My mother went out of town on tuesday. Before she left, she called to ask me to check in on my father, sister and two brothers. My father's not much of a cook, and she was concerned that, if left to their own devices, my siblings would only eat ice cream and cereal.
On wednesday, I made the short drive from my apartment to my parent's house. I arrived around one in the afternoon. You see, I wanted to have time to myself to make a grocery list, check my e-mail, stuff like that, before the youngest of my family got home from school. It didn't go as planned, because my father had decided to play hooky from work on his first day without his wife.
He was sitting on the couch in his weekend clothes, jeans and a ratty t-shirt, and pretended not to notice me when I walked in the door. I said hi, and asked him what he was doing there, he just grunted.
The next hour passed just like that, and so I left at two or so to go purchase the items my parents refrigerator was lacking. Milk, eggs, veggies and meat. My little brother Jake was home when I got back, and my father had gotten dressed. They were sitting at the kitchen table doing addition problems, my brother drinking Yoo-hoo from a straw.
They both looked up and greeted me with happy smiles, but I just grunted. My father glared at me, but I didn't care. Jackass wasn't going to be nice when we were alone, why should I be nice now? It wasn't like I had to be there, I was doing them a favor after all.
My other siblings, the twins, got home around five. They were excited to see me, because I rarely came over, so while I chopped vegetables they spouted off everything they did that day and everyday for weeks prior. When we finally sat down to dinner, Jake begged me to sit by him.
Dinner was quick, the twins were in a hurry to catch their favorite TV shows, and Jake wanted to show me his new Lego set. It was a Millennium Falcon replica, and for an eight year old, he'd done a pretty good job building it.
At eight-thirty I got Jake to brush his teeth and retire to bed. The twins were already holed up in their rooms, so I told my father I was going home.
"Wait Karen. We never spend any time together, maybe you should stick around awhile. We could watch a movie or something." He said.
"That's funny, actually, 'cause earlier you didn't seem to want me around. What changed?" I asked.
He ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a long breath. "Okay, look. This is going to be awkward. I was, well, I was watching porn. Your mother never lets me, and I thought I was going to be alone until at least three. Then, you showed up, and here I was, well, you know. I'm sorry."
"Uh. Well, yes, that is awkward. Awesome, Dad. I don't think I even wanted to know that. You couldn't make up something better? Seriously?" I was embarrassed, to say the least. My father patted me on the shoulder, saying he was sorry again and readdressing his invite to stay.