The Scenic Life

Chapter 3

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I had been home for three hours now.

After dumping all of my belongings on the sofa in the living room and changing into my pajamas, I plopped on the bed. Unsurprisingly, I'm still lying flat on the bed.

Sighing loudly, I turn on my back and pull out my phone from under the sheets. Hitting the video call button, I wait for dad to pick it up. Yesterday we spoke for only a few minutes, he had been busy. Since then, I've been waiting for a call back. Guess he's busy today too.

I almost hung up the phone, when dad's forehead appeared on the screen,

“Hello pumpkin, how are you! I just got home. Have you eaten? Tell me you ate your greens today, at least- ,”

I interrupt his speech, because if I didn’t it'll mostly last an hour or so. I try to redirect the topic of conversation to him,

“Yes dad, I did, don’t worry. How are you just getting home? Did you work late today too? Yesterday you told me you wanted a break and today I see you doing overtime? What is this behaviour dad?”

Dad huffs out, “Don’t try to act older than me. and don’t assume that I don't know that you just used the bigg boss meme on me. I'm also very hip.”

I let out a chuckle over his antics. These days he's trying to immerse himself in what he calls is the ‘new age jokes material’ aka memes. And its hilarious , I'm not gonna lie. I still remember the day when dad came to me and asked what meh-mehs are. It took me 16 minutes to get what he was talking about.  Now he knows some memes better than me.

Oh how time flies.

I'm almost emotional at his improvement.

Dad smiles over the phone, I can see that he's in the living room by the wooden carved  clock behind him,

"You okay, honey? You look tired.”

I want to tell dad the truth about how rough things have been after he and mom broke the news about the divorce to me. I remember the moment  so clearly that I wish I didn’t. I had pretended to be okay, that  I understood why they were divorcing each other.

That moment brought back all the dark memories I had been locking up inside me. The fightings in the middle of the night, the absence of peace and tranquillity for days after the fight. It always ended up in patching up of things, but I think the patchwork was done with weak threads because all of it had come undone now.

I don’t think they were affected by it as much as I was. Both of them looked more happy, more at peace. it broke my heart. i know it shouldn’t, I really do. but inside I'm still just a 9 year old, clutching on her pillows, trying to block the loud voices and hoping that everything would be okay again in the morning.

Now, I don’t think the mornings are coming ever again.

I brush the hair out of my face, trying to not show my weakness on my face,

“Yeah, today was tiring. We had a production meeting today, I also had to finish the moodboards I told you about last week.”

“Oh I thought you didn’t have much work today, seems like you're overworking again these days. You need a vacation, baby. Working like this will drive you insane.”

I chuckle dryly, “I guess your wish is coming true dad, because I've been selected to location scout for three weeks in rajasthan and gujarat!”