Author Games: The Absent Empress

Task One Entries: 11-20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Resonance

I slammed my last card down on the table and jumped off the couch. "UNO!"

"That was awful!" Dad exclaimed as he dropped his giant hand of like two thousand cards.

I cackled with an evil eye, "I know."

"Alright, alright," Dad grinned as he collected the cards, "Let's put away the game and give you something else that you can't beat me with."

I giggled as I fell back into the couch and grabbed one of the creamy white pillows. I was surprised he even let us play. I always win.

He grabbed a book off the coffee table and handed it to me. I handed it back with a grin, "Losers read first."

He rolled his eyes and opened it to where we left off the previous night. He paused when he looked up at me and frowned. "Is your hearing aid on?"

"What?" I reached in my right ear and pulled it out, looking for the switch. I flipped it with my fingernail and the light came on. "Oh... woops," I said nervously as I slipped it back in, "I forgot. I guess I just put it in and didn't realize it. You're loud enough to hear when you're losing anyhow." I teased him viciously, acting cool over my mistake and hoping he'd take the excuse.

Dad gave me a look for the joke, but turned his attention to the book. "The Three Musketeers, chapter six!"

That night and the next day was pretty average. After reading for a while I'd go back to my room and he would go into his office.

It was funny how when we were together it seemed like nothing was between us, but when we were behind walls, our secrets kept us apart. He never let me know that all those evenings he spends in his office were to drown his grief. I've never seen it, but the evidence is overwhelming.

I couldn't blame him for hiding it. I probably would too if I were him. Well, in a way I am. Only I hide more than a glass of whiskey, and I hide it better.

Five years ago this month my Mom died. I thought it would get better for the both of us. Maybe the tearful nights of crying myself to sleep was over, but the pressure of it on my chest only grew. It was suffocating us. It was stifling and squeezing the joy out of our life.

I did a lot of things in my room alone, but most of the time I sat and thought about 'what if'. What if Mom could have told him? What if she didn't die? What if I had the courage to tell Daddy why I really took out my hearing aids?

But I didn't know how.

There were so many times I was almost caught. Like that time Bobbi Johnson called me a bratty cyborg under his breath. When I whirled around to glare at him, I swear he looked as if he was seeing the supernatural.

He's been paranoid about me ever since, spreading rumors that I use my 'deaf story' to cover the fact I'm from outer space with incredible hearing. I'm not sure if he believes that himself. We are fifteen and a little old to believe in silly alien stories.

You could say he's half right. I'm not from outer space and I'm not a cyborg, but I do have excellent hearing abilities. They're just not what you'd expect them to be.

Mom knew. I told her. I felt like a freak, but she understood. Dad might have understood if... if... if she had been able to tell him.

I know Dad blames himself for what happened, but sometimes I wonder if I'm missing details – details that included me.

Recently I've noticed something different about Dad. I want to think it's because he's missing her even more this month, but something is shifting in him. When he came home from work he was all wet from the rain. He said he didn't have an umbrella, but my Dad is always prepared for anything.