Imagine

Johnny boy

Everyday it was the same old routine for this family. My sister and I woke up to our fathers alarm. At 6:00 am sharp. Then we our eat breakfast, dad leaves, then we get ready for school and we're off. And mom is always sleeping till the last minute, then she wakes up at 6:55 and leaves for work at 7:00. So every morning by 7:05 the house is empty. Then at 3:30 me and my sister come home, dad is home at 5:00, and mom is home at 6:00. Then the next day we repeat it.
Today was different. We wake up to his alarm, pour our cereal and milk. And watch our cartoons. But I notice I hear nothing coming from dads room. My sister, goes to check and he's not asleep, but he's not getting ready. She thinks maybe it's just his day off so we get ready and wake our mother. When she wakes up dad leaves and locks himself in the bathroom till we are all gone.
He stayed home from that day, but he never really told his wife. (Mom). I have never known him to lie, but this time he decided that it's alright.
My father was a very bland man on the outside but on the inside he's the most complicated man I've ever known. No one knows his mind and no one knows behind his eyes. The man was so amazing and complicated he deserved a metal but he'd never really won a prize before.
Right after we walked out the door I heard him go to lock the door.
That day my father immediately walked over to his phone and called a woman. I never really know who it was, some woman. A younger woman that he had fallen in love with. He knew it was wrong because, he felt as the world was looking down upon him and frowning. Because he was cheating on our mother.
After this began dad changed. A lot. He started to skip work at least once a week.
One day I came home from school, I was alone because my sister was visiting a friend. He was lying on the ground crying. With a bottle of pills in his hand. It was obvious that at this moment my father had fallen into a deep depression. I tried to help him up and he wouldn't budge. He wouldn't talk. So I called my mother, I needed her help.
She came busting through the door and starting to yell at him.
"Get up Johnny boy!" Over and over.
I was still destined to to be sweet and help. But she kept yelling and it was not helping.
"The world has left you lying on the ground!" I pushed her out of the room and figured it'd be better to try this alone.
"Please dad, you're my pride and joy. Get up, cause we all need you now"
The longer this affair went on, some people started to notice things. And the final straw is when someone confronted him about it.
Someone called him a monster and told him to get out of town.
Someone said, "Away you go"
Someone said to him, "Goodbye"
They deflect the disrespect when they say that they blame it on the times.
Some said it was the modern times and some just said that my father was an evil and disgusting man.
I heard them say these things and that's how he finally told me. I asked him why people were so mean. He poured his heart out and told me that he had fallen in love with another woman.
I knew he was qualified to fix and a chair and love his wife, that's what we all knew. No one thought he was this complicated. They didn't blame the simple man, they blamed it on the times. But they lied.
But he couldn't help it, he had fallen in love. He felt awful that he didn't love his wife, but he could not leave her. He knew she would be devastated. He felt so awful, that the entire world was looking upon him and frowning.
I tried to keep him up, and happy. I failed. Especially when the divorce came around. Mom found out.
He apologized so many times I'd lost count. And it got worse when they started to discuss custody.
He begged to keep us, he fought for so long. But in the end they split up me and my sister. Me with dad and my sister with my mother.
He always apologized to me too, about the affair. And that woman ended up leaving him too.
I told my father that no matter what, I would always carry his name. And that means I would carry his shame. But it's okay. Because I still loved my father, he's still my hero.
Every day I would tell him to get up and stay up. And he did.
He was my pride and joy and he still is today.