Connecticut Christmas (2 of 3)

We drive up to a motel and I pay for a night. I hope that will be enough to find our dad. We just don’t know where to start looking. We’re not positive what he does but we know he makes great money. He’s a businessman of some sort and he owes us child support.
We start by looking in phone books. His name is Merl Furqward. You would think that there could only be one Merl Furqward in all of Phoenix but there are 12. We start at the top.
“When do we get to see dad, Machew?” Chew asks.
“Soon enough buddy. I’ve just gotta call a few numbers and we’ll find out where he lives. Then we can finally meet him.”
Chew responds to himself, “He lives in Penix, my dad does. And I get to see him. And it is like a Christmas present because it is almost Christmas but that isn’t my only present because I told Santa what I want and it will be waiting for me back in Curneckertut.” Chew can’t say Connecticut.
So, I call the numbers and catch a break. They are all disconnected numbers except my dad’s. I don’t know what was up with the other numbers. He answered his every time I called, which was several. And every time he said hello, I hung up. I can’t bring myself to talk to him. I’m afraid he won’t want to see me.
I finally stir up enough guts to talk to him. “Hello, Merl? Hi, this is…uh…this is Matt’s Extermination and you have won a free de-bugging service. Yeah, but uh it seems your number is not in the phone book so if you would just give me your address I can swing by in the next week and deliver your free service.” I write the address down and hang up. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell him.
Me and Chew eat out of the vending machine for dinner. We will go to our dad’s house tomorrow. Sleep now and go tomorrow.
“Did you talk to dad?” Chew asks.
“Yea I did, and he told us where he lives.”
“Will he like me, Machew?” Chew wonders.
“Of coarse he will Chew. How can he not like you?”
Chew thinks for a minute. “I know, but maybe he won’t.”
“Just sleep Chew, and tomorrow we’ll go and see him.” We both lay down and Chew’s feet stick out of the bottom of the bed. His shoes are still on and they light up the entire room.
The next morning we wake up and get ready to go. Chew whines, “Can we eat first? I don’t want to meet my dad when I’m hungry.”
We go to get some breakfast. The waitress makes polite conversation, “And what are you boys doing here?” She points at Chew, “You ain’t dressed like you’re from Arizona.”
Chew answers with food in his mouth, “We’re from Curneckertut and came to Penix to see our dad. My mom is sick and we’re going to meet out dad in Penix. He is nice but I never met him.”
She looks at him for a minute. “Curneckertut?”
Chew says, “yea” and keeps eating.
“We’re just here to meet our father,” I explained to waitress. She nodded her head politely and walked away.
We finish with our meal and head over to see our dad. I am nervous but Chew sang Disney songs all the way there. We pull into his driveway and the place is beat up. It looks worse than our trailer back in Connecticut.
We knock but no one answers. Our dad is not home. All the lights are off and I look through a window at the side of the house and it looks deserted. A neighbor walks up behind me, “You looking for Merl?”
I tell him I am and ask if he knows where I can find him.
The neighbor responds, “Yea, he leaves for work in the morning and comes back in the evening. He won’t be back here until late. But you can catch him at work if you like Santa.”
Chew’s eyes light up, “I like Santa!”
The neighbor continues, “Well, he is a Santa down at the mall and you can go see him there.”
I tell him thanks and we head off for the mall.
Chew is still trying to process the information, “Our dad is Santa? Santa is dad? This is amazing.” Chew sticks his head out the window to yell but can’t breath and quickly comes back to his seat and coughs.
We go into the mall and find SantaLand. Chew is excited but I’m hesitant. We find the line of kids and wait. We wait for 2 hours before we get to the front and then I see him. I can’t tell what he looks like but it’s my dad. My father who I’ve never met. The man that is missing in my game of catch and the man who will teach me how to shave. He has a cut off T-shirt on and a white beard that is turning brown from dirt.
We walk up to him. He smells like baby powder and scotch. He asks us, “Ho Ho Ho, aren’t you boys a little big for Santa?”
Chew screams, “Santa! I mean dad! I love you so much!”
“What’s he talking about? Hey, elf, get these kids outta here!” Santa yells.
“But wait,” I said, “We’re your son’s. I’m your boy, I just want to meet you.” That’s when Sprinkles and Plunket grabbed my collar and took me and Chew out of the store. We had been defeated by 2 boys our age with curled shoes.
We decided to wait at his house meet him when he came home. This took longer than expect. We waited for 7 hours and he finally stumbled out of his car. He was drunk and he had a friend with him. It was a girl who couldn’t have been older than me. She was drunk and he dragged her everywhere by her wrist. Our dad took that young girl inside.
He fucked her.
She passed out somewhere in the middle. But our fucking deadbeat pervert of a dad fucked her. He smacked her and fucked her. He’s not the man I thought I would find. This is the same piece of shit man that fucked my mom. The same piece of shit that fucked my aunt. I made Chew sit in the car while I watched. I couldn’t take my eyes away. It was like a car accident but in this case I just wanted a knife to cut his dick off. This piece of shit man needs to be stopped. I will kill this son of a bitch.
I get back in the car to breath a bit. Chew and I go back to the motel to sleep. I don’t sleep though, I stare. I stare and plot. Everything I just saw keeps replaying in my mind and I want to kill him.