She hasn’t told anybody in her class that Daddy doesn’t live at home because Mommy said that these things should not be discussed

She sits on the bench clutching her teddy bear tightly, while she waits for her father to show up. The ice-cream in the sugar cone drips onto her perfectly starched yellow dress as her curls sway carelessly in the wind. Today is Daddy Day, and she is really looking forward to seeing him. The last time she saw him, he said that he would get her the art set that they had seen in the window of the toy store. She looks down the block, but there isn’t any sign of Daddy. She is secretly worried that he won’t show up, the way he hadn’t shown up for dinner on the evening that changed her life forever.

Before that dreadful day, everything was pink, like cotton candy, filled with rainbows and joy in her life. Then everything changed in a blink, and her cotton candy life slowly melted away and the rainbows stopped sparkling. She could still remember the way they waited for Daddy to show up for dinner, yet he never came home. She heard Mommy yelling into the telephone. She put her hands on her ears to shut out the noise. Later that evening, Bubby came over, and she could hear Mommy crying. She still has no idea why he left, because nobody ever told her. Everything in the house is always full of secrets.

She hasn’t told anybody in her class that Daddy doesn’t live at home because Mommy said that these things should not be discussed. It makes her sad when kids talk about their fathers and sometimes, when that happens, hot tears roll down her cheeks. She quickly turns away from her friends and wipes the tears so that they shouldn’t notice that she is crying.

Suddenly, she feels a tap on her shoulder that startles her back to reality. Daddy is standing near her with a warm smile on his face. He hands her a pink shopping bag, and she already knows what is inside the bag. She feels her heart flutter as she takes the wrapped gift. She rips the beautiful polka dotted wrapping paper off the art set. She gives Daddy a huge hug and thanks him for the gift. She loves getting gifts and lately she’s been getting them a lot from him. Still, she would rather give up all the beautiful gifts for the biggest gift of all — for Daddy to move back home.

Daddy takes her hand, and they walk briskly in the direction of his apartment. She wants to ask him if he left because she was naughty, but she bites her tongue and doesn’t ask. She is secretly afraid of the answer. She knows that it’s all her fault that Mommy is always so sad. Her head starts hurting, and she feels a huge lump in her throat. They finally get to Daddy’s place and slowly climb the stairs to his apartment. After the door opens, her eyes do a quick scan of his apartment. She doesn’t know how he lives in such a dingy apartment with peeling paint and creaky floors. There is soiled laundry sitting on the floor near his bed and leftover takeout food lying on his dresser. The kitchen floor is really dirty, and there are paper goods spread out on the counters. She doesn’t understand why he doesn’t keep them in the kitchen cabinet like Mommy does. Mommy’s house is always spotlessly clean and smells of the sweet scent of detergent.