Chapter 43: RICHARD
Two days after the voicemail, I was on a flight heading back home.
Was it even that then? Home, I mean.
Don’t people say a home is a place where we feel safe. A place where we are free to be ourselves and yet be showered with love and acceptance.
And yet, Wellington Estate, the place I grew up in didn’t feel like that. Even at the present, I’m afraid, but it still doesn’t feel safe, neither am I showered with love and care.
Don’t get it twisted, I know what to qualify the feelings I get from my parents, and love and care weren’t in the box. It was more like pity, manipulation and sorrow.
I get that no one is perfect, but there are parents whose love for their child surpasses perfection. And my friends, Aaron and Chad had these parents, or at least one out of the two showed the level of love I can only wish for with my parents.
In his rage, my father had demoted me to Economy. I hadn’t been as popular as I am now, but I was known. Donning a face cap, I sat among those who weren’t in my class, receiving the same basic treatment.
In accordance with Ray’s plan, I stayed sober for two days so that when I took the merch he got for me. It will be enough to boost my morale in standing up to Edward.
It was hard, the sobriety I mean. From someone who was always indulging to not taking even a sniff in two days, it was as hard as hell. I remember the uncontrollable itch for a smoke, the tingles for a sniff and my firm resolve through it all.
Thanks to my cruel father, I knew harsh times. I have faced more than enough of them in his hands that navigating through that sobriety felt like just another one of those times.
I recall trying my hardest to sleep during the hour flight from my college to New City. I even tried bidding through a magazine, but all I did was stare at one page without flipping it over for minutes.
I tried not to think of the encounter, but it was all that waved through my turbulent mind. Different scenarios, varied conversations - they played through my mind, but in every one, the endgame remained the same. Edward subdued me as always.