"Can't believe I'd receive this," he muttered, shooking his head. "He's alive, isn't he, mom?" he asked, gazing at her eyes. He was searching for answers reflected in her eyes.
She blinked her eyes and looked away. "This isn't true. This is a set up."
"Who might set us up, mom? We're Christians and I know we don't have enemy."
"Your birth certificate has no father relation in it. I sure am that this is a set up. This certificate is invalid—What are you doing?" she asked abruptly, seeing him packing his clean clothes into a traveling back pack.
"I'm going to look for him," he said firmly, closing the zipper of his bag.
"You can't, son. You're fifteen."
"I'll find him no matter what." He reached for his phone from the beside table, and placed it into his back pocket.
"You don't have money," his mother insisted. She didn't want her son to go away. She lost him before, she won't let it happen again.
John opened the other side of his wardrobe. He squat down and took a piggy bank. "I've saved up the extra monies you gave me ready for this moment." He broke his blue piggy bank with a hammer he took from their kitchen kabinet. He counted his money as his mother was seating on his bed, watching him unfolding his cash.
"Do you really have to?" she said, traces of liquid gathered in the corner of her eyes.
John looked up from the floor, seeing his mother, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You said I'm becoming a man. Yes, mom, I've just man up. You don't have anything to worry about. Besides, this is my choice, and God's with me," he assured her, smiling, to lighten her feelings.
"I can't force you, can I?"
John shoved the money inside his backpack pocket, and hugged his mother. "I should do this."
"If you insist." His mother engulfed him inside her frail arms as she sobbed and sniffed at the same time. "I'll be praying for you through this journey."
John changed his clothes into a winter-welcome shirt and pants down to his feet. He pulled a thick fur jacket unto his shoulders. He took a snicker from his shoe rack in the corner near his bedroom door. "I'll be going now, mom."
She prayed for his departure and so he went.