Weekend Freewrite ∠(^ー^)- Three Separate Prompts, One Story - The Family Business

My grandfather lied to my grandmother. I guess it runs in the family.

When I learned what my father did to my mother, I thought that he was the only one. The only one with the guts to keep such horrible secrets in our home. But it turns out that he wasn’t, it started with my grandfather.

And it never stopped. I guess it would continue with me.

I found out about it when I followed Dad one day. It was almost Mom’s birthday, and I was expecting that he would be off to find the perfect gift for her. After all, he disappeared every year around this time, and always came back with a spectacular present.

Each one was special, something you couldn’t find in an ordinary store. There was this brilliant pearl bracelet one time, created in a rather unique pattern. At another birthday he gave her a wooden clock that had a music box sound, and yet another time there was a set of golden combs.

Every year I would ask him where he got those things, and he would always reply that he found them in shops around town. I’d leave him alone, and look for alike stuff in the stores, but there wasn’t anything resembling what he bought in our tiny community.

This year, I was motivated to find out. I finally had a girlfriend that I wanted to impress, I wanted to find out Dad’s secret.

Margaret had this habit of spitting. It began to get on my nerves. But as her boyfriend, I had to be patient with her, which made me feel bad how I thought about what she’d do.

The gift I’d give her would be to soothe my guilt for thinking uncharitably about her. This meant that I needed to find out where Dad bought the stuff for Mom.

On the day I followed Dad, my grandfather warned me not to, like he did every year. He told me that men had their secrets, which I had to respect. I ignored him. I regret it now. I shouldn’t have, maybe I’d still retain a much purer view of the world if I had.

My girlfriend called me. It was the day her mother slapped her face, she said. The first time ever. She needed me to comfort her, but I told her I was doing something important, for her. It made her stop crying, which she had been doing the entire time on the phone.

After the call, I managed to tail my dad to the edge of town, where a collection of abandoned buildings sat.

Hiding behind a post, I watched as he got out of the car and walked to one of the buildings, knocking on the door. To my surprise, a man in a suit opened it and ushered Dad inside.

There was a window, but it was high up on the wall. Fortunately, I found a large crate to stand on so I could peek into the building.

The sight that greeted me almost sent me to the ground.

My dad was surrounded by men who looked shady. They were opening some boxes filled with packed, white powder. It looked like drugs. They were dealing with drugs.

One of the men handed a wrapped package to my father, which he didn’t bother opening, he just stashed it into the pocket of his coat.

He had been lying to us the entire time. I thought he was just a normal, upstanding citizen, but it turns out he was a criminal. One who dragged others into the pit of addiction and despair.

This news was too big, too heavy to carry by myself. I had to tell my grandfather.

THUD!!!!!!!!

I slipped off the crate and fell to the ground.

Desperate, I scrambled on to my feet and tried running away. But my fall had given me a sprain, a painful one. I could only try limping, and even that was excruciating, I could only hope they didn’t hear me.

I hadn’t gone far when a hand suddenly grasped my shoulder.

I didn’t want to turn around, but I couldn’t continue on either.

My father stood there, his own father, my grandfather, behind him as a number of men rushed out the building.

“I see that you’ve found us out. Well, it was time you entered the family business.”

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Okay, so this was challenging. I had to do some tiny revisions afterward, and I went over a couple of minutes..........
But it was fun! ( • ̀ω•́ )✧

Thanks to @mariannewest for providing us with a challenging and fun writing exercise. For more info on what this is all about, visit this post.

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