Page 20 of Just Enough

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A few weeks later, something crashing to the floor downstairs had me bolting out of bed and running down the stairs. I took in the broken floor lamp and the tossed coffee table in the living room but saw no sign of Dad. My eyes widened when I saw the opened front door.

I ran barefoot outside just as he started his rinky-dink truck up. “Dad!” I yelled, hoping we didn’t wake our neighbors up, especially Benjamin’s parents. That was all I needed, for Faith to see my Dad getting behind a wheel drunk. And by this random behavior, I figured he wasdrunk-drunk.

Mom’s leaving had finally caught up with him.

I banged on the window. “Dad, get out of the truck now!”

“Do you know where she’s staying?” he asked through the window. His voice wasn’t slurred, but he drank every day, so he could be completely wasted and I wouldn’t know.

“I don’t.” I tried opening the door, but he locked it.

“I bet it was the judge,” he muttered darkly, grabbing the stick shift. “Tom always had a thing for her. I should have known this would happen while she worked at the courthouse.”

“What?” Judge?

“Dad, you’ve been drinking, you can’t drive!”

I didn’t even know how late it was.

When he started rolling the truck out of the driveway, I ran across the front and jumped in the passenger side seat. “Dad, will you please stop?” I tried touching his hand, but he jerked away. “At least let me drive. I’ll take you where you want to go.”

He was already driving down the road and my stomach churned from impending danger. “Just let me go alone!” he yelled.

I flinched for a second, then started again. “Dad!” He struggled to keep the truck on the road. “Do you want to get us killed? Pull off and let me drive!”

Instead of anger, my dad cried. “I don’t know who I am anymore.” I studied his unkempt appearance, his messy dark hair and beard, and the beer belly he had. “I haven’t been anyone in a long time.”

“Dad…” I didn’t know what to say. My heart broke for this man because I felt like something pivotable just happened in his head, and although it was heartbreaking, it had to happen.

“I’m so damn ashamed.” He wiped his eyes, and when he did, the whole truck jumped. I hadn’t been looking at the road to know we had gone completely off the road and jumped a rock that sent us tipping over.

“Dad!” I screamed, but it was too late.

Neither of us was buckled up, so when the truck flipped on its back, I felt like my neck broke as I smacked into the roof of the truck and white spotted my vision while all kinds of new pain hit me all over.

One part was ending, but the worst was just starting. I grunted and glanced down at myself; I was lying completely on the roof instead of in my seat. There was blood, and the windows were shattered, but I couldn’t see where I was bleeding from. I cried out when I tried to move my right arm and realized that it was most likely broken, but the good thing was my neck and back felt fine, just a little roughed up. I wouldn’t know for sure until I got out.

I glanced over at Dad and he was alert…and he was crying. He looked over at me, he too was lying awkwardly across the roof. “Are you okay, Emily?”

I grimaced. “I think my arm’s broken, but I think I’m going to be okay. Are you?”

“Why did you come with me? What am I doing?” he asked me. “I could have killed you!”

“Dad, how much have you been drinking?”

Blood trickled down his forehead. “Too much to be driving,” he admitted.

“Do you think you can climb out?” I asked him. “Let’s hurry up and do it before someone calls. I’ll say I was driving.”

“No, I’m not letting you. I fucked up. You’re my daughter. I should be taking care—”

“Dad!” I screamed. “We don’t have time. We both need to get to the hospital and when this is over, what I get in return will have been worth it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll stop drinking,” I told him firmly. “And we’ll figure out who you are.”

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