Luke:
"Luke they really miss you." you say through the phone.
"Baby, I know, but I'll be home sooner than you'd think, okay?"
"Yeah, it's just hard to take care of them alone sometimes, especially when they miss you because they won't listen to me."
"It's really hard to imagine what you're going through, but I'll be home soon okay, look I have to go now, I love you."
"I love you too, Luke."
He hangs up the phone. You start pacing around the kitchen as silently as possible, as the kids are sleeping. With the stress of it all, you break down. You sit down on the ground, leaning your back against a kitchen cabinet and start weeping. You cover your face in your hands, but when you go to wipe your tears away, you look up and see your oldest child, Emilie, who's 5, staring at you.
"Hey baby, what do you need?" you smile at her.
"I wanted some water." she says, staring at the ground.
"Okay, do you want some help getting it?"
She nods her head. You stand up and grab her a glass. You pour water from the tap into it and hand it to her. She slightly smiles as a thank you when you hand it to her and she takes a sip out of it.
"You miss daddy don't you?" she says, looking up at you with her innocent eyes.
"Yeah, but we all do, don't we?"
"Can we visit him?"
"Now?"
"Well sometime. I want to see him again. Can we please visit him?"
"Sure, sometime we can."
"Can we call him?"
"Daddy just went on stage, but we can leave a message for him."
"No, it's okay. We can call him in the morning." she sighs.
"Hey Emilie," you say, kneeling down to her level, "I'll take you up on that offer to go visit him. I'll just call him and see when we can."
"Thank you mommy." she says, setting the empty glass on the counter and hugging you. She yawns loudly and rubs her eyes.
"Come on, let's go to bed." you smile, taking her hand in yours and leading her to her room. Once you put her to bed, you slowly climb the stairs to your and Luke's room and you open your laptop. You find the next flight out to where they are and book three tickets for you and your kids to fly out there the next day.
