Feeling

Chapter 16 - Goodbye Paradise

Sat on the plane I realised what I was going back to. University, cold weather, my house that was no longer a home. Dad and I didn’t speak for the entire flight. I had nothing to say to him, and didn’t want to speak my mind.

The trip to Spain was so perfect. Despite Natalie ruining it a lot, the town was gorgeous, the hotel, although looked rubbish had a lovely beach. The weather was amazing. It gave us time to not think about bad things. And when doing that mainly good things happened. Although there were a few lumps and bumps, the last few days of the holiday could have perked up, right?

Who was I kidding? Of course the holiday couldn’t get better. It would only get worse. Especially for Dad. In a way I’m kind of glad we didn’t stay any longer, it wouldn’t have been amazing.

So we said goodbye to the holiday that failed, and started to move on with life. When we got home Dad and I immediately went to our rooms. I unpacked everything, and grabbed mum from under my bed. I explained everything to her, and I grabbed the ring from my hand luggage, and taped it to the tin. It wasn’t long before I heard Dad cooking in the kitchen, I wondered what he was making so slowly entered the kitchen.

Where we had been away the windows were covered in dust as were the surfaces, and there was a horrible smell, like off food. Dad turned around and looked at me. His face was pale and emotionless, he almost looked ill. He took a struggled breath and fell forwards towards a chair, his hands grasped the back of it and he held himself up. Behind him was a sandwich, that didn’t look too great either. I asked dad what was wrong and he didn’t respond. I picked up the phone and dialled 999 faster than anything. The phone rang and I tugged at the chord with my fingers impatiently.

I went straight through to the ambulance and gave them my address. When I turned around to tell dad he was laying on the floor. I tried to help him up but I couldn’t. I helped roll him over to see if he could breathe and I told him to relax, it seemed to work, but more than I wanted, slowly his eyes started to close, but the paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital.

Looked as though my luck had returned to its nasty state as soon as I returned home. I waited for 4 or 5 hours before the phone rang. The hospital asked my name and then the man told me that dad had choked and is going to be fine. Relieved with the news I turned on the TV and watched The Jeremy Kyle show. These families hardly have problems they’re just creating them it’s stupid. I watched the tele with disgust for an hour or so before dad was returned home safely.

He walked in and I turned around to see him, looking healthy and happy, he smiled at me and went upstairs.

"You okay dad?” I shouted in his direction, it was a minute or so before he replied.

“Yes, wonderful actually, thank you for phoning the hospital”

“That’s okay.”

Dad seemed worryingly happy, but I ignored that because it was probably just medication making him loopy.

I went to sleep quickly that night, another dreamless sleep like usual, I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. The only problem was that I didn’t know what to do. I decided to phone Jane, and see if she wanted to come round.

She said she would come over in the afternoon, so I only needed to think of something to do for a little while. I had the address of Tamarra’s family, so began to write a letter to them.

Dear Tamarra and family,

I hope you are all well. I left Cala D’or 3 days early because I went to town and there was a fire. My Dad got so worried that he didn’t want to stay any longer so we came home. I’m very sorry I couldn’t visit again to say goodbye but I do hope to see you again in the future.

Once I have finished my three years and University I will try to visit you, it would be nice to have a place to stay if I go to Canada for a few weeks. Would be lovely to see you all, especially Marilyn, although she will have grown a lot by then.

I hope you hear back from you soon.

Lots of love

 

I signed the paper with squiggly writing, and went straight to the post office. Going back down my road in the slight sunlight I paused and shut my eyes, trying to imagine being back in Majorca. The cool breeze, and the smell of the beach, being able to hear the birds above you, and the waves crashing onto the sand.

he thought of the holiday started to upset me so I head straight home after a few minutes of imagining. I returned to find Jane knocking irritably on my door. I went quickly over to her. She turned around and hugged me.

“Did you have a good holiday?” She smiled at me, her smile reminded me of my mums. I nodded and told her about her presents, then opened the door and led her to my room.

I sat her down on my bed and grabbed her presents from under it, I placed them carefully next to them and she smiled at me before looking inside the bag. She pulled out the Barbie doll and screamed and giggled at it. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

"There’s more, look” I pointed back to the bag and she looked confused. She opened the bag to find the book, and as she looked at it her eyes widened and her grin turned to disappointment. She almost started crying.

“I can’t do these” She said, choking on her own words, trying not to cry. “I can’t dot-to-dot. I can’t count” Dammit. I forgot that she can’t count. My mum could but she was a lot older. I had to quickly come up with a solution,

“It’s for us to do together. I do the dot-to-dot, and then you colour it in!” I relaxed after coming up with the cooperative idea, she smiled at me and said thank you, I was so happy she liked her presents.