Peter Whyte was looking forward to seeing his children, it was immeasurable. His only reservation was that things at the office had been stressful and this stress could easily turn to anger if he was provoked. And going home often meant the resurface of old memories, both sad and happy and this could tip him over the edge.
This is worth remembering because of what happens next.
“Max could you please tidy your PlayStation away?” Melanie asked frustrated. Max was still unresponsive to her and she was trying to have the house ready for her father’s arrival.
She sighed and unplugged the machine from the wall and tucked it under the TV where it would be out of the way. Annoyed by this Max threw an insult and stormed upstairs.
Is this the way most brothers are? Or is it me?
He was back at school again and his behaviour had improved but his attitude was worsening. Melanie needed her dad.
She heard footsteps crunching on the gravel outside and the turn of the key in the lock and in stepped Melanie’s dad. He looked more tired than he usually did but other than that he was the same.
“Are you going to stand and gawk at me all day Melanie Marie Whyte or are you going to come give your travel-weary dad a hug?” he laughed.
And Melanie complied.
Things were good again. Max was still unresponsive to her but to their dad he was who he used to be.
They all spent the first week catching up with one another and going on day trips, they laughed a lot. But things rapidly changed when their house phone rang the week Max returned back to school.
“Who rang dad?”
Peters face was pulled tight and he looked strained.
“That was Max’s school, telling me I have to report to the school, any ideas why?”
Melanie felt her heart rate quicken. She had avoided telling his about Max’s suspension hoping his behaviour would improve. She shrugged.
“Well I’d better go, d’you want to come?”
Melanie was apprehensive but she knew her dad would find out whether she was there or not so she thought it best to go.
*
“You must be Max’s father? Nice to meet you at last” Mr Garroway said as the two men shook hands. “Unfortunately you are not here under good circumstances. Max has again taken to physically harming another child and as I pointed out to Miss Whyte the last time she was called into the office, Max would be expelled for his behaviour.”
Melanie felt her dad’s eyes on her but she refused to meet them.
“And so I have no choice but to expel Max from my school, which means he will not be returning here in September.”
Peter tried to argue his son’s case but Mr Garroway unloaded all Max’s behaviour strikes onto him and then he knew he was fighting a losing battle.
The car journey home was the most awkward experience of Melanie’s life. The atmosphere could have been pierced with a knife. The silence rang in their ears.
Max went straight up to his room and slammed the door behind him.
“How could you not tell me?”
Silence followed Peter’s question.
“Max was suspended from school and you never mentioned that too me?”
Red was rising in his face. Melanie was speechless.
“Mr Garroway mentioned Max had been in trouble numerous times and you failed to mention that too? Melanie are you even listening to me? “
She met his eyes.
Why do I feel like I’m in trouble when it’s Max who has been expelled?
“I don’t understand any of this. How could you let this happen?”
This struck Melanie like a ton of bricks.
“I leave you to look after Max and he gets expelled from school!”
That hurt Melanie and she could stay quiet no longer.
“Me? I see all the blame is on me. What about YOU? You’re never hear, does it ever cross your mind that I’m Max’s sister not his parent? Does it ever cross your mind that actually you could be to blame?”
“Excuse me, who keeps the roof over your head? Gives you everything you could ever want or ever need?”
“What I want dad is for you to be home, for you to actually be a dad all the time and not just when you have time to be. You’re never around so while you aren’t hear I have to pick up all the pieces”
The argument was getting louder and louder as they heatedly volley-balled their remarks to each other.
“You call yourself a dad but you don’t do anything other dads do. You’re never around! Why do you even bother? When Mum died you died too, for the amount we see of you it sure feels like that. We lost both parents when we really only lost one!”
“Who are you to say any of this? YOU’RE NOT EVEN MY DAUGHTER!”
Suddenly the room was silent. They both breathed heavily. Melanie had tears running down her face.
“Dad?”
Peter sank to the floor his hands over his eyes.
“Just go to your room”
“Dad?”
“Just GO!”
Once sat on her bed the tears came like a flood.
What does that mean? I’m not his daughter. That cannot even be so? Of course I’m his daughter. But he wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true.
It made no sense to Melanie. It upset her more as she had never heard her dad yell before.
The next morning when she traipsed downstairs she saw an envelope on the table with her name on it. The letter read:
Melanie and Max,
I’ve gone back to the office.
Dad
She believed none of it.
She tallied up all the people she had lost. The number was rising. And she felt drained.
YOU ARE READING
A Portrait of Whyte
Teen Fiction"She could jump; she had done it before, a simple movement that even three year olds can do. She stretched her leg, feeling the force of the wind. And then, still with her leg out, she held her breath and lent forward..." Melanie's life is a grey...
