Best Man

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
- Thich Nhat Hanh



A few days later, after the excitement of Billie Joe's birthday party at Chameleon West, the newly 37-year-old could be found whistling the theme song to Hawaii 5-0 in one of the extra bedrooms he was staying in at Mike and Caroline's house.

Standing in front of his mirror, he scrunched his nose and placed his thumb and index finger at one of his nostrils, then flinching like a bitch when he pulled at a nose hair.

"Aw, fuck," he complained as his eyes began to water. "I fucking hate this shit."

Parting his lips in an 'o' shape and blinking back the tears stinging his eyes, he shook his head and stared at the door as he heard the ringing of the Caroline's cell phone echoing all the way from downstairs to the upstairs.

Feeling the after effects that picking out a stray nose hair brings, Billie Joe twitched and wiped his nose with the back of his hand as he walked to the main upstairs bathroom to throw some cold water on his face. When he looked back at his reflection, he smirked.

"Well, Bill, you don't look to shabby for a man of thirty-seven," he muttered to himself. Then he added. "Damn. Thirty-fucking-seven. It feels like just yesterday I was seventeen."

Yawning for no apparent reason, he glanced at the toilet and kicked up the seat before unzipping his pants to drain the dragon; once again resuming his whistling of the Hawaii 5-0 theme song.

After all was said and done, the guitarist flushed the toilet and washed his hands; somehow overseeing the fluffy towel on the towel rack and instead wiping his hands on his pants.

With a tune on his lips and a skip in his step, Billie Joe took his time going downstairs, thinking to himself what he'd do today once Mike and Tre got back from wherever with Dave and Nef. But when he rounded the corner as soon as he reached the bottom stair and walked into the kitchen, he was immediately distracted by the sight of Caroline hunched over the kitchen sink; her cell phone discarded on the table behind her.

"Hey, you alright?" he inquired, noting how her knuckles were very white from gripping the counter tightly.

Turning to face her friend, Caroline shrugged. "I threw up."

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "That's never fun."

"I found out about my birth mother," she said out of nowhere.

"What?" Billie Joe was taken aback for a moment, forgetting that Caroline and Giselle had both been adopted. "Oh, yeah. Wow. Really? That's great. What'd you find out?"

"Well, I just hung up with the private investigator Mike and I hired. And he told me what he'd found out, though none of it's official until I can go to OLV to get blood work done."

"OLV?"

"Our Lady of Victory. It's the hospital in Lackawanna I was found near. It's about ten or fifteen minutes away."

"Why do you need blood work done? What'd this PI tell you about your mom and dad?"

Caroline's face became dark as she turned around and leaned her back against the counter, folding her arms across her chest.

"My mom died after I was born," she informed. "Her name was Connie. Connie DiChristina. She was nineteen and had ran away from where she lived in Plattsburgh, which is a real small city -- if you can even call it that -- in the Adirondacks, on Lake Champlain. She, uh...well...apparently she left because her parents and boyfriend wanted her to give me up for adoption once I was born, but she didn't want to do that."

Caroline was beginning to cry, but forced a smile. Billie Joe just looked on and took a seat at the kitchen table; more than ready to lend an ear.

"My mom wanted me. She didn't abandon me. She loved me enough to run away so no one could convince her otherwise," she spoke. "That's love."

"So, what happened to her?"

"She had just arrived in town. Wasn't there not even two days and she was apparently walking back to her motel, cutting through a cemetery nearby, when some guy who'd been following her...when he attacked her." Caroline blinked away her tears, trying to grasp this news for a second time. "He raped her," she added with disbelief in her voice.

"Oh God," Billie Joe muttered in the same tone; his brow furrowing.

"He raped her and I guess the trauma sent her into labor and the attacker felt guilt and helped her deliver me and after I was born...my guess is she was still alive. But he got scared and ran. But he took me with him because he saw that I was harmless and didn't deserve what he was leaving my mother to do," she said bitterly. "To die. He...uh, he was the one that left me in a dumpster near OLV. The same dumpster that good Samaritan found me in. And no one ever connected the death of a nineteen-year-old who'd given birth in a cemetery and died -- with no newborn baby in sight -- to my appearance one town over."

"How'd the PI find all this out when no one was able to make the connection before?" Billie Joe wondered.

"He got talking with some local cops and one of them mentioned a cold case which had been reopened and partially solved," the Sinners' lead singer spoke. "As it turns out, my mother's rapist died of cancer last week and admitted to everything on his deathbed. And ironically, he was at Mercy Hospital. The same place Mike was just at. And he apparently wanted whoever the baby girl was to know how terribly sorry he felt for what he'd done to her mother. My mother." Caroline shook her head bitterly. "The fucker. I'm glad he's dead, because I'd kill him. And I hope he rots in hell."

"No doubt he will."

"He damn well better. He took my mother away from me. I could've had her all this time."

"Yeah, but as horrible as it was for her, if she'd lived, you would've never met Mike. Never had Giselle for a sister and you two are best friends...never known me," he added with a grin.

Caroline laughed a little. "Oh heaven forbid I never met you."

"Everything happens for a reason. We don't know why they do. We just gotta accept that life hands us lemons when we should've gotten apples and it sometimes makes lemonade for us as a peace offering for its mistakes."

Accepting this analogy, Caroline sighed deeply; wiping her tears away. "I wanna get this blood work done as soon as possible, but Mike's not here, so...would you mind coming with me?"

Billie Joe smiled. "Not at all." Standing up, he walked over to Caroline and hugged her; sensing she really needed it.

"I've been holding onto what I never had for so long and to know the truth, it's...it's kinda like a weight being lifted off my chest. Like, like I can move on."

"I know whatcha mean," Billie cooed, rubbing her lower back soothingly.

"Thanks for being a good friend."

"It's what I'm here for, kid."



About two hours later, Caroline and Billie Joe were sitting in one of the waiting rooms at OLV, flipping through medical pamphlets and outdated issues of People magazine when the doctor walked up to them with a clipboard resting on his narrow hip.

"Miss Woods," he greeted, grabbing her attention.

"Oh, hey. Are the results in? Did my DNA match with Connie DiChristina's?" she questioned, not minding the Band-Aid that was covering where the needle had drawn some of her blood.

The doctor shook his head. "No, those results won't be ready for twenty-four hours to properly analyze the information this hospital still has on the late Miss DiChristina. It's been nearly thirty years since she died. Medical technology is better nowadays so there should be no problem with the analysis. And I promise I'll call you personally in the morning with what I find out; with whether or not Miss DiChristina was your mother or not. Because, until then, I cannot divulge any information on a patient. Living or deceased."

"No, I understand," Caroline insisted with a nod of her head.

"For now, I would suggest going home and not worrying too much on it. The stress isn't good for you at a time like this."

"A time like this?" Billie Joe questioned, weaving himself into the conversation out of his own curiosity.

"Yes," the doctor smiled. "Along with the blood work, Miss Woods here also took a urine sample and that I was able to have analyzed right away. Such tests are procedure, and, well...let me be the first to congratulate you."

Caroline was confused.

"Congratulate me for what? Did I win a million bucks from Publishers Home Clearing House?"

The doctor laughed. "No," he replied. "You're pregnant. Hence the congratulations. You're gonna be a Mom."