Stay /// Ethan Dolan /// EDITING

Chapter 4 - Dreams

"Bye Bela, we're going now" mum shouts as she opens the front door.

"bye" I shout back. The door shuts.

"Bela, Fillip said a bad word" Crissa, my little sister, dobs.

"HEHEH" I can hear little Fillip laughing as he runs up stairs.

I sigh. "okay everyone off to bed, it's getting late" I say. "Gale! Get off that stupid Playstation and bring the lil shits to bed!"

Crissa gasps. "im telling mum!" she says, she runs up stairs to join Fillip.

I roll my eyes. "I'll do it myself" I mutter.

Picking up Isaac, I run upstairs to put them to bed. after i finish tucking Crissa and Fillip into bed, i go to put Isaac in his cot, but as I leave he starts to cry.

"Oh, come on Isaac" I whisper. I rock the cot for a while, but he still whines.

I pick him up, holding him in my arms. I walk down stairs. Maybe if he falls asleep in my arms, it'll be better.

I decide to watch a film as Isaac falls asleep, so I go through all the DVD's we have, I come across an old cassette tape and in cursive writing, it says, "Dad's 30th birthday".

A shiver runs down my spine, I haven't seen this in years. I slide the tape into the DVD player. I press play, sitting on the couch across from to TV. I lay Isaac on my lap, rocking him in my arms.

"So Bela, what day is it today?" mum says.

The camera turns to 5 year old me, standing in my pink frilled pyjamas, hair tied up in two piggy tails. "Satday" I say in a high pitch voice.

I laugh, I have such a cute voice, what happened?

"No, bela it's 'Saturday'." mum repeats.

I gasp, holding my small hand to my mouth. "daddy" I say pointing behind her.

The camera turns to the side and there stands my dad, my real dad. He rubs his eyes, his hair is all messed up cause he just woke up.

"Bela, go give daddy his present" mum says.

My run as fast as my little legs could go, grabbing his present from the other room.

My mum and dad embrace in a hug, dad kisses her lips. "happy birthday Marcus" my mum says, her voice sweet and soft.

My dad smiles at her, until I come back in the room, giggling loudly. "dad look" I say handing him the present.

"Aww, thank you sweetie" he says kissing my small forehead.

I push him away, pointing at the circler present. "open" I say impatiently.

Dad wrips the wrapping paper to reveal a baby blue plate, with 4 messy stick figures in the middle.

"that's you, that's mummy, that's Gal" I used to call Gale 'Gal' because I didn't know how to say the rest of his name. "and that's me" I smile, as I point to each one.

"thank you pumpkin" Dad says, pulling me into a hug. He stands and walks over to the wall where the front door is. "I'll put it right here" he says. Hanging it on the small nail that was nailed in the wall.

I look over my shoulder, looking at the wall that he had hung the plate on. The plate is still there, shinning its bright blue light down on me.

I try not to cry as Isaac has finally fallen asleep. I breath through my nose, holding my tears in my eyes. I miss my dad so much and seeing this brings too many memories back in my head.