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“Plus, do you think your dad had any life insurance in the name of Chris Vincenzo?”
“I guess so, he should have insurance. Why?”
“Do you think I can get a paper or a card? Whether valid or expired.” I thought for a while and frowned when I couldn’t think of where I would get his insurance information. They werehisinsurance, they should be with him.
“Where would I get that?” I asked him.
“Why don’t you ask your mom? She could have one with her.”
“I’ll ask her, let me call her.”
“Okay baby, let me know when you get it. Remember, valid or not.” I whispered an ‘okay’ to him and hung up.
I threw the knife back to the floor and sat comfortably on the bed, dialing my mother’s number. She picked it after a few rings and a hoarse ‘hello’ came out.
“Sleeping, mother?” I heard a small gasp from her.
“Jordan? Is that you, baby?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not mad at me anymore? You believe me now?”
I snorted as I remembered what Chan said. We still needed to know the reason dad did a test in the first place. “Not yet, I called to ask a question.”
“I’ll tell you anything.”
“Do you have any of daddy’s documents? Maybe an insurance paper or card.” There was silence for a few minutes, while I hoped she did have one. I didn’t know why Chan needed it, but it was Chan; which meant if he asked for it, then it was needed.
“The house, I left some things in the house. Maybe you can check.”
“The house here?”
“Yes, I forgot some things in the closet, but since you said I shouldn’t return yet, I haven’t been able to take them. You can check.”
“Okay bye,” I wanted to hang up, but I heard a quiet ‘wait’ from her and returned the phone to my ear. “Yes?”
“Call me later, okay?”
“Yes mother.” I hung up and got down from my bed. I took a new bandage and wrapped it around my arm before putting on a black top and black overalls. I took my car keys and arranged my hair into a black cap.
Leaving my room as the mess it was, I locked the door and left.
* * *
It’d been about forty minutes. I’d been searching my mother’s room for forty minutes and I still couldn’t find anything related to my dad. I found some documents —which were currently scattered on the floor— but they were in no way related to him.
I found my birth certificate —both new name and old name— and I wondered how many copies she had, because I had the two as well.
I punched the wall in anger and winced at the pain. I was here for forty minutes with no success. Would I go back? That meant I failed, I hated failing.
She clearly said she had some things here, and my mother made photocopies of literally anything. If she had ten houses, she would make sure she had the same documents in all ten houses.
I went into her closet again and searched everywhere. My eyes went to the top cupboard and I realized I hadn’t checked that. It was way too tall for my mother to keep anything inside, but I still had to check. As my dad always said‘when searching, check everywhere. Both the possible and impossible places.’
I dragged the empty makeup table closer to the closet and stood on it to get to the top cupboard. I opened it and tiptoed to get a deeper look into it and there was a treasury box in there. With a triumphant smile on my face, I dragged it closer and brought it out with a groan. It was heavy and I couldn’t wait to see what’s in it.
How did this get to Canada anyway? I clearly remembered she only brought a suitcase with her on the day we returned. Did she bring it back from South Africa?