Alternate Fate
By
Jen
"The 2:45 train will get you back to Boston in plenty of time to meet your father," Alva Keel said as he and Paul Callan hurried toward the train platform. As they reached Keel's train, the engineer told them they had just made it. "Goodbye Paul," Keel said as he stepped up onto the train. Paul raised his gaze to give Keel a doubtful look, but the other man had already disappeared inside the car. Paul turned to walk back inside the train station. He had exactly 2 hours before he had to make a choice that might forever change his life... ------------------------------ Paul was sitting at a table outside the terminal when he heard an announcement that his train was boarding. He felt as though a civil war were being conducted in his brain and his thoughts had become opaque. Half of him said 'go back to Boston', while the other half kept reminding him that the man he sought was the man who had left him to defend himself against the cruel world. He shook his head, cleared his murky thoughts, and headed for the train. When it came time for him to give his ticket to the engineer, he held onto it unsure that this was what he really wanted to do. "Sir, I need your ticket please," the man said as Paul blindly tried to board the train. "Oh...yeah...sorry." Paul handed his ticket to the gentleman and hesitantly stepped onto the one-way track to his past, present, and future. He found a reclining seat that appeared to be the most comfortable and sat down. Not only was the trip going to be emotionally difficult, but it was going to be physically challenging as well. He had been standing 20 feet from a bus when it had exploded, and the force of the blast had slammed him into a brick wall. He had injured his leg, head and back, so it was important for him to remain as relaxed as possible. As the train pulled away from the station, Paul felt an emotion he had rarely experienced. A double whammy of apprehension and excitement coursed through him. Leaning back, he allowed his mind to envision the man he was about to meet. He imagined a well-to-do man in a suit carrying a brief case full of important legal documents. This was a man with no free time who was a selfish workaholic too busy to raise a family. He was going to tell Paul that he had never known he had a son, and that he had left Paul's mother without being aware that she was pregnant. Paul decided that if this expectation was met, he definitely had to be more like his mother, because the man he was imagining was a jerk. He snickered to himself at the fact that he had never known his mother and so would never be able to say for certain whether he took after her. 'The man I meet today is going to have to come up with a plausible excuse for abandoning me,' Paul thought as he pulled from his bag the list of witnesses Keel had given him to investigate after his stop at City Hall. He was only successful in studying the list for a few minutes before his mind wandered back to his father. In a new vision, he saw a poor man who couldn't support himself, let alone a family. This man was going to tell Paul that he wouldn't have been able to adequately support a family, and that placing Paul in an orphanage had been the most humane thing to do. Though the two fantasy versions of his father were extremes of the type of person he was liable to meet, Paul felt as if either set of lies and excuses could be true. He prayed to God that he would finally know what had become of his mother. Father Calero had never permitted him to search for the truth. He had always told Paul that it didn't matter because there was nothing Paul could do to alter his history. Whatever the outcome of this meeting, there was one important detail Paul longed for. He begged the Lord to tell the man who had responded to Claire Bloom�s inquiries to open the file that would permit Paul to discover the truth of his past. If the man wasn't his father but allowed Paul access to the file, then at least he would be able to discover who his real father was. Thoughts both pessimistic and optimistic raced through Paul's head as his journey drew to an end. Within ten minutes, the train came to a halt with a hiss. He stepped off the train into the warm Boston sun and headed for his car. As he pulled out of the parking lot, Paul had second thoughts. All the doubts he had experienced were returning. He could turn right to City Hall, to his past and future; or turn left toward his present, the Sodalitas Quaerito office and his apartment. Paul made up his mind to follow the plan Keel had given him. He paid for parking, and turned right. As he headed for City Hall, he thought he heard his mother's voice. She called to him saying, 'Well done my son. You have chosen the right path in life, and now you shall be rewarded.' The voice faded as Paul pulled into a parking spot in front of City Hall, and walked through the large revolving doors.
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