Chapter 2

Pittsburgh, March 2nd

As I sat there, still filled with emotions, I saw my brother getting up fastly and walking away. The smaller guy, the one with the black hair went after him. I too, as gently as it was possible in the current situation, shoved Mi Mi in the hands of a smiling Marty and rushed after my brother. It was hard, getting through the cheering crowd. Who would have thought that gay men were so emotional? As I brushed passed a smiling man with purple tight shirt and pink leather pants, I noticed thad he even had tears in his eyes. I wanted to thank all these people for their applause and for their cheers, but I still had the image of my brother floating before me. How he had looked at me while I sang. He had been very sad, though from his posture or even his face you couldn’t tell, it was his eyes that were sad. I had wanted to get up, to walk to him and hug him tightly, to tell him finally, that I have loved him for eleven years, ever since the moment I found out I had a half brother, that I had him. I now was at the door, I pushed them open and rushed down the front steps into the cold spring air. It was March, so the temperature still was closer to winter’s cold one. As I was standing there and frantically looking first to my left and then to my right, a voice behind me said:” He’s gone. You wouldn’t find him here anymore. It’s one of his sad days.”
It was the guy who was sitting with my brother at the bar, while I was singing. The one with the black hair. I noticed now that his face, even though manly, was still childish in some way.
„Why it’s one of his sad days?” I asked, „Was it my fault, was it the song?”
„No, it’s just...never mind,” he looked to his right now, where two guys holding hands and looking very much in love, were crossing the streat. I guessed it was the direction in which my brother had gone, when he had hurriedly left the bar. „Who are you by the way?” the guy continued.
„I’m Aislinn, Aislinn Davis, but you can call me Lynn.” I aswered.
„Hey, Lynn, I’m Michael. Can I ask you, what was it back there? Why were you looking like that at Brian, while you sang your song?” he asked me, then added hurriedly, „which was beautiful, I mean the song was beautiful.”
„Thanks,” I thanked shyly. I still hadn’t got used to people giving me compliments about my performance. Relatives and those few friends that I had didn’t count. I didn’t know though, what to say to this Michael guy. He seemed nice and he did say he was a friend of my brother’s. But judging from what the private detective had told me, not my dad’s first wife nor Brian himself knew about my existence. I had imagined that I would speak to Brian first, but now it seemed that Michael was the only one I got to speak to tonight, for I didn’t know where my brother had gone to. Michael was still looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue, to answer his question.
„How good friends are you with my br...with Brian?” I decided to ask this firstly.
„Well, since we were fourteen, we went to school together and have been best friends ever since, but why do you ask? You still haven’t answered my question, why did you look at Brian in that way, it almost seemed like you knew him, but I know he doesn’t know you. So would you please tell me what is going on?”
I decided to take the risk. „I’m his...I’m his half sister. His dad married my mom when he found out that she was pregnant with me.” I watched him closely, he looked stunned. I couldn’t blame him, once again I remembered my reaction, when I found out that I had an elder half brother.
„His WHAT?” he asked sounding incredulous.
„His half sister.” I repeated.
He continued to stare at me. Then said:” Look, I don’t know what your plan is, but it won’t work. He wouldn’t give you any money, no matter what you’ll say to him, so you can just forget about it. He’s not a charitable person. Brian Kinney doesn’t do charity,” he finished and now he was shouting at me.
„I don’t want any charity!” I cried back „And besides, I’m telling the truth. My father, or should I say my and Brian’s father, chaged his name and surname, when he married my mom. He called himself Daniel Davis. That’s why my surname is Davis and not Kinney. My father never told me, nor even my mother, that his real name was Jack Kinney or that he has another family. I found that out from a private detective that I hired three years ago. He told me, that dad had changed his name and surname when he married my mother, because he had never divorced his first wife. He and my mom weren’t even married for real. My mom told me that I had a half brother at my tenth birthday. What could I do? It wasn’t that I could rush here to Pittsburgh and ask every person I met on the street if they knew my brother, when I didn’t even know such a simple thing as his name?” I was shouting back. How dare he shout at me that I lie. I could never lie about such things.
Now Michael looked startled. Good. He should be. I would never let anything stand between me and my brother. Not even his best friend. Now that I had found him, I wasn’t letting him go. He was still my childhood hero, the one I had imagined talking to, when I was feeling lonely. „That sounds like Jack. He always was an asshole. He never cared for Brian or his mother. But, it isn’t my story to tell.” Michael said slowly.
I still got my warrior mood tuned on, so I shot back:” What? So you believe me now?” and arched my right eyebrow in a skeptical way. Michael gasped.
„I do now, if only because of what you just did.” He uttered.
„What, because I shouted at you?”
„No, because of the way you arched your eyebrow. That’s what Brian usually does when he doesn’t really believe what the other person is telling him. You looked just like him when you did that just now.”
„Oh,” it was everything I could say. I had a common expression with my brother. How I wished it was he now that I was talking with!
„So that’s why you looked at him like you did?” Michael asked.
I hugged myself and answered with a barely audible „Yes.”
Michael looked at me, compassion in his eyes:”You should go and talk with him. He really could use a sister now. He never really had a real family, you know. He spent most of his time at my house, with me, my mom and my uncle.”
„I wish I could, but I don’t know where he is.”
„Don’t you have his address? I thought you had hired a private detective.”
„I have his address, I just didn’t know how to go about it. I couldn’t imagine just going to his home, bang on his door and announce, that I am his half sister. He would throw me out.”
„He probably would. Good thing you didn’t do that!”
„Yeah, I guess.” I replied quietly.
„Don’t worry, now that he’s seen you and heard you he won’t throw you out,” Michael assured me.
„Why you’re so sure?” I asked.
Michael just looked at me, and while holding my gaze, simply said:” Because he looked at you, too!” With that he turned on his heels and went away.
I rushed inside, ecouraged now to finally speak with my brother and tell him everything. It was the right thing to do, to tell Michael about my relation to Brian. He really was his best friend. And even though he doubted me at first and accused me of lying, I knew it was because he loved Brian. Even if I was his sister, Michael was his soul brother.
When I had taken my leave from Woody’s, which had taken me quite a while, mostly because Marty had wanted to know, when I could sing at his bar again, I went directly to my car, a black 1967 Chevy Impala  and drove directly to  my brother’s place. I was lucky because as I was about to press the buzzer at the right wall from the door, a man walked outside the building and I got inside without having to let my brother know that I wanted to speak to him. This way he would have to face me. As I got into the elevator and pushed the last floor’s button I felt an excitement that left my stomach flutter. Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for. I was now already up. I pushed the wooden elevator door up with my hands and stepped out. Grey metal doors greeted my eyes. Only then I realized that Michael hadn’t said if Brian was at home! He just had told me to go and speak with my brother. Well, if he wouldn’t be at home I would sit here and wait for him. I was determined to see my brother. I went to the door, short heels of my black boots clicking on the floor. Then I took a deep breath, for the second time this evening and raised my hand to knock...