From a Distance

31 West 110th Street

Katy now drops off Maya every day so you can take her and Riley to school together in order to make it to her shifts at the diner on time.

You are happy to do it since it means Riley will be able to spend more time with Maya. You make breakfast for both of them before you sit down to help Auggie eat his breakfast.

Normally, Riley and Maya would talk and laugh as they ate, but today, Maya seemed extra fidgety.

"What's going on, Maya?" you ask noticing she's not eating as much of her breakfast as she usually does.

"I get to visit my daddy after school today," Maya blurts out excitedly.

This isn't the first time Maya's mentioned her dad, but so far all you know is that he and Katy aren't together anymore. Your curiosity gets the better of you.

"Where does he live?" you ask her.

"31 West 110th Street, New York, New York," she says almost as if reciting from a book.

That's almost a half-hour drive from your home in Greenwich Village, nearly on the complete opposite side of Manhattan. Something about that address seems familiar and you wonder why until it hits you almost instantly. Your lawyer training kicks in and you realize that it's the address of Lincoln Correctional Facility.

"How long has your dad lived there?" you ask her.

"For two years," she answers. "We moved here a few months after he moved there. I haven't seen him since, I'm so excited," she says.

"Why doesn't your daddy live with you and your mommy?" Riley asks confused.

"Mommy said that daddy left because they don't love each other like that anymore," Maya answered maturely. "Not like your parents."

"How come your dad moved there?" you ask, unable to stop yourself.

"My mom was talking on the phone and said he was trafficking drugs," she said casually, continuing to eat her cereal.

"What does that mean, Maya?" Riley asks.

You're about to step in to keep Maya from telling Riley the answer to her question because you're afraid that she actually does know the answer, but you're not quick enough.

"I don't know," Maya shrugs her shoulders. "I think it's his job or something."

You feel relief wash over you since both seven-year-olds are free from that kind of knowledge, but you also feel sorrow because you know Maya will have to learn the truth about her father eventually.

After you drive the girls to school, you immediately call Katy and ask her about Maya's father, whose name you learn is Kermit. You find out that Katy has unsuccessfully tried several times to take away Kermit's visitation rights. You find also find out that drug trafficking isn't the worst of what he's done, which will make learning the truth even harder for Maya.

Maya finally does learn the truth at age ten. She went through her mother's paperwork out of boredom and stumbled upon the court papers, reading every detail of her father's crimes. She's angry but is willing to forgive him, but by that point, he's long since stopped seeing her.

You know because she came crying to you once when she was eight. She had gone to visit her father like she did every other month, but her father never came to the visit.

She also came to you when she was twelve when she found out he'd been released.

"Maya, what's wrong," you ask her.

"Dad was released from prison," she says crying.

You hug her confused. "Why is that a bad thing, I thought that's what you wanted."

"He was released a year ago," she tells you. "He never even called to tell me. I haven't seen or spoken to him in years," she says, tears streaming down her face.

You hold her in your arms as she cries, your heart breaks because you know that this won't be the last time.

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