https://soundcloud.com/valerie-k-reid/the-rescue-take-two
“The Rescue”
By Valerie K. Reid
When I was a little girl, you loved me dearly.
I loved you, too.
More than anybody.
You were my Dad.
My Hero.
Then I turned 14
and you seemed to hate me.
I began to hate you, too.
You were not my Dad anymore.
Not my Hero.
You were a monster
who snarled and swore
and left us,
For a much younger woman
with red hair
and six kids.
I grieved for three years.
But soon, when we met for lunch,
like business associates,
you seemed to no longer hate me.
By the time I went off to college
you were happy enough
to begin to resemble the dad I used to have.
I felt love returning.
One Friday night in darkest March you phoned me at my dorm.
By now I was deeply homesick and dangerously depressed.
How are you, you wanted to know.
And I spoke to you like you were my old dad.
I hadn’t the strength to pretend.
I’m horrible dad, I told you,
I’m horrible, through the tears.
I’m lonely and sick and sad.
And here’s what you did:
You believed me.
You did not say oh honey, that’s too bad.
You’ll feel better tomorrow.
No. You got in your car
and you drove three hours
to find me and get me and bring me
not to you and your new family,
but where I wanted to be.
Home.
With my own sad mother.
You believed me, Dad.
Forty years later I am more awed than ever.
Who would do that??
My old Dad.
My real Dad.
My Hero.