SECRETS OF THE PAST
Chapter Twenty-Four
When everything was packed they
got in the car and headed to the Almer Hotel. Mina had been wrong it was way modern
than she said. It had an indoor restaurant, breakfast hall, lobby bar, and TV
lounge to Franklin it was almost home. He went up to the hotel desk and
reserved three rooms for two weeks. Mina could not take her eyes off Robert.
She smiled at him and he smiled at her. Franklin had saw that they were
attracted to each other and smiled at his uncle.
"Robert, I am a little tired
from the flight would you taking Mina here for walk and dinner possibly?"
Franklin told him.
"Sure I would love to Mr.
Abagnale." Robert looked at young Franklin and smiled to him.
"If there is anything you
need Mr. Abagnale be sure to let me know. Here's my cell phone number."
Mina took a card out of her purse and handed it to Franklin.
"Sure, Mina have a good
time. Bye you two." He smiled at them. He went and pressed the button for
the elevator when it came down he got in. All through the trip he kept thinking
about Leah. He rarely thought about Erica.
Franklin made it to his room and
turned on the TV for some noise. He picked up the phone and dialed Leah's phone
number. He quickly hung up and decided to write a letter instead he had
forgotten that he wasn't suppose to call home. He took some stationary from the
hotel folder that was laid on the night stand. He got a pen and began to write.
Dear Leah,
How are you? What have you
been up too? I miss you so very much. Are you pregnant yet? I hope you are. I
want to apologize again for my behavior about the Erica matter. Do you want to
know all the sordid details about how that started? If you want let me know I
don't want to tell you and then you didn't want to hear about it. So I will
wait until you write me back. I am in Turkey right now, we got here just fine.
Dad flew the plane and I guess I got over my flying anxiety. Robert my uncle is
cool. We haven't talked much, but he is in love with a girl that we just met
her name is Mina Rasha. She's cute. But don't worry I am not interested in her
like that. Although my uncle seems to be. Can you tell my mom that we are all
right. Nothing much has happened here it's pretty boring without you. Well I
gotta keep this short I was gonna call you, but I am afraid calling you is out.
I hope this letter gets to you. I miss you and I love you.
Love always,
Franklin Abagnale
He pulled out another sheet of
paper and wrote to Erica.
Dear Erica,
Hey Erica, like I promised to
write so I am writing you. Do you still hate me for the mess I caused. I didn't
mean to lead you on I really hadn't. I still remember what happened and I don't
think I will ever forget it. I loved watching you when I was above you that
night in the woods. I will treasure that night forever. If you hate me. I will
understand. I hated to have to tell you that I still loved Leah. I tried to
block her out, but I couldn't. Maybe in some other lifetime there will be hope
for us, but I am afraid not in this lifetime. I'm sorry. If you still wanna
kick my ass when I get home then go right ahead. Your welcomed to it. We'll
even have a fist fight if you want. Of course you can do all the hitting. Well
I have to go. Bye.
Sincerely,
Frankie
After writing the two letters he
put their addresses on them and put them in his jacket pocket. Remembering that
he would send them later that day. There was no return address on the outside,
but in the inside there was. He had written it carefully trying hard to write
it the best he could.
A few minutes later someone
knocked on the door. "Frank, open up."
Franklin walked to the door and
Jack was standing there holding his flight jacket. Franklin noticed his shirt
was dirty, but didn't say anything. "So how was the drop off?"
"Everything went
swell." Jack sat down and tossed his jacket to the empty chair across from
him.
"Great." Franklin sat
down, his dad looked tired.
"Where's Robert?" Jack
looked around the room.
"You're gonna love this dad.
Robert is in love with Mina." Franklin smiled.
"I know I saw when she
couldn't keep her eyes off him." Jack had felt just a little jealous.
"Yeah well I let them go to
dinner together." Franklin got his father's jacket and hung it up.
"You did?" Jack was
amazed. Robert was in love.
"Yeah. Not to offend you
dad, but my uncle needs to get laid." "He's so uptight."
Franklin laughed and then got serious when his father looked at him.
"Yeah he is. So what shall
we do?" Jack looked at him with a stern look.
"No idea, Dad." He was
so use to calling his father Dad. He forgot he had to called him by his first
name.
"Please try and not call me
that." Jack said looking at himself in the mirror.
"Sorry it's hard."
Franklin apologized.
"I know well shall we get
something to eat." He asked as he went in the bathroom to freshen up.
"Yeah anyways I have to go
to the post office. I need some stamps." Franklin looked at himself in the
mirror too.
"Your not writing letters
home are you?" Jack peeked his head out of the restroom.
"Are we restricted from
sending mail?" He looked at his father.
"I don't think so."
Jack had no idea.
"Ok cool I know that we
couldn't call and I really don't know why." Franklin didn't really care he
just wanted to get home.
"Did you put your name on
them?" Jack carried a towel in his hand rubbing off the dirt off his face.
"No, I didn't put a return
address." He showed his dad the letters that were in his jacket.
"Good, we don't want anyone
tracking us." Jack said and put the towel down.
"Ok. Frank." Franklin
patted his back.
"That's better son see your
getting the hang of it." Jack was proud of him for having the nervous to
be there with him and Robert.
"Yeah don't blame me when we
get home and I call you Frank." Franklin smirked.
"I won't." Jack winked
at him.
*****
Franklin and Jack went downstairs
to the restaurant and both had something to eat. They kept to themselves.
Everyone starred at them as they ate. Franklin smiled at the girls. He would
have liked to meet a girl and have her as a friend or someone he could just
talk to. That would have made the time past until he could go home. Jack looked
around and saw the women starring at him too. He winked. He remembered his
pilot days when he use to get lunches and stuff for free. Sometimes he would
even get free suits. He walked up to one of the woman starring at them.
"Would you like to dance, Mademoiselle."
"Yes." She giggled.
Jack danced with the girl and
swung her around on the dance floor. He began to think of Rose. He held the
woman tightly against him as he danced. Her black hair flared out across his
chest. He started to think of her as Rose and closed his eyes.
"Mister, the dance is
over." She whispered into his ear.
He opened his eyes. "Thank
you for this dance." He took her hand and kissed it.
As Jack came back to his seat,
Franklin looked at him and wondered what was going on. "Frank, you all
right?"
"Yes, Frank. I am
fine." Jack lied.
"You were thinking of Rose
weren't you?" He made to remember to call his mom, Rose and not mom.
"Yeah how could you
tell?" Jack asked.
"Well you only look at her
like that I never saw you look at another woman like that before."
Franklin had noticed the difference.
"Sorry, I miss her."
Jack looked down feeling ashamed that he had acted that way toward another
woman.
"Don't apologize. I miss
Leah too. Come on let's go and get some sleep." Frank said knowing it was
time to hit the hay before they got into anymore trouble.
"You're right let's
go." They paid their bill and went upstairs both sleeping in different
rooms.
*****
Robert never made it to his room
that night and Mina had never made it to her home at all. They had stayed out
all night laughing and making out till about 2:30 in the morning, they finally decided
to call it a night. Robert went into his room, he didn't want to end this
night. He enjoyed Mina way too much.
"Mina would you like to come
in?" He held her hand.
"I should really go, Robert.
I had a nice evening and I really enjoyed your company." She smiled at him
looking into his eyes.
"I did too. I mean you, your
amazing." He held her in his arms.
"Thank You." She buried
herself into his chest.
"Mina, please stay the night
with me." He wanted her more than anything he ever wanted in his life.
"I would love to, but."
Mina didn't dare to let herself be taken over by her feelings for him.
"But not on the first date?”
He asked.
"Sorry, I got rules on
dating." Mina parted from him.
"Quite all right I can wait.
I would wait forever for you." He pulled her close.
"You don't have to. I
promise soon." She smiled and kissed him one last time. Before going to
the elevator and saying good bye.
Robert walked into the room and
smiled. Feeling quite content with himself he took off his shirt and pants and
slipped into bed. He fell asleep right away and dreamt of good things to come
for the future.