Fulfilling Wishes - Episode 25

 

Andy sat in the waiting room, this time he was with Adams. The last time he was here was with Ruthie and each moment without her felt him with a deeper frustration.

“I shouldn’t be here.” He kept muttering to himself.

“But you have to, your father has been admitted.” Adams replied.

“It wasn’t my fault. If he hadn’t pushed Ruthie away, all this would not have happened . It is his fault!” He blurted.

Adams sighed, “you need to keep calm Andy.”

“I need to find Ruthie! That is it! Why did she have to leave me? Why didn’t she tell me before she left?”

“Look, she left your father, not you.”

“So why is her phone saying switched off? I have tried her number so many times and it is still saying  switched off. I am so tired Adam, what else do I do? Everyone has left me. My mother, my fiancée, Ruthie! She is the only one that I thought would never leave me but now, she is gone too!”  He sobbed.

Adams was dumbfounded, he had no idea what else he needed to do. He has also been trying Ruthie’s number but it was switched off.

Andy stood up and held Adam’s hand, “Please Adams, do you know where she is?”

The man shook his head.

“You two spoke before she left right?”

Adams nodded.

“So, what did she say? Did she talk about me? Did she say if she is coming back ever?”

Adams sighed. “Look Andy, Ruthie left because it was good for her

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. Yes she spoke of you, in fact, she spoke of you more than herself or Michael. She loves you and she is sorry she had to leave but she said she had to. I believe that your father knows more about why she had to leave than I personally understand. You need to talk to him and she left a message for the both of you. She recorded it but I am only to play it once you have had a long talk with your father.”

Andy was surprised, “she left a message and you didn’t say anything all this while?”

“Yes but I just did and  I am only to play it once you have understood the reason why she had to leave. You can only get that information from your father. He is the reason why she left and he is in the best position to answer your question.”

Andy sighed. “But he is in the hospital bed and who knows when I get to speak to him.”

“Let’s just hope...oh, here comes the doctor.”

Andy waited expectantly as the doctor approached them.

“So how is he?” Andy asked.

The doctor smiled and nodded. “Hello Mr. Andy, yes, your father is fine but you have to wait till tomorrow be4for you can talk to him.”

“No no, it is really important that I talk to him right now, please.” Andy pleaded.

The doctor sighed, “okay but just for a few minute, I must warn you not to put him under any sort of stress or pressure for the time being.”

Andy and Adams exchanged glances. “Ok.”

“So what exactly happened to him?” The doctor asked.

“He fell.” Andy replied, “now, can I go in and talk to him?”

The doctor looked at him suspiciously but nodded, “Very well, come with me.”

**

Michael opened his eyes when he heard the door open, he saw Andy and the doctor coming in.

“Mr. Michael, how are you doing?” The doctor asked, with a smile.

“My head is ringing and my body feels like death.” He replied but the doctor chuckled.

“It’s the drugs, by tomorrow, you will be fine. Normally, you are not supposed to have any visitor but your son....”

“Yes, I understand Doctor, he is alright.”

“Okay then, I will leave you both.” The doctor said before leaving the room.

For a while, neither of them spoke, father and son kept looking at each other. Later Andy walked closer and sat on the chair by the bed.

“I am sorry dad, for attacking you like that.” He started.

Michael sighed, “I am sorry too for punching you.”

Both men chuckled.

“Ruthie left me because she thought she was right. She thinks that I am bad role model for you and she doesn’t realize that I am only looking out for you.”

Andy sighed. “I don’t think she left because of me. Dad, what is going on?”

Michael realized he couldn’t keep hiding things any longer so he decided to spill the truth, “the thing is, I love Ruthie. You have known this for a while and you also know how much I have been leading her on.”

“I still don’t understand why you have been leading her on and you are afraid of coming to terms with how you really feel about her. So she got tired right?”

Michael nodded.

“It’s been going on for a long time, don’t you trust her? Dad? She has been staying with you for more than twenty years, don’t you trust her?”

Michael sighed. “I trust her Andy...”
“So why didn’t you let her in?”

“For some minutes, Michael was quiet, “I don’t know son. All that I know is that, I never did let her in because I was so afraid of getting hurt again.”

“So you never trusted her enough to let her in?”

“I guess you could say that.” Michael admitted but this was only making Andy angrier. He couldn’t understand anything again. His father had been living with Ruthie for so many years and he still found it difficult to trust her.

“But she lived with you for so long! So what was the purpose behind this whole, stay with your fiancé for a while and understand if you could trust her? What is the purpose?”

Michael was quiet, he shut his eyes. He has never been ashamed of himself like this. He felt so stupid and he knew that his son had lost every confidence in him.

Andy felt like his head was going to blow up any minute. Reeva was right after all...he had been so stupid. Ruthie was right! This insecure father of his had made him lose his fiancée and Ruthie.

“So that means Ruthie was right all along. Even Reeva was right, I had been brainwashed into believing something that never even worked for you father!”

Michael was quiet.

“You are such a great disappointment. You deceived me, you lied to me because of your own insecurity! What kind of a father are you? Because of you I am going to die a miserable and a lonely man, just like you. I have lost the one woman that mattered to me and so have you! God! I hate you so much father!”

Each word were like daggers to Michael as he lay in the bed. He knew he deserved every word and his son was right. He had nothing to say in his defense. He had been a broken man for a long time and he was still finding it difficult to just trust completely.

“You and my mother deserved each other after all!” Andy continued and then he angrily punched the wall, startling Michael so the machine beside him began to make a loud noise.

Quickly the doctor entered and he looked angry.

“Please Mr. Andy, you have to go.” He ordered.

Andy pointed a finger to his father, “If I don’t find Ruthie and if I end up losing Reeva, just know that you will never see me again!” With this he walked out of the room.

The doctor came over to Michael, there was panic in his face.

“Sir, I am so sorry, I shouldn’t have brought him in. I never knew that you both were having issues...”

Michael signaled to the doctor that everything was okay. Later the doctor left.

While he lay there, tears trickled from his eyes. He had been such a coward and Ruthie was right. He knew that everything Andy had said to him was true and the fear of never seeing him or Ruthie again further broke his heart,

He had been a man who loved without any restraint. He loved unconditionally and it had landed him in a bad place. He was just trying not to have such an experience again, why can’t they see that? Did they think he was happy to be like this? To be a man that lived his whole life being afraid?

**

Adams saw Andy coming out of the room and he stood up. He was looking really angry and his cloth was soaked in sweats.

“I want to listen to the recording, now Adams!” He demanded.

“Okay.” Adams replied, he was sure that he and his father must have had a serious talk. Quickly, he brought out his phone and scrolled to the last recording that Reeva had made, there were two, one for him and one for his father. He pressed the ‘play’ button and Ruthie’s voice came to life.

“Hello Son, my darling, Andy. If you are listening to this, that means that you have discovered that I left your father and I do hope that by then it wouldn’t be too late.

I realize that your mother had done so much on your father that he now lives with a perpetual fear of being hurt again. It is this fear that he has instilled into you as a child because I see no reason in not trusting the woman you love, the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with.

You are a good son Andy, but you are becoming like your father and I am not going to stay around to watch you waster your years in loneliness and misery. Reeva loves you so very much just like I love your father but I cannot stay and get further hurt. I am afraid that I have wasted much years caring for you both and my lessons on your emotional life has yielded no result. Your father is a big disappointment and I see you turning into one. I cannot stay and watch you waste away like that.”

As Andy listened, tears were in his eyes.

“I hope you realize that everything I have been saying all this while has been for your own good. Don’t try to find me,but where all is set right, there you will find me. I love you son! Ruthie.”

The audio stopped.

“Continue, why did you stop it?” Andy asked.

“That’s all.” Adams replied.

“What does that mean, where everything is set right?”

“I don’t know, it’s you to find out.” Adams replied.

“I need to find her Adams, please.”

“But she just said not to find her.”

“But I need to find her. My life is falling apart and ...” He stopped and began to sob. Adams was confused. He had no idea of what to do.

“Young man, your tears will not help anything, you know that.”

“I just wished I had listened to her all this while.

Read " Black Widow " by the same author ( Tobi Loba )

. My father was wrong. He is such a bloody coward and he is ruining my life.”

“Well, we can’t blame your father for all these.”

“So who else would you blame?”

“Your mother has caused everything.”

Andy was quiet. He grabbed a seat and sat down, his head in his hands.

“Your father is a broken man but the mistake he did was that he allowed it to define his future and this is what is affecting him now. Your mother ruined him and he is finding it difficult to let go. It must have been a traumatic experience for him.” Adams explained.

“But why lie to me? Why tell me not to get married just because of his own fear? Don’t you think that was wrong?”

“Yes I know son, but he was doing his best to protect you.”

“He has been living with Ruthie for so long, he kept testing her and never fully trusted her to let her in, so when would he have told me to get married in the first place?”

Adams sighed. “The mistake you made was that you listened to everything your father said. You never thought  for yourself, not once.”

“Yes, because I thought he knew what he was doing and now I just realized he never had a clue. He is such a coward! An hypocrite. I hate him Adams!”

“You can go on hating him but you can decide to do the right thing.”

“Yes and that is to find Ruthie.”

“No, that is to make things right.”

“With who?”

“Well, with everyone you can make  things right with, starting with your father and then your girlfriend I presume. “

Andy sighed. “My father can wait.” He said, before walking out of the room.

***

LET'S HOPE HE DOES THE RIGHT THING BEFORE ITS TOO LATER