Abiding Love by Kate Welsh

Author:Kate Welsh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2004-10-15T20:00:00+00:00

Mark knelt in front of the box of his father’s belongings that had just been delivered. He’d decided to carry it upstairs but had accidentally dropped it, and he was checking the damage. Inside, his parents’ wedding photo lay on top in a broken frame. They stood in their wedding clothes—his mother in a white gown and his father in dress whites—beneath an arch of crossed swords.

He hadn’t thought his father would keep something so sentimental. Feeling responsible, Mark picked the photo up to see if the backing could be fixed…and a letter fluttered out.

He wouldn’t have considered reading it but the letter was in his mother’s handwriting. His heart squeezed painfully. The letter was short. Mean. Full of truths he’d never understood, and full of lies.

She’d left his father for Jerry, who she said was everything his father wasn’t. Mark thought back and remembered coming home from kindergarten and finding Jerry and his mom laughing in the kitchen. Mark had liked Jerry right off because he made his mom laugh more. She had never laughed when his dad was there. When his dad was home they fought sometimes, and Mark had always felt guilty when it happened. So he’d thought Jerry was okay.

But his dad had been okay, too. It had been Mom who was always yelling. Usually when he and Dad were playing.

Mark remembered the report card ceremony now—his dad pinning a ribbon on him for each report card after hanging it on the fridge. He remembered ordinary days when his dad came home and tossed Mark high in the air. Once again, he remembered how his mother would shout that Mark would get hurt, even though his father had never dropped him. So Dad would put him down, smiling but looking kind of worried. Mark had hated that worried sad smile, and so he’d tackle his big, tall father and knock him down. They’d roll around on the ground and laugh. Together.

He smiled sadly, knowing now that he hadn’t knocked that big man off his feet at all. Then one day his dad, his hero, had left with his big green pack after promising to be back. But he hadn’t come back. The day came when Jerry—he was there all the time by then—had loaded up their things in his car and taken them to New Mexico. His mother had explained that Jerry was his father now and that his dad wasn’t ever coming home.

It was all so clear now. And Mark understood. He’d missed more than his bedroom. More than the wallpaper. Had he really told that to this man whom he’d once idolized? He’d missed the bedtime stories his dad used to tell. And the wrestling matches on the floor. The report card ceremonies and those cool ribbons that Mark now recognized as uniform ribbons that represented his father’s decorations. Mark had missed a lifetime with his father. His hero.

“Mark?” Adam said from the doorway of his bathroom.

Mark surreptitiously wiped his eyes before turning around and looking up.

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