Brody Read Online Free PDF Page B

would need someone to talk to because
he couldn’t face it alone, and he didn’t want to burden his dad.   Brody tapped his fingers. If he hadn’t been
so picky, he would have had a wife and family to help him with this ordeal. He
shook his head. The thought of leaving a wife and kids so young all alone…well,
maybe it was best he’d never found the right woman.
    What
if he died alone? That thought scared him most of all. Could he be bashful
enough to ask Maddie, an almost total stranger, to hold his hand until he
passed? A tear ran down his cheek. He was going to die, and he hadn’t done half
the things he’d always wanted to.
    He
pulled out his mother’s diary. His last hope of seeing forty was here within
its pages.
    Brody
thumbed through it. His mother hadn’t left anything to the imagination about
her encounters with the three men. He guessed everyone was shocked when they
thought about their parents having sex, like it never happened or something.
Reality was they were sexual creatures just like their kids.
    Mike
Saunderson had been the first man she’d met at the commune, and according to
her entries, he’d grown up in Riker’s Creek. He’d probably be in his seventies
now. Brody leaned back on the chair in the motel. Maybe he should reconsider
finding these men just in case they didn’t want to be reminded of the past or
let their families know about their relationship with his mother—that they’d
lived in a commune and fathered a child. “Let sleeping dogs lie,” as the saying
goes.
    Brody’s
doctor had told him there was always a chance that a total stranger might be a
match, and she’d added him to the national donor list. He might get lucky.
However, bottom line was family was his best hope. A stranger’s kidney might
work for a while, but then there was the chance he could reject it. He couldn’t
go through all this again. Part of him was scared to be opened up again. The
first surgery had been hell. Besides the odd cold or flu, he hadn’t been sick a
day in his life, so being in the hospital had been a nightmare.
    Now
something else scared him—the thought of coming face to face with a stranger
who was his real father. He glanced at his watch. If he was going to visit Mike,
then he should get on with it and not waste valuable time. He stood and pulled
on his jacket, glancing in the mirror to see if he looked half decent. He
guessed Mike would be in for a shock.
    Brody
locked the door and headed toward his car. Snow would be falling shortly. He
could smell it, feel it, and in a way, it would be welcomed to give everywhere
that true holiday feel. He got into the car, started the ignition, and headed
out of the lot. He passed the center of town where a tall spruce tree stood,
and a couple of people were stringing lights around it.
    If
he’d done his research correctly, Mike lived on the outskirts of Riker’s Creek.
Well, he hoped he had the right Mike Saunderson. He was the only one with that
name in town. He knew people didn’t always stay in one spot all their lives,
but the chances of this being another Mike Saunderson had to be slim.
    Brody
hit the accelerator and turned onto the main road. Riker’s Creek wasn’t a huge
place, and the edge of town came up before he knew it. He indicated left and
turned down Oak Street. Number 456 was on the left.   A dark truck sat in the driveway. He hoped Mike
was retired, at home, the man who’d fathered him, would agree to get tested and
be a perfect match, so he wouldn’t have to go through this two more times.
    He
decided not to park in the driveway, but instead pulled up by the curb. He took
a deep breath and got out of the car before he lost his nerve. He walked up to
the front door and was about to ring the bell, but then he froze, his hand
hovering over the bell like it was suddenly paralyzed.
    He’d
rehearsed what he was going to say over and over again, but now he didn’t think
he could go through with this or have the nerve to ask