Gray Rainbows

Alex hadn't spoken to his father in four years, and now the man had the audacity to show up at his apartment with the 'I'm your father, we should have a relationship' crap that someone on TV would try to pull. He didn't want to speak to his father - the man was too much for him, to anti-reality that it made his head hurt.

He remembered the last conversation he had had with his father. He had just gotten back home for spring break, and couldn't wait to go back to school until summer had to start. His mother had desperately tried to keep the peace between father and son, but of course, nothing could keep the spark from turning into a blaze.

"You're too much, Dad!" Alex had yelled. "I'm in college - I don't have the time for your stories!"

"No, of course you don't," his father replied. "You only have time for your own life! You can't bear to have any sort of time with your family; the people who raised you and loved you!"

"Maybe I would bother if I could trust anything you said," he retorted. "But I can't. I can't trust anything you say because all you say are stories. Never a fact, never a lesson. Just a break from reality."

After the argument, he stormed from the house and didn't return. He didn't plan to. He didn't want to. But now the old man was on his doorstep with a trunk in his hand, and he definitely wasn't leaving.

"Fine. Come in," Alex mumbled. He stepped back and held the door as his father came in. "Be careful where you step. Heaven knows my son hasn't cleaned his mess."

His father stepped inside and looked around. The living room was messy with blocks and cars and figurines, with marker-traced handprints on the walls. "Since when have you had a son?", his father asked.

"He's three," Alex answered. "His mom is at work, where I should be, but..." He shook his head and stared back at his father. "Why are you here, Dad? What could you possibly want?"

"I want my son back," his father answered. "The boy I raised. Not the man I see in front of me."

"Well, I'm sorry, Dad, but this is who I am," he said. "A successful, fortunate man with his own business. And his own family."

"But what about the rest of us? Your poor mother... You don't know how much she's been hurting."

Alex sighed. "I try not to think about her."

"How dare you?" his father asked. "You try to not think about your mother? The woman who gave you life, who loved you and raised you and fed you? How. Dare. You?"

"It's easier for me, Dad!" he yelled. He slumped down in an armchair and hugged himself. "I know that she's hurting. I follow her social media. I know that she wants me to come home and to visit her. But it's easier. If I don't go back or think about it, then I don't have to deal with it."

"Do you know how incredibly selfish you are being, Alex?" his father demanded. "I understand that I caused this - that it was my imagination and it was my stories that drove you away - but you do NOT get to take it out on your mother. From the man I see in front of me... No, I don't see my son. I came all this way for nothing, and do you know why? Because maybe I, for once, wanted to see if I could bring some color to your world, Alex, but no. No, you want it to stay fifty shades of gray, because you can't stand not being able to control the colors that we bring around."

He was dumbfounded. Was this the first truth that his father had told him - and now, of all times? Now, after four years of avoiding his family, his own troubles, his insecurities?

"Dad, I-"

"No," he interrupted. "No, you're too late. If you want to say anything, you'll come home and you'll say it to our faces."

His father shook off his boots, turned his face, and left without another word. He left as quickly as he had arrived, and Alex was left reeling.

His hands reached to his pockets and his phone was at his ear in no time. "Hey, honey... yeah, yeah... I know, he's at school... uh huh... Well, I was thinking we take a little roadtrip..." As he spoke with his wife, Alex smiled to himself at the thought of what might come next. Maybe a little color in his world wouldn't be so bad.

"...I have some people I want you to meet."

(because of the rules of the Reedsy community, I had to add about 209 words to my story, but didn't feel motivated enough to go back through and make a whole bunch of additions to the story, so here's to hoping this little section will have enough.)

(this story was not based off of any sort of real event or time or place or people. Just a story that came up through my mind because of a show I had recently watched. Maybe it was indirectly based off of it? No clue! But anyways, I want to reiterate the importance of relationships between family. Yes, sometimes our family scan bug us because we disagree and because we maybe say things or do things that the other person doesn't appreciate as much, but even despite that, we are family and we should love each other and strive to heal and communicate with one another. and it's okay, of course, when we disagree or if we take distance from one another because we've been hurt, but remember that even when it seems really, really hard, forgiveness is always an option. God bless you all, and I hope you read through this and know that you are loved and appreciated and cared for, even if you can't see it)