My Number One Fan

The next day I dreaded seeing my father. No matter how much I wanted to see him before, I really didn’t want to in fear that he’ll ask me to move with him. Jeff left right after we talked about it, leaving me to think about everything. I didn’t want to leave here, but I wanted to be with my father. I was in my room when someone knocked on my door. Before I could respond Aunt Marylyn walked in.

“Riley, honey, why are you in here? Your dad’s out here wondering about you.” she said, sitting next to me on the bed.
“I’m sorry Aunt Mary.” was all I said. She stood up to walk back out to the living room or kitchen. “Aunt Mary, can I ask you something?” I said when she reached my door. She turned and sat back down.
“Of course you can sweetie. What’s wrong?”
“Jeff told me he heard his dad and Uncle Paul talking about Daddy. He said that they said he lived in Texas.”
“Yes he does.” Aunt Marylyn said. “That’s where your Uncle is from too.”
“Will Daddy have me move in with him?” I asked her. She looked shocked by my question, but smiled.
“No Riley. Your Dad, your Uncle and I all talked about it and we decided it would be best if you stayed here. You have your friends here and your father’s on the road a lot. So he won’t be with you to much. So no, you’re staying here as long as you want.”
“What about daddy?” I asked.
“I’ll be around.” a voice said from my door. I looked up and seen it was Daddy. “I’ll be around so much you’ll get tired of seeing me. I have 9 years to make up for, so I better get started on that hadn’t I?”
“I know it’s not you’re fault.” I said. “Mommy didn’t tell you about me.”
“She couldn’t tell me about you.” Daddy said. “She didn’t know how to get a hold of me to tell me about you.” Daddy sat down on my other side. “Your aunt’s right though. I will be on the road a lot, so it really is better that you stay here. You tell Jeff he has nothing to worry about.”
“Can I go see him?” I asked Aunt Marylyn.
“While Mark is here that’s for him to decide.” she replied.

I looked up at my Dad, who nodded. I jumped up and kissed him on the cheek then ran from the room. I ran all the way down to Jeff’s house. Running up the front steps, I seen the door open and Mr. Hardy was walking out of the house.

“Hello Mr. Hardy.” I said. He looked down and saw me.
“Well, good morning Ms. Mitchell.” he said, bowing slightly. I laughed and gave him a hug.
“Where’s Jeff?” I asked him.
“Somewhere around here.” Mr. Hardy answered.

I nodded and knew exactly where Jeff was – our favorite tree. I thanked him and turned and ran straight for the tree. There he was close to the very top. I started climbing up, my foot slipping once from my shoe being a little wet from snow. I was about a foot away from him when he noticed me.

“Hey Jeff,” I called. “I got some good news!”
“You moving in with your dad?” he asked sadly. I nearly laughed.
“Nope.” I said. “I just asked Aunt Marylyn and she said her, Daddy, and Uncle Paul talked about it. She said they thought it would be better for me to stay here.”
“Really?” he asked, looking hopeful. When I nodded he climbed down to where I was standing on a branch.
“Yay!” he yelled. “I keep my friend!” I laughed as the tree branch began shaking. Suddenly I heard a crack.
“Jeff, stop bouncing. I think the branch is going to break.” I said, scared. Jeff stopped jumping at once. He looked at the branch at the same time I did and sure enough, there was a tiny crack in the bark.
“Let’s get down.” Jeff said. I nodded and started climbing down. The minute we were down, Jeff gave me an extra hard hug.
“Daddy said he’s going to be around here a lot.” I said. “He said he had 9 years to make up for.”
“Well, what’s he going to do?” Jeff asked, sitting down on the ground with his back against the tree.
“I don’t know.” I said, sitting next to him. “He just said he needed to make up for the time. Maybe he’ll let you come along as well!” I said excitedly.
“I don’t know. That’s your time with your dad Riley; I’ll just be getting in the way.” Jeff said, pulling a piece of grass from the ground.
“No you won’t. He knows you’re my best friend.” I tired saying.
“I’ll be in the way Ri, you have fun with your Dad. Get to know him better.”
“I wish you would go to, even if it’s just a few times.” I said, pulling my knees up to my chest and hugging them.
“I will.” Jeff said. “I promise, every once in a while. But most of it has to be just you and him.”
“Ok.” I said.

The weekend passed quickly. Soon Dad had to go back on the road, but he promised to come back as soon as he could, and he did. A month after school started back up I got home from the bus stop to find Dad’s car in the driveway. I ran into the house and found him sitting in the living room.

“Daddy!” I shouted, dropping my bag and running up to him. He turned and gave me a huge smile before giving me the same strong armed hug he gave me the first day I seen him.
“How was school today?” he asked me as I grabbed my book bag to work on homework.
“Hard.” I answered. “We’re working on multi-multiplication in math.”
“Multi-Multiplication?” Dad asked. I nodded and showed him my homework.
“I’m okay with single, but double is hard.” I said.
“Well, here all you have to do is this.” he said before showing me. I watched him do an example, but still didn’t get it. The look on my face probably told him I didn’t get it as well because he looked thoughtful for a minute before starting a new problem.
“Okay,” he said. “How do you think it needs to be done?” I grabbed the pencil and showed him how I did the work, just like you do when you add numbers together.
“Okay, you’re starting out good. You do that.” Daddy said. “But instead of going to the next number on the bottom, you have to stay with the other number. Like say you have 34 or something, and want to multiply it by 11. You do the 1 and 4 first, but instead of going to the next 1, you need to stay with the 1 you started with.” I tried and waited for him to continue. “Then you do the same thing again, except this time you have to add a zero at the end of the second line down here. Add a zero,” I did, “then go 1 times 4 then 1 times 3 again. So now you have a 34 in the first line and 340 in the second line. Now you jut add those together and see what you get.”
“374?” I asked after adding. Daddy nodded.
“Now try it with a problem on your paper.” he said. I did just the way he told me, and after I finished the problem held it up for him to see.
“Exactly.” he said. “You see, it’s not that hard.”
“Daddy, how old are you?” I asked him without thinking.
“Why do you want to know that?” he asked me back.
“A bunch of kids were talking about how old their parents are and they asked me. I said I didn’t know.” I explained. Jeff was the only one who didn’t laugh at my answer because he knew it was true.
“Oh,” Dad said. He sighed and thought for a minute.
“I’m 24 sweetie.” he finally answered.
“Really?” I asked. “How are you 24? Jeff’s dad’s in his 30s and so is Clarissa’s Dad.”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older.” He said. “I’m 24 right now sweetie.”
“Okay,” I said, understanding it was an “adult thing.” I finished working on my homework with Daddy helping me every so often.
“Let’s go play!” I said as I dragged my book bag into my room. I heard the front door open and close. I ran into the room and seen Aunt Marylyn taking off her coat.
“Aunt Mary!” I yelled, running up and giving her a hug.
“Hey Riley, there’s something I need to talk to your Aunt about. I’ll play with you in a minute.” Dad said. I nodded and went back to my bedroom.
“So what did you need to talk to me about Mark?” Aunt Marylyn’s voice asked. I listened closely to hear what Daddy would say.
“I have to go back to Texas soon.” he said. “I’m still working on my courses, but I don’t want to leave her again. I’m still trying to make up for the years I missed.”
“Well,” Aunt Marylyn said. “Take her to Texas with you for a while.”
“I can’t do that Mary, you know I can’t.” Dad’s voice said back. “I can’t just take her out of school and what about her friend Jeff? Those two are as inseparable as peanut butter and jelly.”
“That says they go like that, not that they’re as inseparable as it. I know what you mean though. What do you want to do then? You can’t transfer out here because you have you’re wrestling as well.”
“I know. I guess I’ll just have to leave her here again. Or cut myself out of her life until things get more stable.”
“You can’t do that Mark. You don’t know how long that little girl’s been waiting for you.”
“Nine years Marylyn. I know. I might not have a choice. If I get closer to her now, I might not be able to let her go the way I did before. Do you know I helped her with her homework when she got home? That was the major kick right there. I was sitting there, helping my daughter with her homework, and she’s a brilliant little girl. She’s so smart and mature, it’s unreal.”
“She’s had a hard life Mark and if you walk out on her now you’ll just make it harder for her.”
“I know, but how hard do you think it will be when she gets her father, but he leaves and comes right back over and over again? It will be just until I finish school Mary. One year max.” I had heard enough. I grabbed my coat off my bed and threw it over my shoulders, taking the time to zip it up. I ran from my room and through the living room.
“Riley?” Dad asked.

I didn’t answer him. I just stormed out of the door. I was about half way across the yard when I heard the front door open. I didn’t turn to see who it was, I knew it was Dad.

“Riley, what’s wrong?” he asked, catching up to me.

I looked up at him, tears staining my cheeks. He looked shocked. He didn’t say anything as I started walking again, finally full out running. I ran to the Hardy’s property, finding mine and Jeff’s favorite tree and climbing it.

“Riley!” I heard Dad’s voice call. “Riley Michelle!” I didn’t move. I was sobbing so hard my chest was hurting. Dad was going to leave me again, but for good this time. Just like mom, except mom died when she left. He was going away alive, probably because he decided he didn’t want me.
“Riley Michelle Mitchell get over here now!” Dad’s voice called again. I still didn’t say anything.
“Excuse me?” A familiar voice said. Mr. Hardy. I froze, he knew about this tree. He knew I might be up here. I looked and seen Jeff standing beside him, staring straight up at me. I shook my head no, saying I didn’t want to be found.
“I don’t believe Riley’s here.” Mr. Hardy continued. “If she is though there’s a tree her and Jeff normally climb…” Mr. Hardy looked down to Jeff.
“It’s a few yards that way.” Jeff said. I breathed a sigh of relief. Jeff was going to help me. He acted like he found the tree and looked up. “She’s not up there.” he said. Dad said a bad word and hung his head.
“You see her, tell her I need to talk to her.” Dad said to Jeff. Jeff nodded his agreement. Dad left and Mr. Hardy went back to the house. Jeff remained and started climbing the tree I was in.
“So are you going to tell me what that was about?” Jeff asked, sitting next to me. I put my head on his shoulder and cried as I told him what I overheard.
“He was going to leave for a year?” Jeff asked. “Just a year?”
“What if wasn’t just a year.” I asked. “What if he was going to leave forever?”
“He wouldn’t do that Ri.” Jeff said. “He wouldn’t. He loves you to much already. He wanted to make up the time he missed with you, but it sounded like his life is a little crazy right now.” I nodded, seeing he was right.
“But it still hurts.” I said. Jeff patted my shoulder until my crying stopped.
“Are you going to go talk to him?” Jeff asked later.
“I’m in trouble for running away you know that right? I’ll be grounded and can only see you at school.”
“How many times have we both been grounded but still seen each other?” Jeff asked.

He had a point. We both climbed down the tree into the soggy ground. I didn’t realize it had snowed or rained. It seemed sunny for a while.

“Good luck.” Jeff said, turning back to walk to his own house. I waved bye to him and started walking up the road. The normal short walk seemed longer. I walked up the front steps and took a deep breath before opening the front door. I was immediately grabbed by Aunt Marylyn who gave me a bone breaking hug, but her hug was nothing compared to Daddy’s hug. The normal strength his hugs had seemed to increase.
“Riley Michelle Mitchell if you ever scare me like that again…” Daddy said.
“I’m sorry, but I heard what you and Aunt Mary was talking about. Why do you want to leave me Daddy?”
“I don’t want to baby, but I’ll have soon.”
“Forever?” I asked. He froze and turned to Aunt Marylyn. She raised her shoulders and walked away.
“No sweetie, not forever.” Daddy answered. “But maybe for a while... a year or two, Daddy’s…you see, I’m still in school honey. I’m in college still. I graduate next year. Plus I’m doing my wrestling thing. My life’s crazy right now. I don’t want to have to keep coming over just to visit you. I want to actually be able to see you for longer than two days at a time.”
“So you have to go away to be able to do that?” I asked sadly. Dad nodded.
“Unfortunately, I think that’s the best thing to do.” he said. I nodded, showing I understood.
“What did you mean I was m-mature?’ I asked.
“Mature? It means you know things some other people might not know. You understand a lot more things then most kids your age do, and your aunt, again, was right. It’s because you’ve had a hard life. You lost your mother, you went without me for a long time, but no matter how smart or mature you are, you’ll always be my little girl.” I smiled and wrapped my arms around his huge neck.
“So, how about we play that game?” Dad asked. I nodded and jumped on Daddy’s back. He grabbed my legs and piggy backed me into the living room.
“Daddy, will you show me what wrestling is?” I asked suddenly.
“Sure.” He said, before picking me up and tossing me onto the couch. “That was called a scoop slam.” he said, tickling my sides making me shriek with laughter.
“Will you teach me?” I asked him.
“I don’t think your aunt will like that to much.” he said. “Maybe when you’re older.”
“Okay.” I said, truly happy to hear that answer for once.