Robbers

Chapter 9

-: Chapter 9 :-

I ended up spending the night at Sophia's, where we spent the entire night talking about my date and upcoming date with Seth.

I got home near noon the next day, and I had almost forgotten my Dad had a day off.

"Dad! I'm home!" I called into the silent house as I kicked the front door shut behind me. When I got no reply, I got curious. "Dad?"

His car was in the driveway. I walked through rooms, trying to see where he could be. He wasn't in the bathroom or the kitchen, where I had found something burning in the oven. I quickly took the pizza out. I then proceeded to look for Dad again, this time more worried.

I was surprised to find him standing in the living room, staring blankly at the screen. He was still in his night clothes, his face still unshaven. The remote control was in his hand, his arm was stiffly outstretched. He was frozen, lost inside his thoughts.

On the television, an old movie was playing. I recognized it as Far and Away, also known as mom's favourite movie. It was the scene where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were arguing in the bedroom. The one where he threw her in the tub.

Dad was so fixated on the movie, that he hadn't noticed me standing there beside him. This happened quite a lot recently. Dad having these episodes whenever he'd see something that reminded him of his runaway wife.

Ever since mom left that April morning, we never heard from her again. She never wrote, or called, or sent postcards. All her belongings were gone. Unless you went and looked for pictures of her in Dad's room, it was like she never existed in this house. All that she had left as an explanation was a letter. A stupid letter filled with bullshit about how she cared about us. Yeah, okay.

Though Katherine and I tried our best to pull ourselves together and move on with life, dad was the opposite. He definitely took it the worst. His wife, whom he had loved with his entire being, had left him for no good reason. There wasn't another man on the side, there wasn't a life-long goal she wanted to complete; she just wanted out. Didn't want to be a mom anymore. As if she could she could push the "off" switch on us.

No matter how hard dad tried to pretend that he was okay, it was moments like these that I knew for certain that he wasn't.

I watched him, with his usually bright brown eyes going dull as his thoughts consumed his mind. His mahogany hair graying at the edges from the stress of work and raising two daughters on his own. Despite everything, Dad never once complained. The first few weeks, he would cry himself to sleep, but he never did yell at Katherine and me.

I gently took the remote out of dad's hand and turned off the TV. "Dad?"

He blinked once or twice, but other than that, made no effort to move. He was still lost in his thoughts of mom.

"Dad? C'mon, I'll make you something to eat." I lightly pulled on his hand, which seemed to wake him up.

He nodded his head but didn't say anything. I saw him wince when his eyes landed on the blackened and barely edible pizza he attempted to make. Seeing that no one was going to be able to eat this, I threw it away with a frown. I hated throwing away food.

I made both of us sandwiches while dad got himself cleaned up.

By the time I finished making our sandwiches, Dad was already sitting at the kitchen table, and looking the mail I had picked up on my way home.

"So, how was your little outing with that fellow?"

"It was good. He asked me out again." I replied with a smile I could hardly supress.