Chapter 21 - Roderick Meets Malcolm
Roderick met his biological father in Burlington.
I went with him but stayed in hotel lobby? Better he went alone first.
He went alone.
Malcolm Vane was seventy.
Widower.
Two adult daughters.
He had never known Roderick existed.
The first meeting lasted ninety minutes.
No hug.
Malcolm brought photographs of his parents.
Roderick noticed his own hands in a photograph of Malcolm at thirty.
Genetics can be strange like that.
Malcolm provided medical history.
High cholesterol.
One uncle with colon cancer.
Nothing cinematic.
Useful.
Then he said:
“I don’t know what you want from me.”
Roderick answered:
“Neither do I.”
Honest.
They agreed to coffee again.
Over two years, Malcolm became:
someone Roderick knew.
Not Dad.
Howard remained father in every emotional sense.
At Niles’s ninth birthday, Malcolm attended as a guest after long discussion.
Eugenia did not.
Not because banned forever.
Because Niles had not asked.
Malcolm gave Niles a book about dinosaurs.
Good choice.
Niles later asked:
“So he’s Dad’s DNA grandpa?”
“Yes.”
“And Grandpa Howard was Dad grandpa?”
“Father.”
“This family needs chart.”
May you like
We made one.
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