Chapter 3The Stranger I Know

I had actually met Aidan long before the funeral. Not in the black-and-white photos of the yearbook, but in the breakroom of the factory where my dad worked.

They were laughing, their eyes reflecting the pure, unadulterated happiness they found in each other's company. I didn't understand what that look meant back then. I only knew that when my dad was with Aidan, he was happy. And when he was happy, the comic books I wanted were suddenly mine. Aidan would buy me all sorts of treats, too. I really liked him back then.

My mother knew of Aidan, but she was dismissive of him. In her eyes, he was a man in his forties with no wife, no real job, just a dead-end dream of being a musician. A man like that had to have a few screws loose. She'd even told my dad to spend less time with him, worried his lack of ambition might be contagious.

My dad would always respond with an awkward silence. And my mother, seeing no point in fighting over someone so insignificant, would let it drop. It wasn't worth risking an argument that might sour her own marriage.

But no one could have ever imagined that my father, after more than a decade of marriage, had been in love with a man the entire time.

The first time my grandfather heard me mention Aidan's name, he just stood there, stunned, for what felt like an eternity. Then, a furious argument erupted between him and my father, who was in the middle of making dinner. It ended with my grandfather having a heart attack and being rushed to the hospital.

My father was run ragged during that time, shuttling between home and the hospital. My mother, worried sick, rushed back from her training seminar out of town, giving up a promotion.

My father was withdrawn for a long time after that. I don't know what my grandfather said to him behind closed doors after he was discharged, but I never saw Aidan visit again for a long, long time. My father spent more and more time staring into space, his eyes always drifting to the mailbox with a flicker of hope, only to sigh in disappointment when he found it empty.

Day after day, the light in his eyes dimmed. And the look my mother gave him grew darker and more suspicious. They had the biggest fight of their lives, a screaming match that only ended when Aidan showed up and somehow managed to calm them both down.

That incident actually changed my mother's opinion of Aidan. She decided he wasn't such a bad guy after all.