A Tale for Isabel
A Tale for Isabel
Isabel: "What are you going to tell me tonight, dad?"
Bob: "Get under the covers.. ok, tonight I'll tell you the story of Bill."
Isabel: "Who is Bill?"
Bob calmly began to tell the story..
Bob is a 47-year-old man and father to a beautiful 7-years-old girl, Isabel. Every night
when he puts her to bed, he tells her a different story, gives her a kiss, and then it's off to sleep!
He grew more and more every day, and as he grew, he had a question that was increasingly on his mind, but he didn't know how to ask it, or whether to ask it. One day, at the age of 8, he asked his mother:
Bill: "Mom, did I have a dad like other children?"
Mother: "Yes, of course. But he was a bad person, and you know where bad people go, don't you?"
Bill: "No"
Mother: "bad people go to faraway places made for them. Your mom, on the other hand, is good, and you don't need anything else to be happy."
Time passed. Bill continued to grow tall, healthy, perceptive, with excellent grades at school, perfect, but in reality he smiled little, was very thoughtful and unsociable, often looking pensive and rarely carefree.
At 18, in one of his rare moments of instinct, he said to his mother:
Bill: "Mom, what if one day I meet my dad?"
Mother: "What are you saying! I have done everything for you, what the hell are you telling me? Look for him if you want, but then don't come back here again! You are giving me great sorrow with these terrible thoughts!"
His mother then started crying and left the house, slamming the door behind her.
Bill felt devastated. He felt terrible, he was terribly sorry for having caused his mother such great pain, he felt torn in two because, on the one hand, his desire to see his father had ruined his mother's life, and he had never seen her so angry and desperate.
Bill never brought up the subject again.
But from that day on, he began to suffer greatly.
Now he was no longer thoughtful but sad, no longer reflective but discouraged. Every time he saw a boy playing with his father, he thought that his father would never want to play with him. Every time he saw a father kissing his son, he thought that his father would never kiss him.
Between the ages of twenty and thirty, his love life was a disaster. His relationships didn't last. Handsome, athletic, and intelligent, he was used and then discarded. He always ended up with the most unfortunate women. He had no self-esteem. When he saw women who were truly beautiful inside and out, he thought, "I don't deserve someone like that."
One day, in the evening, he was at the bus stop, which was deserted as usual at that hour. He saw a man come up very close to him and say in a hoarse voice, "You're Bill... right?"
Bill: "Yes, but who are you?"
The man replied: "I had no doubt it was you. I am your father."
Bill didn't take it seriously, then he thought that no one would ever say such a thing on the street. Who was this man in front of him? Well, he could really be his father... It had been a long time, Bill hadn't thought about that man in many years. But he didn't understand what he should do now. Then his father spoke:
Father: "How are you, Bill? Do you have a family?"
Bill (a little defensively): "Are you sure you're my father? Are you kidding me?"
His father told him that he had never actually known about his son. His mother had left him one day out of the blue for no particular reason. He had never understood why. He loved her very much, but he couldn't force her to love him because he respected her.
Father: "Your mother didn't tell me she was pregnant, and we never saw each other again, except for a few letters. Some time ago, I wrote to her about my illness, about how little time I had left. I don't know what prompted her, but she told me about you, Bill. I don't have much time left, son, and I would like to get to know you in the time I have left."
Then there was a moment of silence, a few more words from his father. Bill, on the other hand, had no words because he couldn't find any, except for a few diplomatic phrases here and there.
Father: "I see you're a man now. I'm proud of you", he said, approaching him and patting him on the shoulder. He then saw a tear swelling on his son's motionless, petrified face, his eyes shiny and his back stiff, almost as if he were afraid of his old body. The father did not hesitate and hugged him, saying, "It must have been hard to become a man on your own."
That phrase, full of loving compassion, was like a key that reopened the door to Bill's feelings, and he let himself go in uncontrolled, heart-wrenching, pain-filled sobs, as if someone dear to him had died.
And along with it, hatred came out too.
"Why! Why! Why weren't you there? Where were you? Why? Why? Dad! Dad"
...He was a river and stayed there spewing cries and pain for a good 10 minutes in the most liberating cry of his life.
Bill said:
Bill had stopped crying. He felt like a 5-year-old child in the arms of that old man. Now he was feeling a little better. He looked at the man's face and saw that he too had tears in his eyes but was resisting with restraint and moderation, and then a smile appeared.
They spent the day together, time flying by as they recounted two lives that were so potentially close but had never crossed paths. Despite everything, they discovered many things in common, certain passions, certain stubbornness... even certain vices.
A man who was taking photos along the river and then asking for money took a snapshot of them, and Bill wanted to buy it. Evening came, his father's train was leaving, the journey was long and the care he needed meant he had gone too far away. Bill promised to visit him at the hospital over the weekend. Their gazes were no longer the same as they had been that morning; they seemed like two different people. Bill now walked on air. The two embraced.
His father caressed him and looked at him with affection.
He boarded the train knowing that it would take him straight to heaven, and indeed it did. Bill was sad, but deep down he thought that his father had now gotten to know him. He thought his father was a smart man, a good person, he felt proud, and from that day on he stopped belittling himself, feeling miserable and worthless.
The rest of his life was so beautiful that everything that had come before no longer mattered. He would leave proud and happy, just like that man who was old on the outside but young on the inside, who had come to say goodbye and hug him before leaving for heaven.
..silence.. silence reigned in the little room.. Bob got up slowly so as not to make any noise, but..
Isabel: "What an incredible story, Dad. So sad at first and so beautiful afterwards."
Bob: "Now go to sleep."
He hugged his daughter.
He turned off the light and went into the next room.
A deep breath surrounded the whole room, and then.. silence.
It was 2047..
"I like the stories you tell me. I love you."
He caressed her and looked at her with affection.
LoIn the double bed lay a beautiful head of blonde hair and the face of a sleeping angel.
He thought of that photo of him with the old man by the river, opened the drawer and looked at it, a relaxed smile curving the corners of his mouth. He put the photo back and turned off the light.
..and peace reigned in Bob's house.
to all fathers of the world, to all children of the world
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