He's All I Have

•8•

The Confrontation

Police station, they actually went to a police station. I couldn't help but think that this was where my life would end.

"Where were you?" Lucy asked.

Answering that question couldn't get any harder. I was now officially in a state of disbelief. I mean why did I choose to go to church today. I could have missed today's service right? I tried to convince myself but I knew that today was a special day that could never be replaced.

I kept looking over to see if the door was going to swing open. I tried to think of a good excuse. I went for a morning walk and only thought to come back home five hours later?  That would definitely not work.  I woke up in a weird land and had to walk back home?  No they would never believe that. I was not used to this lying thing and I was evidently bad at it. At least Lucy had understood my silence and did not pester me any further. Before I was ready, the door opened.

Now, I would not lie and say I didn't consider running away in that very moment, because I did. In fact,  my heart was beating so fast that I even entertained the thought of having a heart attack and just being rushed to the hospital. Maybe my parents would have forgotten about this by the time I came back. I had no such luck, no surprise there.

My parents' facial expressions changed from worried to relieved to confused in a matter of seconds.

"Where were you? " my dad asked with a blank expression on his face.

I couldn't tell if he was angry or not. Everyone with strict parents knows that's where the danger is. I did the most dissatisfying thing I could ever do, look down and say nothing. Now this only turned my parents' confusion to anger.

"I believe I asked you a question." My father emphasised.

Okay now I had to come up with something.  Do I lie and see what happens?  What does God think about lies? Am I still going to be alive in the next few minutes?  I could see it in the papers already. "Teen dies at the hands of parents after going to church", how about,  "Christian for a week dies, at least she's going to heaven" or "Child mysteriously vanishes from the planet". 

Granted, I was over exaggerating but hey, you never know.  I had always been an obedient child.  My whole life I'd tried to stay out of trouble as much as possible. I didn't know how to deal with such a situation.  I really wished that I  was in a dream and I would wake up any second.  Well, maybe I was. 1 2 3.....okay,  so not a dream then.

"I went to see Rachel" the lie slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Ah, not bad I congratulated myself.  I probably shouldn't have until I'd assessed my parent's reaction.  Now they had gone from angry to fuming.

"Since when do you leave the house without permission.  Do you know how worried we were?" my mom shouted.

"We went to the police for crying out loud!  Why do you want to embarrass me in front of the whole community?"  My dad added.

I said nothing. Not only because I had nothing to say but because this is where it became critical, answering their question would be considered defiance but silence would also be considered defiance.  There was no winning here but at least silence could not be used against me as much as words would.

As I thought we were moving towards peace again, my dad asked me something I was not expecting.

"Why are you dressing fancy just to go see Rachel?" He asked.

Busted! This was where my life ended.....or not. An idea had just hit me.

"I went to see if we could go to the university in town to find out more about their courses there.  Rachel reminded me that today is a Sunday and it was most likely closed so we didn't go.  I ended up staying with them for a little while to help with chores."

The new explanation seemed to have calmed them but don't get it twisted, they were still mad at me.

"That's still defying the rules of this house.  Since you love chores so much,  why don't you think about your behaviour as you do yours and Lucy's chores alone for this whole week. I don't want to have to beat you,  you are no longer a child." My mom said.

So, not a child but still treated like a child? Great. Don't get me wrong though,  this was the most generous punishment I'd ever gotten.

I nodded in agreement and was finally dismissed from their presence. I was glad I only had to deal with such for a couple more weeks then I'd be gone to university. I just couldn't wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ThatChristianKid

12/02/2020