David felt as if he had broken through some kind of space-time continuum that Nate would dream up, the past and present coalescing into a story that tied together people who had met each other on some distant planet. But this wasn’t a make-believe story—it was real, and it was happening to him.

The events of the past few weeks were more than he could process. The loss of his wrestling career, the surgery, the message he received from his biological mother—it was too much to take in. And he knew that how he would respond, or even if he would respond at all, was not something anyone else could decide for him. He needed to make the decision of which path to take.

But which path was best?

He composed a message back to Melissa and deleted it. Then he composed another. He was on his fiftieth version when he asked his dad to review it. His father sat on the bed, David at his desk.

“Wait, I thought she didn’t do social media,” his dad said.

“I’m going to try this way. If she doesn’t respond, I’ll text her. So what do you think?” David said.

“I think it’s a good first response, as long as you’re sure you don’t want it to go any further.”

“But, Dad, I don’t know how far I want this to go. I don’t even know her. Besides, isn’t this just like opening a whole other can of worms?”

“It’s not like she wants anything from you, other than for you to know that she’s willing to talk. And Mom did write to her.”

“I know, and it’s weird because part of me wants to know what it would have been like. Then there’s another part of me that thinks it’s better not to involve myself at all.”

“I understand. For sure, it’s safer to just leave it alone.” Jimmy got up from the bed and sat closer to David. “You know, just let her live her life. Then again, it could be really healing for Melissa. To hear from you and see what an amazing man you’ve become. Did you look up Brian?”

David turned to his computer. “Yeah, I did. But he never really posts anything.”

“Well, maybe if you respond to Melissa, you could reach out to him, too. Either way, we’ll support you.”

An alert sounded on his computer and David read the message. “Nate is coming over later to interview me.”

“He’s going to interview you?”

“Yeah, he wants to film this whole thing and make a documentary. It’s Nate, you know?”

Jimmy smiled. “Should be interesting. All right, David. Later.”