Finding Caroline

Chapter 1

It was a peaceful afternoon out by the lake. Something about driving out to the lake made me remember who I used to be. Something about getting away from it all made me feel at peace. I forgot about how my boss was so annoying and I forgot about how I felt so alone at home. My apartment felt so small and so empty. It is nice to also  get away from the traffic, the lines at the local coffee shop, the discussion with the barista that never takes my order right. I don't get how an asian can speak english and can get every other customer's order right except mine. It is so frustrating. If it weren't in driving distance from my apartment, I wouldn't even bother. If only I were able to make myself get up and stop watching the news and dragging my slippers across the room out the door to my shower and then getting dressed and digging for my keys like always, then I may get to use my coffee maker my aunt Martha bought me for Christmas last year. Funny,  any college kid in America would kill to have one and mine sits on my kitchen counter. I am too lazy for my own good, and I am not even in college.

When I was younger I did everything right. Funny how I come back to the lake to remember who I was, when then I was trying to figure out who I wanted to be. I don't know why I drive out to the lake to get away. It just makes everything seem okay, all the worries fade away. The stress, the concerns, they just are all taken away. As I was enjoying the moment; of not only peace but taking the time to connect with my God, my father... taking the time to just be myself and reflect. Suddenly a storm started to build around me and I started to run to my car before it started to rain too heavy. As I am running, I come across a locket on the ground. I almost  overlooked it but something told me to look down and there laid a locket. I picked it up and opend it; inside was a picture of a woman and a baby. I flipped it over and on the back it was engraved... "my son, 10.23.90." Being that the date was the same as my birthday it caught my interest. Another thing that made me wonder was there was another hook on the chain as if there were something else... maybe another locket. Suddenly the lightening thrashed.

With the locket in hand, I quickly made it to my car as the rain picked up. When I arrived in my car I wiped off the locket with my sweater and read it once more. I put it away in my purse and started my car, I stared my journey back to the city.

I began to think about my life. From what I could remember that is, from little. I was raised by my aunt, my dad's sister, Martha. I was born with a twin brother but mom gave him up at birth for adoption. Mom died along with dad in a car reck shortly after we were born. They gave up my brother because they couldn't afford to care for both of us. Aunt Martha took me in as her daughter and taught me everything I knew. My brother and I were born in Charleston, South Carolina.

My name is Caroline, I am twenty- three and I was lucky to want to be kept by mom and dad, but they were not able to care for me, because they died. They died... it still has a sting in my heart when I think about it from time time. I was fortunate to be raised by my aunt Martha and know grandpa and grandma. They were all I had. That was  all i thought about on the way home. 

The storm let up and I arrived back at my apartment just before dark. I parked, took a deep breath and grabbed my purse and got out my car, locked it and went inside. Once inside I sat on my couch, pulled the locket out and examined it then I looked up and saw a picture of me alongside a picture of mom, and dad from their wedding day. They looked so happy, so in love, my aunt Martha had told me stories about how they had met, fell in love , and got married. I hoped to someday find what they had.

I once more glanced over at my baby picture and realized the baby boy in the locket looked a lot like me. My thoughts started racing.

"He may be my brother!! How could this be?" I said out loud as I sat in confusion, heart racing now. 

I put the locket a top my dresser and tried to piece things together, or try to make sense of it all for the most part. 

It's crazy how everything happened in the past and now none of it makes sense. I spent all of my life trying to forget I even have a brother and now this... this possibility that he may be alive, breathing, dreaming, working, and being. The strange thought of him, me having him as a part of my life from here on...That is if I wanted him to be, if I wanted to find him, or the crazy part... him looking for me.