My Way Home Is Through You

Anna sat mesmerized in front of the television for a good hour before Ray got up. He shuffled into the room, scratching his head and blinking sleepily.

"Morning, Anna," he said in a gravelly voice. "Whatcha doing?"

"Cartoons," she mumbled, never taking her eyes off the screen. With a grin, Ray cleared his throat and walked behind the couch to see the screen. He burst out laughing when he got a look at what she was watching.

"Transformers?!" he exclaimed. He shook his head in amusement and said, "You are definitely my child."

She beamed up at him when he said this, then turned back to the screen. As he moved to sit beside her, she said in a confused voice, "I don't get it." He blinked and turned to look at her.

"What don't you get, honey?"

"How come the truck turned into a robot?"

With a smile, Ray tried to explain. "Because that's what they do. They disguise themselves as normal stuff, like cars or buildings or something."

"How come?"

"Well..." Ray was at a loss for a moment. "Because they just can. See, the robots are from another planet, and they crashed their spaceship on Earth. And the bad robots want to hurt people, and the good robots try to stop them. But people would freak out - er, get upset if they saw giant robots fighting, so the robots pretend to be other things so the humans won't be scared."

She stared at him for a moment, eyebrows furrowed and mouth slightly agape. Then she looked back at the television, staring hard at the screen. Turning back to him, she sighed.

"I don't get it."

He chuckled and asked, "Well, what cartoons do you like?"

"Scooby!" she exclaimed, bouncing on the couch. Ray laughed again.

"Yeah, Scooby is pretty cool, I have to admit," he agreed. "So," he said, changing the subject. "How about we let the Autobots and Decepticons do their thing and you and me get some breakfast?" He clicked the power button on the remote and the TV screen went black. Anna's stomach growled as she nodded her agreement.

Ray led his daughter into the little kitchen and began rummaging though the cabinets as Anna climbed up into one of the chairs at the table.

"Hmm," he mused. "We don't have much to choose from, babe. We'll need to go grocery shopping soon. Do you want cereal, cereal or cereal?"

Anna giggled. "Cereal!"

"Sounds like a winner to me," said Ray. Moments later, he set two bowls of cereal onto the table with spoons, then went to the refrigerator. Thankfully, Mikey had insisted upon Ray keeping the nearly full gallon of milk from the bus for Anna. He splashed some of the milk into each bowl, then sat down to join his daughter, who was already digging in.

Once they'd finished, Ray added the bowls to the growing pile in the sink, mentally reminding himself that he'd eventually have to wash them. Then, slowly, he spoke.

"Anna, would it be okay if I went out for a little while? And maybe Gee or Frankie could come stay with you for a little while?"

She bit her lip. "Where are you going?"

"I just have a few things to do, that's all, sweetie," he said gently. "I won't be gone long."

"Why can't I come with you?" she asked imploringly.

Ray hesitated before answering. "Well, baby, there's just some things I need to do on my own."

Her face fell. "Okay, I guess," she murmured grudgingly.

He tilted her chin up so that she looked him in the eyes. "Thank you, Anna. I promise I'll be right back." He kissed her forehead, and she seemed to relax a bit.

"Now," he said cheerfully. "Who do you want to baby-sit? Frankie or Gee?" She sat in thought for a few moments. It looked like a tough decision.

Finally, she looked back up at him and replied, "Frankie."

"You want me to call Frank?" Ray momentarily regretted asking. Depending on Frank's mood, having him baby-sit could be more like leaving two four-year-olds home alone. Banishing the thought from his mind, he nodded at the little girl and said, "Okay, baby, I'll give him a call."

Before picking up his cell phone, he rummaged through the bottom of his closet. He soon found what he was looking for: a box of his old Transformer toys and other assorted action figures. He joined Anna in her room, placing the box in front of her.

"Here you go, sweetie. These were some of my favorite toys when I was little." he pulled the top of the box off. "How about if you take them now?"

Anna pulled out a Transformer figure and cried, "Robot!"

"Yeah," Ray said, "just like the show. And look!" He pulled another out of the box and showed her how to change the toy from robot form to car. "They can change, just like the cartoon."

"Wow!" She was enthralled.

With a chuckle, Ray said, "Okay, well, I'm going to let you play with these while I go call Frank." With that, he went back out into the living room and grabbed his phone.

"Hey man, what's up?" came Frank's groggy voice when he picked up. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, dude, we're fine," Ray said with a grin. "I was actually going to ask a favor of you."

"Okay, shoot."

"Do you think you could come over in a little while and look after her? It wouldn't be for long."

"What's up, Ray?" Now Frank sounded concerned.

"Nothing," Ray insisted. "But look, we're home now. My family is here. Well, my parents are still on vacation in Greece, they won't be back for another couple of weeks, but my brother is here. I think it's about time I tell someone in my immediate family about my daughter."

"Ah," said Frank. "Gotcha. I understand. So you're going to head over to Lou's?"

"Yeah, just for a while. And I'll probably bring him back with me. I'm sure he'll want to meet his niece."

"Yeah, no doubt," Frank chuckled. "Sure, man, no problem. What time do you want me over there?"

"Is an hour or so okay?"

"Sure, dude. I'll be there."

"Thanks, Frank."

"No problem, Ray."

Ray hung up his phone and grinned to himself, grateful he had such good friends. Then he went back to his daughter's room and joined her in scavenging through the toy box, thoroughly enjoying themselves.