Dear Dad

November 26th

November 26th,

            Yesterday was Thanksgiving and no one was home.  My mom was called into the hospital from some several accidents involving flaming turkeys.  So I made the best of it.  I sat at home in front of the TV with a turkey sandwich watching reruns.

            Anabella and I had plans to hang out and I decided that I was going to show her the sign language I learned.  I met her at the park at the edge of the town.  She was dressed in thick black coat with a red and white polka-dot scarf.  Her curly hair flowed off of her shoulders.  She walked up to me with her hands stuffed in her pockets as if it were five degrees.  She took one hand out and waved hi to me.  I waved back and nervously tried out my new skill signing, ‘Do you want to go for a walk around the park?’ She smiled with excitement and signed back, ‘You learned to sign.’  Her eyes lit up.  ‘I learned it for you.’ I signed to her.  She blushed and smiled at the ground.  I grabbed her hand and started to walk towards the trail.

            George P. Brooksfeild was the man who founded our little town.  Brooks, California was just about the smallest, but the most beautiful town I’ve ever been to.  It’s about thirty percent town and seventy percent mountain.  The Brooksfeild park had both a road and a hiking trail that lead up to the top of the mountain.  Anabella’s frozen little hand shook along with the rest of her body.  I let go of her hand and wrapped my arm around her as we walked up the trail.  We were surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife but she was still the most beautiful thing in the world to me. 

             We finally reached the top of the mountain.  You could see for miles past Brooks into far away towns with people busy in their constant go-go lives.  Anabella’s hair blew in the breeze and her cheeks turned bright pink from the cold sting of the wind.  She closed her eyes and let her mind go blank.  She opened them again and looked over the horizon.  ‘Out of all places in the world, why did you move here?’  She signed to me.  I sat down on the ground and she sat next to me.  I took a deep breath and said to her, “We use to live in Florida, down in a town by Miami.  My mom worked in a little clinic and my dad was a scientist in a lab nearby testing new types of drugs that were thought to cure various types of cancer.  We lived a happy little life.  The town was beautiful, the community was great, the school was nice and full of amazing friends I had made over the years.”  I sighed and looked around at the surrounding towns.  “One day my dad came home all excited about work, saying things like, ‘We’ve done it!  It’s going to work!’ and ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’s the day!’  I didn’t understand what he meant until the next day.  His company was inventing a new type of radiation treatment equipment.  They were going to be testing it out that day and when they went to turn it on the whole thing exploded causing the entire lab to catch on fire.  Most of the employees made it out fine, about fifty injured, and the ten that were in that room died.  My dad was one of them.  After that day my mom couldn’t take the sight of the town anymore.  So she decided that we were going to move.  She wanted a small town somewhere warm.  And now here we are in Brooks.”  Anabella looked as if she was about to cry.  ‘I’m so sorry’ she signed.  “Thank you, but no amount of sorry will bring him back.”  I said to her quietly.  She leaned over and kissed my cheek.  The world felt okay for once.