Gift of a Miracle

Chapter 15

While Kazuki fulfilled his habitual early morning maintenance at Beach Cove the next day, an all too familiar voice called out to him. He turned around to face the figure Mother had always said would be the mirror image of what he'd look like in twenty odd years' time.

"I've just heard you were invited to the Baddesley's party last night." Father stated, looking and sounding as if he'd just ran a marathon.

He really shouldn't be surprised how quick news travel around here. "I was indeed."

"And when exactly you were going to tell your mother and I about that?"

"My personal affairs don't usually concern you—" He began to say.

"Your personal affairs concern us, especially when it involves—"

"Lord Baddesley...!" Kazuki finished his sentence for him. "Why in the heck does a man who'd made our lives miserable concern you like so?"

"Now that is a matter that does not concern you boy." Father retaliated. "What did you say or do at that party? And answer me truthfully!"

"Nothing of great value to you."

"Then what did you say or do at that party to whom it was of great value to?"

Kazuki levelled his father's steady gaze, a sense of vexation bubbled through his veins. The last time he had a normal congenial conversation with his own father seemed like a distant memory.

"I said and did enough with the girl whom I shared the evening with."

"Who was the girl?"

"Now that does not concern you Father." Kazuki riposted coldly, before walking away from him.

"Son...!" Father called out to him in a gentle tone Kazuki hadn't heard in a while.

He stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around to face him.

"Your mother told me about your questions concerning our past." Father eventually continued. "Why did you ask about such matters?"

"Because I know nothing of the past which resulted to the problems you both face today." He replied. "One thing I do know about you Father, which I've noticed a long time ago... is your passion for Beach Cove... such passion runs through my own veins. Now, what could drive you to freely give away what you love?"

Father didn't even have to say anything in response, Kazuki could feel the consternation escaping from Father's presence behind him.

"All I can think of... is your past."

"The past is in the past." Although Father's words seemed resolute, there was a distinct uncertainty locked to his voice.

Kazuki looked over his shoulder. A sense of vulnerability flickered across Father's face. The set of sapphire eyes retained an unwavering focus, yet the clenched jaw gave Kazuki the impression Father was clamping down his tongue from unleashing words that hadn't been spoken for some time... doesn't that sound like someone uncannily familiar?

"Yes... the past is in the past, yet... you cannot accept it. Why can't you do something to be free from it? If you can't do it for yourself... do it for Mother!" Kazuki remarked. "You once told me... 'One cannot change the world by biting one's tongue', maybe you should take a leaf from your own book."

Father remained silent and stared at him like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He may have gone too far with his words and probably over stepped the line between a son and his father, yet he was glad to release it from his chest. A buzz from his mobile broke the tension between them. It was from Father Benjamin.