A Day Wasted

I was born with both parents still married and living together. It was when I had turned three that my mother, along with my five siblings, decided to leave my father. They were in a marriage for 25 years and still married to this day before splitting up rather than divorcing legally. I don't remember much of how he was when I was younger but there are a few lingering memories that have camped out in my head.

I was a bit older, about seven years old when I began to distance myself from my dad. He would pick just my older brother, the youngest from the men and only a year older from me, and I on the weekends to stay with him. I  enjoyed going to his house because he'd take us out to eat wherever we wanted and allowed us to stay up late playing games. We really looked forward to it.

On a Friday morning, on Diego's birthday, Diego and I got ready and waited outside on our bench for him to pick us up. An hour past and he didn't show, we called but he didn't answer. We waited. Two more hours past and still no show, so I went inside. Diego stayed outside looking at the cars pass hoping one of them was my dad.

It got late, still no sign of him so I went to my brother, “It’s pretty cold”, I said. He glanced at me, no response. “You should come inside, he's probably deciding on your present” , I said hoping he’d forget about everything and just get inside.He refused to listen, I thought making excuses for my dad would help him. Diego ignored me; it was not until my mom called him out to dinner that he went in.

He had wasted a whole day waiting for him. At dinner he cheered up as my mom had bought him a cake along with a present. I knew his feelings were hurt more than mine, because he adored our dad. Little did he know it hurt me more seeing him hurt.

A couple of days later he called and told us his car had broken down, but I knew he was lying, my mom had told me where he had been. That’s when I stopped believing in him, what he told us and especially what he’d promised us, because I knew he wouldn’t keep his word on anything.

Now, years later, he sometimes calls us. I have seen that from that Friday until now, Diego has become impatient, once a patient little boy. From seeing what had happened to him and the way he changed, I have learned that we should be patient to things only worth waiting for.