Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Since the time that he came, I've done a lot of thinking. Like, if he's ever coming back or not or what if he didn’t even want to come back. All this thought I didn't even notice my dad standing at my door watching me for about five minutes.
“Hey Alexa, is everything all right? You’ve been staring at the wall for a good ten minutes now; I just wanted to check if you were okay.”

It seems that he had been standing there longer than I thought. I told him that I was just thinking, and he went back to cooking. I breathed deeply. He was making his famously delicious shrimp and rice dish. Mother and I had both enjoyed this dish, until my parents divorced. Since then, my dad made it every time I went to see him. I loved spending time with my dad, not just because of his exquisite food, but also because since he works most of the time that I’m off from school, and I don’t get to see him that much.

When my parents had first given me my camera, the first picture I had taken was a picture of his food. It makes me laugh now, but back then it was very important to me. You see, anytime that my mom and dad had a fight; he would make shrimp and rice. And every time, like a movie script she would always forgive him. That is of course until my dad had just gotten a new job. He was working for a company that manufactured and distributed different metal parts for different vehicles. His desk had been moved in-between two women. As the months went on, they became friendlier, and were taking him out to office luncheons instead of him coming home for lunch. Mother and I at first just went out to eat most of the times, or had eaten a ham sandwich for lunch. But the time he spent out of the house increased.

Soon it was rare to see him come home for lunch, but every time he did, he would make shrimp and rice to calm both of us down. It worked for about three months, until once he came home completely drunk. Mother set her fork down and asked me to hurry on to bed. I went into my room, but cracked the door to listen to what was going on. My dad had already started yelling, probably because of his drunkenness. My mother was trying to yell back but every time she would try to talk over him, my dad would talk louder.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve had to deal with?
You could care less about this family and what we have to deal with.“
“You know what? Right now I could care less what you had to deal with while I was gone, you got that?
Just because I’ve been out for a few nights doesn’t mean you have to go completely insane!”
“Me?
You think I’m insane?
You’re the one who’s drunk!
Do you really think that you can just walk off and leave us while we’re at a point where Alexa needs you more than ever?”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I think she may be happier with you anyway.
After all, you apparently know more about this parenting thing than I do anyway”
“What are you trying to say?”

By now my mother had completely broken into tears. My father had apparently said something, but I was too young to understand what they were talking about. If I had been older, I would’ve seen that they would obviously be getting a divorce. I didn’t know what to do, so I just lay there in my bed, staring at the ceiling. That was the first time I had looked at all my pictures, and really thought about what each one was, and why I had taken it. I stopped at the picture of me and my parents. It was at the zoo. I had given the camera to one of the employees so he could take our picture. I was smiling with a cute little dress on, and in the background my mom and dad were kissing. It made me tear up, and I had just taken a big step into what it meant to cherish memories, at the age of seven and a half.

I pulled that picture out again, and it still made me tear up, all those years later. While I was staring at them, my dad walked in again and asked if I was ever gonna get out of my dream world and come and eat.
“Yes dad I’m coming, I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Well, you better hurry up or the shrimp might get bored and walk off”

He laughed at his own joke all the way down to the table. Dad’s gentle laugh and nature reminded me that everything can go wrong with just a few drinks, because he has never yelled like that, other than that one night. In fact, I don’t think he had ever yelled before then. All of a sudden our dinner was interrupted with a large quake and explosion.
“What was that?” Yelled my dad while ushering me into the closet, the safest place in the house.
“Now, stay here and I’m gonna go find out what that noise was.”

I stayed only until my dad was out of sight, then I slipped out the back door. By now the shaking had calmed down, but there was still a ringing in my ears due to the large explosion. I snuck around to the front, hiding behind a tree for cover. All of a sudden another explosion had gone off. From a peaceful dinner with my dad, had changed into practically a battle ground. It seems the robots that had showed up earlier had returned, but this time there weren’t only two. This time, they had brought an entire invasion force. They were leveling three story buildings with the slightest of ease. All seemed lost when a bright flash of light blinded me for a few seconds. A large metal vessel appeared out of nowhere, and out stepped a boy. He had a sword on his back, fire in his eyes, and a smirk on his face. And as soon as I saw him, I fell on my knees and cried.


PLEASE COMMENT ANYTHING WILL DO
mrgreen