The Triumphant Father

The truth was clear, Brad was afraid of his real father and his mother knew it, but said nothing. As Brad grew older he would always tell his mother that his dad was possessed. She would laugh and say, “There’s a good man in there somewhere son.”

“Here comes the demon,” he would say as his biological father would drive through the neighborhood in his fancy car.

One Christmas night Brad could hear his Laboeboe toy talking to him, but he thought he was having a bad dream.

“Daddy loves you Brad.”

Brad looked across his bed not far from his dresser and soon realized that the toy was alive.

“Daddy loves you Brad, now come with me to the haunted store so we can visit him,” the toy said taking Brad’s hand while he was in a trance. 

As the toy took Brad’s hand they walked into the shadow of his bed into the haunted store.

In the haunted store Brad could see all of the women that his father had been with. Their bodies were hanging on the shelves wrapped in fancy doll boxes.

“I want to go back,” Brad said to the toy.

“No Brad, let’s have fun,” he replied.

Off in the corner of the store Brad could see his father’s car. In the other corner he saw his truck.

“This isn’t funny, I want to go back home!” Brad said.

“Daddy loves you, now let’s have some fun.”

The toy grabbed Brad’s hand to show him what his father did to his mother before he was born, having no where to run Brad began to scream.

“Why are you doing this to me? I want to go home,” Brad said.

“We need you, we need you to change the world Brad. When you grow up, don’t be like the demon dad,” the toy said as Brad woke up in a cold sweat.

“Mom!”

Sonya came bursting into his room.

“Is everything okay?”

“I think I had a bad dream,” Brad said noticing his Laboeboe toy staring at him from across the room.

His mother held him tightly as he began to shake.

“I know what dad did to you the night that I was born. He tried to beat me out of your stomach, didn’t he?” Brad said catching his mother’s full attention.

“Brad, you’re scaring me, now get some rest. I won’t let you talk about your father that way,” his mother said.

As his mother left the room the toy walked over to Brad’s bed and rubbed his head until he fell to sleep.

“Daddy loves you, always remember that Brad.”

The next morning Brad woke up in an orphanage and had no clue what happened before he fell to sleep.

Sitting in what appeared to be a waiting room he could hear adults outside of the room talking.

“Where’s my mom?” He asked as one of the adults entered the room.

“Brad, sweetheart, your mom and dad will always be with you in your dreams. Okay. When you grow up you’re going to make the world a better place.” The aid said as she walked Brad to his room.

This was how Brad’s life began. The moments that he shared with his real parents were brief. Every moment that he had alone he wondered how everyone vanished in the wee hours of the night.

“I named you after an orphan, now you be strong,” he could hear his mother’s voice echoing through his memories.

As Brad grew older he had to convince himself that he had a purpose. Never actually getting adopted, he found his world by playing with puppets. On his first date, his girlfriend whispered in his ear, “What do you want from me Bradley Benjamin?”

He looked her in the eyes and said, “I want to be a good father.”

Sadly, his relationship didn’t last so Brad took his goals somewhere else. It’s amazing how a man could fail over and over again and see everything stripped away from him before he actually achieved anything. Down and out, Bradly barely graduated college. He took his degree in childhood care and decided to pursue his dream as a father by opening up his own orphanage. 

“Brad, are you sure you want to do this?” His friend Ted asked him when he got approval from the state.

“Ted, all of my life I’ve seen darkness. I’ve hid in a room while evil people bring the good people of the world to their knees. I am the light now that will help them see. I am the father that will always be there.” Brad said to his friend.

Ted had no clue what force had jumped into his friend, but he knew for sure that Brad was determined.

After the first two years, Brad had just about every abandoned kid in his care. The man dealt with their mental disorders. He rocked them to sleep as they threw chairs at the wall before they went to bed. Through it all, Brad was there and kept taking in every abandoned kid that he could find. He’d made the front page of the local paper eight times in one year. To every kid that heard about him, he was their hero. Brad developed and saved an entire generation with no regrets. At age eighty-eight, he laid the last shingle on his building roof and read his last story to Greta and Coco, the last children he raised. At the end of Brad’s time on earth, sadly, he’d only heard stories of what happened to his biological family so he made his own triumphant story and as he passed on to his next life his kids read his message before he said goodbye. Girls, boys, men and women of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and colors.

“Greta, Coco, and to all of my kids, I had a million chances to turn away from you all and take the easy way out, but instead I decided to be a father and make the world a better place. I ask nothing of you all but to do the same. Be the light in a dark world.”

A new era had begun and a lasting story of a legacy was told over and over again to bring hope to a world that thought the good will of being a father was gone.

The Triumphant Father