The Lost Truth by T.K. Chapin

Author:T.K. Chapin [Chapin, T.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Branch Publishing
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

After stopping by PJ’s Liquor Store for a case of whiskey, I headed back to my sister’s house. I used the last of my savings to purchase the case. It felt wrong—really wrong—but I didn’t see any other solution. On the drive back to Janice’s, images of the trailer park flashed through my mind. The blood, the screams, it all pushed and pushed, not relenting for even a moment’s time.

After parking in the driveway, I grabbed a bottle from under the tarp and out of the case. I undid the cap and drank. As I tipped the bottle up, I looked at the ceiling of the cab and felt the burning yet relieving whiskey travel down into my stomach. As I stopped, I tilted my head back down and saw Cindy standing in front of the truck.

Someone could have shot me in the chest at point blank range and it would have been invited over my daughter seeing me do that. She knew what alcohol was after Gail decided to inform her in the midst of one of my drunken episodes back when we all lived together as a family. I had promised her that I’d never put drinking before her after I broke her doll house in a drunken rage. I promised again after I crashed my motorcycle, and it looked like I’d never stop letting her down.

As Cindy stood there in the gravel with tears welling in her eyes, a snotty nose, and pink ribbons holding up her pigtails, I realized that I was a fraud of a father. Watching her run back toward the house and up the steps to go inside, my heart twisted in anguish. How could I be so stupid? Clutching the bottle in my hand as I rubbed the corner of it with my thumb, I looked up and shook my head. “Where are you, God?”

Janice exploded out the screen door and down the steps moments later. Twisting the cap on and quickly shoving the bottle into the glove box as she approached, I adjusted in my seat and rolled down the window. I was ready for an earful.

“Katie’s going to be late. She said she’ll be by this evening though. She got in late last night.” Janice smiled and then went past the truck. Sticking my head out the window, I looked back at her and came to the conclusion that Cindy hadn’t said a word. Peering back at the house, I saw Cindy in the window staring at me. The look of disappointment in my daughter’s eyes cut through me like a sharpened blade. I felt horrible.

Getting out of the truck, I went inside and shut the door. Cindy sat down on the couch and looked over at me as I came around to her. “I’m sorry. I just have a lot of pain I’m trying to deal with.”

She didn’t say anything, just kept quiet and nodded. Sniffing a little, she said in a soft tone, “When can we go swimming?”

Guilt over what I had done compelled me to be okay with a trip even though she was sick.

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