“That was a beautiful after-party, daddy.”
Hazy copper eyes turned away from the window and toward the tall woman in a
black dress and heels before him. The mild wrinkles on his face were even more
defined today, as it wasn’t a normal jubilant day. Things were an entire amount
darker than they usually were.
The slightly wavy graying hair rested atop his head shifted, still holding some
of it’s pigment but had virtually little tightness like the curls he’d had as a
youth. Gradually, he was losing a small amount of color in his face, but he
seemed to retain a boyish handsomeness from his younger years. There was no
smile like there had been 90% of the time some forty years ago.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
The gentleman glanced up at the beauty before him.
She was rather tall, maybe 5’7” without the heels, with chestnut hair. A vision
– looking exactly like her mother. Of course, her pale skin and copper eyes
were traits she’d gained from her father.
“Sorry, honey. I was lost in thought.” He explained as he stood up. Twenty-nine
years old, and he could still recall when the beautiful woman before him was an
infant in his arms at the hospital, and when he woke up to find his wife
clutching the baby to her chest in an effort to ease her to sleep.
“Kind of like how you are right NOW, daddy!” she smiled gently and squeezed his
arm. “Are you okay?”
The older man sighed and chuckled half heartedly.
“No, but I will be eventually.” He sighed and slid his hands in his pockets. Just
about sixty-five years old and he wore it well. His hair retained a majority of
it’s original brown, his body was slightly muscular from his days of
vacationing and playing golf with the family.
The woman sighed and squeezed his hand, coming to around a half inch shorter
than him today.
“I know you miss mom, dad, but…she had to leave.”
The man grunted and turned toward the window, clearly not wanting to get a talk
like this from his daughter right now. His wife was freshly gone and absolutely
everything still smelled like her skin.
“Daddy-“
“Madison.” He grunted softly as he rubbed his temples. “Baby girl, I love you
and I know you love to take your therapist career into play anytime someone
needs advice, but this is one time that really doesn’t need it.”
Madison frowned deeply, seemingly
put out but sighed.
“I know, daddy, but I feel that-“
“What? I should go on vacation and pretend this day never happened? I’ve never
been away from your mother for more than a day or two since-“
“Since you were twenty years old, I know, dad.” She sighed and placed her hands
on her hips. “So what can you do now?”
He glanced around the room and smiled gently at Madison.
“If the guests are gone, you can round up your brothers and bring them in here
to help me clean up the house.”
Madison groaned, much in the
fashion that she did when she was a little girl, calling her big brothers for
chores or dinner. Always was she the one to be left behind as the boys ran to eat
to help.
Observing the woman turn, he watched her stroll to the swinging door of the
kitchen, push it open and take a deep breath.
“ADAM! BENNIE! ZEKE! DAD WANTS US TO HELP CLEAN UP THE HOUSE!”
He grimaced.
“Madison, I could have that.”
“Then…why have me do it?”
Observing her, the older man sighed dramatically as the thudding of feet drew closer to the kitchen. It was just a moment later that three tall men with dark hair and tan skin moved into the kitchen.
“What’s up, dad?”
The oldest, Benedict, rose an eyebrow at his father, his onyx eyes floating toward the steadily graying man. He looked remarkably like him, with a soft, boyish expression for being thirty-seven years old. His face was slightly scruffy in a well kempt sort of way, and he wore a black suit, topped with an undone black bowtie. The wedding band on his finger shone brightly, reminding the oldest man of a similar ring placed on his finger at least thirty-nine years ago.
“I need your help, kids-“
“Kids, dad?” one of the male twins from the side chuckled. Resembling his brother to the dot, they both looked exquisitely like their parents. The oldest had a chivalrous, sweet kind of expression on his face and he seemed to be the quietest. The youngest pressed on, holding himself with the same air of boldness – the same larger than life presence the older man’s wife had carried. “The youngest of us is nearly thirty-“
“Hey!” Madison interjected.
“Nearly thirty and the oldest is going on forty. I’m thirty-three and Zeke is too. We’re not kids anymore.”
“Adam, be quiet.” The older man chuckled as he rested his hands on his hips, though his amusement faltered, guiltily. “You’re our children, so you’ll always be kids to us.”
The group of adults exchanged a look and sighed.
“Right, dad,” Zeke began. “What’s first?”
The older gentleman turned and gestured toward the living room.
“Clear things out there. Come on.”
With the swiftness of a boy of twenty, the gentleman proceeded forward with a trash bag in hand, followed by his children, who were clearly making themselves more comfortable as they slipped out of their shoes and adjusted their clothing.
The room was fairly quiet with the exception of a low Johnny Cash song on the radio, playing back from a CD.
“So,” The older gentleman’s soft hazel eyes glanced toward Benedict. “How are you and Alyson?”
Benedict sighed.
“Fine, dad. Why do you ask?”
The man shrugged.
“Just curious. Do you really wanna marry that girl?”
Benedict nodded.
“I care about her, dad. Besides, she’s a wedding planner, I’m a doctor, we’re a good match. -”
“A good match? Don’t you love her?”
Benedict shrugged.
“Sure, I do.”
The man cocked an eyebrow in mild disappointment at his son. Watching him move away to clean up another set of plastic cups, the man moved toward Ezekiel for conversation.
“Hey, Zekers.”
“Dad, please. You and mom haven’t called me that since I was sixteen.”
He chuckled.
“Zeke. How are things at the office?”
Zeke shrugged.
“Hell, dad. I hate it there – I feel like I’m not making a difference for anything.”
The man chuckled, half heartedly.
“I remember when you wanted to be a vet at the zoo.”
“I was a kid, dad.”
“You were twenty-one.”
Zeke shot a look toward his father and shrugged deeply.
“What happened to that dream, Zeke?”
“I grew up, dad. It’s 10,000 a year less than my current job, anyway.”
“So?”
“So, money is important, dad.”
“You went to school for it.”
“A stupid mistake. I got a better job for the city that didn’t require a degree in animals.”
The man frowned.
“So you’d rather do something you hate to keep your pent house in California?”
“Well…yeah.”
Sighing deeply, he watched as Zeke moved to help Benedict. Shaking his head, he proceeded toward Madison and Adam as they conversed.
“What are you two up to?”
Adam chuckled as he turned toward his father, away from his sister and her serious expression.
“Work, dad.”
“What about it?”
Madison seemed nervous.
“Well, the jobs are going so well…and…”
“And…” Adam continued. “We’re thinking if it stays like this, we may not have kids.”
The man halted in his moving entirely.
“…What? Why?”
“Kids are such a hassle, dad!” Madison insisted. “I think Zachary and I will just focus on our careers and-“
“No children? Do you have any idea how incredible having children is?”
“Benedict isn’t going to have kids, dad-“
“Because he can’t.” he hissed, clearly pointing out the painful inability Benedict had was a stupid thing. It wasn’t his fault, he’d always been healthy.
“Dad, I know you wanted grandkids but maybe-“
“What’s the matter with you kids?!”
The room was suddenly hushed as the four children turned to look at their father.
“Your mother would be ashamed if she heard this!”
“Dad,” Adam groaned. “Don’t bring mom into this.”
“I damn well should!” he nodded. “You’re lucky she, bless her, isn’t here to hear this, it’d break her heart! More focused on careers than love and family, money more important than passion, marrying because you’re good together, not because you’re meant to be together! I’m sickened.”
“Dad,” Benedict chuckled. The man was disturbed to see all of his children with amused expressions. “That whole love and chivalry thing is in fairy tales. People, since the year 2000 to now-“
Benedict pointed toward the calendar, reading July, 2055.
“People since then to now don’t get married because they can’t live without each other, dad. They get married because they’re a good match.”
The older man stared at his son.
“Benedict-“
“Yeah, dad.” Zeke intervened. “I mean, money is an important thing nowadays. I have to go with the smart decision over the job I’d have fun with.”
“Not to mention,” Madison broke in. “Children are cute, sure, but having them is going to slow down my career while it’s still hot.”
“…Where did we go wrong with you four?”
“Come on, dad. We’re struggling to stay alive.” Adam sighed. “Love is a cool thing, dad, but can you think of anyone in the last fifty years that’d be willing to drop their careers for it?”
“Yeah,” the man shot a stern look toward Adam. “I’ll be right back.”
Moving away from the children, he moved up the staircase at the bottom of the living room and swiftly pulled himself up and toward the bedroom he’d shared with his wife. Slipping inside carefully, he sighed as the scent of her perfume hit him. Doing his best to ignore it, he proceeded toward the closet and pushed open the doors.
His hazel eyes scanned the contents until they fell on a shelf in the very top.
“Dad, what are you doing?”
Glancing behind him, he saw Benedict leading the other three adult children into the room, all of their faces with entirely exasperated expressions.
“I’m showing you,” he grunted as he lifted a decorated album box, roughly one and a half times longer than his chest out of the closet. Setting it, carefully, on the bed, he sat down and looked up at his children as he lifted the lid.
“The answer to your question, Adam, is that I can.”
Adam cocked an eyebrow.
“Can what?”
“Can someone in the last fifty years that’d be willing to drop their careers for love.”
“Who?”
“Your mother and I.”
The four children groaned.
“Daddy,” Madison rubbed her forehead. “Daddy, you very well know that you and mama kept some kind of spotlight career until your were in your late thirties.”
“So?”
“So you met her when you were twenty, dad.”
“We were willing to put our careers on the line for each other, Madison Grace.” He replied, sternly. “We were lucky enough to keep both.”
“Stupid move,” Adam chuckled.
He shot an expression toward his son.
“What did you say?”
“It was a stupid career move, dad. You guys had it good with your careers. Putting it on the line for a person-“
“For the only person, Adam. And if you recall, you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your mother and I.”
Adam sighed, somewhat defeated.
“Besides,” the man continued. “Your mother and I didn’t have it easy all the time-“
Zeke scoffed.
“Dad, you were in a band with our uncles, you were adored by millions and had millions. You could even act sometimes! Mom was a singer and she had millions of fans and millions of dollars. She acted, she modeled- how could mom possibly have had it hard? And you both – how could you both, as a couple, possibly have had it hard?”
The older man stared at his children with stern eyes and beckoned them over with a finger.
The four exchanged looks and sighed as they proceeded toward their father. Taking seats on the king size bed, surrounding their father with the box in his lap, he smiled smugly. Leaning back, he made himself comfortable as he opened the box and placed it on his bedside table. Lifting the first, dusty green book out of it, he brushed off the hardcover of the book and smiled at the stickers on top of it – guitars, musical notes, hearts, a couple of pasted pictures of his wife and her closest friends on the cover.
“She was as exquisite then as she was at fifty and then on.” He chuckled as he pulled open the book, it’s spine cracking with age.
“Dad, what are you-“
“You’re not leaving,” he replied firmly as he looked between them. “Not until you understand.”
The kids exchanged a look.
“But dad, our jobs-“
“No. You’re not leaving. I’ll cancel the airline tickets if you try.”
Sighing, the kids seemed to place their jaws on their hands in impatience.
“These journals were kept by your mother from the scaling of her career, the first time we met and then on. I can’t quite recall where they ended, it’s been ages since she let me read them – but I think they have to be read to you all.”
There was a silence as he found his face.
“The rush of the crowd was still getting to me as I climbed off stage…”
