So Much Like My Dad

Part one of three.

 

The sun was starting to set as he drove down the street towards his childhood home. It was where he could always find the answers he needed, and right now he needed answers. The streetlights came on as he turned onto the street that he had rode up and down on his skateboard so many times when he was a kid. He turned into the familiar driveway and shut off his car. He sat in the driver’s seat and stared at the home he had lived in for eighteen years with his parents and younger sister.

            As he climbed out, he swallowed back a lump in his throat, which also stopped the threat of tears… at least for the moment. He stepped up the three front porch steps that he had jumped down so many times and twisted the doorknob until it opened. He stood in the doorway for a minute and waited until he saw his mother walking in the living room before stepping into the only home he had ever known before his life changed forever.

            “Dayton, what are you doing here?” she asked, obviously surprised by his sudden appearance. He usually called before he came over, but he hadn’t this time. There hadn’t been time to.

            “I… need to talk to you, Mom,” he said slowly, avoiding her eyes. She could tell that something was wrong though, she always could.

 

~*~

 

            Dayton walked into the house after school and immediately went up to his bedroom without saying anything to anyone. There were dried tears on his cheeks that he had tried to hide, but Sandy had seen them. She waited a few minutes until she heard his door shut before starting up the stairs. She knocked on his door and waited to see if he would answer.

            “Who is it?” he called from inside, trying to stop his voice from shaking.

            “It’s me, Day, is everything okay?” she asked, but she already knew the answer. The question was, would he let her in?

            Dayton sighed. She was the last person he wanted to talk to, but she was also the only person he could think to tell. He walked over to the door and opened it, then walked back to his bed without looking up at her. He refused to let her see his tears and wiped them from his eyes as she walked over to him. He kept his head down and waited for her to speak.

            “What’s wrong, baby?” she asked him, wrapping her arm around his shoulders like she had so many times before when he was younger. They had always been close, but time had tested their relationship as he advanced through the teen years.

            He felt like a baby as he hugged her and cried against her shoulder, but he couldn’t help himself. She was the one person he trusted more than anyone else, even his sister, whom he had been closest to for most of his life. He knew he could count on his mother to be there and to keep a secret, no matter what.

            “Mom…” he said, unable to get any other words out. He swallowed and sniffed, trying to force back the lump in his throat. How could he possibly tell her? He couldn’t even handle the truth, how could she? She was going to lose her son, her baby boy, and all because of a mistake he made. How could he do that to her? What kind of a son was he?

            “It’s okay, Day, it’s alright,” she said gently, holding him tight to her chest and waiting patiently for him to tell her.

            Will she be so patient when I tell her the truth? he wondered.

            “Mom…” he said again, lifting his head up and wiping the freshly fallen tears. It was now or never. “Mom… she’s pregnant.”

 

~*~

            “Dayton.”

            His mom’s voice rang through his head, and for a moment he thought it was still from his memory, but then he heard her again, louder this time.

            “Dayton, are you okay?” she asked, bringing her eyebrows together in a worried frown.

            “I…” he started to say, then stopped. He had been about to say that he was fine, but he wasn’t, was he? Physically, yes… but mentally? Far from it.

            “What is it, Day?” she asked, using his childhood nickname.

            He frowned even more at the use of his nickname. Liz was the only who called him that on a regular basis anymore. “Mom, am I still… like Dad?”

            Sandy was taken by surprise at his question. She looked up at the picture of her late husband sitting on the stand by his armchair and sighed. As she looked back at her son, there were tears shining in her eyes.

            “You’re more like him than you’ll ever know,” she told. She shook her head and let out a small chuckle. “Maybe it’s just my age, but I swear sometimes when I look at you I see your father.”

            Dayton smiled slightly at her, but the tone of his voice was serious as he said, “You’re not old, Mom.”

            “I’m old enough,” she argued. “I mean, hell, I’m going to be a grandmother in a few months.”

            This time Dayton glared at her with his eyes. “That doesn’t mean you’re old. I’m the stupid one for getting her pregnant.” He looked away as his eyes watered with tears and he began speaking in a quiet voice, more to himself than to her. “I can’t support the two of us, even with two jobs, let alone a kid. She’s threatening to leave me and go back to her parents if things don’t change.” He looked back up, his eyes a mixture of sadness, worry, frustration, and a little bit of anger.

            “Oh, Dayton,” Sandy said, wrapping her arms around him. “I’m so sorry. You’re trying your best to make this work, there’s nothing more you can do.”

            “I know, Mom,” he said, “But how do I tell her that? She knows I’m trying, but it’s too much for her. I don’t want her to be stressed out, especially since she’s pregnant. I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

            “I know you don’t, son,” she said, holding him like she used to when he got hurt as a kid. “You’re trying your best, that’s all she can ask from you. It’s hard when you just start out, especially when you don’t finish school.”

            Dayton gulped as a wave of guilt washed over him. He pulled away and looked down, avoiding her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mom. I just can’t stand to see her go through this alone. It’s my fault it happened and I have to take responsibility for it.”

            “I know Dayton, I know,” was all Sandy could say this time. She looked back at the picture of her husband and waited in silence.

            “Mom,” Dayton said after several minutes.

            “What is it, son?” she asked when he didn’t say anything more. She glanced over at him and saw him watching her.

            “If I’m so much like Dad, then… then there must have been times when you felt the same way as Liz, right? I mean, where you questioned if he was the right one for you, right?” he asked. He was searching for answers, searching her for answers. He looked directly into her eyes, waiting for a response.

            Sandy looked back at him, keeping the eye contact to reassure him that her words were true. “There was such a time Dayton. It was similar to what you are going through with Elizabeth now. For the first year of our marriage we were in trouble financially and it blinded us. We lost sight of our love for each other.”

            “How did you get past that?” Dayton asked hopefully, praying that this was the answer he needed.

            Sandy sighed. She wasn’t sure how to explain it to him, but she would try, for him. “I don’t know exactly, but he surprised me one night by coming home from work early. We needed the money and I didn’t see why he would risk losing the hours to come home, but he took me out to the restaurant we went to on our first date. It was a simple gesture, but somehow it gave us both the awakening we needed. We made a promise to each other that no matter what we would never let anything get in the way of our love for each other.” She smiled at him then as she added, “When we had you a year later, it only strengthened our vows.”

            Dayton was silent while she spoke, staring at the counter top as he absorbed everything she said. He looked back up at her with fresh admiration and asked, “Do you think that that will be enough for Liz?”

            “She loves you Dayton, she just needs something to remind her of the love so she can see past the problems,” she told him confidently.

            Dayton wasn’t yet convinced. “Are you sure? I don’t want to lose her, Mom. I’ll… I’ll die without her.”

            Sandy wrapped her arm around his shoulders and nodded. “I’m positive.”

            Dayton nodded, although he still wasn’t sure if he believed her or not. He didn’t have a choice though; he didn’t want to think about her leaving him. He looked up at his mother and managed a small smile as he said, “I wish you could just kiss my pain away like when I was six.”

            Sandy smiled at his words. “I do, too Dayton. I do, too.”

 

~*~

 

            Sandy stood on the front porch, watching her son ride up and down the street on the new skateboard he had wanted so badly. She bit her lip when he began pushing himself faster, gaining confidence as he lifted his leg one more time and kept it on the board, coasting down the street. As he neared the turn, he leaned to one side like his father had showed him, but he leaned too far. He hit the pavement and lay there for a few seconds catching his breath.

            “Dayton!” Sandy yelled, running down the front porch steps and down the street towards her son. She lifted him up carefully and wrapped her arms around him. “Baby, are you okay?”

            He nodded, being strong like his father, but there were tears in his eyes and he was holding his knee. After fighting with him for a few minutes, Sandy was finally able to lift up his pant leg to reveal a bloody scrape. She carried him inside and into the bathroom where she set him on the counter and got out disinfectant and a band-aid.

            “This is going to sting, but it’s going to make it all better, okay?” she said, rubbing the peroxide on his knee. He whimpered once, but bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. She placed the band-aid on his knee and kissed it gently. “Feel better?”

            Dayton nodded and hugged her. “Thanks Mom,” he said.

            “You just be more careful on that thing,” she warned him. He nodded and she set him down and watched him run back outside to his skateboard.

 

~*~

 

            Dayton stood up and hugged his mom.

            “Thank you,” he said softly.

            She nodded and hugged him back. “Your welcome. You know the door is always open for you.”

            Dayton nodded and grabbed his keys from his pocket. He had to get back to her.

Author's Note

Let me know of any grammer problems, etc.

Reviews

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This is a good start. I liked the way you added the past to the present situation. It gives the reader more background information. Very nice. I like the dialogue. It felt real as I read.