Page 2 of Fever: Love In Scrubs
“You must be Wynter,” Ms. Frank said, extending her hand.
I crossed my arms and remained silent. She offered a faint smile as she withdrew her hand and looked around the cluttered living room.
“Mr. Driscoll… I’m sure you’re a loving father, but this is not a safe environment for you or your daughter. It’s a fire hazard to say the least. There are piles of trash. Boxes to the ceiling. The smell suggests that something is dead in here, Mr. Driscoll.”
My father nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s hard.”
“You understand that I have to report these living conditions, right?”
“Please,” I begged, walking up to her. “Just give us another chance to clean this up. I’ll make sure he throws everything out. We can start over.”
“Wynter,” my father said firmly.
“Daddy, please! They’re gonna take me away from you! You’re all I have. You and I both know if they take me, they’ll never give me back.”
“That’s not true,” Jessica said, shaking her head.
“Look around, lady. You people live for things like this. I’m not a baby or a small child. Who’s gonna want me?”
“In cases like this, if it comes down to it, we would try to place you with family first.” She turned to my father. “Is there anybody that can take her until you get the house in order, Mr. Driscoll? We’d be willing to work with you. Contrary to belief, we don’t enjoy taking children from their families.”
My father looked from her to me, defeat in his eyes. I saw the moment he gave up on me… on himself… on us. He’d given up the moment my mother died, but this was the final nail in the coffin.
“Baby girl,” he said softly. “You deserve better than this. I can’t give that to you right now, no matter how bad I want to. I just need some time to get myself together. For real this time. I promise.”
“Daddy… you’re throwing me away?”
Tears streamed down my face as I looked at him. We didn’t have the best relationship. He was barely present, but he was mostly all I had. He was my only parent and I loved him.
“I could never throw you away, Wynter. I’m giving you a chance to live a normal life. I’ll call your Aunt Kira.”
I shook my head as I backed away from him and Jessica.
“No.”
“It’s only for a little while?—”
“No!” I screamed.
Grabbing the doorknob, I swung the front door open and bolted from the house, almost knocking Karen down in the process. My heart was broken. Not because he was sending me away, but because I knew I’d never be able to come home.
I hated my house.
I hated living in clutter and barely sleeping because I was afraid something was going to crawl on me, even though my room and bathroom were the cleanest spots in the house. I hated that my father was stuck in a constant state of grief that was so consuming he forgot about me most of the time.
I hated it all.
But most of all, I hated that he didn’t fight for me. Repeatedly, he chose the ghost and memories of a dead woman over being what I needed. Just once… I wanted him to choose me.
Present Day
“Hey, Daddy. It’s Wynter calling for the umpteenth time,” I said to my father’s voicemail. “You know you can’t ignore me forever, right? I promise, I won’t ask you to move here again. Just pick up the phone or call me back, old man. I miss your voice… I love you.”
I hung up the phone and placed it on the bathroom counter so I could finish getting ready for work. Frost Driscoll was the most stubborn man I’d ever met. Of course, I knew this a long time ago. I realized growing up that my father wasn’t like most people. He had his fixations and they controlled him. After losing my mother during childbirth, he became a shell of his former self.
Sometimes it was like I didn’t exist to him. Once I was old enough to fend for myself, he left me be. He spent most of his time trying to preserve my mother’s memory. He held on toher like a fiend to a pipe. His life revolved around her vacant presence and our home became a graveyard for all things Lianna Driscoll.
A childhood memory crept in uninvited, as it always did when I thought of him.
