Our Last Ordinary Night

The clouds started to cover the sun, making everything seem darker. Mom said that the sun would come back. It always did. But these clouds seemed a lot bigger. What if the sun didn’t come back this time? I pressed a hand to the cold glass and blew on it. Mist blurred the surface, and I pressed a finger into it to draw a heart.

“Don’t do that, Daisy, it smudges the glass!” I frowned and wiped it away.

“Mama, I thought you said he was coming home tonight.”

“He was supposed to. His flight was delayed because of the storm. We’ll just have to wait.”

I propped my chin in my hands and crossed my legs. Milo whined and curled up beside me. I petted him. Mama went into her room to fold the laundry. I would wait as long as I had to. If Dad were here he would take me for a walk before it started to rain. He loved to go exploring in the forest behind our house with me. Dad said it was our secret place.

“What did you find there Sunshine?” I giggled. Dad took a daisy from my hand. His eyes widened “It's a daisy! Now I have a beautiful new Daisy!”

I crawled out the rest of the way from the bush. “No I’m your Daisy!” I grabbed his pants and looked up at him. I had the squint to see him because the sun was so bright.

“I know you are Sunshine.” He picked me up into his arms and tucked the daisy behind my ear. “You’ll always be my favorite Daisy.” He said before placing me on his shoulders. I tugged at his soft hair and giggled, clinging to him the whole walk home.

I reached up to see if the daisy was still there. It wasn’t. I wish it was. I flopped onto my back and looked at the clock. It hadn’t moved. Mama continued to fold her clothes in her room. I heard Ethan tossing his baseball again, the soft thud drifted down the hallway. I watched the ticking clock and waited.

…

“Mama, I thought you said he was coming home tonight.” Daisy whined.

Mom’s answer was quick. “He was supposed to. His flight was delayed because of the storm. We’ll just have to wait.”

She was trying to be brave, but she was worried. She said Dad’s flight had been delayed but I had seen her constantly checking her phone. She was probably worried that the flight would be canceled and they would have to buy another ticket for him. Even though mom and Dad hadn’t said anything, I knew money was tight right now. I’d heard enough late-night conversations that this job interview was important.

I tossed up the ball again. I had practice in twenty minutes, Dad had never missed a single practice. I tossed the ball up and it landed in Dad’s hands.

“Nice throw kiddo!” Dad crouched a few feet away from me. The light breeze kicked up dust from the deserted field, making me cough into my sleeve. “Here open up your mitt!” He called out. “I’m going to toss the ball back so you can try to catch it!” I brushed my stray hairs away from my eyes and opened up my gloved hand. Dad said the way to win the game was by catching the ball and then throwing it again. Why would you do that?

The ball sailed through the air and I leaped up to meet it. I was close, so close, my fingers just barely brushed the ball before I was falling. I landed hard on the ground and rolled to my back. My knee hurt, and I looked down to see blood welling in the fresh cut. Tears welled in my eyes and poured out the sides. “Hey, hey, hey, it's okay.” Dad jogged over to me and pulled out a blue Band-Aid. “Hey, look at me,” He took my gloved hand and opened it up. To my surprise there was a slightly dirty baseball inside. Dad’s grin was as big as the field itself.

“Look, you caught it! I’d bet real money that one day you're going to be a real pro.”

I smiled wetly. “I catched it, Dad!”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “You mean caught it?”

I wrapped my arms around him and laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I caught it!”

The ball landed with a thud in my glove. I checked the time on my phone, only ten minutes until I had to go. Where was he? I heard Daisy huff in annoyance in the living room. Mom folded laundry in her room. I glanced at my phone one more time and waited.

…

I tried not to let my eyes drift to the clock, but they did anyway. Three hours late, he had never been this late. Never had he skipped a walk in the park with Daisy, never had he skipped one of Ethan’s practices, never had he skipped dinner with Milo. Even though he thought I didn’t notice, I saw the tiny pieces of chicken slipped under the table, the extra treats he fed Milo when he put him in the kennel, even the leftovers sometimes disappeared and ended up in his bowel. No wonder that dog was fat.

I sighed and pressed a hand to my forehead. Was I feeling hot? I checked my phone for the hundredth time, still no reply to my eight missed calls and twenty-nine messages. He was supposed to be home three hours ago, so I told the kids that his flight was delayed. It wasn’t, in fact it was supposed to be right on time.

I placed Daisy’s fresh skirt into her stack of clothes. I sighed and closed my eyes. He was never late, not even on the first day I met him.

The door slammed behind me as I hurried inside, desperate to escape the cold, only to collide with a solid figure. I tripped and began to fall, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a hand reach to catch me. It did but I heard a cry of surprise as my full weight caught him off guard and we both went tumbling to the ground.

I groaned and rolled to my side right in front of him. We were so close our faces were almost touching, I blushed and immediately backpeddled. He looked average, with sweeping black hair and brown eyes. His laughter echoed off the walls, “I’m so sorry, I’ve just been clumsy all day.” He offered a hand and smiled sheepishly. There was something about him, something sweet. I knew even then, that I wanted a life with this man.

I sighed and placed a shirt into Ethan's pile. The light in his eyes on Ethan’s first day had been bright enough to outshine the sun.

I had handed him my new baby blue bundle, “Want to meet your new son?”

He peeled back the blanket to see his face. “He’s perfect,” was all he could choke out before the tears fell.

I chuckled and gave him a light push. “Don’t get all sappy now,” I said through my own tears. He laughed and held our new son even closer.

A single tear slipped down my cheek. Others swam in my eyes but I quickly brushed them away. I would not cry right now, not even happy tears. I checked my phone again. It had been another thirty minutes but still no reply.

Claws clicked on the wooden floors and looked up to see Milo enter the room. He whined and tilted his head expectantly. I knelt beside him and ran my fingers through his fluffy white fur. “I don’t know where he is. I’m waiting for him too.” He placed his head in my hands and licked at my fingers.

“We’ll take that one, the one in the corner over there.” The owner frowned at the lone puppy in the corner. His ears drooped and unlike the other puppies wagging tails, his stayed unmoving at his side.

“Alright, whatever you say, his name’s Milo,” said the owner as he stepped in the pen and handed the puppy to him.

I squeezed his hand. “I love him already and I just know that Ethan and Daisy will love him too.”

He smiled hopefully, “I think they will, Milo will fit in just right with our family.” He leaned in for a quick kiss before turning and handing the owner money. I glanced down at Milo’s spotted white and brown fur before looking up at his brown eyes and smiling.

Milo whined again. Since then Milo had grown from the runt of the litter to the biggest one. He reached nearly to my thighs now.

I glanced at the clock. Four hours late. What was happening? I stood and walked out to the living room, picking up Daisy in one hand before collapsing into the couch and calling Ethan. Daisy rested her head on my chest and Ethan sat beside me. Milo lay down to rest at my feet.

“Mom, where is he?”

I don’t know if it was Ethan or Daisy who asked the question but there was only one answer I could give. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait.”

In front of us the fire roared as time slowly crept by. Rain pounded on the roof and thunder shattered the sky, but all through it we remained motionless. I began to feel a sinking feeling that something was wrong. It started as a hushed whisper in the back of my mind but turned into a raging storm that rivaled the one outside, but it all boiled down to one question. Where was he?

…

The doorbell rang. All four heads snapped up, but Milo was the first to react, barking and charging towards the door. I placed Daisy on the couch and stood. Everything moved in slow motion. He had a key. Why ring the doorbell? The eerie feeling only grew instead of fading away like I had expected it to. The kids gathered behind me as I unlocked and gently opened the door. Two men stood there. One wore a police badge and the other, despite the downpour, held his hat in his hands.

“Ma’am…I’m sorry.” He said softly. “He won’t be coming home.”

The storm outside kept moving, but suddenly their world didn’t.