Learning to Love You More
Assignment #52: Write the phone call you wish you could have.
Using a black pen, draw a picture of your cell phone. Be very precise and make your phone look as realistic as possible, you can trace the shape of the phone if you want. Please make your drawing by hand, not with a computer. In the window where the caller name appears, write the name of the person who you wish would call you. If you have to, use a fake name. Don’t draw anything except the phone, leave the rest of the paper blank. In a separate document, type the conversation you wish you could have with this person.
Allen: Uh… hey Dad, what’s up?
Dad: Hey bud, how are things going?
Allen: You know, the usual. Heading into the office. How are things with you?
Dad: Same old same old. …
Allen: … What’s going on, did you need something?
Dad: Oh, no. Well–your Aunt isn’t doing well.
Allen: Linda? What happened? Everything OK?
Dad: She’s just — she’s not doing so well, you know.
Allen: Yeah.
Dad: It’s such a shame.
Allen: It’s got to be hard to watch happen…
Dad: I don’t think I could handle it.
Allen: Yeah, me either.
Dad: …
Allen: Everything okay?
Dad: Allen-
Allen: Yeah?
Dad: I know we don’t talk about things…
Allen: Yeah…
Dad: And I know you have been struggling for a while-
Allen: What do you mean?
Dad: I just could have warned you, is all.
Allen: What?
Dad: The same things – the panic, the fear, the sadness–
Allen: Dad-
Dad: Listen to me, son: you are not alone.
Allen: Dad-
Dad: I’ve been quiet my entire life. It’s burned me up, Allen. I got nothing left inside. I’ve wasted it all holding it in.
Allen: …
Dad: I — [clears throat] Please don’t let it eat you up. It probably already has. I never said it sooner. But I want you to know that I understand it all. Every pain. Even if I could never say it until now.
