Aftershock

Back at Allan's house tensions are still high with his father after the argument they had. Allan spent all night thinking about it. At first he was mad about what his dad said about his friend. Now he's annoyed that he seems to be okay with what his mother did years ago. It's the next day and Allan is eating pancakes in his room for breakfast when he looks through the door and sees his dad is about to leave for work. He gets up from the bed, and walks into the kitchen hoping he could find a way to talk to his dad about it. His dad sees him, and says: 'oh you're up early, well I gotta get to work. Watch the house for me will ya.' Then he laughs, and Allan says:  'goodbye.' Allan was about to walk back to his room cause the question didn't appear naturally in conversation. There was one question gnawing at the back of his head he needed answered. The one that kept him up all night. He decided he couldn't take it anymore and ran over to his dad's car before he left the house and said: 'wait dad I need to ask you something.' His dad stopped the car and said: 'I'm listening.' Allan started pacing around, and said: 'how do I put this?' His dad told him: 'I don't want to rush you, but I gotta get to work so you'll have to make it quick.' Then Allan leaned over the car window, and said: 'I'll just have to blurt it out.' Then he sighs, and says under his breath: 'do you still love her?' His dad asks: 'love who?' Allan: 'mom, do you still love her?' His dad looks away as if to avoid the question. Then he tells Allan: 'son, I was married to her for 25 years, she was the love of my life, and the mother to my only son. You tell me what I should feel.' Allan starts pacing around with a surprised look on his face as he holds back tears. His dad was gonna say something but held back before Allan noticed. Then Allan sits on the floor, and asks: 'how could you still love someone like that?' His dad tells him: 'I didn't want to tell you this but I started to believe that maybe she did give up on us. That's why everytime you brought it up when you were a kid I changed the theme.' Allan starts crying, and mutters: ' just why?' Then his dad says: 'I always had hope she would come back eventually.' Allan: 'so you hid this from me just cause you didn't wanna face the facts. Everytime I asked you when's mom coming back? you always said she was on a work trip or visiting Grandpa. Then when I was 13, and finally came to terms with reality, you wouldn't wanna let me talk about it.' His dad says: 'son I just wanted to protect you.' Allan: 'you knew that I knew already, that's why I wasn't surprised when you talked about her leaving for good. What surprised me was my own dad trying to make me think it was something else.' His dad says: 'Allan, she told me she just couldn't handle all this pressure, and I just wanted to believe it. It doesn't make sense for her to just abandon us like that.' Allan was gonna say something to his dad then his dad says that he really needs to get to work, but they should talk about it later, then storms off. Allan felt despair in this moment like he's never felt before. His favorite place in the whole world is a tree in the forest near his house. He goes there when he feels stressed out or overwhelmed. He was there listening to his relaxing playlist, and one of his favorite relaxing songs came on. It's an old classic called My Sweet Lord by George Harrison. He was meditating on what had just happening, he couldn't believe his father, hid the truth from him for years. Then when he was old enough to understand they got abandoned, didn't allow him to talk to him about it. Then tried to lie to him further to have hope. Allan of course wrestled with this cause he's his father, and he knows he meant well, and was just conflicted. Then while up on the tree he hears a loud: 'hey!' Then Allan falls to the ground below him. He looks up, and sees Johnny and Lewis. Lewis says: 'oh dude I'm so sorry man are you ok?' Then Johnny says: 'of course he's not, moron, he almost f-ing died.' Lewis looks at him upsettingly but Allan and Johnny both share a laugh from the situation. Johnny tells Allan: 'AJ we're sorry we didn't mean to almost kill you, even if it was kinda funny.' Allan then says: 'I'm sorry too.' Lewis and Johnny both look at Allan in confusion, and ask: 'what are you sorry for?' Allan: 'oh just our fight last night I didn't mean for you to you know, get upset with me' Then Johnny says: 'oh that's cool.' Lewis feels confused about the whole thing. Lewis stands there in awe then Allan laughs, and says: 'I'm just glad you guys are here.' You can see a little glimmer of hope growing there with them at that forest. Then Johnny looks at them. Lewis smiles back at Allan, who can be seen with a big grin on his face.