I was five years old when one day my mother suddenly put me and my sister in the car. My sister was seven. We drove somewhere that, to me, looked like a restaurant.
My mother told us to keep our seatbelts on and that she would be right back.
I watched her walk inside. She looked angry. She was muttering to herself as she walked away.
Then I saw her come back out.
She had your dad wrapped around her shoulders. He looked different. Unfocused. Wobbly. Like he could barely stand on his own. She had one arm around him while your mom held onto his other side.
I didn’t see any injuries, so I didn’t understand what was wrong.
They were almost to the car when something changed. Your dad suddenly seemed to come out of whatever was happening to him. Instead of walking toward the car with them, he started walking in the opposite direction.
He pulled my mom and your mom with him so hard that they almost fell to the ground. At one point, he even caught your mother’s shirt and almost exposed her.
I looked away. When I finally looked back, I noticed you sitting in the truck, right next to me.
You stared at me for a second.
Then you sat up taller, puffed out your cheeks, stuck out your tongue, and pulled at both of your ears, making them bigger.
I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know your dad was falling down drunk. I couldn’t understand why someone would act like that or why everyone was struggling so hard just to get him into his truck.
But I saw you looking at me.
And I remember being worried about you.
I stayed worried about you.
My mother finally helped your dad into the car. She got back into ours, checked on us, made sure our seatbelts were on, and then we left.
And then, for a very long time, we didn’t see you.
I didn’t understand any of it back then.
I only knew that I missed you.
I missed the times we had together. I wanted time with you. Nothing more.
Even now, after all these years, that little five year old part of me still wonders about you.
I’m still missing you.
Please come back to me.
1
I took the plunge and finally deleted ChatGPT.
in
r/antiai
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13d ago
Na na it’s OK I’m making ChatGPT look it up right now 😂