Say Goodbye to Daddy
Skadi meic Beorh
I waited all day for my daddy to come home from work, and when he did he was late and drunk as Cooter Brown. That made me just want to cry. Me and my brothers and sisters was all playing around the house and getting under mama’s feet in the kitchen until she shooed us all out from under her and we all ran outside in the rain. Then I heard my daddy say “Chillun, y’all come on back inside and see Daddy now,” and one by one we all ran back inside, wet as drowned rats. There my daddy lay on his bed, so drunk on that old rotgut whiskey he could hardly keep his eyes open. We all climbed up on and around him and was saying “Hey Daddy” and “Sweet little Daddy” and “We glad you home” when he reached down on the side of the bed and pulled up a double-barrel shotgun and cocked it and put the barrels under his chin. “Say goodbye to Daddy now,” he said, and we all said “No Daddy! We love you, Daddy! We love you!” and I started bawling my eyes out and hugging my daddy so tight and pulling my little sister close so she could be near him too because she was crying too and her snot bubbles was popping. “Nobody loves Daddy,” my daddy said like he was about to start crying himself. “Nobody loves me. I’m going to be with Jesus now…” and the way he said that was low and sad like he was singing a old blues song. “But we love you, Daddy!” we was screaming and “No, Daddy! Don't go!” but he pushed that old shotgun harder under his chin and then he started crying so much I couldn’t wipe all his tears off. “Nobody loves Daddy. Say goodbye to Daddy now. Say goodbye…” I was beside myself I was so sad. “But I love you, Daddy. I love you!” And then I heard the heavy footsteps of my mama on the floorboards. “Ira Barrow! What you doin’ to them chillun now? You get up off that bed and get in the kitchen with a pot o’ coffee! Supper’ll be ready here directly, and you gonna be sober for it and tell them chillun you sorry, you hear me Ira?”
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Skadi meic Beorh is also the author of the poetic study Golgotha as well as the novella The Highwayman's Tale. His people are from Alabama, a place he both loves and hates with equal passion. He lives on the Atlantic Coast of Florida with his Alaskan wife Ember. More about this writer can be discovered at http://skadimeicbeorh.