"Jason?" Ma prompted Daddy, but,
"I'm ... trying to get used to this." The expectant smile on my face faltered, and I could see that he felt bad about that. "No, Kairi. I simply meant that ... I regret not knowing about you earlier. I would have been the father you deserved."
"Oh, my mother was a wonderful parent," I said as the smile returned to my lips. "She was very supportive of me in every way possible, and I never wanted for anything. From her, I received my tenacity and brashness, while from you, I obviously received my intellect."
"Tenacity and intellect, the very two resources that would dictate how you were able to find me," Daddy said to me with a smile. "Tell me
that
story."
"My mother was always honest about how I came to be," I began. "Well, to a point, anyway. She said that she had a one-night stand with a black American who was visiting while shooting a documentary, and that you left never knowing she had gotten pregnant. It wasn't until I turned eighteen, however, that the complete truth had been revealed to me."
"Which was?" Grandma asked.
"My mother threw me a big party for my birthday. All of my friends were in attendance, and we partied until about two in the morning. When the last of the guests left, Mom told me she had one more present for me, one that, because I was now of age, she could allow me to see.
"It seems that Linda—Aunt Linda? No, just Linda—had recorded the threesome that she, Mom, and ... Daddy had taken part in, and had burned and given Mom a DVD as a souvenir of their time together. Mom told me that it was a sex tape and that my father's identity would be revealed on it. She told me that his name was Jason and the woman's name was Linda, and that was all she knew. She then told me I could watch it if I wanted, then she went to bed.
"After some time debating the issue, I watched it, and I burned the faces of the man and woman in the movie into my memory before going to bed. The next several days were spent trying to find out who
he
was ...who
you
were," I said to my dad. "Seeing as to how you were of college age, I thought it best to begin my search there.
"I decided to begin in the Northern United States since the states were smaller—which meant fewer colleges—and I might have better luck that way, so I started with Maine and worked my way down until finally reaching Rhode Island, and sure enough I found you at Brown University. There were numerous pictures of you and your mother, father, and, yes, even Linda, but the one that stood out most was the one of your arrival to the campus that you had labeled 'Today Brown, Tomorrow the World—Jason Saunders,' because you were roughly the same age in it as you were in the movie.
"I immediately went to Facebook and found you, then Twitter, then Instagram ... I cried as I saw picture after picture of you and your family, and when I finally told Mom that I had found you, she cried upon seeing you as well. I asked her if she thought I should contact you after all these years, and she told me that I had to follow my heart. I did, but only to an extent.
"I applied to and had received a full scholarship to Brown. My intention was to get to know you before telling you who I was—am, Daddy, but the more time I spent with you the harder it became. I guess I was hoping that my last name would somehow trigger something within you and you would make the connection. When that didn't readily happen, I had relegated myself to just being Kairi the Assistant and nothing more. Then today happened.
"I knew you had committed incest with Linda, and catching you and Grandma in the act like I did? Like I said, I just felt like maybe this was some sort of weird initiation into the family or something. I don't know, but I don't regret it and I'm glad that we finally know each other for the family we are."
Daddy was silent for several hard, palpable seconds, then said, "Like I told you earlier, Kairi, I wish I had known. I would have done anything and everything for you."
"It's not too late," I told him.
"That's right," Grandma said. "You're here now, and that's all that matters. Even still ... We have to find the right opportunity to tell James that he is a grandfather."
"Spring Break is just a few weeks away," Daddy said. "Why don't we plan for then?"
"Yes," Grandma said after a moment's consideration. "That would work out fine. It would also give me time to contact Linda and have her come down. I'm sure she would love to meet you, Kairi."
In that instant, I decided to let her plan the reveal. I, however, would be the one to initiate first contact.
