Chapter 3

Mischa Clarke was driving down I-5 in Seattle towards her house after a very long day at work. She was running behind on one of her biggest client’s accounts and was struggling to get caught up. It had been three weeks since Melissa returned from Wyoming and seeing their father. Her mind had been on her sister’s visit with their father and how it really went. Melissa told her that it went well and that they were talking again but wouldn’t give her many details.

“Mischa, I told you...” Melissa was telling her, but Mischa but her off in midsentence.

“I know, I know ... apologies from one doesn’t mean it applies to the other. I remember him telling us that when we were camping at Yellowstone when we were 6. We knocked over his coffee pot on the first morning because we were playing tag.” She told Melissa. “I’m not asking for anything like that...”

“Then just ask me ... I’ve never held anything back from you. Just ask me what you want to know or if you need help, and I’ll help you however I can.” She told her. “Besides, you NEED to stop beating around the bush, you know how I hate that.” Melissa told her with mock frustration in her voice.

She laughed. “I know...” Mischa gathered her thoughts sighed deeply as she gathered her thoughts. “Mel, I’m scared. I don’t want to make the same mistake I made three months ago, and he gets even madder at me ... if that’s possible. I need your advice ... Please.” Mischa told her.

“My advice to you is to be honest and not try your ‘Oh whatever’ schtick again. Or else you’ll probably be even an even BIGGER pile of crap in his eyes.” Melissa told her.

“You know ... we need to get you a promotion from Captain Obvious to MAJOR Obvious.” Mischa told her with a giggle.

“It’s a gift...” she replied as they both laughed.

“I Just ... I really want it to be perfect when I talk to him again and I want my father back.” She told Melissa.

“There’s no such thing as perfect...” She started to say but stopped.

“There’s only the prepared and the unprepared.” Mischa finished for her.

“I swear to you on a 4ft stack of Hershey’s dark chocolate, I’ll do what I can to help you ... Look, I’m already at your place and Brian is here. We’ll order take out, sit down, and have a war council tonight ... Ok?” She asked Mischa.

“Mongolian Beef and spicy noodles for me please. See you in a bit, Love you.” She told her sister.

“Love you too, Mischa.” Melissa told her ending the call.

30 minutes later, Mischa pulled up to the house that her and her fiancé, Brian, shared. She saw Melissa’s Alfa Romeo parked behind his Ram truck. She grabbed her backpack from the backseat and walked in. Brian met her at the door, kissed her, and took her pack from her.

“What a day...” she said to him as she smiled, kissed him again, and kicked her heels off.

“Are you ok?” he asked her.

“Yeah, I’m still a bit behind on the Stinson account. But I’m almost to where I need to be. I’ve got a little work to do tonight, and I’ll be good.” She told him. “Is the food...” She started to ask, but Brian cut her off.

“We have guests...” he told her pointing to the dining room.

She walked into the dining room and saw Melissa sitting there with a grin on her face. Mischa didn’t know what to think as she saw her point to the kitchen. She turned and looked. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw her father leaning against the counter. The tears were falling harder than they ever had in Wyoming when he walked out of the diner and left her in tears with no hope of ever speaking to her again. Now here he was standing in her kitchen. She ran into the kitchen, went to her knees, and slid across the floor grabbing Richard’s legs.

“I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T KNOW! PLEASE! I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND! I’M SO SORRY!” She started yelling. Melissa and Brian tried to get her to let go of his legs, but she wouldn’t let go. “NO! HE’LL LEAVE AND I’LL NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN! I’M NOT LETTING GO!” she yelled. The tried to get her to let go, but she wouldn’t. “NO! NO! I’M NOT LETTING GO!” she was screaming louder.

“Mischa. Amelia. Mason...” She looked up at Richard as she heard her birth name quietly spoken for the first time in over 16 years. “Stop. I came to see you, and I’m not going anywhere.” he told her. “Stand up.” She stood up and he wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m so sorry daddy...” She said in between sobs. “Please, I’m so sorry, please forgive me...” She told him.

“Ok, Mischa, let’s go somewhere and talk, ok?” he told her.

“Ok daddy...” she said not wanting to let go of him. “Brian, we’re going downstairs, ok?” she told her fiancé while not letting go of her father.

“Yell if you need anything.” He said with a smile.

Mischa pulled her father to the stairs. “Come on, let me show you the family room.” She told him. He followed her downstairs and he saw a brick fireplace that had a pair of couches facing each other and track lighting that gave the room a very warm feeling. The paint had a light grey tint to it and the almost black baseboards were a nice touch. He saw all the pictures that hung and wanted to ask about them. “I promise, I’ll tell you about them all after I’ve had a chance to talk to you.”

She was about to speak, but she heard someone coming downstairs. Melissa appeared and handed her a box of Kleenex. “If your talk is going to be anything like mine, you’ll need these.”

“Thanks, Mel.” Mischa told her sister. She ripped open the box and pulled six out and just held on to them. Richard chuckled. “Chance favors the prepared mind ... I remembered.” She said tapping her head with her index finger.

Richard smiled in pride as he remembered teaching her that. “You’ve got a beautiful home.”

“Thank you. We got it as a foreclosure, and we did the remodel work ourselves.” She said with some pride. “We spent 6 months in an apartment until we were finished with the basement. When it was done, we stayed down here till the rest was finished. It’s taken us about 18 months of working on it.”

“Brian told me that you and him pulled and re-ran the all the wiring from the fuse box out.” He asked.

“Brian did most of that. He’s an electrician and is VERY good at his job.” She told him. “We pulled all the drywall and the wiring and reran it from the box into the house. His company came in and ran the wiring from the street to the house.”

“He also told me that you did all the spray foam insulation on the outer walls and attic. Good thing to do with as wet as it is up here.” He said with some pride in his daughter.

“It really was a joint effort between us. I’d like to think that it brought us closer together.” She said with tears coming to her eyes. She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. “I have a small idea of what you went through with the whore when you were still in the service...”

“Oh?” he asked her.

She nodded her head. She moved her finger all over the room. “I had SO much fun helping and doing this with him. I’ve even gone on a couple side jobs with him. I enjoyed it so much. The whore has no idea what she was missing.” She said wiping her eyes. “I can’t imagine what kind of hell you went through before she left you. I remember that she was always yelling and angry whenever you went to help our neighbors.”

He had a solemn look on his face. “I tried to get your mom to come help and tried to explain that it was all about the socialization more so than the fixing things. But she never wanted to anything to do with the other wives.” He scoffed and smiled. “It was awkward coming up with excuses as to why your wife never came to unit functions.”

Mischa moved over to sit next to him. “I probably have no right to say this, but I’m going to anyway ... You’re so much better off now than you would have been with her.” She told him. “Mel told me about Taylor and your family. Your wife put Melissa through an interview that would make the secret service proud. Your son and daughter love you enough to threaten Melissa with grievous bodily harm if she hurt you again. THAT’S a family worth having ... Not the whore ... or us.” She said quietly. “Especially Melissa and me. We don’t deserve a father like you after all we did. When you needed us the most, we failed you. We failed you so many times that I can’t understand why you’re here.” She said as more tears flowed.

“I’m here because...” He started to say, but she leaned into him and started to cry. He wrapped his arms around her and listened as she talked in between crying.

“I am so sorry daddy. I had no idea what you went through after we left you.” She said sobbing. When you told me that you couldn’t afford a place of your own, I felt so ashamed. I am SO undeserving to be your daughter and to have the last name Mason.” She cried some more and kept saying she was sorry to him.

Melissa quietly popped her head around the corner and watched as her sister cried. Her father mouthed the words, “It’s ok” and she smiled and went back upstairs.

She sat back up and looked him in the eye. “I’m sorry that I thought you’d be willing to just forget about everything we did to you. I didn’t listen to Melissa when she told me that I’d be setting myself up for failure. I completely and totally disrespected every part of you and disgraced myself as your daughter.” She wiped her nose, dropped the tissue on the table, and grabbed another bunch. “I uh ... I need to tell you about my life in and out of college...” She told him. She went back over to the other couch and sat down. He looked at her with a puzzled look. “I want you to see that I’m a stronger now than I was when I was a teenager, and I can admit this without anyone to lean on for support.”

“Ok, let’s hear it.” He told her.

She started telling him about her college boyfriends and how they all pretty much dumped her after she told them about her life and her mother. “They didn’t want to take the chance that I would turn out like her, so I was dumped or ghosted very quickly. Apparently, college boys are a bit smarter than the whore let us believe.” She went back to talking about how her life cascaded into a bottle of tequila and she stayed there throughout college. “My grades were good, but not as good as they could have been. I stayed between a 2.5 and a 3.0 GPA while I was in school.”