The Bitter-Sweet Search for a Father

By Patrick A. Davy

Thirty-eight-year-old Pete Mitchell declares to his sons how fortunate they are to grow up with their father. He reveals to his first and third-grade boys that he does not know his dad. He seeks the help of Nigel, his cousin, to find the man who shares the responsibility of his coming into the world. His father left the Caribbean community where he grew up before Pete was born.

In his attempts to locate his father, Pete realizes that cooperation from Nigel and other family members is hard to get. With the lack of assistance, in finding his father, Pete gets creative with his search.

Soon, he learns his absent father lives in England. In addition, he discovers Nigel plans to visit his own relatives in London and will try to get any information about the whereabouts of Pete's father. Pete anxiously waits for Nigel to return so he can get his father’s address and phone number. However, he experiences another setback when Nigel returns and decides to keep a promise he made – a pledge not to give out Pete's Dad's contact information.

Pete gets word about Dale and Ella, his siblings. Also, he finds out his seventy-two-year-old father had a stroke and is a widower. He searches for his father on the Internet and arranges to travel to London to meet him.

What should be a happy family reunion is marred by bitterness between the siblings, who resent Pete re-entering their father's life. When there is a struggle over inheritance, all hell breaks loose, and family matters end up in court.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jan 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665736169

Patrick A. Davy

PATRICK A. DAVY authors the books, The Little Big Thinkers: a Collection of Children's Stories, The Will to Win: ADemonstration of Love and Determination, and The Bitter-Sweet Search for a Father. He graduated from the State University of New York College at Oswego, The Writers Group, and Institute for Children's Literature. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his family.

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Copyright © 2023 Patrick A. Davy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3615-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3616-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022924026

Archway Publishing rev. date: 03/10/2023

Contents

Prologue

Introduction

The Search Preparation

The Lack of Cooperation

The Waiting and Hoping for Help

The Disappointing News

The Deceptive Search

The First Contact

The First-Meeting Anticipation

The First Meeting

The Feeling Like Part of the Family

The Siblings’ Meeting

The Return to the Immediate Family

The Sudden Second Visit

The Additional Problems

The Accusations and Charges

The Trial

The After-verdict Problems

For Darnell and Darren, my sons

Prologue

Thirty-eight-year-old Pete Mitchell used his fatherless childhood experience as a motivational tool to search for his father. His intention is to find his dad and get the support owed to him. Many obstacles get in his way during his attempts to find his father. Will he overcome these obstructions? You will get the answer to this question in this work of fiction.

Addressing this universal problem, using the fiction genre, hopes to draw attention to and highlight some of the issues associated with children searching for their absent fathers. According to a US News and World Report article, two out of every five children in the United States do not live with their fathers. The statistical information, which appeared in the report’s February 27, 1995, issue, confirms the ongoing troubles with neglectful fathers.

The reasons why these males abandon their offspring often range from the men’s childhood abandonment to their problematic relationships with the mothers of their children. Whenever acts of neglecting these children occur, the affected individuals face the possibility of various failures. In 1993, the US Department of Health and Human Services National Center for Health Statistics surveyed Child Health. The survey showed that children who grew up without their fathers ...are at dramatically greater risk of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.

While some adults find it easy to accept not knowing their fathers, this acceptance is more difficult for some children. Abandoned children often feel their fathers love them too much not to want them.

Pete could never imagine what happens during his search for his father and after he found him. Therefore, I wish that the children who search for their fathers will find them, without difficulties, and receive the supports to which they have a right.

Introduction

Pete Mitchell grew up, without his father, in a small countryside Caribbean community. One of his wishes was to find his dad one day. At first, he thought his father’s absence was temporary. He felt that way since it was common for the residents to leave to work for better wages and then return.

The dwellers of the West Indian residential district had the means and skills to grow many crops. Among the farmers’ produce were yams, corn, peas, Irish and sweet potatoes, breadfruit, oranges, and pimento. The problem they encountered was finding enough opportunities to sell their goods.

The limited ways the crop growers had to earn income from what they harvest forced some of them to find markets in other places, on the island, for their products. Some people even travel to foreign countries to work for better wages.

Pete grew up feeling his father is one of those who went away to earn a living and would return one day. However, as he got older, he realized that his father was not coming back. No one, including the members of his side of the family, knew where his father was. One thing that was common knowledge among the residents was the disappearance of his father from the district.

When the five-foot-seven inches adolescent reached college age, he migrated to the United States. He joined his mother, who had left the Caribbean countryside village to study in Europe before settling in the States. I’m going to start searching for my father and won’t stop looking for him until I find him, he thought as he get ready for another day of university classes.

No matter how hard he tried, Pete could not help thinking about growing up without a father. Throughout his years in college, he used every opportunity he had to address the issue of fatherlessness.

Your writing assignment is due this coming Friday, one of Pete’s professors said to his class one semester in his sophomore year.

Mine is about absentee fathers, he thought while leaving the classroom.

An A-plus! Pete said with a grin when the instructor returned his essay the following week. Writing is easy when it’s done from personal experience, Pete thought. He continues reading the professor’s notes in the upper right-hand corner of the page. This is a riveting story.

He heads to New York City after he graduates. A year later, Pete met Faith, the woman he married eighteen months after meeting her. I am looking forward to seeing our kids grow up, he said while reminiscing with Faith in the living room one evening.

That should be the expectation of all fathers, Faith said, and mothers too.

A smile Pete had on his face started to disappear after his wife spoke.

What’s the matter? she asked. Is it something I said?

No! No! No! He said in a hurry. I’m thinking about how to find my father.

Faith slipped her arm around his shoulders while they sat on the couch.

Sorry to hear that you didn’t get to meet your father.

That is why I made myself a pledge about two years ago.

What’s that?

That I will not stop searching for my father until I find him.

After he started searching for his father, Pete encountered many setbacks and obstacles. When disagreements between him and his siblings escalate, the problem had to get resolved in court.

Therefore, the story in this book is about Pete’s bitter-sweet search for his