Cliffside Paradise

    You know, you can’t actually see Russia from here. It’s real nice looking out into the ocean, though, looking at the waves crashing below you. That’s just from right here, right from this cliff. Paps would scold me any time I walked over to it from the ground. Ma’d get real scared too. I stopped going over to the edge there when I heard someone had jumped off. It’s a nasty drop, no way you could survive that. Beautiful view till you think about how nasty it must be to fall.

    Either way it looks better from above. You see, my great great great grampaps got a crew together and built a lighthouse here on the tip of Alaska. Ever since it’s been my family tradition to keep this lighthouse running. Really though Paps never wanted to have the lighthouse. Ma’s the one who inherited it last, and Paps didn’t think much of it till after they were married. He said to me when I turn eighteen he and Ma were going to California and leaving me with the lighthouse. Who knew if Ma really agreed to that, but when Paps had his mind made up, he had his mind made up.
 
    When I was a kid living in a lighthouse was real cool. My friends would come over all the time and stare in awe at the place. I was real proud of it. When Paps first told me I was getting the lighthouse I was thrilled like a… like a kid would be getting to inherit his father’s real estate. When I got older I stopped being so sure. It was nice and all, I loved living there. But come to think about it, was this how I wanted to spend my whole life? Keeping an old lighthouse, whose only purpose nowadays is attracting tourists and being historic, keeping that in good shape? There was no way I could’ve asked Paps that. He’d have torn my head off. Ma’d probably have told Paps it if I asked her, and he’d have torn my head off even worse for not asking him first.

    At seventeen I was sure I wanted to go to a community college to learn welding. Wasn’t my first plan with life but I’d tried it before and thought it was something to pick up. Paps told me that was fine so long as I kept care of the lighthouse. Was around that time I got my girlfriend too. She was a year younger than me, but in the same year of high school. Real smart girl, skipping a grade like she did. I meant nothing by it but she’d forgotten her lunch money so I paid for hers one day, and I suppose she was real charmed by the gesture. Couple weeks later we were going steady.

    Now it didn’t matter one bit to me what school I went to, so long as I learned what I was supposed to. But Les "Lesley" was dead-set on going to the University of Chicago. Said she wanted to work her way up the business world. I didn’t really think about it when she first said that, but it would’ve put us miles and miles apart. When it did click I figured it out instantly. I was going to have to pick between Les and Paps.

    Paps was no bad father by all means, but it wasn’t my job to take care of an old building for him. I wasn’t going to give up my love just for that. Honestly it was a godsend that Les had told me that, had been so insistent on Chicago. Living my whole life in a lighthouse that nobody wanted would’ve been miserable. I supposed I would’ve gone to the community college a half hour out of town, forty-five minutes from the lighthouse. That commute was going to be real hairy, but if I just moved it wouldn’t be a problem. I did some research and found a couple good community colleges in Chicago, made sure I had all the plans down before I told Paps. He’d be mad, I told myself. Madder than I’d ever seen him before.

    I remember the words clear as day: “If you dare go to Chicago and leave me with this Goddamn house, I will make you regret it till the day you die. Don’t you go running off for your four-eyed girl in some crime-ridden city to make her happy! You owe me, son, with your life. If you can’t respect my will then respect that.”
    Ma wasn’t even in the living room with us. Paps wouldn’t let her. I replied in my calmest tone, “Paps, till the second I turn eighteen you’re the boss of me. I don’t got legal rights without you. But when that clock strikes midnight on February Nine-teen this year, I don’t owe you nothing.”
    “Get out of my sight!” he stormed about the room a bit. “I’m going to the Classers. Their daughter is not "I repeat, is not" putting any more crazy ideas about going to the big city in my son’s head.”
    I was so indignant I could only barely nod. As he grasped the doorknob I shouted over to him, “You’re pissed because your plans to indulge in life at your son’s expense are falling through. That’s why you’re pissed.”
    He wouldn’t turn around. Instead he kicked the door off its hinges and stormed off. Seconds later Ma came rushing in. “What did you tell him?” she demanded.
    “I told him he can take his dreams of California and take a hike. I’m not holding down his fort for the next sixty years. If he won’t keep the place then we sell it, Ma.”
    Ma only looked at me in despair. “How has it come to this?”
    “It’s been like this for a long while. It’s been like this ever since getting to own a lighthouse stopped being a cool game for a nine-year-old kid.”

    Now I was the one to storm out of the room. Ma didn’t say anything that should’ve made me angry. Was I in the wrong here? I shouldn’t have pulled her into the conversation. I holed up in my room and pretended to myself I was working on homework while staring down at the indiscernible mass of “mathematics.”

    “Dinner’s ready. Please come sit with us,” I heard Ma’s voice. My window had been dark for a while now. I cautiously exited my room and the three of us sat at the table. Our bloodhound "Paps’ bloodhound really" watched us eagerly.
    “I’m selling the lighthouse,” Ma said. We both looked to her, astonished. “We’ve been living here a long time, sure, but it does us no good these days.” I nodded in agreement. “So, I’m going to call up some historical preservation folks starting tomorrow morning, and seeing if they’ll buy the place.”
    Ma was rarely the one to take action, but when she did even Paps held back. “Whoa" wait a moment Tilda, you sure about that?”
    Her face turned almost mechanically to stare right at him. “Yes, I’m sure honey.” I felt a chill play along my spine. “We’ll go to California, Danny and Lesley will go to Chicago. That’s what is going to happen.”

    We ate in silence for the rest of the night. But I was relieved. I was moving on.
    The next few weeks were chaotic. I would come home from school to find papers strewn about the dining table. Ma was hard at work on the phone. Paps ended up making us dinner for a little while so Ma could have time to clean off the table. By the next morning it was already back to a mess.

    Then, finally, she announced shortly after I got home, “We’ve got a deal!” My eyes opened wide. I rushed out of my bedroom.
    “How much? How much?”
    “One-point-two-three million dollars, that’s one million, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars, if it’s in fit shape.”
    I was shocked. We were going to be millionaires! Wasn’t nearly as impressive as a century ago but millionaires!
    “Now this is our house. Lots of that money is going to go to where we go live in California. We won’t be millionaire or nothing.”
    My heart sank. I could’ve expected that, but one-point-two-three million dollars! That was insane. When Paps got home he reacted just as I had. Ma chuckled at it.
    “They’re taking the place in July, which gives us about a month for us to all move out after Danny gets out of school. Now I’m not condoning you do anything with Lesley, Danny, but if she isn’t living in the dorms at wherever she goes you two better think about sharing a place.” My face felt hot and Paps withheld a laugh. She continued, “It saves you a lot of money. Paps and I are putting aside some of the money from the house for you, so you better use it well.”

    It was really happening. As Ma continued about the expenses of living in a place like Chicago I felt invigorated. It was really happening. I smiled and she stopped.
    “What’s so funny about paying your taxes?”
    “Oh, nothing. Just glad how this all went.”
    Paps chimed in, “Me too.”

Author's Note

I was focusing a bit more on dialogue and realism of the setting. Did I succeed at this? Is it too expository at the beginning? How could I incorporate the exposition in the dialogue?