Blighted Soul

My hands were folded on the table in front of me. Across from me, my parents sat, silent as a ghost. “I’ve already said—”

“Your father has told me why he’s here. The real reason.” My mother said monotonously. She was looking down at her lap.

“Well…let’s hear it.” I said, wanting to get this over with. Evan was taking up the whole of mind. The words my father said next was the only thing that could change that.

“I’m dying, son.” He said.

I looked between him and my mother. “You’re joking,” I said. It was all I could manage. My insides were beginning to twist painfully.

“I wish I was,” he said quietly. “I have cancer. I have had it for a while. I didn’t tell either one of you because I didn’t want to scare you. I thought I could fight it but now…now the doctor’s say I have about a year.” He turned to look at my mother now. “And, Clarissa, Debbie isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my nurse. I’m afraid you mistook that voicemail she left on my phone for something else. I never cheated on you.”

My mind was reeling. All of the animosity I’d felt towards my parents had vanished. Suddenly I was their little boy again, and I desperately didn’t want to lose my father.

“There has to be something you can do, Dad,” I said, my voice growing thick. “You can’t die. You just can’t.”

He stood up and came around the table, pulling me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around him tightly, crying into his shoulder.

“I know this is hard, Caleb, but sometimes these things just happen. But everything’s going to be okay.”

“How can you say that?” I asked in disbelief. “You’re dying. How is anything going to be okay?”

“Because life goes on,” he said, and I was surprised to feel tears on my shoulder, “even when the ones you love leave you. You just have to be strong. For me, okay? Both of you.”

He waved my mother over and she joined us in our embrace, all three of us crying.