Burning Darkness by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-07T22:47:00.804000+00:00

Chapter 15

Fonda felt a heaviness as they neared her father’s. The neighborhood wasn’t bad, not compared to where she’d grown up. It was more of a forlornness that oozed from the small houses with peeling paint and mold, the people sitting in plastic chairs on their front lawns.

Eric was checking it out, though she couldn’t tell what he thought of the area. He looked at her. “We don’t have to come here.”

She pulled up to a small house, parking on the curb. After cutting the engine, she stared at the house. “No, it’s okay.”

“You looked completely different when we pulled up to Pastimes.”

She turned to him. “How did I look?”

“Happy. You look far from those now.”

“I was just thinking, this is the first time I’ll see my father knowing that he isn’t. I wonder if he ever suspected.”

“My father did. There was always something missing, something different in the way he treated my sister and me.”

She could see his pain, just a brief flash. She didn’t want to see that, so she opened the door and stepped out.

“I’ve got the bags,” he said, grabbing them out of the back.

She shored up her shoulders and faced the house. One night, where she might feel safe.

He came up beside her. “If you feel this way about being here, why did you come before?”

“I wanted to feel comfortably numb. Like that Pink Floyd song. That’s how I lived my life for a long time.”

“How bad was it?”

She glanced at him, and his expression was grave. “It could have been worse. But you know, I can’t really blame my father. He was needy, lost, after my mother’s suicide. I have vague memories of different women being in and out of our lives. I was ten when he met Connie. I think she kept the darker side of herself from him while they dated; at least I’d like to think he didn’t marry her knowing she was an addict. Maybe her drug use became more than occasional after they married.

“She was nice to me then, but not affectionate. They partied a lot, and then it wasn’t only on weekends but during the week. People hanging around and drinking and getting high. I got a bad feeling about them, so I hid in my room a lot. I remember coming out to ask my dad a question about my homework and caught him shooting up. It scared and disgusted me.

“Things got worse when I was about thirteen. I’d wake up and find him and Connie and sometimes other people sprawled about the living room. I had a hard time waking him up in the mornings.” She remembered the first time she’d thought he was dead. “Connie was spending money like crazy, buying clothes and shoes. I heard them fighting about it, but I still saw bags and bags. Dad lost his job. Then one day the police told us we had to leave our house. I thought it was the worst thing that had ever happened, but he didn’t even seem to care.

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