I'll always come back

Mom looks up at the stars wondering if she can make the situstion work..

“Peek-a-boo!” The baby laughed. That's right. She has to try. She looks down and starts watching the kid. His daddy hid his face and the child went back to crying again. “Hey hey hey,” Daddy coos and picks the baby up to rock him along with his stuffed ferret. “When I leave, I will always come back for you.” Baby Kyle smiles.

    Once, when he turned One, Daddy took him to the pet store to see the animals they couldn’t own. 

“You see that? It’s called a ferret. I’ve always wanted one, but they are a lot of work.” The toddler tilts his head, opening and closing his hand towards it. “No, we can;t take care of it right now. But we can go get ice cream!” Kyle laughs happly.

Just over a year later, they moved to a cheap apartment with the mother’s sister. 

    “I can’t thank you enough for this, especially considering how my husband was laid off from his night job,” Kyle overhears his mother say.

    “Of course. I’m your sister. What was I supposed to do when you got evicted?”

    “Shh. Kyle might overhear,” Daddy chimes in.

    “Daddy?” He shyly comes around the corner.

    The father puts on a smile and squats down, putting him arm out for a hug. “Hey, pumkin.” His voice is sweet, and Kyle falls into its sweet caress, waddling over to his dad’s arms. Only the mother can see Daddy’s relaxed yet worried look. She sighs. 

    When Kyle leaves the hug to go to Mom, there is a crash. 

    “Honey!” Mom rushes over to what Kyle could see as Daddy flat on the ground, breathing badly. He stands, frozen in shock and worry. “D-daddy?”

    More breathing. “I-”, he winces, “I’m fine. Go fetch me your feel-better stuffed animal. “ Kyle rushes away, thinking it is important to save Daddy from getting more hurt. Daddy lets go of his light face, showing his pain. “Help me up before Kyle gets back.”

    While helping him along with the aunt, Mom asks, “Are you okay?”

    “Yes. It's just getting a little worse. I’ll be fine.” He tries to walk himself but almost falls again, so the girls lead him to the couch. Kyle gets back with the stuffed animal ferret and a blanket just as he positions himself to look fine. 

    “Are you okay, Daddy?” Kyle exclaims while fixing the ferret and blanket over Daddy. 

    He smiles, “Yes, I'm okay. I just fell, is all. Your bear really is helping. Thank you, Pumpkin.” The kid smiles and cuddles up with him, the mother fixing up a heat pack. She was trying to hide her immense worry, but she couldn't help furrowing her eyebrows and one of her hands shaking.  

    A few days later, Daddy is in a suit and has a case. 

    “Where are you going, Daddy?” Kyle had just woken up, and was wiping his eyes.

    “Pumpkin, I’m going to work. That way we can have food and shelter.”

“Why do you have to work for that?”

    He looks at Mom, then back to Kyle. “That’s just how it is. Don’t forget. Whenever I leave, I will always come back for you.” The kid nods, hugging him and then letting him go.

    The following week, he goes every day and comes back late, feeling tired and falling asleep on the couch almost instantly. Before Kyle even wakes up in the morning, he’s gone.  He rarely saw his own father, even on weekends. 

    One day, a few weeks after this schedule started, he didn’t come home at a normal time. Mom sent Kyle to bed, but he snuck out not much later. Mom was pacing, chewing her nails. 

    “Momma, where is Daddy?” She stops and comes to pick up Kyle. 

    “I don’t know.” Suddenly the doorbell rings, and Kyle gets excited. Mom knows better than for Daddy to ring the doorbell at this time. Even if he lost the key, he would have slept outside just to make sure that Kyle could sleep. She goes to open the door slowly, out of fear.

    “Hello?”

    “Hi. I’m detective John. Are you Angie Evens?” 

    “Yes,” she says, obviously distracted, then she blurts out, “Can I see a badge?”

    He pulls out a badge, then states,” I’m here about your husband, Samuel Evens.” At this point, he notices Kyle peering around his mother. She just nods.

    The detective gets a sad look and takes a deep breath in before announcing, “I regret to inform you that he got into a car crash a couple of hours ago. He died before we could get to him. The other person survived, but only because she was drunk.” Angie broke down and fell to her knees, crying. 

    “Mommy?” Kyle asks. She sniffs.

    “It’s okay, honey. Your father has moved on to heaven.”

    “Why didn’t he say bye? And why are you crying?” She grabs Kyle close.

    “I’m going to miss him. We all are.” The detective and Mom talked about the other girl and what had happened. They couldn’t sew her because it had been Samuel’s fault as well. His legs had given out while driving. Plus they didn’t have insurance. 

    Kyle didn’t listen. All he could think about is not seeing Daddy again. They went to bed eventually, but didn’t sleep. They both just layed there in the bed until morning. The aunt gave them space. Neither of them could eat either, so they went on a walk with Kyle in the stroller. 

    On their way back, a feral ferret came out of the bush and follows them all the way around the block before Mom finally reacts.

    “Kyle! Keep back from it! We don’t know what tendencies it may have.”

    “Mommy, I think that’s Daddy.”

    “What?”

    “He always said that he would always come back for me. And it’s a ferret!”

    “But, Honey, we can’t just assume.”

    “It’s him. We have to take him in.” The ferret inched closer like it knew them.

    “We can’t afford it.”

    “We have to find a way. For Daddy.” She just nods reluctantly and steps closer to the ferret carefully, clicking her tongue. It takes no time to walk up to her and rub against her like a cat. 

    “We should name him Pumpkin.” Kyle says happily. She picks it up and puts it in the netting under the stroller, where it immediately falls asleep. I will find a way, She thinks, for Sam, and for Kyle. That night she goes out alone to look at the stars. Is this the right thing to do?

The end