Emancipation (from "My Short Stories (Book One)") - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

When my cousin, Denise, was only 16 years old, she was still living at home with her parents, my Aunt Darla and Uncle Joe, like most kids her age were.  She had always gotten along with her mom; for the most part, they were able to communicate quite well together, except when her mom was sometimes forced to side with her dad.  He was the one that Denise was usually butting heads with – they were both extremely stubborn and pigheaded.  When he said, “black”, she said, “white”, and vice-versa, or something to that effect.  Denise supposed that, in his own way, her father was just like her friends’ fathers.  They always seemed to want the last word in their kids’ lives, no matter what the kids wanted to do.  So, she tried to accept this macho-male attitude from him even though it would usually end up in a verbal confrontation, and sometimes an ugly physical fight and it usually happened because of something very stupid.  It would happen at least once or twice a year, but for Denise, that was once or twice too many.  She knew that, despite the fact that she loved her mom very much, she would be leaving home for good someday soon. 

Still, she could never understand why it had to be that way between her father and her.  After all, other kids her age also argued with their parents, but their fathers didn’t try to make it impossible for them to continue living at home.  Denise was totally miserable there; even her mom’s love for her couldn’t make up for what was wrong there.  How many times should a teenage girl have to be afraid for her own safety while at home?  She’d thought that a kid like her was supposed to feel safe at home. 

Denise had a brother and a sister, both younger than herself.  She often had to babysit them whenever her mom and dad went out to a party or on some kind of a date.  Believe it or not, she never did mind having this kind of responsibility.  It was good for her, she thought.  As a result, she was growing up far faster than her peers who were relatively pampered to a large extent.  By the time Denise was 17, things at home had deteriorated considerably and she knew it was just a matter of time before she left home for good.  Surely, nothing she would face out in the world would be nearly as bad as this life she was now living. 

Denise thoughtfully pondered all of her options and quickly concluded that, due to a serious lack of financial resources, her choices for where to live were somewhat limited.  She thought about who she knew of her relatives who might be willing to help her.  She remembered our young adult cousin, Emily, who was living out west in Vancouver and decided to write to her.  The letter Denise wrote to Emily, however, somehow did not manage to convey the required tone of helplessness, powerlessness, and misery that she was experiencing at home.

Though Emily already had single parent responsibilities in raising her baby son, she did not get the impression, somehow, that Denise was desperate to move out of her parents’ home.  And, it wasn’t a tale that Denise found easy at all to tell anyone.  If she had been able to tell Emily the absolute truth – that her home situation was not working at all and that she needed help now – I’m certain that Emily would have responded immediately, inviting Denise to at least come out for a visit to Vancouver.  Instead, Emily decided that, for the moment, she was just too busy at work and too tired at the end of the day to even contemplate having Denise come out west for a visit.  Upon an all-too-brief reflection, she decided to write to Denise and tell her that now was not a good time for her to fly to Vancouver for a visit with them. 

If Emily had known about the difficult relationship that existed between Denise and her father (our Uncle Joe), she would have taken immediate action to have Denise move in with her.  After all, Emily knew, first hand, what it was like to try and please a father who could not be pleased.  No matter what Emily did to try to earn her own father’s approval and love, it was never nearly enough.  In fact, that’s why Emily had decided to move to Vancouver.  She had finally decided that she needed to leave her parental home so that she could finally start to lead her own life – something that appeared impossible to accomplish if she had stayed near her parents any longer.  If anyone could empathize with Denise, Emily could.  No other relative in Denise’s family (besides Emily) had ever had this kind of life experience before.  None of them had any idea that Uncle Joe had this incredible macho-chauvinistic attitude toward his own daughter.  Joe could be a really charming man when other people were around, especially if those people were attractive women or men with stature.  For his own personal reasons, he did not want other people (his relatives, especially) knowing anything about the difficulties he was causing his eldest daughter.  He preferred to lay the blame for Denise’s frustrations with home life at her own feet.  He’d tell others that she had “a lot of problems” and that it was unlikely (based on his opinion) that she would ever be able to overcome them.

For her part, Emily had felt like “the black sheep” of her own family – the one no one wanted to admit was a failure in their eyes.  But, that was an attitude that had been perpetuated by her own father (our Uncle Frank).  In his mind, Emily was dogged by failure constantly.  When he said horrible (and untrue) things about her, most people actually believed him.  They had no reason to think otherwise.  The only people who didn’t take Frank’s words at face value numbered at two.  One of those people was a man named Elliot who had known Frank since they were both 18, when they had started working together.  There were few things that Elliot did not know about Frank and even if there had been something, he was not nearly so gullible as to believe everything Frank would say.  The other person was Elliot’s wife, Andrea, who had known Frank almost as long as her husband had.

Eventually, Emily, having heard that Denise’s mother had recently died of cancer, decided that she needed to contact Denise as soon as possible to get her to come out to Vancouver, finally.  She had been feeling guilty for not doing something about the situation earlier.  She had wanted to help Denise, but had had no idea, at first, of the urgency of her request.  Emily did not really know her Uncle Joe very well, but she did like Denise very much.  The two cousins had always gotten along very well when Denise was much younger, considering the big age difference between them (10 years or so).  Emily had had time to consider that if Denise was willing to go to school, babysit on occasion for her and work part-time, she thought that a suitable arrangement could be made for Denise to move in. 

So, after Emily contacted Denise with her offer, Denise accepted gladly and told her father that she was leaving for Vancouver soon.  Joe was only too happy at his daughter’s decision to lead her own life elsewhere.  Denise, for her part, was glad that, not only was she finally going to be leaving her parental home, she was going to be living in Vancouver, which was a long way from Toronto, and they wouldn’t have to see each other very much, if at all.  Fortunately, for her, Emily was the truly supportive and caring type of person that Denise could count on to be there for her, the kind of person she needed to have in her life.  And, Denise vowed that she would do whatever she had to do to preserve the wonderful home life that Emily was offering her.  

Eventually, Denise finished high school with high honours (85%) and was accepted at the University of British Columbia into Physiotherapy.  She worked full-time every summer and part-time while at school as much as possible.  Somewhere, she had found the inner strength to go on with her life and leave the ugly past behind.  She was very happy while living with Emily and then, when she had to move closer to the university, she came back to visit Emily and her son, Bradley, as often as she possibly could.  She continued to miss her mother terribly after her mom’s death, but did not miss her dad much at all.  In fact, he was lucky if he got a call from her more than once or twice a year.  Denise had no wish to maintain any kind of father-daughter relationship with him; no surprise considering his terrible treatment of her in the past. 

But, Denise was still young and very resilient, like young people are, and she was able to put it all behind her and lead the life she wanted to lead.  Four years later, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Rehabilitation Therapy and she is now living in the Okanagan Valley where she practices her profession.  Her story has shown me that, despite having a very rough time in her earlier life, she was strong enough to withstand the rough part and become the person that she had both the talent and the desire to be.

published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.