Excerpt: "Without Our Father"

An excerpt of a short story about sibling love.

This is something I wrote many years ago about a depressed and hurting Alexandra in her teenage years. It's a reflection of my own teenage years in high school.

“I loved it when they would take us to the ice cream shop after the beach and allow us to eat as much ice cream as we wanted.” Daniel said. He was standing behind her. His eyes filled with tears. “Oh and the picnics and the road trips…we had to be the luckiest kids ever. We had the best father and mother in the world. He might be gone Alex, but we still have mom and we still have each other. I-I’m so tired of arguing with you…I don’t want to argue with you and neither does mom.”

“I killed him.” She cried. “I felt like I knew everything just like now that I’m a teenager…in high school and all. But back then I thought I could do things on my own.” He walked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t realize what I was doing…I killed him I did I should’ve listened to him.”

“No, don’t say that.” He pulled her into a hug and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “You didn’t kill him…it was an accident Alex.”

"No it wasn't." She shook her head. "I did it...I did it."

Daniel cradled her in his arms like he did when she was little and scared because it was too dark outside or the thunders were too loud. "You didn't kill dad, it was an accident." Daniel had been angry with Alexandra for a really long time when they were younger. A part of him did always feel like it was partially her fault because Matthew had clearly asked Alexandra to stay away from the edge of the boat but she was being hardheaded. Looking at her now crying in his arms and thinking back to everything he realized it wasn't her fault. She couldn't live her life blaming herself for something she didn't cause. Yeah she could have listened to him but she couldn't control nature and it's bad weather. "It was an unfortunate event...but we have to move pass it."

Alexandra didn't say anything else she just cried. "Come on let's take a walk like when we were little." she nodded her head and with his help she stood up. Hand by hand Alex and Daniel walked slowly, allowing the waves to wet their feet.