It was just like any other morning. At least that’s what he thought until he got up of the bed. Right after he touched the ground with his feet he could feel his stomach yelling for help. Help probably meant fresh water and something to eat. And even though his head felt like he’d smashed it against the wall, neither of those feelings were making him sick. It’s not like he’s never had a hangover before. This one was different though and he couldn’t figure out why. “Maybe we just drank too much, or maybe we just mixed too much,” he thought, but then again, it’s not like it has never happened before. The truth was that Viktor was just getting old. He just turned 56 and the birthday parties weren’t the same anymore. Well, actually they were. Same people, same cake, same alcohol, even the same birthday presents. Only the next morning wasn’t the same. And he hated it. He hated waking up sick and he hated the fact that it took almost a week for his body to recover from last night. You can’t blame your body for getting old though, he thought, so he just tried to keep his mind always young and fresh. But that morning was different. Something’s changed. Viktor knew it, he could feel the pain inside of his brain. He felt that kind of pain only once, the morning that his mother died. But nobody is even sick now, he thought even though he wasn’t completely sure. He hasn’t talked to his daughter since she moved out of the country. She said she was going to look for better life and he just couldn’t take it. He couldn’t take the fact that she left her father all by himself just so she can look for better life. That’s why he never talked to her anymore. She tried to contact him many times, but he would always let her talk to the voice mail. He just couldn’t forgive her.
Finally Viktor got out of the bed and went to the kitchen when suddenly his phone started ringing. He didn’t even bother answering it. He always waited for person to talk to voice mail, that’s how he did it, that’s the way he was. Old man was drinking his cup of water when suddenly he heard his daughter’s voice. It was coming out of the phone. She was talking really slow and with American accent. He wasn’t sure if it was American but she told him she was moving to New York so that’s what he assumed. She was speaking so quiet that he couldn’t even understand all the words so he turned up the volume. He wished he never did it. The sentence that he heard was the worst sentence he heard in his entire life. It said:”I have a cancer.” Viktor’s hearts stopped beating for two seconds and then immediately jumped into his throat and he started sweating. He couldn’t believe it. He played the message over and over again but it clearly said:”I have a cancer.”
It took him five minutes to pack up and get sober at the same time. He had to see her. So he left. He had no idea how does New York look like or how is he going to find her, only thing he knew was that he had to see his daughter. He could swear it felt like a week on the plane but he was finally there. Big Apple. That’s how they called it on the T.V. He finally called her, he wasn’t mad anymore. He couldn’t be. He just wanted to see her. That’s the only thing he wanted. And he would do anything to be with her as fast as he could. She told him to take the subway so he did it, hoping that’s the fastest way. So there he was, on the subway, in New York City desperately looking for his daughter. Once again he felt like a real caring father. And everything else, even the weird photographer on Viktor’s way out, is just part of the history…
