With time comes a change
The sky is bright blue above me, I can feel the sun's rays heat my skin so nicely. I feel the tall green grass run through my fingers and it feels as though I am touching the soft hair that of my sisters, I can hear the winds melody, it makes me wonder if anyone but me can hear what I hear, I close my eyes and I embrace every sound, touch, and smell that surrounds me, I am content just to be here without anyone to tell me I have to stop daydreaming, to stop enjoying what I love most, making and telling stories. My enjoyful moment breaks when I hear the voice that doesn't let me live the life I love.
"Gabrielle, Gabrielle; where are you!"
I heard my father's angered voice, and I knew if I didn't answer him right away that the consequences would be that he wouldn't let me go to the local scroll keeper and that is something I won't sacrifice.
"I'm over here" I answered, and that's when I saw him limping up the hill, he looked tired it showed on his face but also his face was really red which showed he had been drinking again and when he was drunk he would get mad for anything.
My father is a local farmer here in Potidaea, but he wasn't always a famer, he once told me long ago when I was 6 summers old, he once was a strong warrior, I think he said he was a captain but was wounded in battle against the crown because the king of that time was a tyrant and he would not serve as the king's captain in his army. He and other captains felt the same so they made an army and rebelled against the crown and won but with a cost, my father lost his leg and when they put a new king to rule one that everyone wanted, all he got was 1000 pieces of gold and a thank you and was kicked out of the new kings army. That left my father devastated, my mother said that he would try to hide it but she could see how sad and depressed he was but she said once I was born that my father got his spark of living again now that he had a daughter and a reason to better his life now that he had a family.
I remember that my father would play with me a lot and said I could be anything in the world even a bard but that was then, now he is not like that anymore now he is a bitter man I noticed he was starting to act like this after my sister Lila was born, I was 8 summers old so my sister has never known the man I once called father, who showed so much love towards his family and nothing mattered to him other than the wellbeing of his family. What changed? Well ever since my father found out that the king has been treating the people very badly and now that the king has shown what kind of person he really is, nothing but a tyrant. Poverty has befallen Potidaea, times are rougher and everything we all wanted was nothing but a dream because of this my father has picked up the bottle and is always drunk. I know he mistreats my mother but I know she will never tell him anything because she loves him too much. I will never understand that kind of love. I have read in scrolls that one will always hurt the ones they love the most, but once one ask for forgiveness, then they will promise their love for each other. These are the stories I have read about but then again I will never understand love, because I myself have never fallen in love. My father reaches me on top of the hill and asks, "Gabrielle, have you been up here all morning?" I sigh because my answer will just only anger him more.
"Yes father, I have been up here but not all morning." As I expected he got angry.
"Did I not tell you to go to the market and come back?"
"Yes"
"Well then, why didn't you fallow my orders?" By this time my father had lost his temper and was yelling at me and that's when I couldn't take it, I yelled back at him.
"Because, I just wanted to have some time of my own! Can't I have some time just for me, where I can be me and not that boring daughter you want me to be?!" Once I said this I know I spoke too much but I had already said what said, I just waited for my father to explode, but to my surprise his eyes soften, it was something I haven't seen in years and what scared me the most he smiled.
"Your right and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose my temper, and yes you have every right to have time for yourself, I just got worried because you didn't come home right away so I thought that something happened to you." Now it was my turn for my eyes to soften because this is the first time I actually see the real man I know. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, my father raises his hand and wipes it away and just smiles at me and I smile back, I surprise him by giving him a hug that I have been longing to give him for many years now and to my surprise my father hugs me back really tight, I finally had the guts to talk to him.
"I've missed this; I've missed you so much." I am now practically sobbing by now. My father doesn't offer an answer but I know he misses this too as well because he hugs me even tighter. My father is the first to break contact and starts to speak.
"Come on Gabrielle, let's go home." As we walk home I feel that fuzzy feeling I have been missing since I was 6 summers old, I feel loved once more and even it's for a moment it's a moment I am going to cherish the rest of my life, and I guess it's true what I have read, "with time comes a change," if this is the start for my father to change I only hope it's only for good.