---
date: 2019-08-20
weight: 35
---

Telling dad was the second time I came out to family deliberately.

> The third.

Third?

> You told Aunt Patty that you were gay back before high school.

I...did not remember that.

> Not until just now, apparently.

Apparently. I have no recollection of what I said. I have no recollection of what *she* said.

I have no recollection of her.

> Hazy images at grandma's.

I guess.

> Memories surrounding her.

Lots of those.

> Memories of when she and her family got stranded on a sailboat between Cuba and Florida and rescued by a cruise ship. Grandma and dad smug in their assessment that she was stupid and irresponsible.

A vague, heavily pixelated picture shot by one of the cruise boat attendants.

> "She's crazy," they said. "She has too many kids. They draw all over the walls. Her house is wild. She's crazy."

And me, with with my secret. My little pet lie I kept hidden from them.

> Tell me about coming out to dad.

I will.