My Daughter Monologue

I knelt in front of the cross, water spraying off the rigid rocks. I twisted the backpack around my arm and reached for the slip of paper. I read aloud the words of my heart and placed the paper underneath the Lily I had picked from the meadow just outside of Baron. My son and I had never had the close father-son relationship I had hoped for; I had never bonded with him the way he had with his mother. I sat down against the boulder lodged between two rocks, and shut my eyes. I thought back on his first steps, his first word, him fishing with his grandpa, and the pictures of him on his way to senior prom. I pictured Helene holding him in her arms when he was just a baby. I wished I had just tried harder to be a father and spent less time on my work. Everyday I walked past our family photo hanging in the front entrance of the courthouse. A momento of the past, seeing George as a little boy, and myself with my brown hair before it thinned and turned grey. Beside it, another picture of me and Helene taken just a few months before her passing. I pictured her warm smile welcoming me after a long day at the office, her arms open, …show more content…
At first we went through the routine small talk about our lives and his reason for walking the trail. He did most of the talking, I merely listened. I didn't feel the need to share my sob story with him, though I felt the ache of my heart inside my chest. I didn't quite know how to answer him when he asked me why I walked, for I didn't quite know myself. I could tell by the way he panted that he was a person prone to exercise, I had barely even glanced at him the whole time so I lifted my head. I noticed that he wasn't in the best shape but he continued to walk, his hat reminded me of the one that my father wore when he took George fishing. I then realized I didn't know his