Family Reunion
Dad never apologized, not even as he stared down the barrel of his own .38 Special revolver. My hand gripped the wood tight, pointing the weapon at the center of his forehead. His face glistened with post-fight sweat and blood leaked from the skin I had split with my fists. He was stronger than me when I as young, but I hadn’t been young for a long time.
“C’mon boy, what the hell do you want me to say? Hmm? That I’m sorry for choosing that whore of a woman to be your mother?” My trigger finger flinched, the temptation of pulling it back became increasingly difficult to resist. “Ain’t you gonna say somethin, or you too busy crying over spilt milk over there?” Dad beat us both for as long as I had memories; it’s why she made me join the Army. She wanted me to go far away, out from beneath his shadow, far enough that I could live a decent life. I did go far away, but after I heard what he had done to her, home was the only place left to go.
I didn’t have anything poetic to tell him. I didn’t know him. I didn’t need him. I didn’t love him. I just wanted to erase him from a world that he didn’t deserve to be a part of anymore. I had more than a few chances to turn back, but I ball-gagged the little voice in my head and buried it deep. I knew justice was worth whatever came next. I looked him in the eyes one last time, staring deeply into his icy, blue irises. My heart raced as I watched his face turn to horror. He had finally realized that these were his final moments.
“Ok now, c’mon Tanner, let’s talk about this. I’m…real sorry about your mother. I didn’t mean nothin by what I did and I promise I’ll never hurt her again, okay? It’s your father here talkin. Please. You’re my son. I love you.”
I felt the gun shake in my hand for a moment, but the sweet poison of his words slipped through my porous mind. It was too late to turn back.
“You’re wrong about being my father, but you are right about one thing, you’ll never hurt her again.”
His eyes widened. I squeezed the trigger.
Warm blood splashed against my shirt and face, skull fragments whistled through the cloud of smoke. In that moment, I knew I had found the purpose of my existence. Mom needed a savior, she just figured he would come down from the clouds, not from inside of own her belly.
I called the police and waited until sirens approached. I emptied the other five rounds out of the revolver and pushed the empty cylinder back into place. It was dark out, the cops wouldn’t be able to see that the six shooter was unloaded. I knew it would be a quick end, and that was more than most could hope for. As I heard their tires slide on the dirt road and their boots hitting the ground outside, I rushed out the front door with the gun in-hand and pointed it at the nearest badge. Four handguns aimed at my chest in unison. Loud bangs filled my eardrums and my flesh.
Everything burned. The pain was finally over.
