Jack

August 6th, 1984

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling completely bewildered by Aunt Sherrie's words. She had just told me that my dad was not so different from my mom, and I had a hard time understanding how.

"I can see you're in denial about it. You're not even considering the fact that a man with his job shouldn't have so many 'business trips.'" Aunt Sherrie held up her hands to show quotation marks. "If you tell him about your mother burning your belongings, then watch how he reacts."

"Wait, what?"

"Not only that, you're on vacation. Don't you think that if you're on vacation with your father, then he should be spending more time with you? Otherwise there's no point in spending so much money." Aunt Sherrie put her hands on her waist and looked me in the eye. She may be only 5'2, but she sure still does know how to stare someone down.

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew deep down that she had a really good point: Why spend all that money to go on a plane with your son and not even bother spending time with him? Not only that, my dad was a stockbroker. He was the only one I knew that went on so many business trips.

"Just think about it, okay? You'll look back on this ten or twenty years down the road and understand." She ruffled my hair and smiled. "Now who wants tuna?"

I smiled. It felt really good to take my mind off my parents. Besides, Aunt Sherrie serves the best tuna ever.

"Jack, do you want to go to the gardens?" Sherrie asked, while I was slouching on the couch, watching the TV showing a plethora of cartoons.

"Gardens?" I asked, reaching out for the Doritos on the table.

"You're in Halifax for a few days, so why not explore while you can?" Sherrie smiled, her eyes with a kindly twinkle to them.

I switched off the TV and looked at her. "Okay," I said. "I'll get ready."

Her smile became even wider. "That's great. Come out in ten minutes. I'll start the car and we'll get going right away."

We pulled into a parking lot with very few cars in there. Aunt Sherrie parked nearby the entrance, and we both exited at the same time.

I slammed the door a bit hard, while my aunt was much softer on the door. She locked the car and looked up.

"Well Jacko, I'm sure you'll enjoy the flowers. They look beautiful as of right now, I hear," she said, as we walked in after paying the fees. All around us, there were many different flowers, ranging from sunflowers to daffodils, tulips to violets to roses, and to petunias and chrysanthemums and more. There was such a huge variety of colours, with reds, purples, whites, blues, and so much more. Some of these flowers had such vibrant hues, I wouldn't be surprised if they were fake flowers, though it would be rather upsetting to have to know that the owners could care less about actually having to take care of real flowers and more about the money.

"These flowers certainly are something, aren't they?" Sherrie whispered, her voice low and soft.

"Yes," I said, though I kind of didn't get what Aunt Sherrie said. "They're pretty flowers."

After about an hour, we went back to our Halifax home and had soup for dinner. Neither Dad nor Grandma had come back that night, but I didn't really think too much about it. I was in such high spirits that day from going to the gardens, I suppose.

"Good night, kid. Tomorrow we're going on a sailing boat. We'll be spending the whole day on it, so eat up tomorrow and bring lots of water. Alright?" Sherrie patted my head.

"Alright," I said, smiling. "Good night."