Impact

Aimee vaguely recognized the man at the door. No one had noticed her peeking out and checking to see whom her mother was talking to. But when Aimee’s mind registered the fact that the man was her birth father, her face became red with anger.

When her mom came in after hearing a crash and saw Aimee on the ground with shards of mirror around her and a broken alarm clock, she shouldn’t have been surprised.

Aimee knew she shouldn’t have been causing her mother grief. It was terrible of her, after all the things that were already happening one after another. Riley’s death, her ex-husband’s return – she knew it was unfair of her, but she did it anyway.

“What in God’s name are you doing, Aimee!”

“Why is he back? Why the hell is he coming back now, after all this time? Why can’t he just stay out?” she poured out the rhetorical questions, speaking almost too fast for coherence.

“Aimee, we have to listen to him. He might – “

“Just shut up!” Aimee interrupted. “He left you, Mom! You can’t possibly forgive him now!”

“Why not?”

After Aimee had washed up and swept up the glass, she had walked downstairs, trying to be as civilized as possible.

“Aimee…” her dad barely breathed.

“Hello Robert,” Aimee replied, a grim look on her face.

“I heard about Riley,” he squirmed uneasily.

She looked down, but immediately looked back up, trying to hide her moment of weakness.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said what she had been waiting for.

“For what? Leaving us out of nowhere, or not being here for anything?”

“I didn’t want to leave, Aimee. I wanted to stay for you, Riley, and your mother, but the circumstances – “

“Riley needed you. But of course, you would only come back after he dies. What, scared of karma now?”

“Aimee!” her mother scolded.

“Come on Riley, run faster!”

They were barely four and five, but they were running through the woods area behind their house as fast as they could, with no shoes on.

“Ow, Aimee, my feet hurt!” Riley had whined, with bleeding feet.

“Come on, if you wanna scare Mommy and Daddy, you have to run faster!” she commanded.

Finally, after they hid, they giggled when they heard their parents’ calls. They smirked when they saw neighbors looking for them. They realized how wrong they were when they saw the police.

When they finally came out with a “gotchya!” they had been in deep trouble. Especially from their dad. He had lectured them on how deeply disappointed he was in them for doing what they had done.

That’s why it had been most surprising when he had left only a month later.

“No, Claire, she’s right,” her father had said, surprising her to the point of speechlessness.

“I hate you,” she finally whispered, a minute later, running back upstairs, the tears streaming back down her red cheeks.