Jon's story

. I’m John. When I was nine years old, I woke up one morning to my mom’s crying. She said, “John, your dad is gone. He left us,” and hugged me. She was holding a piece of paper. It said, “I’m tired of both of you.” This was Dad’s goodbye note. For years, I had a recurring dream where my dad was saying to me, “I’m tired of you.” I missed him a lot, but at the same time, I hated him for leaving us like that. Six years later, I came home from school one day, and saw my dad eating at the kitchen table. When he saw me, he stood up with a smile on his face. He opened his arms and waited for me to give him a hug. I asked Mom, “What is this man doing here?” She looked away without saying anything. I looked at my dad. He was still waiting with arms wide open, smiling. “Why did you come back after all these years?” I yelled. He said, “This is my house. I can come and go as I please. I’m not going to ask you for permission,” and sat down to continue eating. My dad’s a cook and my mom’s a waitress. They used to work at the same restaurant. After he disappeared, my mom kept working at her job. But she had to work a lot more because she had to support us by herself. I thought Dad’s return meant my mom could relax a little. But that didn’t happen. He was sleeping until noon, and then either watching TV or playing games on his phone all day. One evening, as I was eating dinner with Mom, Dad came into the kitchen. He said, “I have a great idea for us. We will save up our money and open our own restaurant,” My mom got excited. She said, “I’ve been dreaming of this for years. Let’s open a nice Italian restaurant,” Then Dad said to me: “Of course, you’ll have to help us too. Find yourself a part-time job you can do after school. You’ve been living here rent-free your whole life. It’s time you start paying us back.” I was so frustrated. “Does this mean that you will also start working?” I asked. Dad’s response didn’t make any sense: “Do you think it’s easy to open a restaurant? There are so many decisions to be made. I need to focus so that I can make the best decision. And I can only do that at home, with a clear head!” Dad continued to sit at home, just like he said he would. My mom was now working weekends to be able to make some more money. I found a job delivering pizza. Because I was too young to get a driver’s license, I was making deliveries on foot, which left me dead tired. Still, I was going along with it for my mom’s sake. Both my mom and I were giving every penny we made to our dad. After counting the money, Dad would say to me every time, “Is that all you got? Are you sure you’re not holding back? Empty those pockets and let’s see.” Even though I was pissed, I couldn't say anything. Before he left us, I had been too young to see that side of him. But now that I finally got to know him, I hated him. Even though it was exhausting, I still liked some parts of my pizza delivery job. I’d gotten to know many people who regularly ordered pizza in my neighborhood. For example, one of the customers was a famous singer, and once he gave me a hat he’d worn at a concert. And I had developed a huge crush on another customer. I’d get super nervous every time she ordered pizza and I had to go to her house. There was also a guy I liked to call “Mr. Loose Change.” He was a geeky type in his thirties with very long hair and beard. I could tell he didn’t have a lot of money because he always paid for the pizza with loose change. And sometimes he’d still be short even after putting together all of his coins. “Don’t worry about it,” I would say, and he’d be embarrassed. He always said, “One day, I’ll give you the biggest tip of your life.” I was sure he would do it if he had the money, but I’d never even seen him pay with an actual bill. One day, something weird happened as I was doing a delivery. I was waiting to cross a street. The light turned green. As I was crossing, I saw my dad in the driver’s seat of one of the cars waiting at the light. He didn’t see me because he was looking at his phone. I was really surprised because we didn’t own a car. I took out my phone and snapped a picture. When the light turned green, my dad sped away. Where did this car come from? Had my dad secretly gotten himself a car with all the money that we’d been making? I was so angry. I sent the photo to my mom. She later told me that when she asked him about it, my dad tried to deny it. When she showed him the photo, he lied and said, “That car is a rental”. But finally, he had to come clean. It had only been three weeks since he’d bought the car. When he wasn’t driving it, he had been parking it at garage nearby. “I made a mistake. That money was for our restaurant. Please forgive me,” he begged. After she told me all this, my mom said, “Your dad regrets what he’s done. He’ll sell the car. I think he deserves another chance.” I felt for my mom. She didn’t want to fight with my dad because she was afraid of being single again. The next evening my dad parked the car in front of the house. In the morning, as I was getting ready for school, he came to my room. He handed me the car keys. He said, “The car is dirty. Wash it. Then take pictures. I will post them online to sell it. As if that weren’t enough, he bossed me around as I was washing the car, saying, “Vacuum the trunk” and “clean this spot better.” I was really angry, but I tried hard to stay calm, and not lash out at him. After school, I went to work in a bad mood. I really didn’t want to work, but I had no other choice. Towards the end of my shift, I got an order from Mr. Loose Change. As always, when he opened the door, he smiled, and said, “My friend, come in. This is my last pizza order. I’m moving out of this place tomorrow. But before that, I have to keep the promise I made to you. I will give you the biggest tip you’ve ever gotten.” “My biggest tip so far has been twenty dollars. So you have to give me twenty one to beat it,” I said, laughing. I went inside and looked around. The place was packed with computers. Mr. Loose Change pointed to a big bag sitting on the floor. “Go ahead, open it,” he said. I opened it. It was filled to the brim with money. I stared at him in disbelief. “There’s a million dollars in there and it’s all yours,” he said. I was in shock. All I could say was “Thank you.” As I was leaving his apartment, he said, “Don’t worry, the money is completely legal. I didn’t rob a bank or anything,” he said. “Are you a hacker?” I asked. He laughed. “No, I’m not. Do you know what cryptocurrency is?” “Yes, Bitcoin,” I replied. “Bitcoin is the famous one. There are a lot of other coins. I’ve been working on developing my own coin for the past three and a half years. I finally did it. Now I have a lot of money. In a few years, I’ll probably become a billionaire. It wasn’t easy. And you’re one of the people who supported me when I was struggling. I’m grateful to you,” he said, hugging me. A few minutes later, I was walking down the street with a million dollars in my bag. I couldn’t believe it but I’d become a millionaire. That was great but what would I do with the money? There was no way I was going to tell my dad about it. He’d take all of it. I had to hide it somewhere safe. When I got home, I took the bag straight to my room. When I came to the kitchen to get a snack, I saw my mom sitting there, crying. “Mom, what happened?” I asked. “Your dad sold the car. But then he took the money to a casino, and gambled with it. And he lost everything,” she said. “Gambled? Why would he gamble?” I began to say, and my mom started sobbing even more. At that moment, my dad walked in and said “‘If I’d won, I would’ve made twice or three times the money. Then we could’ve opened the restaurant right away. But I didn’t,’ He didn’t bother to apologize. Instead, he yelled at me. Finally he said ‘I’m too upset to fight with you,’ and left. I gave my mom a hug. I told her, “Dad is a very selfish person. I never believed he would open a restaurant. All he wanted to do was to get us to work and make money off of us”. Mom said, “He was always selfish, I waited for him to change but he hasn’t and he never will. That’s who he is.” She finally realized it for herself. I felt relief when I heard that. “Mom, I’m going to show you something,” I said and brought her the bag. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the money. I told her the whole story. My mom had the same reaction. She said, “Your dad should never see this money. We have to leave before he comes home”. I said, “That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard in my life!” We quickly packed our suitcases. Then we called a cab. Just as we were leaving, I had an idea. I was going to leave a goodbye note for Dad. “Mom, you get in the cab. I’ll be there in a sec,” I said. In my bedroom, I took all the money out of the bag, and spread it on the bed. I sat in the middle. I took a bunch of selfies. Then I printed them all out. Finally, I put those selfies up on the walls around the house. Then I ran out and got in the cab. We went to a hotel at the other end of town. A couple of hours later, my mom’s phone rang. It was my dad. Mom didn’t pick up. Ten seconds later, Dad called me. When I didn’t pick up either, he started sending messages. He had apparently seen the photos I’d put up on the walls. First, he wrote, “Where did this money come from?”, and “Whose money is this?” He was trying to understand. When we didn’t reply, he got mad. He started threatening us. “Bring me that money now or you’ll regret it!” When that didn’t work either, he wrote, “My dear wife, my dear son, you misunderstood me, I love you very much, please come back home.” Of course, we didn’t answer him. The next day, the first thing we did was change our phone numbers. Years ago, my dad had left us with a note that said, “I’m tired of both of you.” Now it was our turn. And I had made sure to leave him a goodbye note that would haunt him forever. We now live in a little beach town. My dad won’t find us here. We bought a cute house on the water. The best part is last month Mom opened her dream restaurant. The business is great. My dad was a troublemaker. We’re so happy to have gotten rid of hi