dead parent club (philidosia)

bookstores and skipping

Aaron Burr watched his daughter skip down the pavement, three new books clutched to her chest. She jumped and spun around, making her maroon dress twirl. Aaron smiled as he saw his daughter's afro bounce up and down, she was his pride and joy and nothing made him happier than seeing her happy. She approached the road and the end of the path.
"Teddy wait for me darling!" He called to his young daughter.
She immediately stopped skipping, the toes of her scuffed converse meeting with the line of the curb. She turned around to face her father.
"Hurry up daddy!" She shouted back to him. His daughter's cheery voice reached his ears and before he knew what he was doing, he was running down the pavement to his daughter. He picked her up and spun her in the air before placing her lightly back on her feet. She grabbed his hand and they skipped together. They passed many people who whispered.
"What a lovely father."
"I wish my husband would do that with our kids."
"Oh how sweet."
Burr smiled. He was proud of the relationship he had with his daughter.
He let go of his daughter's hand.
"Race you!" He exclaimed and took off down the path.
"Daddy wait!" Theodosia giggled, before running after her father.

Soon they approached the poorer, more rough part of the town and Aaron slid his hand protectively into his daughters.
"Be safe around these parts ok Theo, don't come here on your own."
"Ok dad."
Aaron knew people who lived here.
Maria Reynolds.
She wasn't the happiest of people and was often seen in the town centre with makeup running down her face, begging for money and for at least one person to give her a chance at a job. Burr often felt bad for her and dropped a few dollars into her hand.
Then there was The Hamiltons.
The Hamiltons used to be happy. A beautiful little family. Blonde and fierce  John Laurens, dark haired and talkative Alexander Hamilton and their adorable son, Philip Hamilton.
Alex and John had implanted their sperm into Eliza Schuyler's eggs and she had given birth to their child (pretend that's something you can do)
and they were the cutest family, not making much money but always keeping their garden tidy and keeping their house clean.
Theo and Philip had never really been friends but they had played clapping games in the school playground when Aaron and his late wife would make polite conversation with them.
One day, John had been shot by Charles lee, an old enemy, and died.
The Hamiltons fell apart.
Burr had told his daughter to give Philip their condolences if she saw him at school. She told her father that she did and Philip had replied with a shrug and a "whatever" but Theo had told burr that she had seen his eyes fill with tears and stood up in the middle of class once and ran to the bathroom.
A year later, theodosia's own mum had died.
She was coping well.
Burr glanced over at the Hamilton's residence as they passed it.
The once clean and painted house now had paint peeling from the bricks and swear words spray painted on it. The grass was long with weeds sprouting out of the mud and Burr saw young Philip outside, skateboarding. Even though his griptape on his skateboard was old and worn down and the trucks were a bit squeaky, Philip still managed to perform clean tricks.
He had shoulder length blonde hair which he kept in a half up half down style, he had deep dark brown eyes like Alexander's, lighter skin and a smudge of freckles on his nose which stretched to his cheeks and forehead in the summer.
He wore a t shirt that said The Beatles on it, an old band that John liked, black ripped jeans and an old pair of vans with holes in them, his earphones were in his ears and Burr couldn't hear what he was listening to but Philip's lips were moving very fast as he mouthed the lyrics so he assumed it was a 90s rap song that alexander had probably listened to.
Aaron craned his neck to see if he could spot alexander maybe sitting on the unkempt grass but he wasn't there. Burr's eyes travelled to window and he could just make out the shape of alex hunched over his desk and burr smiled.
Alex wrote like he was running out of time.
As they reached the richer, posher part of town, burr let go of his daughter's hand, knowing that she knew the area well and she ran up to their big house.
Burr waved to Angelica, Eliza and Peggy Schuyler, who lived next to them. Aaron and Angelica had never really been friends, he had tried to flirt with her in his teen years and failed, he grimaced at the memory but he and Eliza had conversed a few times and Peggy had often winked and smiled at him.
Reaching his house, he slotted in his key and opened the door