The Search for Christilone (Chapter 1)

The Search

2 Years Later

The car sputtered and shook as Matthew pulled into Marcy’s Diner. As he turned the car off he could almost hear the machine sigh in relief that the journey across town was over. Matthew slammed the door ignoring the poor car’s groan of protest at being so mistreated. He was in too much of a hurry to care as he raced toward the back entrance.
As he entered the building the early morning smells of frying eggs, pancakes, bacon and sausage and coffee brewing filled his nostrils and he took a deep breath as he grabbed his apron and tied it behind him. Then grabbing a notebook off the shelf above he raced toward the door that led to the restaurant and all the waiting customers. Hannah an older woman in her 30’s stood by the stove where the bacon and sausage sizzled in their own grease she held a spatula in her hand and had grease stains on her apron and face. She made a clicking noise with her tongue as he passed and he stopped long enough to look at her. “What?” He arms were crossed in front of her the spatula leaving a new grease mark on her apron.
“You’re late…again.” She shook her head and her eyebrows rose at him slightly.
“Which is why you should stop holding me up when I have work to do.” He turned back toward the door again but Hannah’s voice stopped him short.
“You’re too late young‘un.”
Matthew turned toward her again. “What do you mean?”
“Marcy replaced ya’ this morning. Young girl about 16 came in asking about a job. Marcy interviewed her then and there and told her she could start immediately.”
“She can’t do that.”
“Why not she owns the place.”
“But I need this job.”
“Well for someone who needs it you sure don’t act like it.” She turned to the stove and flipped the sausages and then came over to Matthew’s side. “Look Matt you’re a good kid you’re just a little lazy. You got to work if you’re going to succeed in this world now I don’t know you that well but I’ve seen ya’ working. You’ve got potential…but you’ve also got some serious distractions that need some taking care of.”
Matthew nodded as he removed the apron and placed it on the hook. “Thanks Hannah. I’ll try to remember that.”
Matthew made his way out of the building and slammed the door on the beater car. He turned his key in the ignition. It groaned in protest and he turned the key again. It groaned some more and then it started. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward home. Just one more thing to add to his list of failures. He lived with his parents, he’d quit school, now he’d lost his job and he hadn’t seen the girl he loved in three years. His friend Pete was graduating in 2 months and had plans to get married in the next couple years and start a family and have a big house on the beaches of LA. Big plans for a big achiever.
Matthew pulled his car into the driveway of his parent’s house. His dad was a new man and worked strange hours but he was luckily away today. His mom had worked at a nursing home for the last 5 years ever since Matthew had graduated high-school she had Homeschooled him all his life and had fully expected her son to be a successful astronaut just like he always dreamed but when he had come home 2 years earlier to tell them he was dropping out her dreams had been shattered. Of course Kira and Chris had agreed to let their son move in with them and didn’t even charge him for room and board.
Matthew’s heart dropped when he saw his mother’s car in the driveway. She most have taken an early day to bake cookies for the Mrs. Riley a shut-in who lived down the street. As he came inside the smell of butter and chocolate confirmed his suspicions. Matthew hoped he could get to the stairs without being heard but Harvey his mom’s German Shepard gave him away. “Chris is that you honey.”
Matthew sighed and looked at the dog grudgingly, “No mom it’s me.”
Kira appeared at the entrance to the kitchen floor clung to her hair and clothes. “Matthew sweetie what are you doing home? I thought you had to work today.”
“I did…I got fired.”
“Fired, Matthew you need to take your life more seriously your father and I won’t be here forever and one day you’ll need to take care of yourself.” Kira sighed and Matthew could make out the hesitation in her eyes. “Matthew your father and I have been talking and…well we feel like you’ve been taking advantage of us. It’s been three years and it doesn’t even seem like your trying.” She hesitated again and then continued “we’ve decided that your going to need to start paying your fair share of the utilities around here or else find your own place.” Matthew nodded he had known that he couldn’t expect his parents to spoil him forever and that time had finally come. He was 21 years old plenty old enough to make his way in the world the only problem was he didn’t try.
Matthew made his way up the stairs but instead of stopping at his bedroom he turned into the computer room. The problem was he had no motivation. He didn’t want to make a way in this world he wanted to make a way in hers, in Linda’s. Matthew pulled up Google and typed in the name for what was probably the millionth time in the last 2 years: Christilone. He pressed enter and another page popped up underneath the name it said “Did You Mean: Crystal Lane followed by 4 or 5 pictures of the singer. He ignored that and skimmed through the list of links underneath. “Crystal Lane makes top 10.” “Crystal Lane to tour on England?” “Is Crystal lane seeing Kyle?” Matthew skimmed through the gossip and the ads for crystal jewelry and loan ads. Nothing caught his interest. He exhaled loudly and fell back in the chair. It was hopeless he would never find the man. All he had to go on was a name and nothing more.
Christilone. Was it a first name or a last name? Or a nickname? He had tried every person that even remotely sounded like Christilone but the answer was always the same. “Never heard of him.” He had searched every library called every place he could think of contacted anyone that sounded anything like it and tried nearly every site and still he came up empty.
Matthew flicked the computer off and slipped into his room throwing himself on his bed in defeat. He rolled over and grabbed his folder and skimmed through the pages. Over the last three years he had begun keeping a journal of his progress but the progress hadn’t changed much in the last couple months. He’d tried everything he could think of. He pulled a stack of pages out of the folder at the top was a list of all the people he had called, all the companies he had tried, the websites he had checked out and the books he had looked at. Next there was a graph of his progress; it was completely flat-lined. He skimmed through a couple more pages of observations and then threw the pile on the bed. It was hopeless three years of searching for a man that obviously didn’t want to be found. He had wasted too much of his life on this. Hannah was right he needed to try harder if he was to be successful…like Pete.
First thing tomorrow he would find a job and when that was done we would find an apartment and leave his parents in peace. He wouldn’t finish school it was too late for that now but it didn’t mean his life had to be a failure.
Matthew gathered the pages and stuffed them back into the folder then he stuffed the folder far back on a shelf where he intended to forget about it. He was so excited about his sudden decision that he didn’t notice the small envelope that had fallen out of the folder and was blown under the bed


1 year later

“I’m so proud of you Matthew.” Kira Baker sat across the table from her son a glass of lemonade in her hands and the sun shining off her hair making it seem almost green. “You’re finally doing something with yourself again. You have a job again and you actually found a nice apartment that you can afford. Now you just need to find yourself a girl.” She watched the look of pain cross his face as if she had just opened an old wound and he stood to rinse his glass and place it in the dishwasher. He paused and looked out the window as a blue jay landed on the railing of the porch for a rest.
“Son, what is it?”
The bird took off and he turned towards his mom who had come up next to him. He saw the question flitter across her face and he shook his head.
“Talk to me,”
“Her name was Linda Cuthbert I met her 3 years ago. I fell for her but she didn’t feel the same way about me.”
Kira placed her hands on her son’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, where is she now?”
Matthew pushed the hand off his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter, she’s gone.” He headed toward the door. “I’m going upstairs.” And with that he left her wondering what type of a girl could hurt her son so bad and if there was anything she could do to mend his broken heart.

Linda, he had tried so hard to forget her in the last year and he had nearly succeeded. Matthew grabbed a box and placed it on the bed and began pulling books off the shelf one by one and separating out the ones that were junk. He had been moved out for nearly 6 months now but he still hadn’t moved all his stuff into his apartment. He grabbed out a stack of Astronomy books and hesitated. Junk or Keep? No point in completely giving up the dream; the books went in the box. Next was a stack of books that he hadn’t read since he was16 and would probably never read again: Junk.
One of his favorite suspense novels that he had read 5 times and would probably read again: Keep
A biography on Galileo: Keep
Moby Dick: Junk
A book on setting goals: Keep
A dictionary: Junk
Matthew’s Research: ?
Matthew looked down at the folder in his hand. His hand began to shake as he tried to figure out what to do with the folder. My life is going so good right now do I really want to destroy it again? He dropped the folder in the junk pile. What would it hurt to check just once more? He stood and went into the computer room and typed in the name that had become so familiar to him. Did you mean: Crystal Lane. He slammed his fist down on the table. Nothing had changed.

Chris baker stood at the door with his wife as their son pulled out of the driveway with 5 boxes of things he had left.
“I guess it’s time to finally clean out that room and turn it into a guest room. He told me the rest of the stuff he doesn’t want.”
“You going to do that now?”
“No time like the present.”
“I think I’m gonna turn in early tonight.”
“Alright!” He climbed the steps leaving her to stare off in the direction her son had disappeared. After a couple minutes she tore herself away and went upstairs.
She was heading in the direction of her sons bedroom when she remembered that there had been a cookie recipe that she had told Mrs. Riley she would look up for her. She sat down and pulled up Google and in the search box she began to type in Chocolate chip mint but stopped short after the first to letters. The name Christilone sat in the box of recently searched for topics. She pressed the down arrow and selected the name. A bunch of pages for a famous singer popped up but nothing about Christilone. She exhaled and sat back and waited for her breathing to regulate again.
She stood and went into the bedroom her heart was still racing. “Is everything OK?” Chris asked as she came into the room.
“Did you try looking up Christilone on the computer?”
“No, can’t say I did. Why?”
“Because I was looking up a recipe and the name popped up in the box…do you think Matt might of…”
“And why would he do that?’
“I don’t know. I don’t know where he would have heard the name.”
“Did he find anything?”
“No, of course not. But the point is he’s looking.”
“It might be time to tell him Kira.”
Kira looked up at her husband and then nodded. “You’re probably right. He’ll need to learn eventually.”
“Let’s have over this weekend and we can tell him the truth.”
Kira sighed, “Your right I’ll call him after work tomorrow.”