Cast Away by Kase Johnstun

Author:Kase Johnstun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Torrey House Press

On the phone, my mom laughed and when the conversation naturally began to slow down, instead of filling the time with updates and jokes, she began to cry through “I love you” and “I miss you,” both repeated five or six times before she unraveled her body from the long cord and handed the phone to me.

I held my father’s letters to me in my hand. I had sent him one a week since he’d been gone, running through CastAway scenarios and updating him on my training.

I told him about how Hans had been training by eating maggots we found. And repeated, over and over, what the host of the show always said, “A million dollars can change your luck and your life.”

His letters always disappointed me. They told me that he loved and missed me. He thanked me for my updates, but they never said anything about my plan to bring him home, except that his heart was full because I had made a friend and I was doing well in los Estados Unidos, making my way here.

“Papa,” I said into the receiver.

“Chuy, mijo, como estas?” he always started this way. I loved him for it. No one ever asked how I was doing. Mom gave me love. Veronica gave me trouble. Dad always asked how I was. Not in a way that most people ask on the street or when a waiter asks, but he drew out the question, holding it in his mouth before letting out, truly asking, “How are you, my boy?”

“Bien, Papa, pero,” I would say. “But I would be better if you were here. With Mom and me. If I could win the show, I could pay people to get you here. With a million dollars, we make our own luck, si?”

A long silence hung over the phone.

“I love you, my boy, but we shouldn’t talk about this on the phone, okay?” he said. “You never know who’s listening.”

I looked around the room. Mom and Veronica had settled on the couch. It was Saturday night after Mass, so Mom had tapped her Franzia box of wine and relaxed.

“It’s me and Mom and Veronica,” I said.

My father exhaled on the other side of the line, his breath leaving his mouth way across the Caribbean.

“Chuy, mijo, I love you,” he said. “I want you to be one of those students who gets to travel the world, to see other people, to talk to a man in Spain or France or Japan, okay? Are you doing good in school?”

“Yes, now I am. Hans and Aunt Veronica help me with my English, and the math and science, they’re the same as the math and science in Mexico,” I said.

My father chuckled on the other side of the line.

“Are you mowing lawns?” he asked.

“Yep, five a week. I’m making enough money that Mom might be able to quit her second job,” I said.

“Good boy,” my father said. “Maybe soon enough your mom can go back to school too, eh,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.