CRYSTAL "CRYS" LOPEZ-RODRIGUEZ - DIGNITY

Crystal “Crys” Lopez-Rodriguez is a writer of short stories and poems. She is earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Full Sail University and is a member of the Creative Writing Club. Lopez-Rodriguez currently serves as a Community Contributor at FAIRYGODBOSS.com (http://fairygodboss.com/). She lives in Orange City, Florida and can be reached at crysloro@icloud.com. 

Dignity
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​Lexi pulled up to her dad’s modern California duplex. She smelled the freshly planted chocolate cosmos and peonies that skirted the front of his side of the house. David, Lexi’s father, sat in a rocking chair on the front porch, with a spiked seltzer in one hand and a blunt in the other, watching her; a side smile on his face, as she walked up the few steps towards him to plant a loud, wet kiss on his cheek.
“I see you’re in a vibe right now,” Lexi playfully said.
            “Yeah, you know, just relaxing. What’s going on with you? No school or work?”
Lexi put her cell phone and truck keys down on a small wicker table next to her dad’s rocking chair and walked inside the house. She came back to the porch with a spiked seltzer of her own and leaned against the railing. She lit a cigarette.
            “Honestly, I don’t know. Lately, been thinking about Mom a lot. Don’t get mad, but I lied to my teachers and said I had to leave campus for a family emergency; you’ll have to Johnny Hancock some papers for me later,” said Lexi.
            “It’s funny that you’ve been thinking about Mom. So have I. God must have heard my prayers because I was hoping you would stop by sometime soon. I need to talk to you,” David said.
David adjusted the rocking chair he sat on to face Lexi directly, who now was sitting on the porch steps, lighting another cigarette while still smoking the last half of the first one. She looked out onto her dad’s ostentatious lawn decorations with one eyebrow raised; a man’s touch was nowhere to be seen.
            “Please tell me you found her. That would explain all the wild and crazy all over the lawn,” Lexi joked.
            “I am her.”
            “Dad put the blunt down. I don’t think it’s interacting well with the adult beverage.”
            “Lex, I’m serious, I’m not trippin’ balls. My name was Dignity. I met your father, David, at a hangout I frequented. We got married within a year and then, I had you. David died suddenly when you were one. It was almost paralyzing when he died; half of my being went with him. I wanted to somehow make him come back, so I underwent a sex change and changed my name to his. If you need proof, I have plenty.”
            “Holy shit. Now I feel like I’m the one trippin’ balls. How about a jam session, Dad? I’ll get my guitar from the truck.” Lexi said hurriedly as if desperately wanting to change the subject.
            “Just sit, later we’ll jam. I’m not finished.” David sternly said. He then took a long pause before he began again.  “I’ve scheduled it for eight months from today.”
            “Scheduled what? You lost me.”
            “I’m going back to Dignity. David’s job is complete and I must say he did a hell of a job.”
            “What was his job?”
            “To raise you to be the person you are today. A job well done.”