the writeplace prompt # 5- Word: Vanishing
She’d run out of excuses. Even the act of searching for her address book was a sham. The telephone number had been burned into memory since the moment her father gave it to her before walking out of her life all those years ago. ’Just in case’, he told her. They promised to keep in touch. To try to pick up the pieces of whatever it was they had left. Keeping promises was something they both struggled with. This last one was no exception.
It was as easy as picking up the phone and pressing ten buttons. Then what?
’Hi, it’s me. How’s life treating you in wherever-the-hell-it-is-you-are-these-days?’
Real conversations with her father were as tedious as a Chinese water torture. Polite small talk wasn’t as easy as picking up the Sushi Garden take-out menu either.
Jordan twisted the ring Woody had given her around her finger and debated on whether she could do this with an email instead.
No. She should tell him. He deserved to hear it from her and not from someone else like everything else even though it verged on hypocritical. Garret called him about the brain tumor. The FBI about the plane crash.
This time she needed to tell him in person. It was time to make the first step.
‘Hi, it’s me. Guess what? Woody didn’t take your advice about finding someone who wouldn’t use his heart for batting practice and he still asked me to marry him. Go figure.’
What she wouldn’t have given for an old-fashioned dial telephone. The buttons only took seconds.
‘Hi, it’s me. Just thought I’d let you know you were right…I never really let go of the past. I love you, Dad and I’d like to start over again. It’s not too late. This time I promise I’m ready. I need you.’
Jordan chewed the corner of her fingernail as she punched in the phone number and waiting for the first ring. Only it didn’t come.
"The number you have dialed is not in service at this time. Please check the number and try again...."
It was too late, Jordan realized. Her father had decided to let go of the past too.