"Good Story" by Mike

"Good Story"
(A Good Story)
by Mike

It’s already been an hour an a half. How long does someone wait for another person in a situation like this? If it was a date, I would’ve left at the forty-five minute mark. Maybe even less since this isn’t a bar. I’m sure she would’ve loved to meet in a bar. Ninety days sober and I bet she couldn’t go five minutes in a bar without cracking. Her drinking consumed her, and I’d like to think she’s over that now but I’m not going to hold my breath anytime soon.

Kevin is almost seven years old now. Old enough to realize not living with either of your parents is odd. His quiet demeanor has bloomed into intelligent thought provoking ideas. It angers me so much to think that someone could just abandon a child, like an animal. Especially, when that child grows up to be such a wonderful person at only seven years old.

The newspaper has become this, shield for society. So much hatred, murder, lies, losses and destroyed lives to read about every day. It helps you to walk out your front door with a head full of negative thoughts and have one spark of sour optimism that says, “Well at least your dog didn’t kill your elderly mother.” Or, “Well at least you didn’t win the lottery, only to have your neighbor kill you and steal it to flee to their homeland.” It lets you take all the problems you’ve ever had and put them under a magnifying glass and burn them with the sun.

My mother didn’t want to help at all. She said in the beginning I should have given Kevin up for adoption because “she isn’t paying for another human being for as long as (she) lives”. I agree that adoption is beautiful and most people applying would’ve been a great parent to him, but he deserves to live his life with his family, no matter how screwed up we are. I couldn’t forgive myself if I ever gave up on him like everyone else did. I may not be the most responsible or have the means to fully support the both of us but I love him, and that has to count for something. Plus, I’m the only one who stood up when the time came to act, to do the right thing.

I can’t wait here any longer. But I can’t stand to see the tears in his eyes again. This boy needs to meet his mother. Meet her for the first time with these new eyes to the world. I can’t stand that he will end up like the rest of us with a callous exterior from the world. Ill never have a child of my own, so this has to work out.

“Kevin, I don’t think she’s coming. We should head out before it gets too dark.”

I stood there like a prisoner of war waiting for the shots to ring out. Waiting for his tears to ring out and pierce my heart.

“Okay Aunt Marie. Were there any good stories in your paper?”

I couldn’t believe it. This child just got his heart ripped out by his biological mother’s absence and he couldn’t care less. He just looked at me and smiled, as if to say, it’s all going to be all right… THE END