17 July 2025
Story #1139
R. Linda:
It has been several years since me Da passed away. When he passed, the family was not on good terms with him, and for all intents and purposes, he wasn't in a bother about that. He simply did not care. Let me preface this attitude by saying, we were quite sure he had a mental illness. He did things he would be horrified, if in his right mind, that he'd never do. We tried to get him help, but he didn't want it. Even his doctor was no help; his excuse was that Da had a mid-life crisis. We knew this wasn't the case by how Da acted and talked. There was nothing we could do but watch him deteriorate and become someone we didn't recognise. From his personality to his appearance, there was a significant change.
Mam pulled out of his life completely, and with good reason. If she had stayed, we'd remember her over a gravestone. But she be a strong-minded woman, and there was no way she was subjecting herself or us, to such treatment as he was dishing out. He wasn't deserted by us; please don't get that impression. We kept trying, but for Mam, it was all too much, and to keep her sanity, she withdrew, which we all understood.
When he died, the family took care of the arrangements, and that ended the crazy years from 2013 to 2019, when all this unhappiness occurred.
So, imagine Mam's and my surprise when we pulled into our favourite coffee shop the other day. Who did we see? Da! As sure as I be typing this, there he was. Looking a wee bit older, but same hair, same beard, same body type, sipping coffee by himself outside at one of the tables. He was staring off into space with a blank look, a look we remembered from those awful days. When he saw us alight from the car, he turned his back. It was an obvious movement on his part, and this stopped us in our tracks as we made our way inside. We turned at the opening to the shop, and he had got up and shuffled off to his car, we presumed to leave. Same walk, same way of carrying himself as me Da.
"Yer sure yer fahdah be dead, rioght?" Mam asked me in a low voice.
"I'm sure he be." I said.
"Yer sure yer tellin' me thot not to make me happy?" Mam mumbled as we walked to the door.
"Aye, aye he be gone. You be sumting else. Is he dead, you ask? Oi! And make you happy?" I mumbled back at her, shaking me head at her.
Disturbed, we went inside, ordered our coffees, and did some shopping. All the while, I could see that Mam was upset by this sighting. Standing in an aisle, I asked her if she was alright.
"I be not all rioght. Wot was thot?" She looked up at me.
"I dunno. Sure looked like Da. But it isn't, we both know it. "
"Then why arr we seein' 'em? You taught da same ting I did when we first set eyes on 'em." She was shaking a little.
Our coffee order was ready, so we picked it up, paid for it and our groceries, then headed out the door. As we got to the door, there he was! He was back at the table, sipping his coffee. We went to the car and Mam put the bag of groceries she had bought inside, and said to me, "Let's goo sit at thot table facing 'em." And so, we did. He first turned away from us, but then looked at us. The look was the same look me old man gave us when he mentally left us. The eyes became slits, mistrusting, almost evil, the mouth, a line of disapproval, and then he turned away, but there was something in that look that seemed to recognise us.
We could see he was about the same age as Da would be if he lived. His facial structure was a bit flat. But as Mam pointed out, Da had been in a few physical altercations, so his features might have looked so after a while.
He got up and shuffled off to his green truck. Well, that put the icing on the cake for Mam. Da drove a green truck, too. He slowly pulled out and left in the opposite direction from what ours would be. Another thing that Mam commented on was that Da did the opposite of what we wished he would.
Just this morning, Mam found an item that belonged to Da sitting on the floor in her room. Where it came from, she does not know, but this unnerved her more. Then, just yesterday, I was looking at a window advert when I saw a picture of what looked like Mam and Da's backyard used in the advert. I showed it to her, and she said there were similarities all right. What the heck?
So what did we see? Why did we see it? What does it mean? We know it wasn't Da, but the way the man was dressed, his attitude, and his movements were spot on. So much so, it's hard to believe that wasn't him. But it couldn't be. However, the look he gave us . . . I wish I had answers for why these bizarre things happened.
Gabe
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