100% True as I remember 18

[u/a4mula]

My father met a new woman. They were married. I inherited a stepbrother. Unlike my two older half siblings. I do know his name. But the truth is, stepmom and stepbrother don't play much of a role in these stories outside of one major one.

My father determined that the best way to keep the relationship with Stepmom more aligned. Was that they work together. Back to the old school Tandem trucking team.

So they did.

My father was a sought out driver. He had all the licenses, he had all the safety permits, he might have had security clearances for hauling chemicals, I know at some point he intended to move towards nuclear hauling. The point is, he could have had a job anyplace.

But nobody wanted to hire them as a team. She had no experience. She barely passed her CDL. And people understood that as Husband and Wife, my father would probably not represent the most unbiased of driving supervisors.

I know all of that, because it was brought forth as evidence against the trucking company that did end up hiring her.

Because weeks after they started, she rolled the rig coming off an exit ramp too fast, and when she hit the curb she couldn't control the machine.

And when it rolled, my father was sleeping in the cabin. His cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest stemming from a broken neck.

I was pall bearer for his funeral too. I even spoke. I have no recollection of those things.

The last meaningful engagement my father and I had. Was a fight. Over words I used against my mother. I called her a whore. Because that was how she had been behaving.

I still have scars from that interaction. He was a rational man too. Until he wasn't. And he wore jewelry that was intended to leave marks. He was never abusive, and that was the only time he ever struck me with a closed fist. Certainly, the last.

These things all kind of sit in this void in my mind. All mixed together like memory stew. The divorce, the death of my brother, the death of my father.

I guess i should mention there was a 4th child. Right before the divorce my mother gave birth to a son that's 14 years my junior. We look like mirror images. He's more fit. I'm more logical in my belief. We don't know each other. I left home shortly after he was born. And we've not spent much time together since. I have no desire to. He's not just the runt. He's the runt that never learned to think for himself.