Augustine and Felicity CH. 02
What Becomes of the Vanished?
Augustine had vanished. Ironically I was left with her Mother Jane, the only family my girls and I now had. Jane was in for a lengthy period of rehabilitation
I decided we should move to Auckland. After my father died my position at the firm was awkward especially with the senior partners. My MBA was new territory for them and it was obvious to me that I needed a challenge to prove myself as worthy. We had a small office and network of clients in Auckland and our work was increasing so it made good sense for me to take up the position of office manager and expand the clientele and make Auckland a fully functioning part of the business.
There was also a good private centre specializing in rehabilitation of brain damaged patients that I could get Augustine's mother, Jane into.
As time progressed, Jane's rehabilitation went remarkably well and she became a full part of the home life of the family. We settled in to a largish house quite close to the sea and booked the girls into a good private school.
I developed a few friends largely among new arrivals to Auckland but did not socialize a great deal, initially preferring family time with my daughters. I helped coach them in netball and both played cricket taking a lot of time on Saturday's and at summer camps. Jane was an excellent grandmother and was able assist full time serving in parents organizations and busying herself with charities. She became the girl's mother by proxy.
I became a serial lobbyist for legal causes. First it was divorce law reform, then prison reform, homosexual law reform. I gave up a lot of my free time for liberal and conservation causes.
But thoughts of Augie and my mother never left me. I tried to track Augie down. I even commissioned a PI; but she just seemed to have vanished.
In those days a passport was not required to move to Australia so that seemed a fair bet that she had gone there. If she had done so she could not have used her maiden or married name. We even tried tracking women named Augustine but that seemed fruitless when faced with the size and population of Australia. If she had moved on from Australia she would have needed a passport but there was no record of that.
The other possibility was that she had topped herself. I tried not to think about it. There were no births or deaths to go on in Australia but we looked back at New Zealand and surprise there was a birth registered. I was given as the as the father and Augustine the Mother. The baby was named after me; my full name. The Baby was born in Auckland. Augustine must have been pregnant the last time I saw her but I just did not notice it under her shift dress.
Felicity had never mentioned it. I wondered if she knew and was deliberately not telling me. I certainly would not have put that past her. She would not want me to know anything that might draw me back to Augie.
I remember when the PI came in and tossed me the envelope with the report on his results. He had a grin all over his face. This was new hope but alas it was to draw a blank. It made me sadder in reality, knowing I had a son out there and we could find neither he nor her Mother. Perhaps he had been adopted out. It did make me think that they were still alive somewhere. Naming it after me would also imply that it was not the adulterer's baby. It also indicated that Augie must have still thought of me.
As this was happening I was also looking for records of my Mother. This also turned into a fruitless exercise. I did actually follow a couple of leads even meeting two women who could have possibly known my mother but it led nowhere.
Eventually as DNA became a likely avenue I registered my DNA with a couple of overseas agencies that might get a match, maybe to my mother or my son. Having done that, I was caught up in other events at the time and I promptly forgot I had done it. I filed my documentation at the back of a filing cabinet at home.
Then came the call; It was into the first year of the millennium when it came.
It was actually from our office in Sydney. We now had a small office catering for our expanding Trans-Tasman business. They had been recruiting. A young lawyer came in. He did not actually apply for a position, but he was enquiring about me. They were astounded when he told them his name. Nobody apart from my PI or I ever knew about the possibility of my having a son.
I made immediate arrangements to fly to Sydney and meet him.
He was waiting at the reception as I walked into the 10
th
floor suite of our Sydney office. I noticed, straight off the likeness to my younger self, the same hair and build. We did not collapse into each other's arms. Initially we were both a little shy and stand offish. It did not seem real. I ushered him into an interview room. First of all Augie was alive and was living in the states where he had been the last few years before returning to Australia and finishing his law degree.
They had been living under an alias but had eventually reverted. I guess that had happened after my investigations. He had actually found the connection on the international DNA bank and traced me from there.
As we talked the excitement from both of us became intense as the realization set in that we were father and son.
I took him to lunch, I told him about his Grandmother and his sisters. Emma was now married with a baby and Sam had a partner and had just graduated in clinical psychology. Theo Junior knew nothing of them. Augie did not know Theo had contacted me and knew nothing about the firm. Over the years we had rebranded and she probably would not have connected me with the brand.
Theo assumed that his Mother seemed to carry and intense grudge toward me as she would not ever talk about me although he, at least, knew he had a father in New Zealand.
Theo and I concocted a plan. I was going to get him to apply for one of the Australian positions but I thought of creating a junior position for him in Auckland. He would need to be interviewed by the other directors so we could bring him over to meet the family. The whole thing went over extremely well. Theo was a very confident and well-mannered young man and his interview and experience showed he had the makings of an excellent commercial lawyer.
I announced to his sisters and his grandmother that we had a member of the family they had never known about. The news absolutely thrilled them. Theo never let them down; on meeting him they took immediately to him. Sam admitted to fancying him, mentioning it was a pity he was her brother.
Theo did not tell his mother all this but she did know he was joining a law firm in New Zealand and was curious to know why. Theo never divulged the real reason.
Theo settled in and we discussed if there was any way of winning Augie over. It would be wonderful if we could at least develop some kind of friendship that would bring us back as a family. I have to say we procrastinated about this somewhat. Interestingly enough, it was Augie who took the first step.
Augie had studied for years and had eventually become a registered Psychiatrist and academic. Her area of interest had taken her taken her to Harvard Medical School. Her research area covered developments in neuroscience and their relevance to psychiatry.
It seems that a professorship position had arisen at Otago Medical School. Realizing that Theo was back permanently in New Zealand she considered this to be an opportunity to return. She applied for and got the position.
Theo flew down and met up with Augie when she first came for the interview but he never got round to mentioning the family. He discovered that another reason for her coming was on account of Gary Knowles, the very adulterer that had split us up.
It seems that, although they never carried on the affair they had kept track of one another and had recently rekindled their friendship. It was he who first knew of the professorship and alerted her to it. He had never left primary school teaching and was a headmaster at a school in Otago.
Theo met him while in Otago but did not believe them well suited. Augie just told Theo that she was lonely getting older and needed some steady companionship. She dreamt of coming back to New Zealand and all these things seemed to be falling in place. Theo didn't know how to handle introducing the family so elected not to.
I must say my heart dropped at this news. The utter irony of being thwarted over 25 years later by the same man seemed unbelievable. What are the chances of that?
However we had a second chance.
It just so happened when she came to take up the position she arrived via Auckland. She had been invited to a public talk at the medical school. She was the only speaker which indicated the esteem she held with her peers.
We elected that I should go. Since Sam was the clinical Psychologist she naturally wanted to go as well. We kind of snuck in just as the lecture was starting. We had to move along a row at the back which caused enough disturbance for Augie to look up and glare at us. We were embarrassed but unrecognized. I studied Augie. The last time I saw her she was a young mother yelling at me. This woman was slender and tall. Video screens left and right amplified her to all. Her greying hair was pulled tightly back. She was thinner than I remembered her. Her cheekbones seemed more pronounce and her aquiline nose beaky and prominent but she was the same Augie. She was supremely confident as she spoke gliding about the stage gesticulating here and there to a power point displayed above.
She was wearing a dark pinstripe ensemble and cream blouse making her seem more corporate than academic. The skirt had a high waist and the design emphasized her shapely torso and figure and my gaze followed the subtle feminine undulations of her tummy to the heavy ness of her bust straining against her blouse. I was entranced by the undulations of her body as she calmly walked around the stage; in fact I felt a developing hard. I was brought back to earth as she brought the lecture to the end and asked for questions. As confidently as she had spoken she deftly handled questions put to her.
Both Sam and I enjoyed the lecture but we did not stay on and slipped out. I had arranged drinks at work. We had won a new client with the help of Theo and in doing so had leveraged him into a junior associate position so it was cause for a little celebration. He of course invited Augie to this.
I felt some misgivings. I felt we were deceiving Augie and I was not sure how I would be introduced. Theo was adamant we do it his way but I was not convinced that he had it all mapped out. I was dreading a scene.
As it happened the night went relatively smoothly. Better than I imagined; at least for a start.
The room we had it in was our function room. It was not particularly large and we were quite crowded. There were drinks flowing and trays of finger food being passed around by black aproned hostesses.
Augie entered, while I was at the opposite end of the room. At this stage of my career I was on the point of semi -retirement with my own outside business interests; I was spending less time in the office. It was not generally known that Theo was my son and therefore it was unlikely that anyone except the most senior might twig that Augie was my ex-wife. They were meeting her as the professor, Theo's Mum.
I could see some of my colleagues were quite taken with her. Not hitting on her; that would have been gauche but she was caught up in some intense conversations. She had obviously had a drink or two but was handling it all well when she glanced at me and smiled. I had been keeping an eye on her without making it obvious but I must have failed. She glanced a second time and then began to approach me. I began to feel really nervous when Theo scooted through the crowd and arrived as she arrived.
Augie still had not recognized me. Well not consciously anyway. When we went out and were married I had a beard and quite long hair. It was all very neat, not what you would call hirsute but the fashion of the day. I was now clean shaven and although I had a full head of hair, it was short.
Augie was about to say something and Theo piped in. "Oh Augustine (I noticed he didn't call her Mum) I'd better introduce you, this is the chairman and senior director of the firm..." But before he actually said my name Augie cut him off saying, "didn't I see you at my lecture earlier? You arrived late with your wife, I think. "
I nodded to this and Theo rolled his eyes then skulked off.
"Er, my daughter actually." (Augie didn't seem quite convinced.)
"What would a lawyer be interested in psychiatry for?"
"Oh Theo suggested I go along. Our daughter is a Clinical psychologist and was interested."
Augie did not seem to pick up on my use of the word 'our.'
I gestured for Augie to move into a more private small lounge area adjacent the function room.
As we sat down, we were each handed another drink and we began a conversation. She was telling me about the work being undertaken at Harvard on the likes of PTSD and her belief that neuroscience has a lot to give in her area. She had won her professorship on her enthusiasm for research already being undertaken in Otago and that she would bring this amalgam as a new dimension. I was captivated by this new Augie or should I say Augustine.
As we chatted I notice her hand closing on mine across the coffee table. We had another drink each. She worried about my driving. I let her know I had an apartment at a higher level in the same building. Her hotel was nearby.
As she got closer I could feel the warmth of her breath and her perfume. Her sheer proximity and softness in her voice was becoming highly sensual for me, causing me to stir. She was now lightly touching me on the arm. She was, in a not so subtle way, politely hitting on me. I decided to make a move. I invited her to lunch the following day. She accepted with a slight gush but was slightly embarrassed and reddened. I touched her arm in a steadying gesture. She was gazing at me and murmured something like you look a little familiar than added 'like a warm pair of slippers.' The sentence caused me to tense up then relax, all in quick sequence.
