Story:Healing Wounds
Healing Wounds
Written by Strkyer
The cacomistle arrived home after the combine held in Sioux Falls, SD. It was only a couple days after they announced the Top 24 players. He carefully listened for his name but was never mentioned. How he was going to face his father was proving to be a tough one.
He holstered his backpack and put on a smile to keep on a facade for his family as he waited to board off the plane. He wore his jeans and black collared shirt. Nigel sighed as he stepped out in the terminal. He looked for his mother who wore a green shirt and skinny jeans. She had hazel eyes and a luscious tail. She smiled towards him and hugged him, before seeing her son’s face.
“Oh Nigel! So glad to see you, hon.” She leaned back with her hands grasping his shoulders. The mother saw something in her son’s eyes, holding his paws with hers. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem too happy to be back.”
Nigel sighed, his eyes looking into his mother’s. “No, it’s just that I feel I haven’t done my best. The other players were better than me.”
His mother grabbed his backpack and holstered it over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’ll explain to your father about the situation. Let me do the talking.”
Nigel nodded, still nervous about what his father is going to say. They departed the terminal and got into their car at the parking garage. Their trip was quiet, but his mother tried livening up the situation by telling him about her stories but Nigel couldn’t help the fear that welled up inside him.
Nigel and his father haven’t seen things eye-to-eye. His father pushed him than the rest of his teammates. Nigel glanced out the window and sighed while his mom drove him home.
Once they arrived at their house, Nigel and his mother walked towards their front door. His mother opened the door with the son following behind her.
“Rick, I’m back.” his mother called out, with Nigel closing the door behind him. His father was sitting in his arm-chair, reading the paper. He put the paper down and reclined back in his seat. He sighed heavily while Nigel was silent during the whole time.
“Therese, what’s the story? Did he make it?”
This made the young cacomistle uneasy while his mother explained the situation. “You see, honey. Nigel pushed himself, but his skills did not go unnoticed. He was doing everything he can to be recognized for his efforts.”
Rick’s eyebrows furrowed and his tail flicked about hastily. “I can’t believe this. After all the time I raised you and be the best you can be, you fail to be on the Top 24 list.”
Therese stood in front of Nigel, defending him from his father’s actions. “You need to see that all things just happen the way they do, but I clearly see that that wasn’t your intention.”
“Of course I loved him! What makes you think I didn’t love at him?”
“You didn’t love him enough to show that you wanted him to succeed and never really cared for him as your son. All you cared about was your pride.”
Nigel never heard his mother’s words come out that way before. Has she been noticing throughout all those years of being criticized by his words of failure?
Rick’s eye-brows furrowed more as he stood up from his chair, lashing out at him with his paws turning into fists. Nigel cowered in fear with his body scrunched up, embracing the pain but Therese stepped in, slapping him across the face. This paused time after that moment. Nigel stared blankly at the moment where his father was slapped.
Rick was stunned before Therese released her tension. “Rick, you’ve done enough to make this family suffer. All that you’ve done is cause suffering for us and we’re done being your toys. As of today, we’re officially through. Nigel, honey.” She turned to him and gave him his backpack back. “You better go to your room and recuperate. I’ll come up once I’m done with him.”
Nigel went up with no words as he went towards his room and shut the door behind him.
The cacomistle tweeted on Tweeter that his father didn’t handle the news well that his son wasn’t qualified to be on the list. After moments, he heard door slams echoing throughout the hallway and with the final slam at the front door. His ears picked up nothing but silence.
Minutes passed and Therese entered the room with her taking a seat on his bed. She stared at him while patting the seat next to her. Nigel took his seat and glanced into his mother’s eyes.
She glanced at them in return, smiling a bit, encouraging him. “You did what you can, hon. That’s all that matters. Your father failed to recognize that and he couldn’t face to see other friends that he told that his son was on the Top 24 list.”
Nigel nodded, letting his tears come out a bit. “Thank you, Mom. Means a lot to me hearing you saying that. Gives me a lot more courage to press on and continue to build my basketball skills.”
“Good good. Now, I should tell you that your father and I are going to be filing the divorce paper-work tomorrow.”
“Divorce? You mean, you and father are not gonna see each other?” he asked.
“No sir,” she said, holding his paws with hers. “We had a lot of fights, not just about this one.” She paused, thinking about her words to say before putting them with effort. “As you go through life, there are things that don’t go our way and I’m sure that from the combine, things didn’t go the way you wanted it, right?”
Nigel nodded before his mother spoke again. “You just have to keep that chin up high and do better next time. In this case, getting drafted to a team.”
“I’ll do my best, Mom. Until I get drafted, what will you do for work?”
Therese smiled, winking towards him. “I’m a bartender, after all. I’ll be fine. It’s just us now and your father will be giving me half the money we got in our joint account. We’ll just have to do what we can in order to sustain ourselves.”
Nigel saw something in his mother that he failed to see before. She was more open and optimistic about the future and she seized life by the horns. She certainly wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. He shouldn’t give up his dream even if he failed to make the Top 24 list. He’ll just have to push himself harder to convince the teams to draft him. Better yet, talk to his agent.
“I have an idea, Mom,” Nigel said as he picked up his phone, dialing his agent’s number. “I’ll call Jacob right now and tell him that I’ll give him more to represent me more, get my name out there and push myself a lot further.”
“There you go, son!” Therese smiled widely, hugging him from the side and Nigel leaned in. “Call your agent and see if he can convince those teams to draft you in the next couple weeks.”
Nigel was excited that he pushed Jacob’s name in his phone but before he pressed the phone into the receiver, his mother spoke as she rose from her seat. “This is what your father should’ve seen. Not giving up and always pushing forward and I don’t mean your physical capabilities. It’s also your mental capacity. Think on it, kid.” She smiled as she opened the door, walking away from the room and started humming music.
The young Cacomistle had a deeper appreciation for his mom now and redialed his agent’s number.
The phone rung several times before the phone was picked up. “Hello, Mr. Smith here. Who I am speaking with?”
“It’s me, Nigel.”
“Oh hey Nigel, how’s it going? Sorry that you couldn’t make it into the Top 24 list.”
“It’s all right. After some prep talk with my mom, I have some business I like to discuss with you.”
Featured Characters
Nigel Conway Jacob Smith The wikipage input value is empty (e.g. <code>SomeProperty::, [[]]</code>) and therefore it cannot be used as a name or as part of a query condition. The wikipage input value is empty (e.g. <code>SomeProperty::, [[]]</code>) and therefore it cannot be used as a name or as part of a query condition. The wikipage input value is empty (e.g. <code>SomeProperty::, [[]]</code>) and therefore it cannot be used as a name or as part of a query condition.