Here, Here, and Here

“Ice cream, ice cream!!!!” Caoimhe yelled and jumped up and down clapping her hands.

“I agree with her” Bill said clapping his own hands in time with Caoimhe.

“Alright let me check the freezer” I said turning around to head back to the kitchen. I walked the three steps from the doorway to the fridge. I opened it and looked around for a second. No ice cream. I moved the ice cubes and frozen french fries. Still no ice cream. Uh oh, I’m in deep shit.

I walked back to the living room where they had all congregated and were watching Caoimhe perform one of her dances, “I hate to break up the fun, but we have an issue. As it so happens my freezer seems to be vacant of ice cream.”

“No ice cream!?!” Keevie whined.

“Wait, I barely understood that how could she?” Georg asked confused.

“Georg, who raised her?” I ask the obvious.

“Oh, I get it now.”

“But Mommy I want ice cream now” Caoimhe demanded.

“Excuse me little miss that is not the way to ask” I put my hands on my hips and stared down at her. Just as I finished my sentence she through herself down on the floor and started screaming.

“I want ice cream!!!” she repeated over and over, each time getting a little louder and a little more spoiled brat-ish.

“CAOIMHE SIMONE!” I yelled in full on mom mode, “Stop it right now or you will go straight to your room and the boys will not come over again.”

When she continued to cry and scream I started counting, “Five…four…three…two… I better not get to one.”

As I was about to but down my middle finger she stopped crying and screaming but she still sobbed a bit. I picked her up and set her down on the chair in the far corner so she could settle down a bit more and then I turned back to the guys.

“Sorry guys, she didn’t get a nap today and she’s had this cough that keeps her up some nights so she’s just tired.”

“Trust me we know how she feels” Gustav chuckled and I let out and exasperated laugh.

Just as Bill went to speak the phone rang. I was about to go get it when I heard Tom ask me where the bathroom was. “Second door on your left right through that hall way” I yelled as I went back into the kitchen.

I got to the phone and answered it, “Hello?”

“Hey, um I left my cell phone on and I don’t want the battery to die so can you turn it off for me?”

It must be Jess. Only she would be that calm about going without her cell phone. “Yep, where is it?”

“On my bedside table” she instructed me.

“Okay I got it. See ya tomorrow” and with that I hung up the phone. I walked to the far end of our apartment where Jessica had her room. Caoimhe’s and my room were located on the other end near the door that led out of the apartment. As I turned into her room I thought I heard the door close but it must have been the people next door.

*Tom’s POV*

As Avy went to answer the phone and I walked toward the bathroom I saw Bill look at Georg and then mouth something to him. I ignored it because I really had to piss. I went to the bathroom and when I came back I saw Bill and Georg dragging Gustav out the door.

“We’re going to go get some ice cream you stay here to keep an eye on Keevie and to tell Eibhlin where we went” Bill said real fast as he closed the door.

“Hey wait-” I was cut off by the door closing and the sound of their shoes retreating to the elevator.

So I gave up and walked back over to the couch. I plopped down and waited for Eibhlin to get back from the phone. I turned my head to see if she was coming and when I turned back I found a tear stained Caoimhe standing in front of me.

She looked at me with eyes that looked so familiar and so sad that it was heart wrenching. Even after I had seen her throw a huge fit she was still the cutest little four year old I had ever seen. I sighed and patted the cushion next to mine. She scooted up onto the couch and didn’t sit right next to me but near me.

Eibhlin walked in a second later and was startled to see that it was only me in the living room, aside from her daughter.

“They went to go get some ice cream” was all I could say.

*Eibhlin’s POV*

“Oh” was my response to his answer to my unspoken question. He always could tell what I wanted to know if not what I wanted. “Um, then I’m just going to get a jump start on the dishes if you don’t mind?”

He just shook his head and looked at the blank television screen.

“You can watch TV if you want to” I suggested handing him the remote.

As I left the room I heard the TV turn on and Caoimhe ask him to turn it some show.

The dishes took me some time because the dishwasher was broken and the pot was huge and the left over dough from the bread was sticky. By the time I was done Bill and Gustav and Georg were still out getting ice cream and I think they planned it that way. I dried off my hands and drained the sink then walked towards the living room where I heard music playing softly though the speakers.

“Hey, what you watching?” I asked Caoimhe but got a response from Tom instead.

“MTV. She asked me to put it on” he said like it was an offense.

“It’s alright. She likes to listen to the music when it’s on, don’t you Keevie?” I asked her but I still didn’t get a response from her. When I looked around the arm of the chair I knew why.

It broke my heart to see her fast asleep, curled up next to her father, practically in his arms. I was close to tears as I finally saw how much she looked like him even in the dim light of the TV. And it tore me to pieces because I know just how it felt to be without your dad.

At that moment I felt like the worst mother in the world.