Limitless

Chapter 29

My father and I sat awkwardly across from one another as we waited for our food to arrive.  He glanced around at other tables while I played with the corner of my napkin.  I knew he was watching people’s mouths and straining his old ears to try and pick up a question he could ask me to start a conversation of our own.  I was confused as to why he asked me out to dinner.  We usually just fended for ourselves when it came to food.  We really didn’t talk much.  We were both generally were just very internal with our thoughts and feelings.  We didn’t ever sit down and discuss anything, except for the one time I almost went to jail - but that was different.

He smiled shortly when he caught me studying his face.  I had counted to 15 wrinkles when his smile messed up my count.  ”So, do you like your new school?” 

It wasn’t really “new” anymore, but we hadn’t talked about it yet. “I suppose.” 

"And you made lots of good friends?" 

I nodded.

"What about work?"

"It’s pretty neat I guess. I don’t do much but it’s cool to see the clothes from different countries."

"Oh." 

I laughed. “Was I supposed to say no?” 

My father half-laughed, half-coughed. “Well no.” He paused. “I got promoted yesterday.” 

"Dad, that’s great!" I smiled and reached across the table to touch my father’s hand, a gesture that ended up surprising me as much as it surprised my father.  We also just weren’t touchy-feely. I don’t know why I felt compelled to do it. After an awkward silence, I withdrew my hand. 

My father nodded and gradually started to stare off into space. I bit my lip and looked around the restaurant for our waitress. Please just bring our food already.After about 15 minutes more of silence, our food arrived.  My father and I both bit into our meals and smiled awkwardly at each other when we accidentally made eye-contact.  It almost made me sad, realizing just how horrible of a relationship we had. 

Finally, he sat back in his seat and wiped his mouth.  He cleared his throat before saying, “The reason I asked you about school and stuff is just because with the promotion comes a different job.” 

I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s generally the understanding…” 

"Well," he continued. "My new job is about an hour away from here."

"That’s gonna be a long commute every day," I said, thinking about the traffic and the gas money. When I looked up at my dad, he was pulling at his lip and his brow was furrowed. 

"Louisa, I was thinking that we would move." 

I raised my eyebrows and sat back.  It was suddenly hard to swallow my food.  I wasn’t new to moving at all.  We did it a lot when my mom was in the military.  It just seemed like this was the one time we would be moving away from a good thing.  My job, my friends, Harry…

"It’s not too far away though. Plus, there is a school out there I thought maybe you could go to.  For your job, you could just transfer stores. Right? And you can visit your friends every couple of weeks." 

I took another bite of food and swallowed hard to keep from crying.  I don’t know what the heck happened to me in the last couple of weeks but it seemed like I would cry at the drop of a hat. The food in my mouth suddenly tasted bitter and I felt like I was going to hurl. 

My father inhaled deeply. “It’s just something to think about.  We don’t have to move tomorrow or anything. I have time to tell them my decision.”