The Roads To Paris

42

I've had to endure 2  torturous hours of Heaven recounting her day with Jesse, going over every tiny detail.

It turns out they had this place they used to go to when they were little; a rundown amusement park. It recently just got bought over by this huge company and the company started getting rid of all the rides and everything so they could start work on constructing their office buildings and shit or whatever, when Jesse and Heaven got there though, there was nobody around, or at least that's what they thought, then after a while of walking round and getting on the rides that were still left, some dude came up and that's all I heard because I tuned her out after a while.

While Heaven is still narrating, dad comes back home and I'm overjoyed at the intrusion. Saved by the dad.

“Daddy!” I yell jumping off the couch like it's on fire

My dad doesn't say anything though, he just looks around like he's unsure of his surroundings

“Dad?!” I ask scared

“Dad!” Heaven yells

My dad looks around the house and his eyes land on the kitchen

“Oh baby you're home.” he slurs and I and Heaven turn around confused

What's he looking at in the kitchen?

“Oh come here baby.” my dad goes on and makes his way to the kitchen stumbling over everything in his sight

He doesn't get to the kitchen though because he stumbles over his own foot and lands on the couch.

“Dad?!” I yell again

At this point I'm drenched in tears. I've never seen my dad like this before. I don't know what to do. I don't even know why he's  like this in the first place

“Dad? What happened? Why are you like this?” I ask through the tears

“Dad? Dad?!” I yell when he doesn't reply to any of my questions

“Dad?!” I yell again

“Oh my god, Dad? I don't know what to do, I've never seen him this way before.” I yell loudly to no one in particular

“Just calm down Paris.” Heaven tells me

“I should calm down? What do you mean ‘calm down’? I don't know what's going on with dad, I've never seen him this way before, what if something happened to him? Why is he seeing things?” I say all at once

“Paris! Paris!” Heaven yells at me

She comes over to where I'm standing and puts her hands on either side of my face

“Look at me.” she says steadying my face

“Look at me.” she repeats
“Dad's fine. He's just drunk.”

Cold air washes across my face.

Him being drunk is way worse than if anything was actually happening to him. After my mom died, for about three months, my dad became this huge alcoholic and I tried to get him to stop because it was making him a different person. I didn't even know what was going on then.
I was too little and too naïve to understand what alcoholism was, I just knew that whenever dad came back home after drinking, he would do things and say things that just weren't him.

The tears turn into full blown sobs as memories of my dad's alcoholism flood back into my mind.

“Paris?” Heaven asks confused

“You're supposed to be relieved that he's fine.”

“You won't understand.” I tell her through the sobs