Father's Day
By: Agent Newbeau
Note: This is set present day. It's in first person and I've tried not
to give away anything that happens in
stories not yet written. I promise to get Changes Two written soon. In
the meantime, I got the
inspiration for this. Hope you enjoy.
Summary: Mike's thoughts on Father's Day.
It's Father's Day. I guess that means the kids will be over today
for dinner and they'll all chip in
and buy me some weird tie. They like to tease me that I'm the only
father in the world that doesn't mind
getting tacky ties for Father's Day. To tell the truth, I would accept
just about any present from my
children. I never bought a present for my father until I was in my
twenties. It's hard to buy a present for
a man when you can't even remember what he looks like.
But that's the past and I can't change what happened. I've spent
every day of the last thirty
years promising myself that I would always be around for my children. It
was a promise I made to
myself the second Ellen told me she was pregnant the first time. Well, I
made that promise the second I
recovered from fainting. The second time I reacted differently. I
regretted that for a long time. But I
don't want to think about that now. I can't change the past. The third
time, well things had changed a
lot by then.
Being a father and now a grandfather, I can't imagine how life
would be if I hadn't kept that
promise. I don't want to know. I love my children and grandchildren and
they love me. I can't imagine
life without them. They seem to be a rarity in this day and age, growing
up "normal" with both parents
being celebrities. I got so tired of the media asking me and Ellen how
our kids turned out so normal. I
always got a good laugh from that one. Our kids weren't normal, nobody's
normal. The word doesn't
exist. They went through rebellious phases, got in trouble, screwed up a
lot just like anybody else. We
made a decision when our oldest was born that we would raise our
children as if we weren't celebrities.
It was hard, but we managed.
Another thing that bothers me is when people ask me if growing up
without a father was
difficult. Stupid question. Of course it was difficult. Still, I think
my mother did a good job of raising me.
It wasn't easy, but we managed. I miss her sometimes, but she's been
gone for a long time now and
time has a way of taking care of things like that.
My father has been gone just a few years, but I don't miss him. I
got over missing him when I
was six years old. I still don't know much about what happened all those
years he was gone and
sometimes I think I'm better off not knowing. Still sometimes I wonder
if he ever thought about me all
those years. And I wonder why he came back when he did. I was a father
myself by then. My oldest
was just a baby but I knew I could never ever do to him what my father
did to me.
I understand my parents marriage was never a strong one, but still
that's no excuse. All those
years he knew where we were, but he didn't even bother to acknowledge
me. Still, he was my father, I
guess I should be grateful to him for my existence.
I guess I've been lucky. Unlike my parents, my marriage to Ellen is
strong. It's based on mutual
love, respect, and trust. We've had our bad times, but we've worked them
out and we're stronger for
it. Our two oldest children are married and have children of their own.
John was right. All you need is
love.
The End
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