The search || Prompt 76

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Brenda was 85 and slowly losing her memory. She had been separated from the only family she had, her brother, after the war and had not seen him in 71 years. She had one daughter that married and started a life somewhere else, leaving her in a nursing home. She usually sat in her room thinking what it would be like to find her brother again, that's if he was even still alive. She got tired after 20 years of searching. She remembered them running through the crowd and him disappearing from her side never to be seen again. All she had was a watch he gave her with an inscription on it, "Home". Since she was growing old, she felt the watch wasn't of much value to her again and asked Julia, a friend she made at the nursing home to tell her nephew she wanted to see it. Julia's nephew owned a pawn shop so it was easy to sell it there. The watch wasn't easy to let go of, it was the last thing she had to remember her brother from the war. She consoled herself with the thought that whoever was going to buy the watch would see it as special.

Greg came that morning to pick up the watch, Brenda asked for no money, only that the watch be sold to the person he thought deserved it. Two day later, someone came in to buy the watch but he wanted to scrape it up for parts. Greg refused. This was one of many people he refused to sell the watch to over the months. A year later, a girl walked into the shop. She was a collector, she looked around for a while, staring at old picture frames and lamps. The watch caught the corner of her eye. She looked at it alittle and decided to buy the watch. Greg asked her what she wanted it for and she told him she was a collector, only bought things she thought were of high value. He told her about Brenda and the history behind the watch. She was shocked.

"Can I examine it?"

"Yes, but be careful, it's fragile"

She turned it around like she was looking for something. She saw the engraving in the bottom and dashed out of the shop, not saying anything to Greg. An hour later, she came back with a woman who she introduced as her mother. They asked for the watch like they were looking for diamond. Greg, shocked as ever, handed it to them. Her mother began to cry. They explained what was happening and asked if he could lead them to Brenda.

Woken up by all the noise, Brenda stepped outside to three people standing outside her door. The ladies introduced themselves as Cynthia and Amalia.

"Amalia isn't a common name. You know, I once knew someone who said if they ever had a child, they would name them Amalia if it was a girl and Frederick if was a boy, after our grandparents" she said as she invited them in.

She could see the tears running down Amalia's face as they sat down. She didn't understand what was happening. Amalia brought out the watch.

"My father talked about how he and his sister got separated after the war. He said he searched for her for years but he never found her, he didn't even know if she was still alive. He said he only this she had was their father's watch he had given her before they separated, with the inscription, "home", this watch".

Brenda could not believe what she was hearing.
"where is he, where is my Jojo?"

"He passed way 8 years ago, I'm sorry", Cynthia replied.

Brenda could not hold back the tears. the only person that didn't seem to be crying was Grey, he just stood there in awe. A day later, they checked her out of the nursing home and flew to Jersey, where the rest of the family stayed.

It turned out her brother had given birth to four children and they all now had families of their own, families that were so eager to meet her. Brenda didn't get to meet her Jojo but she got to meet her extended family. The rest of her life was spent in the care of families she never knew she had.