My stepfather - Kazeronnie Mak (e ink manga reader TXT) 📗

sincerely call him – FATHER
when I returned home next time.

However, that day would never come.
The last goodbye was a farewell forever.
I got a message of a sudden death of my stepfather
two months later.
It was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
I was in a daze as though the entire world had halted.
Greeted me home,
which was that lonely tobacco pipe hanging on the wall.
‘ His last regret was he shouldn’t give you a slap that year.
He always wanted to say sorry to you, but he couldn’t make it.
In fact, you can’t blame him.
You never understand that pipe was the pain in his entire life.’
said my mother as she looked at the hanging pipe.
I took it down gently from the wall.

Then, a heartbreaking story was revealed for the first time.
My mother and my stepfather were the sweethearts in the village
some thirty years ago.
The great affection for each other got stronger after they grew up.
But, my grandpa was very against their romance.
The only reason was my stepfather’s family was penniless.
Seeing the pair were inseparable,
my grandpa asked for a big betrothal gift from my stepfather.
He believed that was an easy way to break them up.
My stepfather lived with his father.
Therefore, he started to work in a coal mine in order to
earn some more money for his only son.
His father and some seventy miners had been trapped
underground in an accident.
No one could be seen again after that day.
That tobacco pipe was his only remains.
He overwhelmed with sorrow on the death of his father.
The guilt and self-blame which he would live forever with.
He left the village with that tobacco pipe one day.
No one knew his whereabouts !

My stepfather came back two years later.
My mother was already forced to marry my father
one year earlier.
He had always been single.
His only company was that tobacco pipe.
He bravely took the responsibility for his adored lady and
her two kids after the decease of her husband.
He never wanted to have his own child.
He said, ‘ These kids are my own flesh and blood.’
It was not just a circuitous love story in that pipe.
It was also a heavy memory of his entire life.
My eyes were brimmed in tears after
my mother had completed their heartbreaking story.

She handed me a wooden box,
‘ Your father had a sudden stroke.
He was unable to speak before he died.
He stared at me and pointed toward that wooden box.
I assumed that he wanted to give it to you.
There have some debts in it.
Maybe, he hoped you to manage it.
He never wanted to owe anyone anything.’
I gently opened the box with my tearful eyes.
I collapsed in the chair impotently.
The eight papers were simply not the IOU.
These all were the blood sold receipts.
A brand new watch was dropped when the box fell on the floor.

‘ Father, father !’ I knelt in front of his grave.
No matter how loudly I wailed,
I could never ever wail his life back again.
When I was away, I took that brown tobacco pipe with me.
I would cherish the memory of my unforgettable stepfather
forever and ever.

The love of his selflessly given and sacrifice,
I could never ever pay him back.
But, I would live with regrets to the end due to
my self-centered and ignorant.


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Such two speeches cannot wait :

I LOVE YOU and I AM SORRY.

Elsewise, you may live with regrets to the end.
Imprint

Publication Date: 02-14-2012

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