「故事·听力」My Dad Left Us After A DNA Test

My Dad Left Us After A DNA Test

This is Damian. The story that he’d like to tell you…well, it’s very painful for him and his family. But learning about his experience could potentially help somebody out there. Although he doesn’t really know how. So...just listen.

Damian’s going to tell you about what happened last Christmas, but first let him explain what his life was like before that day.

He had a pretty ordinary life, and there was of course nothing bad about that. He comes from a big family: his mother, his father, him, and his little brother and sister. They didn’t have any serious problems, and they were just an ordinary, happy family. They were very close-knit, and had kind and trusting relationships between each other.

Christmas was approaching. And so were some changes in Damian’s life. It was his last year at school — and college was waiting for him in another state, many miles away from home and his family. Just thinking about this made him feel uncomfortable and even a little sad, and for that reason he decided to prepare a little surprise for his parents and siblings. And he would give it to them on one the most wonderful evenings there is to do something nice for the ones you love.

For a long time he thought about what present he could give them all. He chatted about it with his friends, and he discussed it with his girlfriend. It had to be something unusual, something that would be appropriate for both his parents and his younger brother and sister, and it had to be memorable – he wanted them to have only the best memories about his last “family Christmas” before he went to college.

Finally, he figured out what he needed to do. He discovered that genealogical DNA tests had in the past few years become very popular and affordable. Neither his mom nor his dad knew anything about their ancestors, and he thought that it would be interesting and amusing to find out. As for his brother and sister, they would definitely enjoy an adventure – a trip to a real laboratory, where cheerful lab workers would take some saliva from each of them and then they would find out something intriguing about who their forefathers were. The plan worked out perfectly in his head, so he paid for five tests – one for each person in his family.

And then Christmas came. They had a nice dinner, talked and played games at the table, sang a couple of Christmas carols together, then took pictures in front of the Christmas tree and exchanged presents. He decided to save his for the very end and hinted heavily that he had a surprise for everyone. And all went well! His dad nodded approvingly and said that it would be an interesting and educational family activity. His younger brother and sister did not fully understand the idea but were intrigued, as they were supposed to be.

But his mom behaved very strangely…When she heard him talk about the idea of DNA testing she became extremely nervous. She said that Damian had spent a lot of money for nothing and that their family didn’t need to do any tests to prove their happiness, and that he should never have suggested such a ridiculous thing. Both his dad and Damian were bewildered by her reaction, but this was only the beginning – his mom actually started yelling at him! His own mom! She had never, ever raised her voice before, but now they had a real drama on their hands, and it was happening at Christmas! They didn’t manage to calm her down, so Damian and his siblings went to bed in tears and their parents left to go to their bedroom. Of course, he couldn’t sleep after all that, and he heard his mom and dad talking until the morning.

And when morning came, something happened that still hurts Damian even to this day when he thinks about it. He saw his father packing his things and leaving, while giving him one last long, hostile look. His mom looked exhausted, and pointed at his younger siblings with her eyes, silently begging him to refrain from asking any questions at that moment.

And when they started talking he could not believe what he heard. His mom told him that his father was leaving them. Forever. And that he would probably be filing for divorce soon. His Christmas surprise had forced his mother to reveal an awful secret, and now he had to know it too: Neither he, nor his brother or sister were his father’s biological children.

Can you imagine how shocked he was? But he thought it would be for the better if he simply listened, in silence, to his mother’s story.