Danger Line.

The big smile and the lump of excitement has been in me ever since I woke up, not even an hour of math with the worst teacher in the world (and I am NOT over exaggerating) would make this bundle of joy leave me.

Today was the day my daddy was coming home from Iraq.

It’s been a year and three months since I last saw him in person, since I last heard his voice. Of course he would sometimes would have the opportunity to video chat but that was rare, but good enough to keep me updated on how he looked, if anything in particularly had changed. So far I didn’t see anything new, besides a few scratches and bruises but I guess that’s something to expect when your dad’s in war right?

Right now me and Aunt Michelle is in the airport waiting for dad, I can’t stand still so I keep running in circles around the chairs in the waiting thingy they have.

“Honey, calm down” Michelle say with a small laugh in her voice and tried to grab my right wrist but failed, I just keep running until I hear the woman over the intercom saying that dad’s plane has landed.

I immediately stop and there I stand, I bite my lower lip as I turn to my left and look at the plain that’s standing there.

’Inside that plane is my daddy’

I see people coming out of that plain, mostly normal people but I can see a few wearing a camouflage uniform but so far none of them are my dad. I bite my lower lip harder in concern and I start to look closer at every single person that comes out of the plain until I see someone familiar to my dad.

I wait until I can see the man better and what do you know, it is him. The concern rapidly fades away and is now replaced with the emotions I have been filled with all day.

With a big smile on my face I run over to him and throw myself at him, it’s a good thing he is balanced and buff because if he wasn’t we would be lying on the floor both probably in a little pain.

“Daddy!” I shout as he quickly drops his hand luggage and locks his arms around me and he swings me around.

“Hey baby girl” He whisper and kisses the side of my head, I tighten my grip around his neck as I feel my eyes fill up with tears, it’s been so long since I’ve heard my daddy’s voice.

“I missed you so much” I whisper as a tear fall down my left cheek.

“I missed you too” He says and just holds me, a couple of minutes pass before he let’s go and he sees my wet cheeks.

“Aww sweetie, don’t cry” He say with a small chuckle at the end and wipes away my tears.

“It’s just been so long since I’ve seen you” I say as new tears fall down my cheeks but this time I use the back of my hand to wipe them away.

“I’m sorry” He says quietly and pulls me into another hug.

“How long are you home for?” I whisper fearing the answer.

“A couple of months” He said and I instantly pulled away from the hugs.

“Months!? Why?” I ask/shout out of joy.

“Well—“ He was about to say but Aunt Michelle interrupted.

She came over and hugged him “It’s been a while” she said with a laugh.

“A little over a year” He said jokingly.

“One year, three months, four days and thirteen hours” I said from besides them and they both looked at me with strange eyes.

“What?” I ask innocently with a small shrug “I don’t have much to do in my spare time” I continued.

Dad laughed and put his right arm over my shoulder as we made our way to the baggage claim area to pick up his bag.

We stood there for just two minutes making small talk until his bag came, he quickly took it and soon we were on our way out to the car and out of the air port with Aunt Michelle in the driver’s seat, dad in the passenger seat and me in the back seat.

We didn’t go home immediately, we have this tradition that whenever dad gets home we drive to the graveyard to visit mom before we go to our house.

Dad got out of the car and I heard him sigh before he closed the door, I looked at Aunt Michelle and she turned her head towards me and gave me a sad smile and a small nod. Just like my dad I let out a sigh and then got out of the car, I took my dad’s hand and he looked down at me with a small sad smile and I gave him one back and we started our way to her grave.

See my mom died while giving birth to me, I don’t know much about it but I know it was either me or my mom and my dad told me my mom insisted on letting me live, it sucks that I never got to know her because from the way my dad, uncles, aunts and the rest of the people who knew mom talked about her she sounded like a really awesome person.

I feel my dad tightening the grip he has on my hand, but not so much that it hurts. I look at him and I can see his wet eyes. I know this is really hard on my dad since he never get’s to go here as often as he wishes and when he does get to go here it gets really emotional which is totally understandable, they have known each other since like sixth grade after all.

Here rests Valary Renee Sanders

I’ve read that one sentence so many times that I lost counting and I still get tears in my eyes, it sucks, death sucks.

My dad let’s go of my hand and steps forward and bend down on one knee.

It’s silence for a few minutes and I know that my dad’s talking to mom, my dad hasn’t been one for talking loudly especially when there are people around so he is just talking to her in his mind. I wipe the tears that had escaped my eyes with my hand and just stand there.

“I’m sorry” I hear my dad whisper towards my mom’s gravestone and I can’t help the tears that starts running faster down my cheeks.

“Daddy” I whisper and he turns around, when he sees the tears he immediately stands up and engulfs me in a hug. I tightly hug him back and we both just stands there, no words needed at all.

After a new couple of minutes we both pull back and I see that my dad’s cheeks are wet too. He gives me a small smile and whisper that everything is going to be ok, I just nod not knowing what to say. Will everything be ok? Maybe in time it will.

Tell my baby girl that it’s alright.

“Are you ready to go home now?” He asks softly and I have to softly laugh inside myself.

“Are you ready to go home?” I ask silently back.

He looks down at me and then at mom’s gravestone, he turns back and looks at me and then gives me a smile.

“Yeah, let’s go” He says as he puts an arm around my shoulder and we make our way back to the car where Michelle is sitting patiently. She looks at us as we both get in the car, she gives us both a small smile as she starts up the car.

The ride home is silent as always but it’s a comfortable silence so no one really thinks about it.

Soon we are parked in driveway and we get out of the car, dad goes to the trunk and gets his bag out and slings it over his shoulder and I wait for him so we can go inside. I give him a big smile as he reaches me and we both make our way inside.

“Wow it’s so dark in here I wonder what it can be” My dad says knowing already what’s going on since we always do this when he gets home.

The light suddenly turns on and everyone jump up “WELCOME HOME!!!” They all shout and my dad place a hand on his stomach and laughs heartily.

Yeah, my daddy was home, safe and sound. Just the way I like it.