Learning to Live

Chapter 35

Shana stood by the door like a statue, her eyes glued to the face which was of her father's. I was pretty much like her; standing, staring at the man who abandoned her.

His expression was somewhat parallel to ours; except his face was pale and his hand was placed over his chest like he was seeing a ghost. He's bulkier than I'd imagined, he was bald with a beard sprinkled with grey. He wore black-rimmed glasses and a flannel shirt.

"Shana?"

"Dad?"

"I never thought you'd come. Please come in."

"No, I came for one thing and I don't have to come inside of your home to get it."

"What is it?"

"Why did you leave us?"

He sighs, "It's a long story, it's better if you come inside and sit."

"No! I've waited years for this and a few more minutes of waiting would be nothing for me. Why did you leave us?!"

"I--I," He stammers trying to force out the words.

"Do you know what it's like to have a father walkout on you?! It's traumatizing! Years I've felt like it was my fault, I felt unimportant. I felt like you didn't care about me, about any of us! You must be great at pretending because I thought you loved us."

"Just, please come inside, I'll explain everything."

"No! You could tell me right here." She folds her arms.

"Shana, come inside the house right now!" His voice became deep and gruff.

"Hey, you don't get to talk to her like that." I stepped forward.

"And who are you?" He squints his eyes at me.

"I'm her boyfriend, Ian."

"Well Ian, I'm her father..."

"Who's left her for ten years. You're no father. A father would never run away from his family."

"I didn't," He sighs, "I'm begging, please come inside?" Shana looked at me with uncertainty, and then she walked into the house as I followed. Inside, there were baby clothes, blankets, and toys scattered all over the room.

"Please have a seat. Sorry for the mess." He picked up a few of the blankets off the couch for us to sit. "And I'm sorry I yelled back there. But you, you have all the right too." He turns to me, "I'm sorry man, and I'm Daryl, Ian right?"

"Yeah."

Out of the blue, a baby starts crying. Daryl threw his head back and gets up, sighing. "I just put her down."

A woman with shaggy hair walk behind Daryl, her eyes almost closed and were yawning. She was wearing a robe with fluffy slippers. "I'll get her Dary." I don't think she even notice we were there. Moments later the crying stopped and she returned with a tiny baby in her arms, sucking on her exposed breast. "Jesus, Olivia we have guests," Daryl announced rubbing his eyes.

She quickly covers herself with the robe when she looked up and saw us. "I'm sorry, a new baby; I haven't slept properly in days." She smiled.

"Olivia this is my daughter and her boyfriend." Her face lights up in shock.

"Wow! Shana hi." She steps closer to Shana shaking her hand. "I'm Olivia, your stepmom I guess and this is your baby sister Hanna. Would you like to hold her?"

Shana looks down at the tiny baby; I could see that she wanted to cry. "No thanks."

"Olivia, Shana, and I need to talk, so if you don't mind hun."