This is how I am bred.
*****
Two days after my 18th birthday my mother split...as you can imagine, my father and I were quite distraught (to this day we still don't know where she went). The time line from there, however, is fairly simple.
One week after my mother left my father's performance at work started a drastic downward spiral.
Two weeks after my mother left my father started to change into a dangerous mix of anxious and extremely dark.
Three weeks after my mother left my father's boss passed through our modest threshold and my life changed forever. It was a Saturday, around 2pm and my father had JUST left to do some shopping, so I politely rejected Mr. Bannister's visit. "He's went to the store, shouldn't be but about an hour...you should come back then. " He told me that he wanted to discuss something with me - a surprise for my grieving father - and could he please come in. So I let him.
Eager to make my father happy again I fetched Mr. Bannister a beer from the fridge and sat down to hear this proposal. For a while, the talk was genuineness though I still made swift glances towards the drive way, desperate for my father to return and comfort my discomfort.
"But there is one thing your daddy said I could do while I'm here...because I was going to let him go, but he said he would do just about anything to keep his job and support his daughter. Fortunately for the both of you, your father agreed to my terms. Though, it's important you know he didn't want it this way."
I was beyond confused and now a little scared by the slight grin on his ancient, wrinkled face, and the nuances of his sudden shift in body language.
