The day was Wednesday, July 4, 2050. It has been 25 years now since the war ended, 18 years since I was born. It was really a loud day with all the fireworks and stuff because it was also Independence day. Lots of patriotic Americans everywhere you look.
Another big thing was that it was my birthday today. Actually, it was all three of our birthdays today. My two other brothers and I share the same birthday as we’re naturally triplets. I have to stop my brothers from giving our dad so much work with all the destruction they leave in their wake. Last week, they “accidentally” put a pin on their teacher’s chair, which led to their suspension.
And the last person in this family is our dad. His real name’s Drake, but we don’t call him that. We don’t have a mother as she died giving birth to us. And our dad…how do I describe him… he’s…different compared to others. He was a mercenary during the Chinese-American war. He worked for whoever paid him the most money, which was typical for mercenaries.
After the war ended, he was rich from all the money he got fighting for the American government. He told us that he walked down a random street in San Francisco one day when he saw our mother. He didn’t really think much of it until she walked up to him and asked for his name to which he asked her, “Why do you need the name of a man you’ve never met?” to which she replied with “I don’t, but my father most certainly does!” “You saved him in 2026 in the siege of Manila!”. Then, after a small flashback, he remembered saving a man in a building in the enemy territory.
He told my brothers and me that the next couple of events were a blur as he only remembers a coffee shop, a stuffed bear, and a bench overlooking the fading sun. But, that’s how he met our mother, he told us.
Now, where are we? Ah yes, July 4, 2040, Fireworks, and my birthday. So, as I looked out from my room’s window at the street, I suddenly remembered that I had a meetup today! So, I quickly got up from my messy bed and put on an array of clothes that looked suitable enough as I ran out of my room and downstairs to my family’s large kitchen. There I see my dad wearing what I assume to be his workout clothes, cooking something on the stove.
“Good morning Sheileth.”, my dad greeted me without even taking a look at me.
“Good morning.”, I say hurriedly as I quickly make myself a quick breakfast.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a meetup today dad, gotta go.”
My dad finally turned away from what he’s cooking and looked me dead in the eye, with the cold expression he wore during the war, and told me, “Remember what I said, stay away from boys.”
“Yes, dad.”, I say as I roll my eyes and grab my jelly sandwich and hurry out the door without saying goodbye to him as he stares at where I once was.
As I hurry down the street towards the heart of San Francisco, I see even larger crowds of people crowding the street, shouting and waving their flags. Then, finally, entering the heart of the city, I see the cafe where I see my friend Becky at the entrance.
Becky is my best and only friend, and we’ve been best friends ever since 3rd grade. She’s a headstrong girl who tries to set me up with boys. We decided to meet up at a well-known cafe known as Brew&Chill. It was often full because of its popularity. But due to my dad’s influence in California, we have a table exclusively for my family and our guests.
Anyway, I get to the entrance and see her waiting for me as we hug and exchange greetings. As we enter, we see one of the waiters notice us, to which he signals to another waiter to prepare. That very waiter walks over to and beckons us towards our private table on the restaurant’s 2nd floor. We got to our table and placed our orders, which were the same, mango boba, our favorite thing.
A couple of minutes later, we were sipping our mango bobas when Becky suggested we take a walk in the park.
“Wouldn’t it be crowded over there?” I asked, “It’s two separate holidays at once.”
“No.” Becky replied, “The park was off-limits, according to the governor. Do you live under a rock or something?”
“Nope, I wasn’t paying attention to the news recently.” I replied, “Anyway if that’s the case, let’s go then.”
We got up and paid the bill. After, we walked past the crowds again and into the park. We were walking around. As we were walking around, we decided to sit on one of the benches at the park. Becky and I talked when suddenly, out of nowhere, Laurence, Fabian, and Cain all appeared out of nowhere.
Fabian is a smart boy who is almost guaranteed a spot in one of the world’s top universities. He’s one of the three boys who are trying to woo me.
Is Laurence a hooligan, I suppose? He’s a sports type of guy. He’s already been signed on by a top football team to join them when he finishes school. So he’s the second suitor.
Cain is the son of a successful businessman. He’s the heir to his father’s business and has already shown great talent in it. He’s the third and final suitor.
These three boys are suitors who have shown interest in me. I honestly think they’re all not that bad. My father, however, thinks otherwise.
As they were about to speak to me, a shadow loomed over all of us. Becky was confused and immediately turned around, but I already knew who it was. It was my dad.
He walked around the park to relax a little when he saw the boys walking towards me. He decided to step in and approached us.
“Scram,” he said with his cold voice to the boys, who immediately ran away. “Sheileth, what did I say-”
“I.hate.you.dad.” I said coldly, staring at the ground then rushing away as Becky called out to me, and my dad stood there, blankly.
After a couple of minutes of running, I finally got home and rushed up to my room, and slammed the door. I stayed in the room for a couple of hours, refusing to come out as I was still battling my feelings.
After 2 hours or so, our family maid Cynthia knocked, then entered my room.
“What do you want, Cynthia?” I asked her as I cuddled with my pillow and stared at the wall.
“I heard what happened with your father, Miss Sheileth.” Cynthia responded, “I just wanted to say something about it.”
“Why does he keep doing that!” I raged, “I feel I can’t do anything without him snooping into it! I have no privacy with him.”
“Your father…always has a purpose for what he does, Miss.” Cynthia replied to my tantrums, “I just wanted you to know something. Please understand that he does all these things for you.”
After that conversation, she left my room, also leaving me with conflicting thoughts.
A couple of days later, Cynthia called me down as she said my father said he wanted to see me. Begrudgingly, I put on some semi-decent clothes and made my way downstairs. When I got downstairs, I saw my father…and a boy? They were talking about something when my father noticed me. He beckoned me to come closer, and I did.
“Sheileth, this is Damien.” He said, “Damien, meet my daughter Sheileth.”
Damien was a black-haired boy with blue eyes who looked around my age. He was wearing a jacket with a shirt underneath with jeans. He was pretty cute, not going to lie.
“Dad, what’s this-” I was asking before noticing he had disappeared.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sheileth.” Damien said smiling, holding his hand out, “Mister Drake wanted me to meet you.””
None of this made sense anymore. Too many thoughts were in my head. Why did my dad bring a boy here? I thought he disliked boys?
“Hey, you good?” his worried voice asked me, which brought me back to reality, “You were spacing out a lot.”
“I’m good, I’m good!” I said furiously, “So, uh, why are you here? My dad doesn’t really like boys.”
“Mister Drake said that I was good for his daughter or something like that.” He said to me, which surprised me, “Anyway, do you have tv or something? I brought some video games to play!”
After the awkward introduction, we had a day of fun. Damien was a fascinating boy. He was interested in many different plays and music. He was also a gamer. He knew how to cook and was interested in photography. He was all-in-all an interesting boy. And I had fallen in love with him by the end of that day.
The following week went by quickly as Damien had enough courage to ask me out on not one but three dates! How the dates went is a story for another time as this entry is getting long. But the most important thing to note is the third date.
You know that cafe I mentioned earlier? Yeah, apparently, Damian had reserved a spot in the cafe just for us. I had forgotten to tell him that we had a particular place in the cafe just for my family’s personal life, but he was too sweet so that I couldn’t do it. I’ll tell him later.
Back to the story, Damien had reserved a seat just for the two of us. We ordered mango boba as it was naturally the best thing on the menu. As we were waiting for our drinks, I decided to strike up a conversation.
“Hey, Damien,” I asked, treading carefully.
“Yeah?” He answered, looking at me, “What’s up?”
“What…do you like about me?” I asked cautiously.
“What do I like about you?” He replied as he was giving it a little think, to which, after a couple of seconds, replied, “Everything. What I like is you, every single bit of you.”
After hearing what he had to say, I realized how lucky I was to have someone like Damien. Now that I think of it, whenever Fabian, Laurence, and Cain tried to woo me, they’d only praise certain aspects of me.
Fabian would only praise my intelligence, Laurence, strength, and finally, Cain. The only praise he sang of me was my ability as a wife. But Damien, he looked at all of me, appreciating me for Everything I was. I realized what my father was doing for me and why he kept away the suitors. Because they only like certain things about me, not all of me.
My guilt was piling up as I thought about it more. So finally, I decided that the best course of action was to apologize. Better to fess up and move on than let it eat you up. So after our quick date, I walked home alone and prepared myself for the apology.
I saw my father in the living room as I opened the door, staring out the window. I approached him, and he turned around and looked at me. We both stood there awkwardly, waiting for the other to say something.
“I’m sorry, Sheileth/Dad.” We both said instantaneously, to which, after a pause, we both laughed a little.
“I’ll start.” I started, “I’m sorry for what happened last week, dad. I just felt I had no privacy in whatever I did. I just want to feel normal. You know, when you started cracking down on boys and me, I didn’t think much about it, but after a while, I felt like I was trapped in a cell with you as its guard. It also felt humiliating whenever my friends witnessed what you did.”
“It’s not just your fault as well, Sheileth.” My dad replied calmly, looking at me peacefully, “I encroached on you too much, and I now acknowledge it. I just wanted to protect you from people who’d misuse you because I promised your mother to look over you and your brothers. Every human has faults. No one is perfect.”
“I’m sorry Sheileth” my dad said quietly, holding out his hands for a hug, which I gladly took.
“His hugs are so warm.” I thought as we were hugging.
After a nice and lengthy hug, we finally stopped.
“So, are we good, dad?” I asked after that nice warm hug.
“We were already good ever since you approached me.” But, he said, smiling.
We looked at each other again before I said the final words, “Thanks for introducing me to Damien, Dad.”
“You’re welcome.” He replied.
As we were, again, staring at each other in awkward silence, dad’s phone rang. He got it out of his pocket and answered the call. He stood there and only said “Yes” and “”I understand” before saying goodbye and ending the call.
“Sheileth.” He said, ‘Can you brew a pot of coffee? Your brothers swapped out their classes’ math tests for different tests, and now they’re suspended. I have some paperwork to sign now.”
“Sure, Dad, I’ll also teach them a lesson when they get back.”
“Thanks, Sheileth.” He replied as he walked away.
As I watched his leaving body, I received a text message from Damien saying,
“Hey! I’m coming over! I saw a cool game that was on sale, and I bought it! Let’s play.”
I smile as I read the text, then think,
“Thanks, Dad.”
About the Author
Joshua Medalla is an Elite level BUBOTS Writing Academy student.
Likes: Pizza, video games, cats and dogs, stories, comics, and malls.
Dislikes: A lot of vegetables, most reptiles and insects, and spicy food.