Family Portrait - Chapter 3

“When I was ten my mother died in a car accident. When I was twelve my father gave my brother Kyle to my Aunt Callie. When I was fourteen I volunteered at the library. When I was sixteen my father abandoned me. When I turned eighteen I moved to Pennsauken and found out that my father’s a serial bomber. My life has been a total pit of sorrow and failure,” Mara sighed, glad to get that off her chest.

The counselor shook her head. “Sorrow, maybe,” she said. “But not failure.”

“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is that you’ve risen to meet all of those challenges and obstacles, haven’t you?”

Mara shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Then your life hasn’t been a total pit of failure has it?”

“No. That’s a good point, Ms. Lee.”

“Thank you, Mara. Now, how about your father, what feelings do you have toward him?”

Mara thought a moment. He had inflicted injustice and callousness on her. But, despite all of this she still loved him.

“I love him,” she said simply. “I mean he’s my dad.”

Ms. Lee had been nodding the whole time Mara had been talking. “It’s good that you don’t harbor any resentment against your father. Hate can be hazardous to one’s health.”

Mara nodded slowly.



When Mara got home that afternoon, she went straight to the kitchen. She was starving; she hadn’t eaten since lunch and she had spent an additional hour talking to Miss Ariana Lee, the counselor.

She found Jennifer sitting at the table with a bag of “sour cream ‘n’ onion” chips beside her. Her nose was in the newest issue of Cosmogirl magazine. Jennifer looked up when Mara came in. “Where’ve you been?”

“Talking to a counselor.”

“What for?”

“I – I have some problems to work out.”

“Ah.”

“What’re you doing tonight?” Mara asked as she popped open a can of ginger ale.

Jennifer shrugged. “Watch TV, I guess. How about you?”

“I – have plans for tonight. I’m going over my Aunt Callie’s house.”

Jennifer shrugged. “Cool.”


“You ever been to Niagara Falls?” Mara asked her little brother. It was later that night and Callie had invited her to dinner again.

Kyle shook his head. “No.”

“Real cool site. I’ll take you one day.”

Callie walked in, holding three plates of linguini, one in each hand and a third balanced in the crook of one arm. She put a plate at each place and sat down.

“So,” she said. “How was you day, Mara?”

Mara shrugged. “Okay. I talked to a counselor.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Hmmm.”

The three of them ate in silence for a while. The phone rang and Callie got up an answered it. “Hello?”

By the look on her aunt’s face, Mara could tell that it was her father on the other end.

“Yeah, she – she’s –“

Mara jumped up and snatched the phone from her aunt. “Dad? Dad, turn yourself in! Please!

“Mara, I’ve got to go, now.”

“Please, just listen to me.” There was the sound of a dial tone on the other end.
“Dad? Dad?”

Mara hung up and looked at Callie.
“
It’s okay, Mara,” she said consolingly. “All we can do now is wait.”