Just Once (448 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.07 on 18 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by QuinnTheEskimo (View user info) at 2007-07-27 07:38:40 EDT
I've only ever felt ashamed of my father once. Just once. He's lied, cheated, stole, screwed around on every women he's ever been with, and his favorite past time seems to be telling me that my life is going nowhere. But I can forgive these things in him, after all, he is my dad.
He tried more than other dads. I know, because I had friends with truly dead-beat dads. Kinda guys that split as soon as they knew their girlfriend was pregnant. My dad, he showed up to award bullshit at my school, bought me a Super Nintendo one birthday, that kinda stuff. I figure, I got it better than these other kids, what right do I have to complain?
My dad isn't a hero, he's just a middle-aged guy with a ratty towel around his neck. I've come to terms with that. I understand that he essentially abandoned his first family, and tried to make up for that with me and my sibling. I know he screwed around on my mother when she was pregnant and tried to abandon her after their divorce, and I can forgive that, too. Like I said, he isn't God, but you gotta give someone credit when they've tried to be a good parent to you. And my dad has made efforts here and there.
However, today, I found out something about my dad that I will never be able to forgive him for. It didn't even happen to me, to be honest. His first wife and I happened to be having a conversation. Okay, it was more like I grilled her for close to two hours about my dad, what he had done in his life, what he had known, because my father rarely talks about himself.
"So you guys were young when you were married, and you squirted out four kids by the time you were thirty?" I'm not exactly tactful even when talking to a woman old enough to be my grandmother.
"Yes. Right after the fourth, your dad started pulling away emotionally. I knew what was going on, but I couldn't confront him about it. I just kind of let it happen. The day he told me, my reaction was essentially, 'I know.'" She shrugged off the heart-ache of her youth.
"Wow. Did you ever meet the lady he was screwing around with?" I asked. I was probably over-stepping a boundary, but I didn't care anymore. I want to judge my father not as a son, but as a man judging another man.
"Yes, we all went to church together."
My jaw dropped. "Dad fiddled with some lady you both knew from church?"
"Yep." She said, wringing her hands. "He moved in with her a few days later, and they got married as soon as the divorce was finalized."
"Holy shit," I said, rubbing my sparsely-haired chin. "Was this before or after he was trying to get clean?"
"During, He-"
I interrupted, "He left his wife and four kids while he was trying to become a better person?" I shouted.
She shrugged again.
"Did you ever see him in church?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, all the time. The girls wouldn't know who to sit with." She said, laughing nervously.
I leaned back in my chair. "He divorces you, dumps the four kids in your lap, then decides it's cool beans to just rub it in your face." I shook my head and bit my lip. "I am disgusted."
And I was. How could he do that? Why would he do that? It is one of the most grotesque things I've ever heard of him doing. It makes me sick to think about it. Drops his responsibilities to run and play with a new pretty toy, and shows off what he has to his ex-wife.
Disgusting.
User Reviews
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-07-29 19:00:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-07-29 17:00:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2007-07-27 18:29:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-07-27 13:13:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Remember, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
____________________________________________
A polite "Fuck off and die," for Shlongy.
Submitted by SgtHartman (user info) at 2007-07-27 17:23:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
meh
Submitted by haikumikoo (user info) at 2007-07-27 17:02:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Not terribly surprising.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-07-27 13:13:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Remember, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-07-27 10:18:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
difficult subject to tackle
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-07-27 09:56:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-07-27 09:42:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by TheLightOfSpeed (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:40:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I've heard MUCH worse.
Submitted by czwij (user info) at 2007-07-27 08:44:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
and i thot my family was fucked.
what a cunt and not a man in my point of view.
amazing that you could forgive him.
what i don't get is that you are not part of the 4 member brood with his first wife?
so you are part of the second wave, meaning the tail he got in church?
or
how many kids does this "stud" have?
my sympathies. people sure are fuck ups.
Submitted by m3llowship (user info) at 2007-07-27 08:14:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thats a heartbreaker man, tough one.
My sympathies
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:48:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This makes me sad for personal reasons but Hey im going to see TRANSFORMERS!!!!!!!!
Submitted by particle_man58 (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:46:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
What a dick head. My dad was fucking cool, I miss him a lot sometimes.
Shamless link whore:
http://www.ubersite.com/m/100141
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:45:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Very well written, shitty situation, however.
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:42:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Non-fiction.
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:41:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I have a feeling that's going to be the general reaction.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:40:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Jeebus. True?
Submitted by TheLightOfSpeed (user info) at 2007-07-27 07:40:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I've heard worse.