A Family Man

2

Its noon now. I could really use a break. I get up and decide to head out of the diner for a while. Gets suffocating a lot. There's a soft breeze blowing outside, and the sunlight's just right. I sit down on a bench in a park and close my eyes. What a complicated life, we humans make. Things could be made so much simpler but we tend to complicate it to the point we blame others for our health. I didn't sleep well last night and now I'm so tired......

"Daddy! Daddy wake up!"

I open my eyes to see a little brunette girl holding a teddy bear.

"Charlie!"

She drops her toy and hugs me, burying her face in my chest.

"Daddy why are you sleeping in the park?" she asks me. "I must've fallen asleep, daddy's not been sleeping well" I replied, trying to cover the dark circles under my eyes with my hands. But Charlie probably saw them anyway.

"If you were sick you shouldn't have gone for work..." She said, putting up her little palm to touch my forehead. "You might have a fever Daddy"

"I'll be fine Charlie" I assure her. She then goes back to playing with her tea set not far away from my bench. I check the time. Thank God its only been ten minutes.

I walk back to the diner and as I enter, I see a young boy cleaning a table while mumbling to himself. He was an adolescent, brown hair and blue eyes. I recognized him almost instantly. I walked over to him and he stopped mumbling.

"Michael"

"Hi Mr. Emily" he sighed, slowly turning towards me.

"I've never seen you at work before...."

"Yeah uh...dad told me to help out."

"I see, how's your siblings?"

"Elizabeth's having a fever and.....The other one hardly steps outside his room"

"How are you doing?"

"I'm okay, I guess"

He looks much more sleep deprived than I do. He has a soft British lilt just like his dad. They look so similar, almost the same if you saw him from far off. I wave at him and go back to my office. If I'm gonna stay awake for the rest of the day, I'm gonna need more than one cup of coffee.

The day has been going fine...so far. I get myself some butter toast and coffee. It's around 2pm but I'm not hungry enough for lunch. I don't have anything else to do now, not that I can think of. I guess I'll just go home now. I'll do the financial work and all online with comfort there.