Daddy Dear

I sat in my bed, quiet, and then lay down. The house was quiet tonight. Mommy was out, again, with another strange man. She'd come home crying like usual. My babysitter was in Mommy's bedroom with her boyfriend doing something. There were screams, and I didn't want to go in there, she said not to.

Daddy was gone. Nobody knew where he was. Mommy didn't; Becky, my babysitter, didn't; and neither did Grammy. It felt like he was dead, but Mommy said he just left when I was a baby. She didn't say why, because after she told me that she went to her room and cried some more.

The screaming in Mommy's room stopped, the door opened, two sets of footsteps went downstairs, the front door was opened seconds later, and that's when I knew I was alone. Nobody, but me, was in the house. It would be like every night when Mommy was out.

I waited for another ten minutes before the front door opened. Mommy wouldn't be home now. It was to early. Only 11:30pm. I snuck out of bed, and walked out to the hallway leading to the front door. There was a man. Black hair; hazel eyes; tall; and he looked scary in the dark.

Quickly, before he walked to close to me, I turned on the lights, and we both screamed when we saw each other. He fell to the ground, and I ran to my room as fast as I could in my black nighty.

It's a stranger! A stranger is in the house! I thought, and then there were arms around me, and I screamed and kicked some more. "No! Who are you? Mommy!" I hollered into the house, and then I heard more screams.

"Zoe?! Let go of my baby." Mommy screamed as she came into the house. It was scary, she was crying but was trying to save me instead of worrying about her feelings. Maybe it was her mother's instinct kicking in.

"Anne?" The stranger gasped as he let go off me. I ran halfway up the stairs, stopped, and watched the stranger and Mommy. How did he know Mommy's name? What did they have in common?

"Billie?" And then they hugged. Mommy was still crying, but they looked like happy tears, and the stranger was smiling widely. "Billie, this is Zoe. She's four years old, and she's your daughter."

"Mommy? He's a stranger." I huffed, and then the stranger turned around, and I gasped. My eyes took in his look more precisely. I didn't look a thing like Mommy. And when I looked in this man's eyes I saw me. Same black hair; same hazel eyes; same everything. His smile even looked like mine if I were to smile in a mirror.

Was this really my Daddy? Mommy said he left when I was a baby. He'd never come back. "Why are you here? My Daddy is gone."

"Well, Zoe, I left because I'm in a band called Green Day. You may not have heard of them. That's why I left. It was how I was going to keep my family wealthy and happy. I guess I didn't do a good job with the happy part." He sighed, and looked at me a little longer. "I'm here because I want to be here with you again. I've missed you, Zoe."

It didn't feel like there was any hope left in my tiny body. And for this first time in forever, I cried, in my Daddy's arms. "I missed you, too." I sobbed, and we stayed like that for a long time. Together, in each other's arms, crying and missing each other like mad.