Friday

Two brown eyes bored into the paper as it reads the date of resignation. His fingers digged into the paper, making scrambles and wrinkles on the document. He licked his lower lip, looking at his boss approved signature on the bottom of the file. Adam Earldon was fired for being late always. He lifted his nose and saw Henry looking at him with his concern-filled eyes.

"Sorry, man." Henry remorsefuly said. Adam shook his head and ran his fingers over his hair. "My bad, Henry. It's the worst thing happened today."

"Do you need to search another job entries in Google?" Henry took his phone. Henry was his old childhood friend who was his neighbour from 1998 until now.

"No, I better ask Courtney where do I need to find a job near her working place." Adam also took his own phone and pressed the calling button on Courtney's number. It rang but she never called back.

They're sitting on the pavement. Henry stood up and shook a bunch of keys in his hand. "I better go, Adam." Henry loves his job as an engineer but Adam thinks that he was just wasting his five-month job in West & Co.

The Volkswagen beetle started to roar and he saw Henry waving at him. His lips lifted a weak smile and simply nodded. As the car went away, Adam got up and strode towards his second-hand truck.

When he walked, an orange fruit rolled over his tracks. He grabbed it and tilted his head to the right. A woman smiled as she placed the other fruit into her eco-friendly bag. They're probably falling into the road. Adam gave the fruit to her. "It seems that those fruits wanted to escape from the bag."

He said this with the frustration of his job. But surprisingly, he only saw her laughing at his ill-mannered joke. "Well I think so." She beamed.

"Thanks for your help. Better to go." Her big brown curls few as the breeze hit it. "Bye."

Adam lifted his hand before she walked away. All his life, he never met anyone who laughs at his ill-mannered jokes yet this woman began with it. He continued to walk over his truck and sat on the driver's seat.

A long way from West & Co. to his old aged house. A bit Victorian with vines crawled up on the bricked walls. Too beautiful to be old. He parked his truck in front of the gateway and went out.

He stumped into his bedroom and grieved bitterly. He wished that his mother was still alive to comfort him. His girlfriend Courtney was a woman of boringness and didn't have an idea of how to comfort his melancholic beau. Adam wept while his face buried on the pillow.

He tried to change his habit of being late but nothing happens. It led him into a jobless person. He keeps thinking that he would be depressed if he won't find another job to work.

An idea came into his mind. He decided to have a trip to France via the underwater subway. Adam got up, wiping his sore bloodshot eyes with his hand and walked towards his closet. He opened the door and unloaded all his clothes, from sweaters to pajamas then shove them on the bed.

But something has caught up in his eyes. He saw a old Victorian style chest at the back of his folded pile of jeans. He noticed that before but didn't have time to figure out. Adam slowly clutches the chest and rested it on the side desk.

His butt bumped on the mattress and he sprawled. Brown eyes drew every lines of the chest, curiosity sprang up from his mind. Mr. Adam Earldon reached out to open the lid. Unexpectedly, what he saw was a bunch of letters. He took each of them and realized that it was dated back to 1800s.

The letters were written in extravagant cursives and lovely strokes. The name of the sender immediately catches Adam's attention. The sender wasn't a least commoner as he was expecting but it was a man from the noble rank.

He wasn't surprised why the sender got a the same name with him. Adam remembered the words his mother told him. He was named after his great-grandfather, Lord Adam Lambert Earldon.

Adam grew up in a middle-class life with his mother. And he didn't know who his father was. He was not immaculated like the Virgin gave birth to a Saviour. His mother was an orphan who was raped by an unknown suspect.

His mother Britannia didn't want to stress on getting justice but she's willing to face the bitterness of her life. Adam thought that his mother would carry the chest wherever she lives. Yes it was true. Britannia carried the chest from house to house.

The last letter he got was from his mother. He noticed the cursives from his mother and his great-grandfather were undeniably same. He opened the letter that was dated back from 2002 and he was thirteen years old that time.

April 09, 2002

Dear my Adam,

I lived a life with agony and bitterness. The journey was hard to travel without anyone who helped me. I know that our Lord Almighty was with us despite of the harshest reality I was facing in. Son, when I carried you in my womb, I was already filled with happiness until I see you growing older. I didn't want you to see what I've been through.

You got my eyes! Those brown ones. I love to see you growing up with happiness. You're my bunch of Joy! I would like to show you about this ancestral chest.

I remembered what my mum said before she died in the Holocaust. She said she wants me to carry this chest and search for the mysterious woman. Actually at first, I didn't know what happened to my great-grandfather until I discovered that he was the Lord of Sheffield.

All my life, I haven't found a person descended from that lady, not a single one! She probably died childless or she remarried to someone else. Her name was not written in those letters but only her surname was sticked on it.

Through I can't find her descendants but I believe that you can get to know your great-grandfather's lover. I want to pass this quest to you and you can have someone to help you with that. I know you can do it!

My son, I am always be proud of you, even your greatest failures. I love you from the flesh of my heart.

Love,
Britannia Earldon.

Adam folded slowly the letter and gave a good cry. While sniffing, he took one of those letters and read the sender. It was from his grandmother. Adam unfolded the letter and set his eyes on his grandmother's messy cursives.

October 10, 1944

Dear Britannia,

Your father was descended from an English noble. I can tell you that! Tannie, we're now living in a place of racism where the Czar Adolf Hitler started to build a massive German-Slavic empire.

This moment is quite dangerous. I never showed up that I'm carrying you in my womb. I am a Jew from Germany. You are a Jewish descent of British and German blood.

But when you were conceived, my family forced me to divorce my husband. It pierced my heart when I left my husband. Yet I have you, my Britannia.

I'd always dream of going to England. But sadly I went to the place where the Jewish people were imprisoned. Before that, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. It was you!

I called you Britannia, an old name of Great Britain. That is where your father lives. After the separation, your father wanted you to follow the quest.

When you reach up to eighteen, your father and I wanted you to take the quest as you will discover the strange lover of your great-grandfather. We know that you can do this. We love you from the flesh of our hearts.

Your Mother,
Pauline Ben-David Earldon

∞

Adam held his both hands on the table while waiting for the order. Harry sat across the table while looking at him. "Well, what do you think?"

"I don't think we can do it, Adam." He shook his head. "I don't want to leave my work."

Adam set his gaze at the cup of tea as the waitress places it on the table. "Do you think I can do this alone?"

"Why can you just break down your anxious walls and make friends? Get one to start this work and-"

"I don't want to." Adam insisted then sipped hot tea. He sighed.

"Then you cannot do this alone!" Harry's voice got tense and he leaned back against the board.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when these friends waved at each other good bye. Adam went to a second-hand shop just down the corner. The smell of antique items flooded into his nostrils as he clumps inside the shop.

He caught up on the books lined up on the shelf. He loves books. He would have read all series of Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson's. His fingers touched the engraved titles and picked out one book that stole his gaze. The Castle On The Hill by Elizabeth Gouge.

"Uhm, Can you pick the May Scarborough novel, please..." A feminine voice turned up. Adam caught the book just above his head and tilted his head, it was the same woman he saw yesterday.

"Hey!" They both exclaimed. "It's you! How's your moment today?" She asked with a cheeky smile.

"Not good. I've been searching for somebody who will help me with this quest."

"What quest?" With excitement, she asked.

"A quest about finding the descendants of my great-grandfather's unknown lover." Adam looked at the book he was carrying.

"Really? That's interesting. Maybe that could help my seven-week project." The woman tucked her brown hair behind her ear. "It's all about Historical Romance."

"That means you will make a book about Historical Romance? Or like fictious something?"

"No, it's a biography of someone's love life." She shook her head. "Not fiction."

"Can I help you with that?" His eyes bored into her icy blue ones. Adam didn't want the idea of helping out with the stranger's project.

But he did.