When The Sun Rises | ✔

01 | Back In A Bit

 Chapter 01 | Back In A Bit

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        It happened one Sunday after church; Daddy went out to the store, got pulled over, and never came back. I remember I was sitting on the couch watching reruns of Scooby-Doo when he walked by and kissed me on the top of my head, careful not to disturb the ponytails Sheila had spent two hours doing the night before.

        "Be back in a bit, Sweetpea. Love you." I mumbled a quick, "Love you too, Daddy," in response and asked if he would bring me back a treat. He just laughed and walked out the door.

        That day nine years ago was the last time I ever saw or spoke to him.

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        May 2009

        “Keila, baby, take your daddy this glass of water before he passes out. He’s been messin’ around with that car all afternoon acting like he knows something. If he don’t know what’s wrong with it by now, then he ain’t gonna know.” 

        I had just settled onto the couch, ready to turn my brain over to the TV, and she was cleaning the kitchen preparing for dinner. I peeled myself from the couch and plodded over to the kitchen for the glass of ice water on the countertop.  

        Stepping out onto our porch, I was immediately assaulted by the stifling heat. The kind of heat that made it feel like you were breathing in flames; the kind of heat that made you mad for no reason; the kind of heat that made any amount of clothes feel like too much clothes; the kind of heat that sent trails of sweat racing down your back within seconds.

        My face instinctively scrunched, and I’m sure I resembled Vinny, our neighbors Indian bull dog. Desperate to return to the cool embrace of air conditioning I raced over to my father, asphalt burning the balls of my feet.

        His back was to me and his forearm was buried beneath the hood. He was wearing the same tattered shirt he always wore when he worked on one of the cars and over the years, the once milky white material had been taken over by blotchy oil stains.

        “Daddy. Ma told me to bring you this water.”

        “Oh, really? Thanks, Sweetpea.”

        He retracted his arm from the car and I frowned at his sooty hand as it wrapped around the clean surface of the glass. His face was glistening with sweat and the sheen made him look like a glazed doughnut.

        I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he drank and my eyes trailed the water that dribbled from the sides of the glass and into his goatee. It reminded me of the times I’d sit in front of a recently rained on window and watch beads of water race to the bottom.

        He finished quickly and handed me the glass with a refreshed sigh, drying his mouth with the shoulder of his shirt.

        “Tell her I’ll be in in a minute.”

        “Okeydokey, Daddy.”

        I skipped back into the house, relayed the message, and left the glass on the counter to be washed. Erasing all traces of my father. By the time he made his way back into the house I had already found my sweet spot on the couch and nestled into it.