When Dad Left and Didn't Come Back

I still remember when Dad abandoned us.

He was a salesman, and a good one, the kind who could sell ice to Eskimos. He would put on his suit and tie and go off to big sales meetings and come home with a big smile and a pocket full of money. This one time, though, he didn’t come back.

We lived in a big rambling house out in the country. There were a lot of us, siblings and cousins. When he left, it was just like always at first. Some of us went wild. Some of us stayed in our rooms. Most of us did a little of both. 

He called about the time he would normally come home and Alice talked to him. She told him we were running low on food. He said he was sure he had left the pantry stocked. We didn’t hear from him again.

At first we fought over everything, but when it became clear that Dad wasn’t coming back and there wasn’t enough to go around, some of the cousins said they were leaving. They thought they would be better off making their way on their own. The rest of us started dividing up what was left and trying to think up ways to get more.

We weren’t too successful. We borrowed from neighbors, but we were out in the country, and our neighbors were far away and didn’t know us well, and I don’t think they trusted us. We took turns going into town to try to do odd jobs for food, but there wasn’t much to do. We ended up stealing canned goods from the backs of shelves, so they wouldn’t be missed.

That was a tough time. We survived, all but Joey, who got a terrible fever and was gone before we could do anything. We buried him in the back yard as best we could.

We didn’t have a mother. I don’t think a mother would have left us. I say that because who saved us was a nice woman from social services. She said our dad wasn’t going to be our dad anymore. She got us some food and clothes and school books.

When we got old enough, we all moved away. I was the last one to leave. I haven’t been back to the old house since then. It’s probably falling down by now, with no one to care for it. That’s what happens when you abandon your home.