Chapter 8: An Unexpected Revelation
It took several days for me to recover from my vigorous session with Stacy. My recovery soon turned into a total lack of female companionship. I was left to occupy my time with my teaching. Preparation and the actual teaching of the classes assigned to me took up a large portion of my time in the daytime, but leaving my nights mostly free. I wanted a return performance from any of the fair ladies that I worked with but to no avail.
During my extended period of being alone, I started feeling like there was something I was missing. There was an inner sense that I should be searching for something. This feeling had been with me ever since I arrived in Thailand. In my times alone, it seemed to grow stronger. I did my best to ignore the sensation, but it continued to nag at me in the back of my mind. Sooner or later, I knew something had to be done about the feeling.
Two weeks after my liaison with Stacy, an older man, who would have been about the same age as my father if he were still alive, appeared at the school. The mysterious stranger would not reveal the purpose of his visit to any of the secretaries. He insisted on speaking only to me. The stranger waited for me until I had finished for the evening and then invited me out to dinner.
"You're the spitting image of your father when he was your age," said the stranger after we sat down and ordered our meal at a nearby restaurant.
"No offense, but you haven't even introduced yourself and your already talking about my father," I returned slightly annoyed.
"My name is Colonel Jeff Baker. I served with your father while he was stationed in Vietnam."
"Lots of guys served with my father."
"That's true, but how many of them have his dog tags?" said the colonel as he showed me my father's ID.
"You've definitely got my attention now."
"There was something that your father wanted you to know, but wasn't allowed to tell you by your mother."
"Look, if you're going to tell me that my father did drugs while he was over here, save your breath. I could have figured that out by myself."
"As a matter of fact, your father did experiment with drugs while he was over here. That's not what I came here to tell you," returned the colonel as our food arrived.
"Please don't tell me he was involved in some sort of atrocity. The man is dead. There's no need to further soil his reputation."
"I will say this about you Jason, you have the same fire your father had. He was my best friend while we were stationed over here. I would do nothing to tarnish his memory."
"Now I'm confused about why you're actually here."
"I don't quite know how to tell you this discretely, so I'll just come out and say it. Your father had an affair with a Thai woman while he was stationed here. The result of that affair was the birth of a baby girl."
"What you're telling me is that I have a half-sister that has been kept hidden from me?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you."
"Pardon me if I'm not a bit skeptical about this whole thing."
"I would totally understand if you didn't believe me. My suggestion is to go and have a talk with your mother. She's the one that will be able to verify my story."
"I thought you said that she didn't want me knowing about my supposed half-sister."
"I believe she will come clean if you ask her about it."
Thinking back over things, I did recall my mother being against me going to Thailand. Her excuses seemed valid at the time for not wanting me to go, but were they just to cover up something she didn't want me finding out for myself? I began to wonder if what the colonel was telling me was actually the truth.
"Let's say for argument's sake that I believe you. Where can I find my half-sister?"
"She runs an excursion business for tourists north of Chang Mai."
