We had nothing in common.
He had a boyfriend, I had a wife. He had a bowtie, I had a beard. He had a high voice, I had a voice like Hulk.
We had nothing in common.
It was his first day working in the company; he was the boss’ secretary and I had been working there for 10 years managing the accountancy.
I’ve never really liked kids (and to me he was a kid), so I just couldn’t stand that boy fresh out of high school running around the offices asking this and that to everybody. In fact I didn’t know how I was going to cope when my wife’s pregnancy had ended, I just hoped that she was going to take care of the child.
The weeks past, and I still couldn’t stand him, because I couldn’t find anything good or positive in his presence. After a couple of months I learned to accept him working here, but I still kept my distance.
One day he arrived with a different face, and by different I mean that it wasn’t his usual face, bright, happy, active, talking non-stop… He was quiet. And Still.
I admit that the idea of asking him if anything was wrong crossed my mind, but I noticed that nobody was talking to him so I decided to go with the flow. That same routine repeated itself over and over for a whole week. After that, I was a bit busy with problems of my own.
My wife had told me that next Monday night that she had to go to the hospital.
Immediately.
I had no idea how the whole process worked, so as soon as she told me I freaked out as much as she did. It was a nightmare in the hospital. They took us to the room (I had no idea what it was called). I held her hand the whole time, and I was astonished when I held my little Grace for the first time. I didn’t think I would’ve felt like that. My brain completely wiped away the thought of not liking children, because I it wasn’t possible that I couldn’t like somebody as perfect and beautiful as Grace.
Poor Sebastian (Sebastian was his name).
I really didn’t understand why I had ignored him; in the end he was just actually a teenager, the same thing that Grace will become someday, someone that can’t take care of themselves yet. The next week I was happy all the time, and also a bit freaked out and excited at the same time that I had just become a father, a parent, somebody who a child depends on, trusts and can’t live without. I felt like I had to do something for Sebastian, because he was still sad and quiet. So I got informed.
His father had just passed away.
I felt so bad for him. I couldn’t believe that nobody had done or said anything to comfort him, including me.
I put our differences apart and at the lunch break I went over to his table and started a conversation.
– Hi, how are you doing?
– Ok, I got a promotion today.
– Wow, that must be cool, right?
No answer.
– How’s your family doing? – I continued.
He looked at me, almost about to cry. No answer.
I got closer to him and asked.
– How does it feel to lose a parent?
– How does it feel to become a parent?- he replied.
Speechless. Both of us.
We looked right into each other’s faces and without even meaning to, at the same time we said:
– It changes you.
Alessia Bello (1E)