The Prompt: “If you were
going to be some lame suburban dad why couldn’t you be that for me?”
“What are you talking
about?” Paul asked, taking a step closer to his daughter.
Kelly pulled away from
him and wrapped her arms around herself. She didn’t want anyone else to touch
her, especially not him. “You! You’re just some family guy, raising your two
point five kids with your Carol Brady wife and white picket fence! You were
supposed to be awesome, have some reason you weren’t around the last fifteen
years! Not this.”
Kelly trailed off as
she gestured around the house. It was so suburban, so typical of everything she’d
seen her friends have growing up. There was the perfect lawn, the nice house,
even dinner was the classic suburban dream. He had the perfect family.
“Why not me, Dad? Why
not me and Mom? What makes them so special that you settled down?” Kelly’s
voice shook and it took everything for her to not break down. He didn’t mean anything
to her. He shouldn’t have meant anything to her. She didn’t want to show him
that she was weak or that he had the ability to hurt her.
She wanted to be
stronger than that.
“That’s not it at all,”
he said looking saddened by Kelly’s accusation. “I was so young when you were
born, so immature. I didn’t have an idea of who I was. I’ve grown up since
them.”
“You never came back!
You never contacted me again! Fifteen years went by and I’m only here because I
sent you that damn letter!” Kelly’s voice rose and she pulled back even more,
turning her back on her estranged father. “You never reached out.”
“I’ve made mistakes…”
“Mistakes,” Kelly
scoffed. “I don’t want to hear it.” She’d gone to his house that night with the
intention to build a relationship, at the very least hear him grovel and make
excuses for the past fifteen years. But now that she had seen what his life was
she didn’t want any of that. He had what she’d always wanted.
Only he had it without her.
“What is it that you
want from me?” Paul asked. He looked sincerely as though he wanted to please
her, but that only mad e Kelly feel worse.
“Nothing. I don’t want
anything from you anymore,” she spat. Maybe another time, even earlier that day
she had, but Kelly was done. She was finished with him. “I’ll go back to being
your point five kid that you fathered and abandoned and you can keep being dad
of the year for your other two.”
Paul followed as she
hurried to her car. Kelly ducked her head and avoided eye contact as she
started the engine.
“Please, Kelly-”
“Have a nice life, Dad,”
she muttered as she shifted the car into drive and sped off, leaving her father
staring after her.
