Chapter four

One week later the telephone rang.

“Yes.” Jon answered a bit nervous. Everytime the phone rang during the last week his heartbeat increased and this time it had every right to do it.

“This is Amanda Johnson. Am I speaking to Mr. Bongiovi?” the demanding voice echoed in his ear.

“Yes, hello Miss Johnson.” Jon replied.

Dot and his parents stopped dead in their conversation. Well, what a timing, Jon thought.

He finally told his parents two days ago. The only remark he got from his father was “I’m sure you know what to do now, son” and his mother added “You haven’t been there for her the last 16 years, you better be there for her now!” Why in hell, was he so scared to meet this girl?

“Mr. Bongiovi? Are you still there?”

“Huh, yes…Miss Johnson. Do you have the result?” Jon asked.

“Yes, I have. It says that with a probability of 99.99% you are the father of Kristin Francis. Congratulations, Mr. Bongiovi.” She added.

“Uhm, yeah. Thanks…..What happens now?” his head was spinning, he could barely think.

“Well, your daughter is already on the way to an airport in Germany. She’ll be in NYC tonight. I’ll pick her up and bring her to you….How about tomorrow 3 pm?” Oh, God…it all goes so fast!

“Yeah, that’s fine, we’ll be here.” Jon swallowed hard. “See you tomorrow, Miss Johnson.” He hung up and went straight to the bar, fixing himself a whiskey.

“Jon?” Dot put her hand on his shoulder. “What did she say?”

“I’m the girl’s father. She’ll be here tomorrow 3 pm.” He drowned the whiskey and closed his eyes.

Dot nodded. “Good. Then I better get one of the guest rooms ready. What do you think, which one would she like? The one close to our room or maybe the one at the end of the hall?”

Jon turned to her and snapped. “How the hell should I know that? I’ve never met that kid before!” Dot straightened her back and looked directly into Jon’s eyes. He sighed.

“I’m sorry, Dot. I know you only want to make her feel welcome…but…but…I’m not sure I can handle all that, what if she hates me?” Dot caressed his cheek; he looked really scared right now.

“What do you mean you can’t handle it? She’s your daughter for god’s sake! It’s your duty to be there for her.” Carol said strictly.

Dot tensed. Dammit Carol, for once in your life could you keep your opinion to yourself. Jon hung his head…Why was he so scared? John sen. put a hand on his wife’s shoulder.

“Why don’t you help Dorothea get the room for Kristin ready, darling?” He said calmly. Carol nodded. Dot took a deep breath…oh, great! With one last glance at Jon, she headed to the stairs.

“I think we should take the guestroom at the end of the hall, it has its own bathroom. I’m sure she’ll like that.” Dot said to Carol while they were going upstairs.

“You’re probably right, dear.” Carol answered.

John sen. looked at his son. “Listen son, it’s normal that you are scared.” Jon looked up surprised.

“It means you are thinking about all this, you don’t take her for granted, you want her to be happy…if you wouldn’t think about all this your heart would be of stone. Do you remember how scared you’ve been shortly before Stephanie was born?” Jon only nodded.

“But Johnny, this is a bit different…. think about how scared Kristin is!” Jon’s head snapped up again.

“She’s not a baby, she’s 16, she had a life back in Germany…and she has just lost her mother, her only family. She’s coming to a foreign country, to a family she doesn’t know, to people who are completely strangers to her. She doesn’t know whether you want her to be here or not.”

After a small break he asked calmly “You want her to be here Johnny, right?”

“Yes, of course, dad!” Jon answered shocked.

“Good, then you better do not act like that when she’s here, cause then she’ll think that you don’t want her.” His father pointed out.

“I’ll try my best, dad…I’ll try my best.” Jon said silently. His father patted his shoulder encouraging.

************************************

In a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, still a couple hours away from NYC, a 16 year old girl was trying to get her emotions under control as well.

Ok, memo to myself….I don’t like flying…, well not the take off and probably not the landing.

And why the hell do we have to watch this stupid movie? Titanic. A really brilliant idea to show a ship crashing into an iceberg while we are flying over some of them.

Shit, they must be really big if I can see them that clearly from up here. She sighed. I have really enough shit to deal with right now!

The stewardess stopped next to her. “Are you okay? Everything fine, darling?” Kris’ fingers clenched to a fist. DARLING? I’m nobody’s darling, you stupid…

”I’m fine. Thank you.” She answered with a small smile. The stewardess nodded and went away.

Kris rolled her eyes. I’m 16, not six; I’m able to be for myself for more then 10 minutes. What a luck that this annoying woman from the Department of Children and Families Services wasn’t allowed to fly with her. Too expensive. Maybe her colleague in NYC won’t be so overprotective and trying to consider her feelings in everything she says or does after her mother’s death…if someone tells me again that it’s ok to cry, I scream!!

I really hope he will not act like this.

He!

She still wasn’t able to think of him as her father.

Well, at least it seems that he’s a nice person. She asked some people about him before she had to leave and listened to some of his songs. Funny, she realized that she knew more of them than she expected. She could even play some of them on guitar and piano.

She shook her head. That’s really not easy. She didn’t expect it to be so complicated after her mother’s death. All of a sudden a lot of people were there to take care of her. They never showed up when she was younger and really needed help with her mom.

Kris sighed again. Well, at any rate it can only get better. I wonder if they told him how mom died? Maybe he expects me to be like her? Well, if this not working out, I can go back to Germany in two years. I don’t need anyone. I never had someone to count on all my life. I’m really able to live alone. Fuck, dammit…it’s my life, her anger was coming back, and it’s nobody’s business…and definitely not his’.