Fragmentation - Life in Pieces

A Car Ride to the U.S

*Told from my uncles perspective*

My future began when my father told us he would be leaving for the weekend. We approached our drive way and saw him off in a car we had never seen. He told us it was his friends car. They must have been generous as they offered him a great amount of money for the inconvenience of driving it across the border and back. Well at least this is the version of the truth that my father holds till this day. 

The trip didn't go as planned and we wouldn't see my father for years as he had begun a journey that would lead to its own consequences and miseries down the rode. 

Being the oldest, I had to learn to adapt as the new man of the house. I loved my siblings, but I was too young and naive to handle the overwhelming responsibility. Overtime, I managed to get a grasp of what it meant to be a leader and things began to get better surpassing the conditions we lived in when my father was still around. I discovered that the key to running a successful family centered around hard work. This meant I had to remain alert and relaxed. This state of "nirvana" overtime takes its toll on the body, but my medication kept whatever part of my brain that was still functioning going. Caffeine and Nicotine became my crutch. 

My father eventually returned from his journey. Whether his travels had made him all the more wiser or had exposed his true self that had remained hidden all these years, there was no doubt that he was a changed man. My father's journey had taught him a valuable lesson that he planned to ingrain on me specifically. That a man's home was his castle and this needed to be protected at all cost. This lesson began to be beaten into me daily with bruises as a reminder of who the real man of the house was. I was overthrown and seen as an intruder in the house that had taught me how to lead and survive.

 My future was forever altered when my father told me he would be leaving for the weekend.