My name is Kevin.

I am a sixteen year old boy in Grade 10. I live with my adoptive dad and baby sister in New York. As a young boy I have been through a lot; been rejected and accepted by people. I love singing, writing poems and songs, and I love playing golf. Sometimes I love being alone and singing. I have this huge emptiness in my heart.

I was raised by a single mother who was loving, caring and supportive. She was both a mother and a father to me. We lived here in New York, originally we are from South Africa. My mother moved here after my father rejected me before I was born, and she decided to move here.

She raised me alone but she got help from her parents and friends. At the age of eleven years I was in Grade 5. My mother told me all about my father. I told my mother that I wanted to meet him. She said I can’t go South Africa alone because he would hurt me the way her hurt her. I begged her to allow me. “Maybe he would be happy to see me,” I said. My mother agreed because she wanted the best for me.

Her sister is South Africa arranged my meeting with my father. I was so happy that I was finally going to meet my father. We were meeting at some restaurant in Kempton Park. When he arrived he saw me as my aunt had told him what I was wearing. He greeted me. I stood up from the chair and hugged him. He asked me who I was.

“My name is Kevin, Mary’s son. I am your son,” I answered.

“My son? I don’t have a son,” he said.

I told him what my mother told me and you know what he did? He said I must go back to New Yorkand forget about him because he has already erased me and my mother from his life. What made me think that he would accept me as his son? I asked myself. Some people are meant to be erased from other people’s lives.

He begged me to go back to New York and never come back for him. Then he left.

Tears just came out of my eyes like rain. My aunt came in as he was leaving and found me crying.

“What’s wrong, Kevin?” she asked.

“I want to go home to my mother,” I said.

She booked a ticket for me as we were going to her house. I didn’t say a word on the way I was just crying. When we arrived at her house I took out a book and pen and wrote a poem. The following day I took the first flight to New York.

In the plane I was thinking about my father, what he said kept running though my mind and that made me cry. A lady who was sitting next to me kept asking what was wrong but I kept saying nothing. When I arrived at home my mother was waiting for me at the door. I hugged her.

“What happened?” my mother asked. I told her everything. By the time I was done she was crying and was very angry.

“My son, I told you that he will reject you. Why would he do that? What’s wrong with him?”

And then my mother fainted.

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Tell us what you think: How do you feel about what Kevin’s father did? What do you think will happen now?