Re: dream: graham/jake
[And out of the shadows, the figure of a man was built. An image that was quick to be assembled. In the man's brief and approaching steps, it was suddenly easy to discern his identity. Not because he stepped in close enough to be seen in full, and honestly Graham looked so different now while surrounded with the memories of the house. It was a strange juxtaposition, the preserved memories and the aged man. Jake might not have believed it was his father at all, but rather some apparition like the dark-haired woman had been, but Graham's voice was undeniably familiar . Solid, gruff, clipped assertion. It snapped Jake out of the fright that had initially climbed its way into his heart, thinking he'd happened upon a complete stranger and now happily proved wrong.]
Good to see you too, pa. [A smile formed then, and it aimed for strong reassurance. Jake didn't remember his father as ever having been the kind of man to be the first to warm or smile. Maybe it was something that grew out of the distance that existed between them over the years, like the flowers that inevitably bloomed over an untrimmed grave. Graham had not been the smiling father from his childhood in a long time. Even so, Jake didn't read into that as any sort of cold shoulder. It wasn't disinterest that had made his father this way, but tragedy. After what'd happened to his mother, Jake didn't blame him for putting up walls and states between them. That's how his father dealt with it. Honestly, Jake still wasn't sure how he dealt with it, or if he even had yet.
It wasn't the death of his mother that stuck with Jake when he reflected back on his youth, it was the aftermath. It was his father's sleepless nights, the way he talked at shadows in a low voice that Jake knew Graham thought he was unable to hear.]