Banish Me

Something Lost, Something Found

Mrs. Marks drove us to the school, Gwen in the front seat while Peter and I sat in the back, our hands clasped between us.

Bren was waiting for us on the front steps, his hands shoved deep in his front pockets. He opened Gwen's door and she was instantly in his arms.

He looked at us over her head and smiled. After we unloaded, Bren explained that his teacher gave him an excused absence from his last class so he could be with Gwen as she didn't the walk through and looked over her things.

"Your dad is talking to Ms. Peyote," he said to me. "I don't think I've ever seen someone be so talked down to as he's doing to her right now."

I gulped. The fact that I'd never seen my father before made me nervous and scared. Peter leaned down and kissed my cheek.

"It's going to be a breeze. Don't worry."

Mrs. Marks led the way in, the group of us trailing behind her a small distance back.

"I don't think I can do this," I whispered.

Mrs. Marks rounded a corner and disappeared into Ms. Peyote's office.

"Why not?" Gwen asked.

"I've never met my father before," I said.

They gaped at me, all but Peter.

"You've never met your dad?" Bren said in disbelief.

I shook my head. Luckily a distraction came before I had to explain how exactly it was I'd never met him before. The cop from the night before came strolling down the hall. I thought he said a detective was supposed to do the walkthrough with us.

"You kids ready?" he asked.

Gwen and I stepped forward, each of us taking the packets he held out to us. They were our statements and some police notes as to what was broken. I skimmed mine, not really wanting to relive the whole thing until I had to. The boys stood behind us, Bren reading over Gwen's shoulder and Peter reading over mine.

Then a door behind us opened and everyone turned to look but me. This was it. This was the moment when I'd meet my father for the first time and I wasn't sure I was ready.

Peter squeezed my hand gently. "It's him," he whispered.

"Cassie?"

I closed my eyes. That was how my father addressed me, in every card, in the one phone call I'd received when I was seven and had cut open my shin. The voice matched...it was the same husky sadness that I'd heard that day before hanging up on him.

I turned around slowly, Peter letting go of my hand only to move it to my hip. I didn't really have the words to describe the first time I saw my father. All I knew was that when I opened my eyes and looked at him for the first time, a wave of emotions face with his image. Happiness, anger, sadness...

He looked exactly how I'd always pictured him. He was around six foot, had dark brown hair and crystal blue eyes that looked like they could turn the color of the sea at any moment. He was clean shaven, he was perfect.

Peter slipped his hand into mine and I squeezed it for reassurance that this was really happening, that this wasn't the dream I'd had since I was a little girl.

I didn't know what to call him since all the names my mother used to call him seemed...inappropriate.

"Da-dad?" I stumbled over the name which I only did when I was scared. This time it was really just because I didn't know what to say.

He smiled at me. "Hello sweet girl."

This couldn't be him. The man I remembered, the man my mother always described to me...just didn't match up with the one standing before me.