Sciks: Week 36, Part 1Well, I've heard that the best way to break bad news is to do it first and fast, like pulling off a bandaid. Dad dies. At age 98 days, my Dad, Patrick (Baker) Sunburst finally has his meeting with the Grim. Dad spends all day Sunday working out while the rest of the family try and organize a trip to China which never happens. [
Traveling, no matter who goes or how many resulted in zero Sims showing up in China. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.] At about 4pm he gets a call from City Hall, they have another stylist award for him! Dad is so excited he jumps off the weight machine and heads straight to City Hall. Sadly, he makes it only as far as the front porch.
The Grim makes it as painless as possible on all of us and simply shakes Dad's hand.
R.I.P. Patrick (Baker) Sunburst, 98daysFather, Husband, Friend, Musician, Photographer, Stylist
He leaves behind his Son, Wife, and their family.
He joins in the afterlife his Mother, Baker Uncle and Grandmother.
Mom takes it hard. I think she's struggling with Dad's betrayal and connecting it to the man that she loved her whole life, and continues to love. *Kleenex for Mom*
My one true regret: I never got to fulfill my Dad's 5000LTHP wish of seeing me get married. It's not like I didn't have time or anything, I am a YA for almost a week before Dad dies, I could have called Caroline on any one of those days and proposed but I didn't. I'm sorry Dad.
I start teaching Sami how to hunt and, after she gains her first skill point, there's no stopping her! Not one to sit still and listen to a lecture on hunting, she runs around the yard searching for the next super interesting smell to dig up.
You will never guess who I run into at the park on Tuesday! After a trip to the Consignment Shop to drop off my latest batch of widgets, I wander over to Central Park across the street. A little fresh air before I head back home and get buried in scrap at my inventing table again.
I was trying to catch a butterfly (and failing miserably) when a laugh coming from behind me tickles it's way up my spine and into the back recesses of my memory. I pause as pieces of China, a sandbox, and a seesaw flash through my head, combined with that laugh. I turn around and see none other than Lihua Wang,
my very first real best friend! All grown up, baby fat gone, but that laugh remains.
Thoughts of inventing vanish. Instead, I grab her in a huge hug and burst out laughing! That's when the awkwardness starts and I realize she doesn't remember me. An introduction and explanation later she returns my hug and smiles. She even agrees to spending the day with me. I take her over to the gym and lose my very first game of darts to her.
As the evening arrives, I take her out for dinner at the Bistro. I can't remember what I order or even how it tastes, but I remember the candle light making her black hair shine and her dark brown eyes sparkle. We never stop talking, moving effortlessly from one topic to the next. She tells me about
her family, how her mom Maya has passed away but her Dad Deng still lives in the old house. She has a brother, An, living in China and a half-sister in France whom she's never met. I tell her about Sami, my inventing, the awards I won in Shop Class, Dad's death. I could talk to this girl all night!
When she hints at getting tired, I ask if she wants to stay at the house instead of a hotel. She agrees on the condition that I call ahead and OK it with the family first.
I blame it on the spontaneity of the day, the surprise of renewing old acquaintances, and the magic of the night. It feels like coming home. The fireworks in my head and crackling down my spine make my toes curl.
Reality, as it has a habit of doing, comes crashing down the next morning when I wake up beside Lihua. She is so beautiful sleeping there, her black hair spilling all over the pillow. But she isn't Caroline. Oh gosh, Caroline! I jump backward out of bed so fast I hit my head on the trophy shelf hanging on the wall behind me. My eyes glaze over as I rub the sore spot, a slide show of Caroline running through my head: her beautiful purple eyes, my high school sweetheart and best friend, watching the stars, Prom, my birthday, how I haven't seen her since, Dad's wish, the lack of a ring, or a night like this with my Caroline. Dad. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all.
When she starts moving I high tail it out of the room and into a shower, buying a few more minutes to clear my head and think. The hot water doesn't help, all it does is cause blood to pool in my feet leaving my brain starved for oxygen and me feeling weak. I sit down on the toilet waiting for the room to stop spinning.
How long I sit there I have no idea, but I come back to reality when the knocking at the door reaches a desperate tempo and I hear Grandma Therie yelling, asking if I'm alright. In the 5 steps it takes me to reach the door, I realize the decision has already been made. Next up, breakfast, and then I have to break a lady's heart.
And mine.
