Invisible

I was sitting on the steps to my front door when my dad pulled up. I jumped up, excited ready to embrace my father. I watched him with a smile on my face as he climbed out of his car. He looked around and sighed.

"Lindsey baby. I wish you were here so I could hold you." He whispered.

He had a folder in his hands as he climbed the stairs to my front door.

My mother opened the door with a smile, “Michael, how are you?” She opened the door wider to let him in. My dad kissed her cheek and stepped into the living room.

“I’m better, how are you?”

My mother shrugged, “I have my moments.”

My dad nodded, “Don’t we all.”

“Have a seat Michael.” My mother sat on her chair, while my dad sat on the sofa. “What do you have there?” She pointed to the folder my dad was clutching in his hands.

I sat on the floor next to my mother’s knee’s watching my dad open the folder slowly and pulling out a picture.

“I went to Detective Murray yesterday after the memorial.” He handed my mother a photo, I reached up to see what it was. “He gave me a folder of pictures of the science teacher from the high school Lindsey went too.” The pictures were of Mr. Robin helping me with my work, or showing me how to do an experiment. How did they get these?

“How did they get these?” My mother asked.

“They have cameras in the school Rachel. They installed these two years ago when they caught the history teacher having an affair with a student.”

My mother nodded, “I remember Lindsey telling me something about that.”

My history teacher was caught having sex with a freshman my sophomore year. It was shocking and totally unexpected...especially from him.

“After that they installed these cameras not telling anyone about them. The only people who knew were security guards, counselors and the superintendent. No teachers or students knew about this. So after Lindsey went missing, the police asked for all the video tapes to find anything on Lindsey. They only caught the stills of these. When you look at them closely, you will see that Mr. Robin is looking at Lindsey in a way no teacher should look at a student.”

My mother looked threw the pictures again, and again. “Do you think that he had something to do with our daughter’s death?”

My father nodded, “I think so.”

Just as my mother was about to say something, Richard walked in. All three of us turned our attention to him as he walked straight into the kitchen to grab his beer.

“Hello Richard.” My father smiled.

Richard grunted something and turned on the T.V.

My father chuckled, “You know, its common curiosity to say hello back.”

Richard looked at him, “Does it look like I give a shit what you say?”

My dad stood up with me and my mother watching. My dad stood in front of Richard, blocking his view.

“You should give a shit what I say Richard.”

Richard placed his beer on the table and stood up in front of my dad, “And why is that?”

My dad crossed his arms, “Because I said so.”

Richard laughed, “Because you said so? Um. Well I don’t think I should.”

It all happened too fast after that. My dad took a swing at him then Richard tackled him to the wall making all the pictures come crashing down to the floor.

“GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!” Richard yelled.

My dad collided his fist to Richards face, “That was for Lindsey.” I watched Richard push him off and stare at him.

“I didn’t do anything to Lindsey!”

My dad groaned, “You did everything to her! You were so verbally abusive to her!”

Richard starred at my dad, he was about to say something but nothing came out. My dad brushed off the glass that fell on his shoulder.

“Lindsey always told me how rude and selfish you could be. She always said how you never let her do anything. Do you know how many times she called me crying, because you always made her feel horrible about herself? Do you know how many times she begged me to take her back because she didn’t want to be with you anymore? No you don’t know. You don’t know what it feels like to hear your daughter cry over the phone and not be able to do anything about it.”

Richard sat on the floor with his head hanging low. My dad stood up to stare at my mother.

“I was going to come get her; I was going to take her away from you. But I got the call that she was missing, and three days later finding out that she was dead Richard. Dead. Do you know how that feels like? To lose you’re one and only child because of some prick. It’s the most horrible feeling ever; don’t you feel that at all? You were her step-father. It’s horrible Richard. To never see your baby again, to never hear her laugh or see her smile. It’s horrible. You can’t tell me that you don’t feel something….sadness, anger…depression. Anything? Because Lindsey wasn’t in your life for no reason at all, she had to have some affect on you.”

Richard stood up, wiping the blood on his lip off.

“You have no right to tell me that I didn’t love Lindsey!” Richard yelled, “Because I did.”

My dad snorted, “You had a fine way of telling her.”

“She never listened to me! She never did what I asked her to do!”

“Lindsey was a teenager Richard! Of course she was going to rebel!”

“She drove me crazy! She always talked back to me!”

My father threw his hands in the air, “Maybe she wouldn’t be like that if you hadn’t kept her so caged in all the time!”

Richard starred at my father for a long time before he fell to the floor……crying.

I watched my mother kneel down beside him to cup his face in her hands. Richard pulled her in for hug while he sobbed on her shoulder. I stood next to my dad –who watched them cry together- I grabbed my dad’s hand and squeezed it lightly.

My dad gasped and starred at his hand, he slowly lifted his eyes to stare straight at me. I smiled at him while tears streamed down his face.

“Butterfly?” my dad whispered. I giggled at my nickname; he used to call me butterfly whenever he wanted to spoil me.

I let go of his hand and bent down next to Richard to press my lips lightly on his scruffy cheek. Then I whispered, “I love you too Richard. I do forgive you.”

I stood up and walked out the backdoor, with my dad starring at his hand and Richard still crying on the floor.