For a Life Time

That was the year we ran out of money and my bathing stopped fitting. We didn’t have any money left; father wasted it all on his fishing gambling and beer. There was always a lack of food, but never beer. We traveled to a beach for a week for another on of fathers trips. My Father and his friends were meeting at the beach to have a surf fishing contest. Mother kept me back on the beach far away from father and the other men. When they fished things could get rowdy mother always told us. There wasn’t enough room in the car for sand toys or shovels, only fathers fishing stuff and our clothes were allowed. They had a week to catch as many fish as they could and the winner would get the jackpot that they each had put money into. My mother and I went on many walks collecting shells, not one of them seemed to look the same. All father was interested in was catching fish and winning money. No thought for his family what so ever, we were just dragged on the trips. Mother wanted to always be there to watch things. That is until she decided to pack what little things we had into the car and drove off down that long beach road. I can remember it like it was just yesterday, it was right after mother had taken that picture of me sitting on the top of a sand hill. Off we went without dad even knowing we had left the beach. Later that night while I was falling asleep in the back of the car, mother’s phone rang. The only thing I remember is her ignoring the calls over and over until she turned her phone off.







Two days later my father stormed into our house and yelled at my mother and asked her so many questions. I was told to go to my room. Once the front door slammed I ran down to find my mother in tears with blood running down her face. Never was I to see my father again. Unless seeing him on the obituary page in the newspaper counts.