Permission (Journal entry)

The story is very sensor heavy, like while reading it I can imagine practically every sense. My eyes don’t miss a detail.  It almost feels like stage direction with some of its descriptions. The story also feels real in the respect that the main character, our narrator, is a father just living an ordinary day in her life, a field trip day for her kids, being a chaperon. We get to see his mindset, his physical condition (As she mentions how tired she is from poor sleep. I also love that the story is obviously told in the past tense as referenced when the narrator says, “They fussed but they did as I asked. In those years, they still listened to me.” A time period where I’m sure every parent under the sun laments over and while I’m not a parent, I certainly feel for the guy. I feel bad for the guy, during the last third of the story as we see why he jumps in the pool, a tragedy behind the smiles of parents for their other kids.