Dots and Zeros [Completed]

34. Sam

The lights are on, and the curtains are closed. Dad and I spent the entire afternoon talking in the living room. I don't know where mom was for that time. I saw her once when she went into the kitchen. An hour later she called out to us that dinner was ready.

The three of us are sitting at the dinner table. There's a half-eaten lasagna in the middle. My plate is empty, mom's as well. Dad has been talking so much he has barely gotten the time to eat. Or breathe.

'And then I had that other exhibition,' he tells me. 'Which was more of a 'best of' type of thing. I didn't have anything to do with picking out which ones made it to it. But I remember not caring about that at all. You wanna know why?'

'Why?' I ask.

He's so interesting to talk to. Give him one question, and he'll talk for hours about it, hopping from subject to subject on his own. I think Eugene would like him too. Dad seems to know a lot about a lot. Eugene seems curious about a lot.

That reminds me, I haven't gotten the chance to tell Eugene about this yet. About the fact my dad is literally sitting next me. He'll freak out, I'm sure.

'Because I was busy working on a collection with natural dyes. Not like paint with a sticker on it saying it's bio-paint or whatever. I don't think anyone even knows what that means. I mean that I booked a flight to the jungle of South America and looked for all kinds of flowers. The Amazon, to be precise.'

'So you made your own paint? That's so cool.'

'Exactly! It was really cool, but very inefficient. It's also less cost effective. I turned out to be one of my least selling collections. They all sold, of course. But it took longer than usual to completely sell out. The money it brought in was also lower than we were all used to.'

'Are we ready for desert?' mom asks. 'Or have you not touched your food yet, Julian?'

He looks at her, and then at his plate.

'Sorry,' he says. 'I really like it. You can cook very well. I'd say you have improved quite a bit. Not that it was bad before, of course. I'd never say that out loud. It's just that no one usually cares about all my stories about my collections. It's great to know someone who's as interested as I am. You know, I-'

Without saying anything, she cuts him off by pointing at his plate.

'Right,' he chuckles.

'I'll get the ice cream out of the freezer so we can scoop it easier later.'

Mom stands up from her chair and walks to the other side of the kitchen.

'So how did you even start all of this?' Dad asks me.

'Start what?' they ask.

'Your search for me? Have you always wondered about me?'