my father’s first relationship,
following his divorce from
my mother,
was with a gentle soul.
she had no idea what she was
getting herself into.
i was too young to articulate
my inherent reservation.
when she finally called it off,
my father parlayed a manipulative
relationship with her parents.
they agreed to let him house sit
during a cross country excursion
that was their initial realization of retirement.
my younger brother and me
visited our father due to a court order,
every other weekend. our routine was perfected
in short shrift.
he would pick us up at our mother’s house,
and we would hear the sigh of relief
from the back of her throat
as i opened the door of his faux sports car.
he couldn’t afford his desired Corvette, so he settled for a Capri.
the car parked at the apex
of the horseshoe driveway.
we carried the snacks
our mother would never have allowed us to purchase,
over the threshold of the outdoor patio,
into the elegant kitchen.
we began to unload the groceries.
my father asks us to listen to him, for a moment.
the two of us are taken aback at his
deference to something
seemingly serious.
“someone broke into the house this week….”
he then regaled us with a tale of
educated thieves;
who knew the owner of the house
was a very successful businessman,
selling TV sets
during the golden age of television.
the thieves came to steal the
vintage sets he had accumulated
while owning a retail store.
i believed him. i believed my father.
i convinced myself
that he was telling me the truth. surely,
this was an isolated incident.
and yet, every time i was at that house for a
weekend with my father,
i was petrified.
he went to the grocery store
early, one saturday morning-
to get cereal he had neglected to account for
the previous night.
a few minutes after he left, the house lost all power.
my only thought was to find my brother
and get somewhere safe.
the thieves were back.
we crouched behind a stone wall;
half covered in a pristine green moss,
gazing toward any proof of
entrance, shivering in the damp
March morning. my father drove up
to the property
and witnessed us
crouched behind a farmer’s boundary, where the driveway
met the street.
“what are you guys doing out here?!?!?!?!?”
“there was a sound in the basement, and then the power went out.
i thought the thieves were back….” i replied, in a defiant tone.
“c’mon guys, get in the car….”
we did.
and my father drove the twenty yards
to the back door of the house.
he lied to me.
someone was owed money.
he was targeted for a reason beyond
a vintage television market volatility.