AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gritting his teeth, he jumped out from behind the wheel and stormed through the front gate, bypassing the front door and making his way hurriedly round to the back of the house to the entrance to the granny flat. The one-bedroomed very comfortable flat accommodated his father, his useless, drunken father, whom Sarah had kindly taken in but with whom Alex had totally run out of patience. He’d only come because Sarah had asked him to.
She was waiting for him in the doorway, startling Alex with how much she looked like his mother at around the same age. Both were petite and dark, though with blue eyes. Sarah was like her mother in nature, too, being strong and sensible. Alex loved her a lot and would do anything for her. He wasn’t as fond of her husband, Vernon, who seemed to resent the things Alex bought for his family.
Though he’d taken the house, mortgage-free, hadn’t he?
Still, Vernon did put up with his less than ideal father-in-law living with them, so he couldn’t be all bad. Of course, he continued to benefit financially from the arrangement, Alex paying their rates and electricity.
‘Where is he?’ Alex asked, his tone sharp.
‘On the floor in the bedroom,’ Sarah answered, stepping back to let him enter.
The sight of his father sprawled on his back on the rug beside the bed was infinitely depressing. Not just because he was dead drunk but because of the deterioration of this once fine-looking man. Alex had inherited his looks from his father, who’d been a big blond hunk in his younger days. It was no wonder his mother had fallen for him. But there was nothing attractive about him now. Nothing at all.
‘Good God,’ he said, shaking his head as he stared down at the ruin at his feet. ‘Whatever are we going to do with him?’
‘It’s not his fault, Alex,’ Sarah said with her usual compassion. ‘He started drinking to forget and now he can’t stop. He’s an alcoholic. It’s a disease. A sickness.’
‘Then he should agree to go into rehab.’ Alex had lost count of the number of times he’d suggested rehab to his father, but it always fell on deaf ears. ‘It’s a pity we can’t forcibly admit him.’
‘I know. But you can’t. He has to volunteer to go. Come on, help me lift him up onto the bed. I would have done it myself, but he’s just too heavy and I can’t afford to hurt my back again.’
Alex frowned. ‘You’ve lifted him up off the floor before?’
‘Only once. You were away and I didn’t want to ask Vernon.’
‘Don’t try to lift him again, Sarah. Call an ambulance if you have to.’
Alex scooped his father up off the floor with ease and laid him down on top of the bed. He stirred slightly, making a disgusting snorting sound, before falling back into his drunken stupor, his mouth dropping wide open. His breath was foul. So was his whole body. He needed a bath, sooner rather than later. Then he needed a good talking-to. This situation simply couldn’t go on. It wasn’t fair to Sarah.
‘I have to go to work soon, Alex,’ Sarah said, anxiety in her strained face.
Sarah was an oncology nurse, an occupation which she’d decided on after their mother had died at home without too much in the way of nursing. It occurred to Alex that their mother’s early and totally unnecessary death had resulted in two of her children choosing careers which they’d hoped would make a difference. Not so his pathetic father, who’d promptly fallen apart. His only decision about the future was to try to drink himself to death.
‘You go,’ Alex said. ‘I’ll stay with him.’
‘That would be great. Thanks. Look, he honestly can’t help it. He does try, you know. Sometimes he doesn’t have a drink for weeks. I told him I wouldn’t let him around the kids if he was drunk all the time. He even went to AA meetings. But last week was the anniversary of Mum’s death. I found him at her graveside crying his eyes out. After that, he went on one of his benders.’
Alex sighed, finally finding some genuine compassion for the man who’d once been a decent enough father, if always a little weak. His mother had been the strength in the family and his father had adored her. He’d called her his soul mate, his rock. She’d always picked him up when he was down. Which was often, his work history not being the best. He’d constantly been made redundant, making money tight in the family. It had been inevitable that when she died he would fall apart.
Watching his father disintegrate over the years had reaffirmed Alex’s own decision to steer clear of marriage, as well as avoiding any deeply emotional attachments. Loving a woman obsessively the way his father had loved his mother was not something Alex wanted in his life.
