strangetomato | Drabble: Beau Broke's Earliest Memory

Prompt: Earliest Memory
Character: Beau Broke
Wordcount: 267
Imagecount: 0
Warnings: death

I don't like to lie. Or well, I'm really bad at it. Seems funny, because in some ways I'm a master manipulator. Yeah, I have a knack for getting things to go my way, and having the other person think it was their idea, stuff like that. But if I open my mouth to talk about myself, the truth usually comes out. It suits me fine. You can do a lot with the truth. You don't even need to lie.

So I don't really lie. I just avoid certain truths. Change the subject. Tell a different truth instead.

But that one, about my Dad, is a bit of a lie.

It's my earliest memory. I'm sure most wouldn't believe me anyway, if I told them. Toddlers don't remember things like that. Like, it's not really a memory. Maybe I imagined it after the fact. But no. I remember it. I wish I didn't.

I remember seeing him and babbling to get his attention, and then having him just... float there. I didn't understand, but I knew it was a really bad thing. How do you react to death when you don't even know anything about it as a concept yet?

My first memory is a horrible, horrible feeling.

That's how Mom even found him when she did. She saw me crawling towards the pool, and ran out there in a panic. And then panicked some more. And screamed. And cried. I'd never seen her cry before.

So my second memory is also a horrible, horrible feeling. Even worse than the first.

Nobody needs to hear about that.