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- Stuart -

 

 

As soon as he entered the house, he suspected that the atmosphere was different.  As soon as he saw Maggie his suspicions were confirmed.  Stuart knew that it was unfair of him but his initial feelings were those of resentment towards his wife.  He resented the fact that Maggie had taken the call.

 

It should have been him.

 

After all he had been waiting for 40 years for it to come.

 

 

 

- Rex -

 

 

Rex barely remembered England. There was nothing English about him, except perhaps his complexion.  After all these years he still struggled with the sun.  Whereas all his pals were bronze, Rex just went pink and freckly.

 

He did not know anyone like him.

 

Although he had spent 40 years trying to find someone like him.

 

*

**

 

Distance and time were the obstacles.

 

Records were lost, misplaced, destroyed or falsified. 

 

 

 

- Stuart -

 

 

Stuart was charged with returning the call.  They would not go to into much detail with Maggie – it was Stuart they wanted to talk to.

 

After all the years waiting, he had to wait until he was ready.  He didn’t know if he would ever be ready.

 

He knew he had to make the call; he wanted to make the call.  It was not going to be a direct call.  It was to an intermediary, someone who knew neither of them, only on paper.  It was someone in-between, someone to provide Stuart with information, someone to provide him with a link.

 

A link to the past.

 

His past.

 

 

 

- Rex -

 

 

Rex had no recollection of his parents.  He was told they were dead when he first arrived in this vast land, this nation that had been his home since he was nine.  He felt guilty about not remembering them.  After all he wasn’t a baby when he left.  It was just that they were not around, not a real part of his life.  They had not looked after him.

 

That was left to someone else who he did remember.  He remembered protection and care but it still was a blur.

 

He remembered boarding a train and waving goodbye.

 

That was 40 years ago.

 

 

 

- Stuart -

 

 

Teenage love is compelling and it had gripped Stuart.  At sixteen he thought his life was sorted.  He would get a job and support her.  She was the reason he did not board the train.

 

A month later she dumped him for someone else.

 

Stuart did not have anyone else.  He was truly alone.

 

Stuart remembered the train and waving goodbye.

 

That was 40 years ago.

 

It felt like yesterday.

 

 

 

- Rex -

 

 

No letters ever came.  At first, he waited.  At first, he wrote even though he had to really concentrate on his writing – he had missed so much school.  It was such an effort and no replies ever came.

 

So he gave up.

 

 

 

- Stuart -

 

 

Stuart was by no means a scholar.  He had missed so much school but he wrote devoutly once a week.  It was a painstaking task but he wrote every week for three months, but no replies ever came.

 

So, he gave up.

 

 

 

- Rex -

 

 

Rex did not understand families and the families that he was placed with were not parents nor anything like what parents were supposed to be.  It was not the life that he was promised and promises are certainties to a nine-year-old boy.

 

He became basically a servant to these families, cheap labour, passed from pillar to post and when they grew tired of him Rex was returned to the home.

 

Institutionalised.

 

At the first opportunity he escaped.  At sixteen.  It was then he started his search, the search for who he was.

 

Rex did not know who he was.  He didn’t remember his parents, just a blur of someone who protected him.

 

He was determined to find that someone.

 

It took him 40 years.

 

He did his research.  It was a painstaking task.

 

 

 

- Stuart -

 

 

Of course, Stuart remembered more.  In those days being sixteen was considered to be an adult.  Throughout his life, he had thought about his situation but had not done anything about it, although he thought about it every day.  Five years ago, he did do something about it. 

 

He started a search.

 

The phone call that Maggie took, which Stuart resented, cemented the fact that someone was also searching for him.

 

It was a link.

 

*

**

 

Stuart made the call.

 

 

 

- Stuart and Rex -

 

 

Stuart had never left England.  He had never even been to Scotland or Wales.  He had to get a passport but Maggie sorted all of those things out.

 

He did not know what he would do without Maggie.  He had no-one else; they had not been blessed with children.  Maggie was the only family he had.  Here she was, sitting at his side.  Stuart had never been on an aeroplane before.  He did not want to admit that he was scared of flying but even more scared of landing, of finding what was before him.  He didn’t need to say it – Maggie already knew. 

 

That’s what families are all about.

 

*

**

 

People, when greeting others from flights, read the boards and simply look out for their names.

 

Stuart could not see his name.

 

Then he saw a sign that was for him, and seeing the man holding the sign, he knew.  It was like looking in the mirror for both of them, finding someone eventually that looked like themselves.

 

*

**

 

The sign held up only said one word.

 

*

**

 

The sign held up said …

 

 

… Brother.

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