Chapter 7
Ivan Northwood was adopted by the Northwood family because at the time that he and Langston were born, the Ainsworth family was going through a rough time and they didn't think they could raise two children. Fortunately, luck smiled at London Ainsworth, Langston's father, and with the help of his best friend, he could start his own enterprise, a chain of that kind of department store that would have everything one could possibly think of for sale: food, clothing, electronics, appliances, storage objects like CD towers and chests, backup media, music CD's, m3 players, school supplies, office supplies--everything. the chain of stores was called simply London. London Ainsworth would've given it another name, but he was just so proud that this company was his and he would be able to do something like this, competing with all stores that were like this one, and always winning. London, or as some people would call them, London Stores, they had all the best items at the best prices, competitor to stores like Wal-Mart, which was the same way. On the other hand, Israel Northwood always worked as a pharmacist, and a nurse, and he would work sixteen hours a day. Although he wasn't a multimillionaire like the biological father of his only son, Mr. Northwood did extremely well, and his family always had food on the table, clothes to wear, and everything they needed. The only thing they couldn't afford was luxury, but Blair and Ivan Northwood were simply thrilled that Israel would work his ass off for them. Blair couldn't have married a better man, although he was the infertile one. Blair had had one child from her first marriage, and that child lived with Ivan for a few years of his life because he was eight years older. Blair was fifty-nine years old. Israel was sixty-three, but he looked fifteen years younger. Blair also looked younger, but that was because she would always eat right and exercise and she would use those anti-aging creams because she didn't want to look age seventy when she was really age fifty-nine. She would let her wrinkles be when she turned seventy, and have them on her face with pride, just not now. Now was much too early. Blair had her first and only biological child at age twenty-five and she'd been married to her first husband, Manuel, for five years at the time. Manuel died in a car accident when Blair was thirty, and it took Blair two years to get over the dolor. Then, at age thirty-two, she married gorgeous Israel Northwood, but before their wedding day, Israel warned her that it was confirmed that he was infertile. She loved him so much that she married him anyway, because he was a wonderful, wonderful man, dedicated to other people's health, with a great heart. He was so talented he could've chosen another profession, but he wanted to be a pharmacist, so he was working as one since age twenty-eight, and by the time he married Blair, he was thirty-six, so he had plenty of experience. Then, after many years in college, even after finishing his studies to become a pharmacist, Israel completed his studies to become a registered nurse to have more money now that he got married. Israel was happy with Emmanuel, Blair's first child, and he even adopted him as his son now that the child's father was dead, but Israel wanted two children, so when he and Blair heard that a child was born in the hospital and his parents were unable to take care of him because he had a twin and his parents only had enough money to take care of one child, they raced to the hospital and adopted that baby, naming him Ivan, after Israel's older brother, who had passed away victim of muscular dystrophy. Israel didn't know that when he was seventeen, his father rendered him infertile through an operation because he was afraid that Israel's biological children would inherit their uncle's disease. Jake, Israel's father was afraid Israel would abhor him upon finding out the truth about his infertility, but in reality, Israel embraced his father and told him he understood what he did, even though doctors told him it was unlikely for a child to inherit MD from an uncle or an aunt, and that it could only be inherited from a parent. Right now, Israel and his father Jake had an excellent relationship, like Jake had never made that mistake, and Israel was happy with those two children he had. Emmanuel was a doctor of internal medicine. Ivan was a physical therapist and the founder of a company of medical supplies, working sixteen hours a day just like his father. Ivan had a mild case of cerebral palsy after hitting his head when getting out of the shower when he slipped into some water, and that caused him slight brain damage, very slight, cerebral palsy, but it was so mild people wouldn't notice it unless he had trouble saying certain words because all it had affected was his speech and a few nerves in his extremities, but rigorous physical therapy fixed all that, and now he was walking and doing everything like someone who didn't have cerebral palsy. He would jog and run. He would jog every morning, not to lose weight or keep in shape, but to keep the nerves and muscles in his legs working hard, and he came up with this, but that also kept him in shape. His body was just like Langston's, incredibly brawny and his body was to women 'a work of art'. Women would fall in love with him but they wouldn't commit to him because he was disabled. That's why, in twenty-six years, Ivan had only been with six women. He decided not to give in to any woman that expressed interest in him because he wasn't that kind of man, but of all these six women, only one committed to him, and that woman died in a fire. Now, Ivan had been alone for six months after he got tired of having casual relationships. He wanted to get married and have the children that his father couldn't have. Ivan had one child, however, and he was three years old. The mother had died in a car crash and his grandparents had cancer in the terminal stage and they could no longer take care of him, so they were desperately searching for the child's biological father, and the child's maternal grandmother found Ivan in the strangest of circumstances, while buying milk at the grocery store...and the child, Aaron was with her!
Ivan was stunned when he noticed that this adorable child was identical to him, black, silky-straight hair, aquamarine eyes, pretty face, medium-sized lips, a pretty nose and a dazzling smile. It was seeing himself as a child all over again. The child smiled at him even though he'd just seen him for the first time. The woman looked at Aaron, then she looked at Ivan, and she said, not knowing Ivan had a twin, "Yep, you are the father, just like that show."
Ivan bent over to be at the child's level and the child couldn't stop smiling at him and clapping. He was excited. Aaron's first words to his father were, "Oh, my gosh, I look just like you! Are you my daddy?"
Ivan was so stunned he didn't know what to say. Lots of people looked alike in this world. It was a fact that each person in this world could have as many as one hundred other people whom, despite being unrelated, looked a lot like them or were identical to them, but this child had something that made the connection obvious: the look in his eyes and his attitude, his personality. This was exactly the way Ivan was when he was a child. He would look at people with those sweet eyes, he was friendly, sweet and caring, and the way he smiled. Yep, this was his child, the child he never knew about because that woman never told him that she was pregnant. By that time, Ivan had already suffered his bathroom accident, at age twenty-two, and the woman was afraid that her child would inherit his condition and she didn't want Ivan to be part of the child's life. She was even planning to give Aaron up for adoption, but when she noticed that the child remained healthy as the months and years went by, she decided to keep him and still not tell his father anything about him. Karma got her good. Because of her evil heart, she lost her life. She had no right to play God with everyone's lives like that. She had even played God with the lives of her parents. She was the reason why they had cancer, because every time they wanted to sunbathe she would hide the sunscreen from them, and although they couldn't find the sunscreen, they would go outside and sunbathe anyway. She did this to them because when she was growing up, they would give her some of the things she wanted, but not everything. She knew that their skins were delicate and sensitive to the sun, and if they sunbathed too much, without three pounds of sun block on them, they would get skin cancer and die. She'd gotten her wish. They were dying, but she would never experience the joy of watching them die. Their grandson, Aaron had given them hope and something to live for, but as soon as Cherie, the mother, noticed how hard it was for her to get out of bed now, she decided she better find Aaron's biological father and give him in soon, because right now, they had a nurse at home. She couldn't take care of her husband or even herself.
Cherie knew that Ivan would ask her questions that she couldn't answer in front of Aaron, so she got him out of the section of the car where babies were usually placed and told him to go to the candy aisle and pick out anything he wanted, as much as he wanted, that she would pay for it all. Fortunately, Cherie and Abram's son, Cesar, he was with them. In fact, since none of them could drive, Cesar brought them over, and then, just as they were about to leave to the candy aisle, Cesar said, "I am going to take him to other aisles in the store so he can buy things he wants that are not candy and then I'll pay for them, ok, Mom?"
"That sounds like a plan!"
Excited, as they went away, Aaron said, "Thank you, Uncle Cesar!"
Once they were alone in the aisle, Cherie said, "Ivan, I am so sorry that things turned out to be this way. My husband and I really wanted you to have a relationship with your child because you're a great guy. You are the best man our daughter's ever had. No one ever treated her like you, but since she was the mother, I couldn't do anything regarding the child without her consent, you know? Grandparents don't have rights or authority over their grandchildren unless they get custody of them, which is something very hard."
"I understand. Why didn't she tell me she was pregnant?"
"Because you were 'damaged goods' and 'sex was the only thing you were good for'."
Laughing, Ivan said, "Really? I mean I know that us being together was out of the question, but I could still have paid child-support. I mean even a completely-handicapped man, that has a sound mind, can pay child-support for his child, don't you think? All it takes is being mentally-competent."
"Marissa's view of the perfect man was very, very wrong. Any man that treats his woman right and provides for her is the perfect man. The man doesn't have to be gorgeous, he doesn't have to be...you know..."
"Right."
"I mean, you are gorgeous, with all due respect, very much so. You're just imperfect."
"Yeah, who isn't?"
"When she would say that she would mean 'imperfect' as in 'defective'."
"Yeah, but aren't imperfect and defective the same thing, Cherie? And aren't we all imperfect and defective? Your daughter was living in La-La Land because she would've never found 'the perfect man'. There is no such thing. Human beings, none of us have 'everything'. We have faults. We have defects. We are all defective, and like you said, all it takes to be the perfect man is to treat your woman right and provide for her, support her, be there for her. If any woman demands more than that, she's delusional, same for men. I don't mind being 'defective' because I'm certain that I am never going to find the perfect woman. It's very unlikely that I am ever going to get married and have other children, so I am going to live my life and have fun."
"Just watch out for STD's and unwanted pregnancies, you know? That's something a fourteen-year-old should be aware of, and you're twenty-six, Ivan."
"No, I didn't mean like that."
"Oh."
"I've never been promiscuous and I never will be. What I meant was keep working, and going to Europe on my vacations, and playing board games and video games with my friends, throwing parties just because, where there would be no sex...you know, things like that. I don't use women, you know, and I don't have sex unless I have a mate. That casual-sex bullshit, I am tired of that. I want the impossible. I want marriage and children but if I can't have that I am just going to have another girlfriend, and..."
"Why is that 'the impossible' for you, Ivan?" she said, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Let's see...because no woman takes me seriously?"
"Just because Marissa didn't take you seriously doesn't mean that no woman has or that no woman ever will. I think it's time you found out that Marissa never took any of her boyfriends seriously, and she's had several. More than I could possibly count."
"Oh, really?" he said, raising his voice for a second, astounded. "So my disability was just an excuse to use me?"
"She's had so many flings...oh, God...and she's never, ever been faithful to any of the men that she would call her boyfriends. In fact, I am surprised that Aaron turned out to be yours because around the time she was pregnant she was sleeping with like eight other guys, unprotected. I am sorry to say this, but it's the truth. My daughter was a whore. She would participate in bachelor parties and she was the one to give the bachelor his last fling before he would get married. She would participate in parties and have orgies."
"Maybe, out of all those guys that were giving her their sperm, I was the lucky one to fertilize her egg at the time," he said, smiling widely. "I guess this happened because I was meant to be a father before getting married or I was just meant to be a father because like I said, I don't think I'll ever get married."
"Remember how old your parents were when they got married and adopted you, thirty-two. You're twenty-six. It's never too late to start a family, and if you wind up getting married in your late thirties or even your late forties and you can no longer conceive children around that time, you can always repeat your parents' story and adopt. Think about it. It's not like your bloodline has stopped. You already have a biological child, so you will have an inheritance and the Northwood name will get extended. It won't stop there. You never know how many children Aaron's going to have. He could have one child, just like he could have three, five or even nine."
"That's true."
"So don't give up. I have a feeling that the woman you are going to marry and spend the rest of your life with is closer to you than you think. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be someone that you see every day. You know, I've got to go. I don't think I deserve to interact with you because knowing that my daughter was never the best daughter in the world, I never stood up to her and I never attempted to do the right thing, which was making sure that you would have a relationship with your child. I didn't even call you, knowing where you lived, and let you see him behind her back, so you know what? I am going to go, keep on shopping, and you're going to do the same thing, ok?"
She turned around to leave, but he placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Come on, Cherie. Don't be like that. You are the grandmother of my child, and you've raised him for three years."
"That's right," she said, turning back around, "for three years because Aaron is about to turn four, and she died when he was a year and a half."
"So don't tell me that we can't have a relationship and work together for what's best for Aaron."
"But I am going to die."
"You still have hope. I've always believed that the only time you no longer have hope is when you stop breathing."
"Haven't you heard the phrase, 'it's too late'?"
"Yes, I've heard it millions of times. I've heard it from my patients. They always say to me, 'My doctor says that it's too late for me to walk again, or to walk at all'. Then I give him their therapy. Next thing they know, they enter the therapy room in a wheelchair and exit it in a walker."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. That's the way we all are, all therapists at the New Hope Center. Look at me. I thought I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I started getting therapy from those people and I thought I would leave the center in a walker. Next thing I know, I am walking on my own. I can walk, run, play, and do everything someone that doesn't have cerebral palsy, can do. That's what drove me to become a physical therapist. I wanted other people to experience what I experienced, to show other people that it's never too late, and I will show you, too. I can talk to your doctor to see if he will send you to a cancer-treatment center. They have saved thousands of lives and they're going to save yours and Merlin's. I am not giving up on you, and you shouldn't either."
After buying all the candy and all the things Aaron wanted, Ivan went after Aaron and holding his hand, he said to him, "Your grandparents are going away for a while. You want to come live with daddy while they get better?" smiling.
"But Mama and Papa always tell me that the moment I leave with you I am not going back to live with them because they're dying."
"You're going to live with me for a while, and I am going to send them away, they're going to get better, and you're going to spend time with them and then spend time with me. They're your legal guardians so as long as they're alive and not on life-support, you still have to stay with them and then, if they agree with it, you come over to spend some time with me, got it?"
"Ok, if you think they will survive..."
"I don't think so. I am sure of it. They will survive. We are not going to lose them." Ivan hugged Aaron. "We're not going to lose them, I promise you. They are going to pull through and come right back to us."
Hours later, Aaron went into his father's house for the first time. It was very pretty, one of those model-houses, and it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, one gigantic kitchen with new, luxurious appliances, brand-new floors, a combination of the most-expensive tile and the most-expensive and prettiest wood floors. The windows were shaped in a way he'd never seen before. All the doors were beautiful and of high quality. Each room in the house was painted a different color. The furniture was not that new, but it seemed to be. It was very well taken care of. Ok, now I know that when I'm in this house, I can't eat or drink anything outside the dining room, and I have to eat at the table. All of the room sets were the most expensive and luxurious ones three years before, and the electronics, oh, man. We're talking about gigantic, flat screen TV's in every room of the house, satellite TV, digital video recorders for receivers all over the house, and the family room had every entertainment means one could possibly want, a Blu-ray player and recorder with an extensive collection of movies of all genres, except porn of course. Ivan was smart. He would keep all the rated-R movies away in a special drawer of the entertainment center that had a key and the DVD's that were rated PG-13 and below were in wide display. Ivan had over two thousand CD's put away in a special book-case kind of stand because he got tired of buying CD-towers every time the CD count reached 300, and he had a stereo that could play CD's and even cassette tapes, and of course radio stations. The stereo was small, but just like everything in the house, it seemed to be brand new even when some of the things in the house weren't brand new. The oldest items were some of the DVD's, and everything else that was not brand new was only three years old, just like little Aaron. Although the stereo was small, the speakers were slightly bigger. Ivan wasn't using it anymore. He played all his media on his blu-ray player now because that machine would play everything. It was clear to Ivan that Aaron could listen to very little of the music that he had because although Ivan had very few parental-advisory labeled CD's, Aaron couldn't listen to most of the music he had because ninety-nine percent of music wasn't suitable for three-year-olds, so he made up for the material that was not suitable for children by providing them with hundreds and hundreds of Disney DVD's and other DVD's that were made for children or just rated G. Most of Ivan's friends had children below the age of five, so he would always provide them with entertainment that was safe for them when they would come over.
Without thinking about it, Aaron kneeled on the floor, opened one of the glass compartments of the entertainment center, the top section, retrieved a Disney movie, loaded it into the Blu-Ray player, turned on the TV, changed the input to video-three and started watching it. His legs were tired after walking all over the grocery store and walking through the whole house, like taking a tour. The house was big, over four thousand square feet, and he hadn't explored the outside of it yet. Ivan had a big garden. Ivan had bought this house on his own, gotten it on an auction, after the original homeowners didn't pay it for several months and it went on foreclosure. Incredibly, the house only cost Ivan seventy-eight thousand dollars, and his best friend, Barry, had given him the money, Barry, the man that had a problem with his twin brother several days back. Barry's father wasn't a millionaire, but he had a bank-account as fat as a sumo wrestler. Since he didn't like taking advantage of people, Ivan was paying back every cent of the money, six hundred dollars every month, like he was paying a mortgage, and he'd been doing this for seven years. He'd paid fifty thousand four hundred dollars already, and he owed twenty-seven thousand six hundred dollars now. Barry's father, Benjamin, could care less if Ivan paid him back the full amount or not. He loved him like a son and he knew about the problem that Barry had had with Ivan's twin brother, Langston. He'd kept it a secret from everyone that didn't know, like Ivan himself for example, because he didn’t want to ruin the relationship between the twin brothers before they would even get a chance to reunite, and he didn’t want to ruin Barry’s relationship with Ivan.
Ivan went to the family room with his son when he heard the movie playing. Meanwhile, Cherie and Merlin’s doctor had already authorized their stay at the cancer treatment center and they were on their way over there, in Pennsylvania! “That’s one of the best ones, G-Force, simply amazing. I loved the message behind it, also, the importance of family and loyalty. At least that was the way I interpreted it.” Ivan’s cell phone rang. Cherie and Merlin were traveling to Pennsylvania by plane because they couldn’t drive, and they didn’t want to put Cesar through the torment of having to drive so many hours, although he would do it for them in a heartbeat, and he would do anything for his parents. “Hello, Ivan Northwood.”
“Ivan, sweetheart, this is Mom. How are you doing? I am just calling to tell you that we’re on our way to the cancer-treatment center in Pennsylvania. The doctor approved everything, and well, we did it. I am calling because we finally got the green light to make phone calls from the phone here, in the airplane, those little phones they have. We don’t know how long we’re going to be there. We want to talk to Aaron to tell him how much we love him and that we’re going to be right back, we’re going to come back to him.”
Ivan handed Aaron the phone. “Mama wants to talk to you.”
Aaron took the phone in his hand and said, “Mama?”
“Sweetie, how are you doing? Are you having a good time with your dad?”
“Yes, Mama. My dad is even better than I ever imagined. He’s the greatest. He has a pretty house where everything’s big, meaning all the rooms are big, and my dad even designated a bedroom for me that I will be able to sleep in even after you guys come back, if you let me spend the weekends with him, when you come back.”
“Of course we’re going to let you spend the weekends with him. So did you get a pretty room?”
“Yes. It’s green, my favorite color, grass-green. It has a flat-screen TV, a DVR, a desk for me to do my homework in…the only thing it doesn’t have is a computer because Dad says I’m too young to use a computer. He says he’s going to get me school supplies and clothes.”
“That’s good.”
“It has a big bed, it’s like queen sized. It’s up against the wall to make sure I don’t fall off, and I promised him I would sleep right next to the wall, to keep safe. My closet is big.”
“Remember you’re only allowed to watch cartoons for now, ok? And rated-G shows.”
“How could I forget something that important?” His vocabulary was really advanced, and he talked like a ten-year-old. “My dad has a lot of friends with little kids, so he knows what entertainment media we can have access to and which entertainment media we shouldn’t use.”
“That’s great. Sounds like we put you in good hands.”
“Yes, you sure did. I don’t understand why my mom was always saying that my dad was defective and worthless because he couldn’t be more perfect. I don’t see why cerebral palsy’s a defect. If we were all healthy, there wouldn’t be any doctors, there wouldn’t be medicine, no scientific research, and we wouldn’t learn anything. There wouldn’t even be science, I bet.”
“I love your way of thinking. You’re a genius, just like your father. Did you know your father graduated high school at age fourteen and that’s why he’s been able to start his own enterprise at an early age and become a physical therapist? He started going to college at age fifteen and then he studied one profession and then the other.”
“That’s great!” he said looking his father in his eyes. “He didn’t tell me anything about that.”
“I guess he wants you to get to know him and see things for yourself rather than telling you and then having you find out it was all a lie.”
“My dad would never lie to me.” They hugged and Ivan kissed Aaron’s forehead. “May I say hi to Papa?”
“Papa can’t talk much because he’s really sleepy, but you can say hi.”
“I know he’ll get better.”
Cherie handed the phone to Merlin. Merlin said, “Hello, who’s this?” Cherie placed her hand on her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. He was so drained and so out of it he didn’t know that Cherie called their grandson.
“Papa, are you ok?”
Merlin woke up in an instant. “Oh, hi, Aaron!” Aaron was his energy source, the adrenaline that kept his blood pumping. Cherie was afraid that upon finding out some horrible things about Marissa’s past, Ivan would fight to get custody of Aaron, they would lose him forever, and Merlin would go on a downward spiral, and then, no one would be able to save him. Cherie didn’t know Ivan well enough because she hadn’t spent enough time with him or talked much to his family about him. Ivan would never do that after they’d provided his child with a lot of love and a good home, and treated him like a little prince, giving him everything he wante