Love at the Dining Room Table

This story begins with the main character as a grown man. As the story moves from line to line, ends up as a ten-year-old boy telling his story.

 

It is midnight on New Year’s Eve and I am looking out the window remembering when I was young and still finding my way. Tonight the stars are bright and reflecting billions of years of light, passing through the night sky as little twinkles. One of my favorite rhymes as a young child was Twinkle, Twinkle little star. 

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.”

 I would sit on moms lap and together we would look out the window. She waited for me to start the rhyme then she would just start singing. This was our moment, mom and me.  Sometime we would sit for hours, just looking. I could feel her love and I would know that I was safe and nothing else mattered. Every once in a while; dad would come in and sit with us. I loved this best because this was when we were whole. A family that is together; isn’t this way it should be, not two separate families with me in the middle.

We had a great family and on holidays like Thanksgiving, mom would cook a wonderful dinner. It was always just the three of us, sometimes we would have a friend come over, but I liked it best when it was just us. Dad would eat his dinner and the love he had for mom, would shine though his eyes like the stars in the sky at night. I would sit there watching them as they would talk and look at each other. I had no doubt in my mind that this moment was forever. Love at the dining room table, great name for a story that I would write one day.  I want to be a great writer when I grow up. We would sit and eat, and eat, and eat until our tummies would burst. We would talk, sing, and sit at that dining table for hours. 

 

I honestly do not understand how it happened but sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, dad left. When I asked why he was not coming home for dinner, mom just said, “Daddy had to go out of town for a while”. Hanukkah and Christmas came and went, so did New Years. Mom and I just hung out together. Mom is Jewish and dad felt that religion was for people who needed a reason to complain about things. I loved them both the same. Mom was great; she decorated the house for all the holidays and bought tons of presents for me. She even cooked all kinds of goodies. All I could give her where hugs and kisses. Even though she smiled at me and cooked wonderful food, behind her eyes, remnants of tears where always constant. I did not know how to help her, but we managed. 

 

The New Year began and dad never called. I had to go back to school and everything looked normal on the outside. Going home after school was tuff. I missed my dad so much; he was the one who took me to all my afterschool sport practice and events. He missed their anniversary and mother’s day and even her birthday. It seemed strange because as time went on, I kind of forgot about him. Mom and I were too busy to care anymore. On my birthday, she asked what I wanted and I told her that I would get back to her. I went to my room, took out some paper and wrote a letter. On it I wrote,

Dear daddy,

I miss you so much and for my birthday, I want you to come home. I want to be a family again and unless you come home, this will not happen. Mom and I are doing fine but she cries every night. Sometimes, late at night I wake from sleeping. I leave my bed and very quietly, sneak to her room and I sit by the door and listen. I do not think she is sleeping because I can hear her call your name out-loud. I hear her crying. We miss you very much and sometimes we talk about you. We both have decided to let you go. My problem is I cannot do this, you are my daddy and I need you. So does mom. Please think about it. I will give you until Christmas. If you choose to stay away, then I will work extra hard to forget you.

Until Christmas

Love

Your favorite son

My birthday came and went without a word my dad. Life was becoming normal in my house; I went to school and played with my friends. Sometimes one of my friends would ask about my dad so I would just tell them he was on a business trip. Mom stopped crying, she began laughing again and I find her sometimes sitting at her desk and smiling. Yeah, I can guess you could say that life came back to normal, minus dad. One night during the summer, I could not sleep, so I sat at my window and watched the stars shinning so bright. I think I saw a comet zoom past. Looking up at the stars was the one thing that never changed for me. I got the crazy idea to pray so I did. My prayer was a simple one.

 

“Dear God

Please find my daddy. Even though mom and I are doing really good, we both miss him so much. Tell him to come home so we can be a family again. We have so many things we need him to do. Some of the light bulbs have blown out and mommy won’t fix them. She had to call the plumber three times because the tolet backed up and it leaked. I think the roof is leaking and just because we need him to hold us. Please God, find him and do it fast.

Thanks, Amen”

I hope he heard me; daddy was really good at fixing things. Seems that things where breaking all over the house and mom had no idea how to fix them. While looking out the window one night, I think I saw my dad’s car drive down the street, but I really was not sure. I told my mom and she just told me that many people have cars like his. She told me it was a very popular model. I think she was wrong because I saw it again. When I came out of school the other day, I was walking home when I saw it. I was crossing the street and the car was at a light, waiting for it to change, we looked at each other and the man turned his head really fast, as if he did not want to look at me.

It was becoming fall; the leaves on the trees are starting to change. I love this time of the year. Dad would rake the leaves into big piles. I would jump into them and make a huge mess. Dad would get mad at me and I would start running, he would come after me and then, I would let him catch me. I made sure it was by one of the piles because I wanted him to land in them. We would roll around and then mom would come out to see what was going on. She would be mad at us then all of a sudden, she would begin to laugh. We had so much fun. As the weather got cold, mom would make hot chocolate and bake all kinds of cookies and cup cakes. The house would smell really nice from all the baking and my friends always went home with a small bag of homemade goodies.

During the fall, since daddy was not living with us, the leaves never go raked and the hot chocolate and cookies just did not taste as good. Mom and I tried to keep up with our lives when my world suddenly changed. Everything happened so fast I do not remember exactly what even happened. I was playing outside with my friends, I heard a scream to get out of the way and the next thing, I was in a hospital bed. I had big bandages everywhere and my head really hurt. I also noticed that both mom and dad were standing and holding each other. Mom had giant tears in her eyes, but she had a big smile on her face as well. Dad was holding her, tight and close. This made me smile, even though it hurt to do this, I kept it up.  I had a good feeling seeing this and the only thing I could think of was did my accident have anything to do with this. I want them to be together so badly.

Well I had to stay in the hospital for one week and mom and dad came to see me every day. They also came together. This made be so happy. They have no business being apart. When I was able to go home, they came together to get me, and it was a nice ride home in dad’s car. I forgot what it felt like to ride with him and he drove the same crazy way as always. As much as my body ached, It really felt good.

When we got home, mom put me be to bed and I asked her if she could sit with me for a while. We really had to talk. I asked her if daddy was home for good and all she could was, “we are thinking about getting back together.” These seven words where all I needed to hear. They sounded so nice and made me forget how much I ached, not just from the pain from my accident but from the loneliness I had with my dad being gone. He came over every day after work and would stay for diner. I finally had to go back to school and some of my friends asked me what it was like to be in the hospital. It was cool being the top dog for a while.

Life was so much nicer as a family and it had so much more feeling.  The holidays were getting closer and I could feel the change in the weather. Dad had come over to see me and while we were playing video games, a blizzard started and mom told dad he could not leave. The roads had become very hazardous. I found it somewhat funny how he did not even blink an eye when she asked him. He just said, sure. The next morning, there he was, coming out of the bathroom, all smiling and whistling. Funny, it seemed like he never left. The house had that full of life feeling again. With Hanukkah and Christmas coming, I noticed a big change in his attitude also.  Mom decorated the house and baked the best cookies ever. Dad even hung lights, mostly blue and white. He was always complaining about people who go crazy with all the decorations, yet this year he said, “Who cares, we are together”.  I also noticed he stayed over more.  The first night of Hanukkah started on a Friday night of which is Shabbat. We gathered around the table and lit the candles together. The moment was so enormous because dad never did this with mom and me. We all said the blessing together and then dad broke the bread and said the prayer. I did not know that he knew it. He even said it in Hebrew. Then he poured the wine. Wow, this was the most amazing part because he gave me some. In my head I said “Dear God, do not ever let him leave again.” After all this we ate all the best Hanukkah dishes mom could make and our tummies where full.

Hanukkah was over then Christmas was coming and Mom and Dad seemed to be behaving very silly. I guess that is just the way adults act when they are in love. Anyway, on Christmas morning, I found dad in the kitchen. He had the biggest smile on his face and asked me to sit down. Mom walked in and she was smiling. So I said, “What’s going on”.  Mom said, “How do you feel about being a big brother”. Wow, these are the best words I ever heard. This means we are going to be a family again. It felt so nice, now I have to think of a new story to write. I think I will call it, “Baby makes 4”. Yeah, that is the way it should be.

This story has a happy ending, but it is not always true. Families need to work together if they can ever find true happiness.  Love is one of the parts that make it work, but working at love is the next part. Kids need the love from both parents and both parents need to be together. Let us try to make all ending happy.

Shalom