Goodbye
one
She had already decided this was going to be goodbye.
The first rays of sunshine were beginning to peek through the autumn leaves and with the changing of the seasons, a broken girl with lost eyes and a faded smile had at last made her way home.
It wasn't the same as it had been the last time she'd been here. The house that had been yellow and boasted a beautiful apple tree was now blue, the tree replaced with a water fountain. The white picket fence remained, though, and she could see her brother's tiny hand prints next to her own on the concrete sidewalk leading to the front porch. A newer model SUV stood in the driveway where her father's brown Chevy had once sat.
What she wouldn't give to hear that old brown Chevy truck making its way back to her now, with its rattling engine and plumes of exhaust smoke billowing through the tail pipe. She could still smell the scent of Marlboro Reds on his breath as he hugged her just a little tighter that morning. For a moment, she was five years old again, clinging to her father's neck as he held her. She could see unshed tears shining in his eyes, arms shaking with pent up emotion.
He hadn't said goodbye, and neither had she.
He'd driven away and just like that, he'd been gone. The police had come to the house later that afternoon and she'd watched her mother fall apart, clinging to her baby brother as she'd fallen to her knees. The funeral had been a few days later and she still hadn't said goodbye, not even as she'd watched his casket being lowered six feet into frozen ground. He couldn't be gone, he was her Daddy and Daddies don't leave.
She'd always thought he was coming home. He never had, but she finally had and now it was time to say goodbye. She walked along the road until she reached a sign that read Casswell Avenue. She turned right and walked along the path until stopping just shy of the bridge that had changed her life forever.
The air here seemed stiller and she swallowed hard as she walked forward, not stopping until she had reached the very center of the bridge. A tarnished bronze memorial was bolted to the stone. Tears shone bright in her eyes as she read her father's name. Somehow even after all these years, she could still smell the truck exhaust and her father's cigarettes in the air. He was here; she could feel it. It was only then that she realized goodbye was never really goodbye, after all.
The first rays of sunshine were beginning to peek through the autumn leaves and with the changing of the seasons, a broken girl with lost eyes and a faded smile had at last made her way home.
It wasn't the same as it had been the last time she'd been here. The house that had been yellow and boasted a beautiful apple tree was now blue, the tree replaced with a water fountain. The white picket fence remained, though, and she could see her brother's tiny hand prints next to her own on the concrete sidewalk leading to the front porch. A newer model SUV stood in the driveway where her father's brown Chevy had once sat.
What she wouldn't give to hear that old brown Chevy truck making its way back to her now, with its rattling engine and plumes of exhaust smoke billowing through the tail pipe. She could still smell the scent of Marlboro Reds on his breath as he hugged her just a little tighter that morning. For a moment, she was five years old again, clinging to her father's neck as he held her. She could see unshed tears shining in his eyes, arms shaking with pent up emotion.
He hadn't said goodbye, and neither had she.
He'd driven away and just like that, he'd been gone. The police had come to the house later that afternoon and she'd watched her mother fall apart, clinging to her baby brother as she'd fallen to her knees. The funeral had been a few days later and she still hadn't said goodbye, not even as she'd watched his casket being lowered six feet into frozen ground. He couldn't be gone, he was her Daddy and Daddies don't leave.
She'd always thought he was coming home. He never had, but she finally had and now it was time to say goodbye. She walked along the road until she reached a sign that read Casswell Avenue. She turned right and walked along the path until stopping just shy of the bridge that had changed her life forever.
The air here seemed stiller and she swallowed hard as she walked forward, not stopping until she had reached the very center of the bridge. A tarnished bronze memorial was bolted to the stone. Tears shone bright in her eyes as she read her father's name. Somehow even after all these years, she could still smell the truck exhaust and her father's cigarettes in the air. He was here; she could feel it. It was only then that she realized goodbye was never really goodbye, after all.
♠ ♠ ♠
I owe a huuuuuuge thank you to artemis. for helping me get my jumbled thoughts for this piece sorted out enough to write it!