Ring ring

Every once in a great while I write something recreating my experiences and decide to share it with everyone. This is just such an occasion.


Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ri-

“Hello”
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“I’ve been here, just sitting around the house”
“And you didn’t answer my texts because?”
“Well…”
“Well what?”
“Well… I’ve been sick. I even messaged you and told you I threw up.”
“Yeah. And I told you that I’d come over and take care of you. I miss you and I haven’t seen you in a few days. I know I shouldn’t… but I worry about you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I know that.”
“Then why are you worried. You just need to chill.”
“Well I’m sorry, but I just want a simple message saying, ‘Hey I’m still good don’t worry I’m just going to whatever-the-fuck-you-decide-you’re-going-to-be-doing so don’t worry about coming over.’ Is that too much to ask for?”
“No. It’s not, but you need to chill – seriously.”
“Okay. You promise to text me from now on and I’ll promise to chill.”

And it’s at this point that I realize I’m turning into my father. And I just want to scream. I want to yell at the top of my lungs and just break down and cry.

I was staying in Hawaii for a month one summer and we went to visit this awesome beach on the other side of the island. I’d told everyone I was going: Mom, little brother, older sister, all four of my nieces, even my girlfriend knew… everyone but my dad. I’d forgotten to call him and let him know, but I figured with that many people knowing I’d be okay. He’d just ask one of them and everything would be alright. Well apparently that wasn’t the case. For 4 days I was on the beach my dad was going through his own personal self-inflicted hell. He was texting and calling me every so often trying to get ahold of me and as the days the stretched on the time between his calls and texts became less and less. But I didn’t know I was in a place where cell phone service was nonexistent – just like my worries. I was playing endless volleyball matches, kayaking off into the ocean, and swimming with dolphins. The last thing I was thinking about was whether or not my dad was trying to get ahold of me.

So days pass by and he’s not heard from me. He calls my mom and she tells him not to worry because she knows I’m fine. He calls my sister and she says not to worry because she knows I’m fine. He calls them a few times each day and they tell him the same thing over and over again, “Don’t worry Robert is fine. If he wasn’t I’d have gotten a call by now.” He even went as far as going online and accessing my phone records so he could call the last person who spoke to me, my girlfriend whom he’s never even met, and called her to have her say, “Don’t worry Robert is fine. If he wasn’t I’d have gotten a call by now.” He told her that if he didn’t hear from me by tomorrow he was going to call the police.

As we pulled our van full of smiles, sand, and sunburns into the driveway I was greeted by a member of the household telling me that I should give my dad a call because he’d called there too and wanted to see if I was okay. I went into the next room, pulled out my dead cell phone and charger, plugged it in and proceeded to call him.

Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ri-
“Hello”
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“I’ve been at the beach for the past few days.”
“And you didn’t answer my texts because?”
“Well…”
“Well what?”
“Well... there was no phone reception and on top of that my phone died the first day we were there.”
“Yeah. And I didn’t know that. And you never told me where you were going or what you were doing.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I know that.”
“Then why are you worried. You just need to chill.”
“Well I’m sorry, but I just want a simple message saying, ‘Hey I’m still good don’t worry I’m just going to whatever-the-fuck-you-decide-you’re-going-to-be-doing.’ Is that too much to ask for?”
“No. It’s not, but you need to chill – seriously.”
“Okay. You promise to text me from now on and I’ll promise to chill.”
“Dad I’m good I promise.”
“Well you’ll have a few visitors in a minute and you can explain that to them.”
“What?”
“You’ll see.”

And with that he hung up the phone. I walked outside to help everyone unpack the van and instead of being greeted by the friends I’d spent the past 4 days with I found two uniformed police men asking for my whereabouts.

Tomorrow never came, but the police did.