LOVE. LIFE. FAMILY.

Jack woke up with a new zest on life.  he suddenly had a young wife and a young daughter.  he also had a mother but she was old and lonely.  sad.  a life once filled with hopes.  dreams.  promises.  now filled with aches.  pains.  loneliness.  fear.  fear of death.  fear of life.  fear of love but also fear of hate.
Jack walked down the hallway and down the stairs.  he put on a pot of coffee and sat on the couch.  dark outside.  dark inside.  he took four deep breaths and also took a piss.  shit to come later.  he turned on the tv to watch useless news stations deliver useless news.  Bono wears glasses because he has Glaucoma…yeah sure.  Just like Jennifer Laurence is livid about the leak of her nude pictures.  while human trafficking is prevalent all over the world we are concerned for poor rich Jennifer and her stupid nude pictures.  I haven’t once looked at them.  I would rather see a real girl nude than a plastic one with a fake heart.
Coffee “beeps” so Jack yells for Chloe and Taylor to come down.  Taylor too young to drink coffee.  also too hyper.  Taylor quickly runs down the stairs and asks Jack a thousand questions about life.  “why is the moon out when the sun is also out???  why is their five school days and only two holiday days???  why do you drink coffee???  why did you marry Mommy???”
All relevant questions to a nine year old but to a forty five year old tired and grumpy old man with no coffee nothing is relevant.
“I don’t know.  Not sure.  wait for Mommy to come down.”  it’s always, “wait for Mommy to come down.”
Mommy finally came down.  eyes closed.  hair everywhere.  “Mommy why is the sun out as well as the moon???  Daddy told me to ask you.  Why?  Why?  Why?”
“let me just have a coffee first Taylor.  I haven’t even woken up.”
Chloe drinks some coffee and then Taylor asks again, “Mommy why is the sun out and the moon out at the same time.  Why???”
Chloe ignores Taylor and then Jack chimes in.  “She’s asking you a question Chloe.”
“I DON’T KNOW TAYLOR ALRIGHT!!!”
“Why are you so mad all the time Mommy???”
“Yeah Chloe.  Why?”
“LEAVE ME ALONE OKAY!!!  I HAVE A MIGRAINE!!!”
“You always have a migraine.”
“FUCK OFF!!!”
“Watch your language Chloe.”
Taylor runs upstairs crying.  Chloe stomps upstairs mad.  Jack continues drinking his coffee but his face red and sweating.
Another day.  Another dollar.  Really?
Half an hour later Taylor comes down fully dressed with her Mommy right behind her.  They are rushing.
“Are you coming Jack?  we’re leaving in five minutes.”
“okay…wait.  I won’t be long.”
“we’re not waiting.”
Jack quickly throws on clothes and brushes his teeth.  he then runs downstairs and chases Chloe and Taylor down the street.
“WAIT UP!!!”
Life.  Rush.  Stress.  Angry.  Sad.  Happy.  Tears of joy and tears of sadness and then beautiful music is heard from a beautiful house on the corner of Pheasant Drive.  music always making life better.
we arrive at Taylor’s school and see her run off to play with her friends.  boys.  girls.  soccer balls.  screams.  line-ups.  grade four.  Jack looks at Chloe and says, “I can’t believe she is in grade four already.”
“I know.  where have the last nine years gone?”
The bell rings and Taylor runs over to us to get her knapsack.  Jack leans in for a kiss and Taylor turns away.
“Don’t embarrass her Jack.  You’re going to be that embarrassing Dad in a wheelchair in high school still wanting a kiss from Taylor and all her friends will be looking at you and laughing.”
“Really?”
Taylor gets in the line-up with the rest of her classmates and they walk in.  Chloe and Jack sadly walk away.  Life one day closer to Taylor leaving for good.
Funny how life works.  we are born.  we need our parents and our parents need us and love us and care for us and do everything for us but then we hit an age where we annoy our parents and our parents annoy us and we HATE each other and we tell our parents to “FUCK OFF” and our parents tell us to “SHUT UP” and we leave and we come home and then we leave again and we drive our parents bonkers and our parents drive us insane and then we hit an age where we need our parents for advice with boys and advice with girls and we cry sometimes and we need a hug sometimes and then we hit an age where we leave and we…stop thinking about our parents…and our parents sometimes stop thinking about us and then we have fake family events and fake get together’s and we pretend we all get along but then we ask our parents for a favour and they say “NO” if they say anything at all.  some children lose all contact with their parents and what was once unconditional love has become unconditional hurt and unconditional pain.  pain that hurts a child for the rest of their lives as they sit and wonder what they have done wrong for their parents to NOT CARE.  and they carry this with them for the rest of their lives and then they pass this behaviour and hurt onto their children and then their parents end up on their deathbeds in a hospital and want their children to visit them and their children DO NOT want to visit them but sometimes feel obliged to out of guilt and then they are in a no win situation and then they go but they are not happy and then their parents die and they cry.
then they try to mend their relationships with their children and sometimes it works and sometimes it is just too damn late and then they are on their deathbeds and the whole process starts again and in the end nobody cares about them anyway.  nobody except their immediate family which leads me to the moral of my story which is LOVE YOUR FAMILY AND CARE FOR YOUR FAMILY AND TREAT YOUR FAMILY WITH LOVE.  RESPECT.  AND UNDERSTANDING.  BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE REALLY CARES.
Jack and Chloe get a call from the Principal.
“Taylor has been in an accident.  Can you come to the school to get her?  she’s okay but just a bit banged up.”
“Sure.  we’ll be right there.”
Jack and Chloe rush out the door and drive to the school as fast as they can.  they arrive and quickly run to the Principal’s Office.  they open the door and walk in.  The Principal greets them and brings them over to a spare room.  they look inside and see their daughter lying on the couch with a bloodied rag covering her bloodied face.  “she fell down at recess and her glasses jabbed into her forehead.”  she looks so sad.  so alone.  Jack and Chloe walk in and give their young beautiful daughter a HUGE hug.  Taylor cries.  Jack cries.  Chloe cries. 
They walk out of the school together.
Family.
Mom.