When my father calls on a holiday or just for fun, I am always mentally prepared to hear disgruntled mutterings on the other side that will sooner or later erupt into a torrent of nastiness about me and my family. He had been mean to Sara from the beginning, not wanting me to marry her because she had something wrong with her appearance-a rather large birthmark on her face. She was used to living like that, but people sometimes noticed it and thought she was sick, so they tried to stay away or looked at her very closely. My dad is exactly the same way – he thinks it spoils Sarah and I have nothing to do with a girl like that – God forbid another child is born like that.
My mom, on the other hand, was very supportive of our relationship and our marriage. She and my father broke up because of my decision to get married. I’m sure the problem wasn’t just that, but their relationship in general. Dad is a constantly dissatisfied pessimist with life, and Mom is a very good and kind woman. Of course, they didn’t fit together. I don’t know what miracle they had been married for twenty-three years before Mom left Dad.
Mom’s living with us now, which is another reason for Dad to be mad at me and Sarah. He thinks we took his wife away from him, lured her to our place. He spat so much venom on the phone that he called Sara a “witch.”
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t talk to him at all, but my mother says I should. He’s a lonely man, he’s fifty, and he doesn’t really know anybody, so he needs someone to talk to. Mom thinks that one day Dad’s reserve of hurtful words will run out, and he will put up with them, but I don’t think so. As the saying goes, a hump will make up for a humpback. What can you expect from a man who, even after the news of Sara’s pregnancy, never said a nice word and wished that “only the baby hadn’t been born ugly like his mother”?
