Three Way Street
Pablo Padres
Life in Billings was as subtle and plain as a quiet valley. Nothing interesting ever happened and no one ever expects anything to happen; everyday was the same top to finish. Being the middle brother out of three is a very different story. We lived in a house with two bathrooms, and one of them was exclusively for Mother; I guess Dad’s departure had its benefits. This was the first time my mother was yelling at us for being late to school; we were never late to school and my mother never yelled at us. The day had started off to a bad start. I was in a point in my life were my worries were none; being a sophomore in high school is not an extraordinary task and besides school, my only worry was Mother, but she made that job easy because she always knew how to get up when she fell down, and dad really pushed her down with him leaving. School panned out exactly how it always does, eight hours of pure boredom. The ride home was long as it always is, but it felt longer since I’m always squished with my other two brothers, Jody and Bruce. The day couldn’t be more normal except that all the ride back home, I had this tic in my head that wouldn’t leave me alone. My mind went back to my mother this morning, how she yelled at us and how rushed she seemed. She is never rushed. I expected the warm and soft smell of my mother’s cuisine to calm me down as soon as I went in the house. The house had no smells, not of my mother’s cuisine or even the smells of my mother’s organic cleaning supplies. Me, Jody and Bruce started looking around the house, but all questions were answered when Jody, the youngest, walked into her bedroom. The body of the woman who was always making sure me and my brothers had everything we needed; she was now gone. With a cheap hard ware store rope wrapped around her neck, something so simple and mundane like thousands of strings into one massive one, has taken her away from me. There was a note right on her bedside. How original mother.
My children, I can’t even explain why I would do this, but it was a meditated decision, I leave you heartbroken and ashamed of my decision and I want you to know I am truly sorry. I have left you a bank account with money to last you for a few months, take care of each other and look after one and other. As my last gift to you boys I will give you what I was to afraid to give you alive, I will give you the truth. Your father begged me to tell you this right before he left and if he learned to accept it. I don’t see why you can’t. You see my marriage with your father was never great, we fought constantly and there was more hate than love after one year. To escape the grief of the marriage, I cheated on your father constantly and even after he left, I kept sleeping my way through Billings to fill the void he left, even though we hated each other, there was still love at the bottom. Out of all these infidelities came you three. So, the truth is that none of you are your father’s sons, more specifically, each one of you has a different father. I left their names and phone numbers in my bottom left drawer of my desk in the living room. Do what you may with those numbers.
With love and regret, your mother.
Oh by the way, I left lasagna in the fridge in case you are hungry, but don’t eat to much because you will get cramps, especially you Jody.
The fact that all of these words came out of Bruce’s mouth with his deep and creepy voice, made this letter even worse. My mother was gone and no one was here to actually explain to us what she did. But we knew that it was time to reveal our past; it was time to find our fathers. And that was exactly what we planned to do. But first we were definitely going to eat some of that lasagna.
My children, I can’t even explain why I would do this, but it was a meditated decision, I leave you heartbroken and ashamed of my decision and I want you to know I am truly sorry. I have left you a bank account with money to last you for a few months, take care of each other and look after one and other. As my last gift to you boys I will give you what I was to afraid to give you alive, I will give you the truth. Your father begged me to tell you this right before he left and if he learned to accept it. I don’t see why you can’t. You see my marriage with your father was never great, we fought constantly and there was more hate than love after one year. To escape the grief of the marriage, I cheated on your father constantly and even after he left, I kept sleeping my way through Billings to fill the void he left, even though we hated each other, there was still love at the bottom. Out of all these infidelities came you three. So, the truth is that none of you are your father’s sons, more specifically, each one of you has a different father. I left their names and phone numbers in my bottom left drawer of my desk in the living room. Do what you may with those numbers.
With love and regret, your mother.
Oh by the way, I left lasagna in the fridge in case you are hungry, but don’t eat to much because you will get cramps, especially you Jody.
The fact that all of these words came out of Bruce’s mouth with his deep and creepy voice, made this letter even worse. My mother was gone and no one was here to actually explain to us what she did. But we knew that it was time to reveal our past; it was time to find our fathers. And that was exactly what we planned to do. But first we were definitely going to eat some of that lasagna.
Pablo Padres is from Mexico and the youngest of four. He grew up writing as one of his many hobbies like painting, running, traveling, and more. He enjoys sushi and attending parties. He wishes to study marketing and business administration abroad and then continue to be a PR executive or even found a media company.