Indecisive Heart

Chapter 26.

After brainstorming last night, whether it was the right decision or not. I stood in front of the green lake's most famous pond, well the town was named after it so it must be famous. Though there wasn't anything extraordinary.
The trees and land appear to be cladded with snow. While the sun hid behind the thick clouds.

What kind of crazy person wants to do fishing in winter? I wrapped my woollen scarf tightly around my neck. "Here goes nothing," I murmured and waddled in hope to finally see my dad.

I scanned through the crowd for a while taking a whole trip across the area but it was in vain. I couldn't see him anywhere. Last night, Dan texted him and his reply was quick. He sent a picture of him and we did the same to avoid any inconvenience.

I was on my second round, fear dreaded in my heart. He wasn't here, I shouldn't have been here in the first place. I was thinking about returning back when I heard a voice calling me.

"Ava," I turned around and saw a man in a jacket and black jeans with a cap covering up, half of his face. It took me a moment to recognise it was dad.

Dan was right that I would've recognized him right off the bat. He hadn't changed much yet he appeared so different. Like a stranger.

"Sorry I think it might be because of the cap, that you found it difficult to find me," he chuckled, removing his cap. He appeared thinner too than he did years back. His hair was greying from the sides.

It was surreal to see him after all these years. I couldn't believe it. He took some steps forwards, but I hesitantly took a few backs and crossed my arms.

"Hello," I whispered, I wanted to hug him but found it quite difficult to move. It has been so many years. There were so many things he had to confess, to make it happen.

"Well, let's do some fishing?" He laughed and started to remove the equipment from the box. The tools appeared brand new as he had just purchased it.

I sat beside him on the cold grass. Lowering the bait in the pond that he handed me.

"So you're in senior year?" He asked and I nodded.

"Umm...do you live here?"

"No dear, I live in the next town." That makes sense, it would be really strange if he lived here, and I never saw him. We sat there holding the bait for a long time without a fish in sight.

He asked me about my school life to which I gave him one line answers. I couldn't comprehend why we were talking about stuff like things were normal, it was anything but that. There were so many questions burning in my mind that I was eager to ask, desperate to find answers.

"Do you–"

"Enough with these stupid questions," I exclaimed gripping tightly the bait in my hand. " I'm not here to chit-chat and I'm sure neither are you." I looked at him.

He didn't say anything as if he was anticipating these for a long time.

"I have a lot of cleaning up to do, eh where should I even start..." he trailed off.

"How about the day you left us?" I snickered. It was quite tempting to hold myself, still, I tried my best.

"Ava, I'm not proud of the things I did, I've done some questionable things for which I can never forgive myself." I listened to him. Still waiting.

"Our financial condition wasn't stable at that time. I wandered here and there in search of jobs but got no luck. It had been around four months like that, I became desperate to find a source of income. Then one day a friend introduced me to gambling." He sighed.