A daughter, her mother, and her stepmother sit at the adjacent table, each drinking coffee, except for the little girl, who's drinking something sweeter and without caffeine, like any child should at that age (where did the lemonaid stands go?). All of a sudden, my heart curls up when I realize they are discussing divorce with the ten-year-old girl. I don't know anything about their situation, but I know that no matter what, I'm on the daughter's side (ha, as if it is my place to take sides in a stranger's business). I guess I'm no better than a sports fan, spectating, rooting, but nonetheless at the mercy of somebody else's fate.
What can a ten-year-old understand about divorce? When I was ten, it was just my life; I didn't know anything else than living with my mother and step-father (two wonderful parents by the way), and then visiting my father and step-mother (also two wonderful parents by the way) every other weekend and holiday. I feel the pain of this girl as the parents desperately try to explain the repercussions of her pending decision to live with her father, scaring her with court stories, pleading with her with their logic, and bribing her with promises, and the tears slowly start to run down her face as the information wells up in her brain, overloading it, crashing it. She talks coherently underneath the tears, replying only as children know how to reply in the face of an onslaught from their parents, probably only seeing in shades of red, her system needing a reboot before she can begin to understand (or at least begin trying to understand) things again. That's an awful place to sit as a child, especially in public, away from any comfort of a home or a friendly dog (because dogs too have only the comprehensive ability to understand love and little else).
They get up to leave and the step-father says the closest thing to truth yet, seeing the little girl scarcely able to walk from the overload, "Don't worry. It will all be okay. It's all going to turn out fine."
That is true, precious little girl, everything will turn out the way it is meant to, and you will be fine. You will grow up and one day you'll better understand, and it won't be as scary or overbearing, and the stress will lighten, and you'll look more toward your future than toward your parents' past.
I will gladly and enthusiastically be the first to say I have been blessed in my parents' divorce, and it has turned out the way it needed to, and for the better I think. Nonetheless...divorce is awful.
1 comment:
Well done, Chris. As always.
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