She never did, but years later Jandali saw his relationship to Jobs mentioned online. (A blogger noticed that Simpson had listed Jandali as her father in a reference book and figured out he must be Jobs’s father as well.) By then Jandali was married for a fourth time and working as a food and beverage manager at the Boomtown Resort and Casino just west of Reno, Nevada. When he brought his new wife, Roscille, to visit Simpson in 2006, he raised the topic. “What is this thing about Steve Jobs?” he asked. She confirmed the story, but added that she thought Jobs had no interest in meeting him. Jandali seemed to accept that. “My father is thoughtful and a beautiful storyteller, but he is very, very passive,” Simpson said. “He never contacted Steve.”

莫娜·辛普森從沒提過，但是多年以后錢德里在網上看到有人談到他和喬布斯的關系。（一個博客注意到，辛普森在一本書里把錢德里列為她父親，據此猜到他一定也是喬布斯的父親。）當時錢德里已經第四次結婚，在內華達州雷諾市西部的布姆頓俱樂部酒店（BoomtownResortandCasino）擔任餐飲經理。2006年，他帶著新任太太羅希利去看望辛普森時，提起了這個話題。“史蒂夫·喬布斯是怎么回事？”他問道。她證實了這個傳聞，但補充說她覺得喬布斯沒有興趣見他。錢德里看似接受了這一切。“我的父親很能體諒人，他講起故事來是把好手，但他也是個特別特別被動的人，”辛普森說，“他再也沒提起這件事。他也從未聯絡過史蒂夫。”

Simpson turned her search for Jandali into a basis for her second novel, The Lost Father, published in 1992. (Jobs convinced Paul Rand, the designer who did the NeXT logo, to design the cover, but according to Simpson, “It was God-awful and we never used it.”) She also tracked down various members of the Jandali family, in Homs and in America, and in 2011 was writing a novel about her Syrian roots. The Syrian ambassador in Washington threw a dinner for her that included a cousin and his wife who then lived in Florida and had flown up for the occasion.

辛普森用她尋找錢德里的故事作為第二本小說的藍本，名為《失散的父親》（TheLostFather），1992年出版。（喬布斯說服NeXT標識的設計師保羅·蘭德為這本書設計封面，可是按照辛普森的說法，“簡直糟透了，我們根本沒用它。”）她還找到了在美國和在敘利亞霍姆斯的多名錢德里家族成員的下落，并于2011年開始寫一部關于她敘利亞家族起源的小說。駐華盛頓的敘利亞大使為她舉行了一次晚宴，她住在佛羅里達的表兄夫婦也專程飛來參加。

Simpson assumed that Jobs would eventually meet Jandali, but as time went on he showed even less interest. In 2010, when Jobs and his son, Reed, went to a birthday dinner for Simpson at her Los Angeles house, Reed spent some time looking at pictures of his biological grandfather, but Jobs ignored them. Nor did he seem to care about his Syrian heritage. When the Middle East would come up in conversation, the topic did not engage him or evoke his typical strong opinions, even after Syria was swept up in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. “I don’t think anybody really knows what we should be doing over there,” he said when I asked whether the Obama administration should be intervening more in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. “You’re fucked if you do and you’re fucked if you don’t.”

辛普森以為喬布斯遲早會去見錢德里，但是隨著時間的推移，他卻越發對此不感興趣。2010年，喬布斯和兒子里德來辛普森在洛杉磯的家里參加她的生日晚宴，里德還花了些時間看他親生祖父的照片，但是喬布斯卻視而不見。他似乎也不在乎自己的敘利亞血統。每當中東問題在談話中出現，這個話題好像他既不感興趣也不會如往常一樣提出很鮮明的看法，即使敘利亞在2011年阿拉伯之春運動中受到波及，他的態度也沒什么兩樣。當我問他，奧巴馬政府是否應該在埃及、利比亞和敘利亞進行更多千預時，他說，“我覺得沒有人真正知道我們到底該在那里做些什么，你干預也是完蛋，不干預也是完蛋。”

Jobs did retain a friendly relationship with his biological mother, Joanne Simpson. Over the years she and Mona would often spend Christmas at Jobs’s house. The visits could be sweet, but also emotionally draining. Joanne would sometimes break into tears, say how much she had loved him, and apologize for giving him up. It turned out all right, Jobs would reassure her. As he told her one Christmas, “Don’t worry. I had a great childhood. I turned out okay.”

另一方面，喬布斯跟他的生母喬安妮·辛普森卻保持著友好的關系。多年來，她和莫娜常常飛過來，在喬布斯家過圣誕節。那些時刻很溫馨，但也很耗感情。喬安妮常常會流淚，反復訴說她是多么愛他，很抱歉當初放棄他。喬布斯會安慰她說沒關系。有一個圣誕節他曾跟她說，“別擔心，我的童年很棒。我好好地長大了。”