[ trois ]

Just as I had hoped, the next morning I found a message from Marie waiting for me. I opened it with both excitement and nervousness. What were the odds that the first person I talked to would be the one I was searching for? But then again, how many other people with the last name Griezmann were there in the world? I assumed that not many, since I had never heard the last name before.

"So I looked in the storage closet in my grandmother's home..." Began the extra long message from the French girl that could possibly be my half cousin. "There was an old box of belongings with the french army seal on it. Inside were my grandfather's belongings including his uniform, some war medals, some important documentation, a few other trinkets, his journal, and at the very bottom was a photograph. He was standing with a Vietnamese woman and the words written on the back were 'mon amour', apparently in his hand writing."

Included in the message was a picture taken of the photograph Marie had found. It was the very same that my grandmother had in her possesion.

I continued reading Marie's message. "The photograph was wedged in between the pages of the journal and it fell out when I picked it up. It looks like he wrote about your grandmother a lot...it says in his journal entries that her name is Mai. He wrote that he was torn between his family and a new love he had found in Vietnam. He...he was planning on leaving my grandmother to marry yours."

That was where her message stopped and I typed into the message box. "And what happened to him? Is he alive? Is he back in France? Is he...dead?" The third option was the one I most feared. Because at least if he had returned to France to be with his other family, at least it means I could meet him because he was still alive.

It was a long few hours of clicking refresh on my facebook account before a reply came in. "Um...I don't know exactly what happened, because I've only heard stories from my grandmother, my aunt, and my father. But apparently one day they got captured by the southern Vietnam army and were taken as prisoners of war. The only thing the French army was able to retrieve from their camp site were their belongings. They never found his body, and the French army closed the case. Our grandfather is presumed dead."

Dead.

The word on the screen stared back at me. That was where the search ended. I would never get to meet the man that made my grandmother so happy, the man who my mother never met. The only thing left for me to do was to ask what were the things he liked when he was alive, and I doubted Marie knew too much about him.

"Are there any pictures of him that you could show me?" I typed my wonders into the message box.

"Sure!" Marie typed enthusiastically. I was very grateful that she was being so helpful to me. Many others in her place may have shunned me for being the bastard grandaughter of a French soldier who fought in Vietnam. Marie added to the message seconds later, "Just give me a day or two. I don't live with my grandmother and I have to go to her house to find pictures, she has plenty of them."

"Thank you so much for helping me." I thanked her again.

"No problem." She replied to my message. "I know how important this must be for you. I never met my grandfather either, but at least I know him through stories and pictures. Its only fair that you and your mother meet him as well."

My mother. That was one thing I had never thought about. I had been given the opportunity to meet him and she deserved to meet him too.

After saying goodbye to Marie and logging out of my facebook account for the day, I decided I would give my mother a call. She needed to know the information I had gathered on her father, Antoine Griezmann.

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yay, an update for this story! ^.^ please give it a nice vote if you like. thank you, i love youuuuu.

-clary xx