Prodigal

~4.8~

“Are we staying at the Mariott at the airport in Raleigh?” I asked dad the next morning. We would get on a plane to leave that night.

“It’s the Hilton.” Dad corrected. “And Grandma and Grandpa’s room will be right next to ours.”

“I’m surprised that Grandpa will even go to this.”

“Emelia, don’t do this again.”

“I’m truly surprised that he would fly halfway across the world to see me talk about transgender rights, considering I’m just a boy playing dress up.”

“You know that Grandma and Grandpa both love you.”

“I know Grandma does.”

“Emelia, I’m serious, stop it.” Dad ordered. “My father is flying across the planet to see you speak, the least you can do is be grateful.”

“Luke, why would you let your boy wear a dress?” I mimicked Grandpa.

Ignoring that mimic, Dad asked, “Do you at least have a start to your speech?”

“Kind of.” I said. “I just don’t have the blazing fire of passion behind me like I did when I passive aggressively was attacking Ethan in the last speech.”

“So find the fire somewhere else. Take the anger against Ethan and channel it into a different situation in writing this speech.”

“Was that your process for song writing twenty years ago?” I joked with a smile.

“Yes, except the process was more complex because we were dealing with fans that were first generation tweeters.”

“Well, once this is done, maybe you can make a song and my speech can be the lyrics.” I half-jokingly suggested.

Notes

Sorry I've been MIA I've been in a play and it was consuming a lot of my time.