Her Last Call to Dad のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 9

Mom died on the operating table.The lights in the hospital hallway were painfully bright.Dad stood outside the operating room as if someone had hollowed him out.The doctor came out and said a lot of things.I only understood one of them.Mom was gone. My little sister was gone too.Before that day, I thought my sister would come out of Mom's belly all soft and sweet and call me her big sister.Mom had bought a little pink rattle.Every day, I leaned against her belly and shook it so my sister could hear.Mom would laugh. "My Sadie is going to be the best big sister ever."But Mom would never laugh again.When we got home, Dad set her memorial photo in the living room.I stood beside it holding the rattle, trying not to cry out loud.I was afraid it would make Dad even sadder.Then he suddenly turned toward me, his eyes bloodshot, like he wanted to tear me apart."You're still holding that thing?"I was so scared that my hand let go.The rattle hit the floor with a t

A month later, the apartment started to smell.Winter was easing a little, and the old stairwell was getting damp.At first, Mrs. Novak from downstairs just frowned whenever she walked past our door."The pipes again?"She came by and knocked a couple of times."Sadie?"Are you home?"I stood behind the door and shouted."Mrs. Novak, I'm here!"I can't get out!"But she couldn't hear me.Then the smell got worse and worse.Finally, Mrs. Novak got scared.She called the building manager, Kyle Brennan.Kyle stood outside our door holding his nose, looking sick."That's not a sewer smell."Mrs. Novak called Dad right away."Mr. Dawson, you need to come home. Something smells very wrong in your apartment, and nobody's seen Sadie in a month."I could hear typing on Dad's end.His voice was ice-cold."She went to you again?"Mrs. Novak was stunned."What do you mean, 'again'?"Dad sneered."Did she cry to you and say I don't take care of her?"Tell her to quit the ac

When they carried my remains out, Dad chased after them down the stairs.He called my name the whole way."Sadie!"Dad's sorry! I was wrong!"Wake up! I'll take you to see Mom!"Everyone in the stairwell was staring at him.Some people were crying.Some whispered."Now he cares?"That's child abandonment, isn't it?"Someone cursed at him outright."His wife dies, and he dumps it all on his kid. What an animal!"Dad didn't seem to hear any of it.He lunged toward the coroner's van, but an officer held him back."Mr. Dawson, please calm down."He broke down, pounding his own head with his fists."She's scared of hospitals."When she was little, she wouldn't get a shot unless I was holding her."Don't take her away all by herself!"I floated beside him, lost.So Dad still remembered that I was scared of shots.So he still remembered that once, when I was little, he used to hold me in his arms.But the night I had a fever, he just tossed the medicine on the table.Wh

Once the investigation got underway, Dad fell apart completely.He confessed almost right away.The police asked a question, and he answered it."Did you lock the door to the apartment?""Yes.""After you left, did you ever come back to check on the child?""No.""Did you know there was no food in the home?""Sort of. I didn't do anything about it.""Did you tell the child to eat the flour in the kitchen?""Yes."With every answer, his face went a little grayer.Finally, the officer asked, "Mr. Dawson, do you believe your actions are connected to your daughter's death?"Dad was silent for a long time.Then he nodded."It's not just connected."I'm the one who killed her."My funeral was small.Grandma said I'd always been shy and never liked having lots of people around.Ms. Ramirez came.Mrs. Novak came.A few of my classmates came too.The girl who sat next to me in class held a drawing and cried so hard she could barely breathe.In the drawing were two little

Two years later, news came that Dad had fallen ill in prison.After so long barely eating or sleeping, his body had broken down.By the time they got him to the hospital, he was so emaciated he was barely recognizable.Grandma went.She stood by his hospital bed and looked at the man who had once been so full of confidence.For a long, long time, she said nothing. Then she sighed."Thomas, even Julia didn't look this bad when she died."Dad opened his eyes.When he saw Grandma, tears slid from the corners of his eyes."Margaret, I dreamed about Sadie."Grandma's fingers trembled.Dad said, "She was still seven, holding her rattle."She asked me, 'Dad, do you still hate me?'"Grandma turned her face away.Dad struggled to breathe."I wanted to tell her I don't."I never should have hated her."But she was gone."Grandma's voice was hoarse."Then stay alive and suffer."Don't think dying will get you to her."Dad smiled bitterly."I know she wouldn't want to see me.