“Say, what’s a kid like you doing working here? Freshly turned?” A man sitting at the bar in front of me asked.

“You could say that” I shrugged, cleaning a different glass.

“You’re Carter James, right? Charlie’s kid?”

I stared at him blankly for a moment “who?”

“Charles Lee James, went ‘missing’ 10 years ago”

“Why would you think that?”

“You look like him, got his wife’s eyes, but you look like him”

“It could just be a coincidence”

“Look, how ‘bout you tell me what you know about him disappearing, and I’ll tell you where to find ‘em”

“You want me to tell you about a missing person so you can tell me where this missing person is?”

“You know he didn’t leave you, not by choice, so what’s the harm?”

So I told him…. 

“My dad’s name was..is Charles Lee James, but he goes by Charlie. He disappeared when I was 7, leaving me with my grandmother who was losing herself, and my uncle who hated me. People told me that he left me, that he was a shitty person, but honestly, it's not like he went to get the milk. He had gone to work, taking me with him. I loved watching him race. He was a racer, and a damn good one, one of the reasons I race. So, I was sitting in the tent where the official people were. I didn’t like them then, don’t like them now. Anyway, my uncle had come into the tent, and took me home, he said my dad had left. Which that didn’t make any sense…he loved his family, he wouldn’t leave. I grew up under my uncle's care until I was fed up with his shit and ran away at 10. I made my way to the city, as we lived in the outskirts of the UC. The James brothers found me, raised me, and then I got bit a few weeks ago and here I am”

The man nodded slowly, “sounds about right, but I can’t tell ya’ what actually happened. You’ll have to ask Charlie.” He slid a piece of paper to me. 

I looked at it, it was a zip code and mailbox number. “That’s it? No street name?”

He shrugged one shoulder, standing up, “look, I ain’t one to get in trouble with the wrong sorts, neither was your dad, but shit happens. I can’t give ya more, but I am sure you’ll figure it out. Besides, you will be in town for your grandmother's funeral won’t ya’?”

“My… she’s dead?” Ok, last I saw my grandmother was moved into a nursing home, she wasn’t in bad health, just had some disease that made her forget everything.

“You didn’t know?” he shook his head, pulling a newspaper clipping from his pocket, he handed it to me. It was an obituary.