram. Had things been different you would have been named Frances-for your father, Gina-for my mother, Carol- for your father's mother. It is with the deepest regret that I say goodbye to you my precious, precious girl. My Frances Gina Carol, know that you are in my heart, that I think of you always and I hope that one day we will meet again.

With all of my love and all of my heart, always and forever,

Your mother

Gina Romeo

Frankie sat with silent tears streaming down her face for long moments after her mother, both of them really, stopped speaking. Beth moved around the table and wrapped her little girl in her warm embrace but she did not move, did not respond. Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, her dads special ringtone began to play. She fished the phone out of her pocket and flipped it open.

"Frankie" he began before she even had an opportunity to speak "Where are you? Did you get home safe? You didn't call. I've been worried sick."

Her voice was shaky as she answered "Sorry Daddy! I got distracted." She swallowed hard on the lump in her throat.

"Frankie... honey? What's wrong?"

"Daddy, can you come home?" She choked out.

"What happened baby?" he asked anxiously.

"I just need you home...please"

"I'm on my way baby...give mom the phone"

Frankie handed the phone to her mother as a strangled sob escaped her.

"Yes dear?" her mother said into the phone then paused.

"She got a letter from Gina today" she said simply.

Another pause.

"I'll tell her. See you soon" pause "I love you too honey. Bye"

Snapping the phone closed Beth turned to her daughter. "Daddy's on his way, sweetie. He was just getting in the car when he hung up."

Beth did her best to comfort her daughter until her husband got home. While she shared a wonderful relationship with her daughter, Frankie had always been somewhat of a daddy's girl, and Beth knew that he would provide the best support for her now.

An hour had passed when the doorbell rang.

"It's about time. I didn't think traffic would be bad this time of night." Beth said lightly as she made her way to the door. "I wonder will your father ever remember his key"

Frankie, in her urgency to see her father, pushed past her mom in the hallway and swung the door wide ready to launch herself into her father's waiting arms. But in the place he should have been two uniformed officers stood stiffly.

"Mom?" Frankie's tone was questioning as her mother came up behind her.

"Can I help you officers?" Beth asked a tremor of fear in her usually smooth voice.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid there has been an accident....."