FIERCE FEATURES (CNF): Time Share(d) by Sam Strathman

Time Share(d)

      It’s November again and unseasonably warm. 

I think back to an evening over twenty years ago.  My father had driven my mother and I to the time share he and a law school friend went in on together.  

He started drinking shortly after we arrived.  Drinking was self-medicating for my father, or at least looked like it.  He downed each bottle of beer faster than it took him to bend down and pick them up.  This behavior continued well into dinner.

The three of us had gotten into an argument that evening.  Mother had been holding me close to her, crying, begging my father to stop.  Both of their voices had put the fear in me, frustrations at their peak.  The disagreement lasted ages but in reality, had only been minutes. 

I forget how the shouting ended, but had nothing to do with tears being spilt.

 

*

Later that night in bed, my mother cradled me less anxiously.  I asked her if everything was ok.  She smiled weakly, assured me that everything was how it should be.  How it should be…sounded peculiar the way she said it. 

Father read a story afterwards, speaking the words tiredly, slurring occasionally. 

I fell asleep soundly that evening – far more settled than the adults who had put me to bed.

They must have been counting down the seconds until they could turn their backs on each other – aware that they would be on repeat the next morning, strangers again.

--Sam Strathman