My first story

The Love of a Father 

by Jessyka

The night of October 27th was cold in the California deserts. The Jeep in which Katie and father, Richard, drove was imperfect and bent like their relationship. Admittedly, Richard knew nothing of his daughters’ likes or interest and Katie was well aware of this. However, they had both hoped this weekend would help mend their relationship. 

As the Jeep bumped and rattled over the incredibly majestic mountains, they both felt as if this moment could be the moment to change everything. They felt closer now to each other than they had ever felt before, of course the alcohol helped. They had spent most of their time talking about light-hearted subject, like they had always done, or more specifically how Katie had always remembered them doing. Katie had not seen much of her father since he stole money from her mother to support his methamphetamine addiction. Even so, this was their last weekend to try to save any amount of the broken relationship they had. In two days, Katie will be leaving to UCLA to become a psychologist and specialize in Drug and Alcohol Prevention, so if something needed to be said, it needed to happen soon. For the last twenty minutes, Richard had been explaining the ins and outs of off roading and his glorious stories of his off riding anecdotes. Then the silence of the night settled. “Katie girl?” Richard spoke with hesitation. 

“Yes dad?”

The silence washed over them for a minute. 

“I’m- I’m glad you’re doing well for yourself.” Richard’s voice had grown horse. “It may be the alcohol talking, but I never would have thought something so wonderful and precious can come out of me. I mean, I could never do anything right with my life. And you-” Richard needed a moment to catch his breath. Katie felt shock and a strange feeling of happiness. Both of them were accompanied by a swell in their throat. 

Richard continued. “And, baby girl, if anything were to ever happen to me, I want you to know that you are my greatest accomplishment.” Richard’s eyes became hot with tears. Never in all his life did he meant to harm his little girl. He felt an immense feeling of guilt for never truly caring for his daughter whom he now understood to have deserved the world. All his life, he never took responsibility for his actions. Not when he got Katie’s mother pregnant, and he had refused to help due to her disapproval of having an abortion. Not even when he refused to give up his Meth addiction which subsequently lead to the shut down of his body. Even now, while Katie was drinking immensely at seventeen years old, he neglected his duties as a father. Instead, he had blamed all of his destruction on his parents dying when he was merely just a boy. Still, something deep inside him made him really wonder if he should even try to mend his relationship with his daughter. 

I’m a parasite, he thought. She has actually done something with her life and it’s because she was never influenced by me. And now, if I get close to her she’s only going to think its because I want to make myself feel better about the choices I have made before I die. What’s the best that can happen? She gets close to her dad just to watch him die six months later? You really still are a shitty father. She can never love-

“Watch out!” Katie shrieked, but it was too late. While Richard was deep in his thoughts he had accidently rolled over a clift and the Jeep had begun to flip over. Rolling three times, Katie grabbed onto the side of the window and smashed her arm. Unfortunately she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt so she fell forward and snapped her neck on the interior window of the Jeep. She died instantly. Almost instantaneously, Richard, who also was not wearing his seatbelt, hit his head on the wheel of the Jeep and blacked out for a few seconds. When he came to, both he and his daughter were upside-down with part of them inside the Jeep and part of them outside on the hot desert. There was a ringing in his head as he tried to reach for his daughter, but soon he realized he had been paralyzed by the accident. He also felt the need to give up on trying to survive, to give in to the need to sleep, but he didn’t do that. For the first time in his life, he felt the overwhelming desire to make sure his little girl was okay before he can rest.

 Someone who had seen the accident had rushed to pull them out of the Jeep that had now begun to produce flames. And someone else, a boy, maybe twelve years old, hand begun to call the police. 

“Yes I-I need h-he-help fast.” the boy scrambled his words in a rushed tone. “Two p-people got into an accident! One of them may still be alive,” the boy began to cry “but one of them is dead!” 

After hearing those words that stung Richard like a knife, he decided there was no reason to hold on any longer. He drifted off into the sleep that so desperately yearned for him.