Left Out in the Cold

Vince tried to ignore the call and return to bed, but his father’s relentlessness manifested itself in a vibrating phone on the nightstand. December 28, 2017 was the coldest night of the year in Buffalo, NY, a town not known for its hospitable winters, and the first day of his father’s life – one plagued by addiction, rehab centers and prison sentences – he found himself homeless, begging his only child to put him in a hotel room to avoid freezing to death.  

Vince stared at the ringing phone, trying to determine whether his decision would cure or kill his father. On the one hand, picking it up would provide another empty bailout for the man that, for as long as Vince could remember, found solace in alcohol, cocaine, heroin, opioids and benzodiazepines (or, even more enthusiastically, a combination thereof). On the other, ignoring it and allowing his father to suffer through the night might, assuming he survived it, serve as the impetus he needed to finally jump off the speeding train of abuse for which he was the dispatcher, lineman and conductor.   

The vibrating phone jolted into his mind visions of watching the man that should have been his role model, instead, snort, shoot and swallow every means of escape.  

Vince held his thumb on the power button until the screen went black, placed it back on the nightstand and pondered whether his decision was out of contempt or concern. He realized, like his father’s favorite cocktail, it was a combination.