Something Worth Living For (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Allison stood clutching Chloe to her. She watched Eric with anxious eyes, waiting for him to blow at any moment. It was hard to read his expression. Allison couldn’t tell which Eric was more, shocked or angry. There was one factor that she couldn’t mistake and that was realisation, the one expression Allison feared the most.

It was as clear as day that Eric could see that Chloe was his daughter. If her age didn’t give it away, her looks sure would have. For heavens sake the girl looked exactly like her father, there was no denying it.

Allison kept her eyes trained on Eric, all the while rubbing her hand soothingly up and down Chloe’s back. She felt her little girls’ breathing slow and knew it wouldn’t be long before she once again fell into her deep sleep.

Eric hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a sound and Allison wondered it he’d lost his mind. She knew seeing Chloe had to be a shock for him, but his non-existent reaction was really starting to freak her out.

She thought about going over to him and tapping him to see if he was still in his body or even calling out to him. But she thought better of it. Maybe this was a better reaction to deal with, even if Eric was standing there in a zombie like fashion. It could be worse; she surmised, he could be yelling, glaring at her with murder in his eyes. But then again, maybe that was still to come.

Chloe shifted in her arms, turning her head so that only her hair could be seen by Eric. This seemed to break the spell that had hold of him and when he finally turned his piercing gaze on Allison, she suddenly wished she could have the zombie Eric back, because the look he sent her was beyond deadly.

Allison swallowed hard, mentally preparing herself for what would come next. She had pictured this moment over and over in her mind for what seemed a million times, each a different scenario, each with him either blowing up in her face or being too astonished to even remember to be angry. But in truth, neither of the million and one scenes she now played over in her head could prepare her for this.

 “Is she-? I’m I her-?” Eric paused as he tried to ask each question, unable to complete it each time. He paused for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts and then finally seemed to find the right question to ask.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Eric looked stricken and it torn at Allison’s heart to see the pain reflected in his eyes, “How could you not tell me?”

Allison said nothing. It’s not that she didn’t have the answers to these question, she did. She’d gone over the possible ones he would ask and those two were definitely on her list. But at that moment she just couldn’t seem to find her voice. Her mouth felt drier then the Sahara desert. All the courage she’d built up earlier had faded and now all she could do was stare at him with a mouth full of teeth.

“Answer me, Allison.” He demanded his voice louder than before.

He was losing his temper with her and she knew it.

When she said nothing, Eric opened his mouth to demand an answer again when she stopped him. Allison knew she had a lot of explaining to do, but she wasn’t about to do it in front of her sleeping daughter, who had no idea that the man she had been looking at, before she’d drifted off to sleep, was her father.

“Wait, please,” Eric eyes grew wide at her refusal to answer him, but she hurriedly explained before he could say anything, “Not in front of Chloe. I don’t want to scare her. Let me put her down first and then you can yell at me all you want.”