All Around Us

Chapter Ten

The end of summer vacation, something children await as anxiously as they do the beginning, was finally here. Going back home meant leaving Clio, Aunt, and Mell behind, which was fair since I had left Dad a while ago and it was high time I reunited with him. I missed him dearly and had promised him we would go on a fishing trip together. I actually wanted to use this time to clear up some things.

"Dad, I'm home!" I called twice, but he was nowhere to be found. Where could he have gone? He knew I was coming today. Maybe he was still at work. I took my bags up to my room and freshened up. Even after that, he was nowhere to be found. I really needed to rest; the ride from Aunt's place was quite long.

"Liss!" he called to me as he stepped inside the house. "Dad!" I called back, running to him for a hug. "Sorry I got caught up in traffic. Turns out you weren't the only one coming back from summer vacation," he added with a laugh.

"Well, things are surely changing around here. Look whose socializing," I said, smirking. "What do you mean?" he responded. "Isn't that your friend's car that dropped you off just now?" I said to him, and he started blushing. "Did you eat? We're about to go out," he asked casually, changing the topic.

"I can find some food on the way. It's fine. I'm not in the mood for homemade food," I responded with a chuckle, waving my hand dismissively. "Fancy," he replied teasingly. Going on this trip wasn't high on my list, but it was worth spending time with the old man.

Dad liked Aunt Rosa, and she liked him back, but the funny thing was they were both too shy to come clean with each other. So I had to give my Dad a pep talk, which was funny since he usually gave me those. He really was a stubborn fella. You couldn't get honesty out of him using the old subtle methods. So I exchanged his secret for a fake boyfriend's name I made up.

"Do you like Aunt Rosa?" I asked. "No," he replied, but his unstable eyes were selling him out. So he confessed the moment he noticed I wasn't buying it. "I like her, but if I confess, I don't know if we'll get married." "Is that a bad thing?" I replied. "Well... no," he mumbled, then continued, "It's about time I tell you a story about your mom." I began to wonder why he looked so sad. Then he continued, "Your mom didn't die of cancer. She died giving birth to you."

"I had a friend of mine whom I took in after your mother died because I wanted her to fill in for your mom so that you wouldn't grow up without a mother. When she died from cancer, I realized love and commitment weren't for me, and since then I've been afraid to lose another person I love."

The news left me shattered. Who else was hiding something from me? He could see I was angry, so he tried talking to me. "Li-" I interrupted him as I turned the boat angrily toward the shore. The ride back home was very tense and quiet, and when I got home, I went to my room and cried myself to sleep. We didn't even talk for the rest of that week because my mind constantly reminded me of what he had told me.