Prologue: Café Opening!

2 weeks ago, Dad came home with a solemn look on his face. It was an expression I have never seen on my always gentle Dad.

I toddled over to him as fast as my short stubby legs could manage and silently hugged his leg, gazing up at him with my clear and beady little pair of black eyes.

My 4 year old self still held the innocence of a child and cared for nothing except the sole happiness of my loved one and I. Dad bent down to level my gaze with his own and I saw his lips subtly curve upwards into his regular gentle smile. I felt his big warm hand pat my little head, that same familiar sensation I felt every day. The simple act of patting my head, seeing him back to his usual self, had me beaming at him, my eyes crinkling and teeth showing.

"Son, in two weeks, we'll be moving to a new neighborhood," Dad slowly started. I tilted my head slightly, curiosity filling my eyes, not quite sure what he was getting at.

Seeing my response, Dad pulled me into a tight hug and continued, "I promise you we will always be together from now on no matter what happens."

Always be together. I definitely recognized those words. I wormed my little arms between us to reach for the back of his neck and craned my head up a little. "No more going out? No more work?" My voice was hopeful. Did that mean he won't need to go to that work place and we can play all day?

Dad let out a deep chuckle and lifted me up into his arms, walking over to the living room, where my toys laid scattered around the floor. He picked up them up one by one and placed them back into the toy box as he spoke. "I will still need to work, my dear son," I immediately scrunched up my face at that, "but it will be near you, together with you even, if you would like to." My scrunched up face relaxed back into a smile and I clapped cheerily. We could do 'work' together!

Dad sat down by the table and placed me on his lap, the toys all put away, and handed me my favorite stuffed polar bear, little B. I eagerly reached out for little B and cuddled him. "Dad, how 'bout Mom? We bring her too? Mom still sleeping? Talked to her today too!"

2 weeks ago, Dad said that Mom was going to be sleeping for a long while, and that if I keep her company and talk to her, she might wake up one day. I had spent every day for the last 2 weeks by her bedside in the hospital, keeping her company and talking to her while Dad was at work. I missed her voice, and so I worked very hard to find topics to talk to her about.

However, Dad's usual reaction of praising me for it was nowhere to be found. Instead, he stared at me for a good long while, before he tightened his arms around me and heaved a huge sigh. "Your mom… She won't wake up anymore. She's gone to a better place, Seth."

"Oh…" I answered, still oblivious to what his words meant. What I did understand, was that my dad was feeling sad, and I wanted to cheer him up. Remembering one of the conversations I had before with Mom, I slowly started, "Mom said, one day if she sleeps and won't wake up, then she has joined the stars. She said that if we miss her, we can look up into the skies to see the stars."

I reached up in an attempt to make Dad feel better, gently patting his cheek in comfort. He remained silent for a long time, just holding me in his lap with a hand stroking the back of my head and looking pensive. He finally let out another sigh and he chuckled softly. "Despite everything, I'm blessed."

I craned my neck, not understanding him, but he only picked me up and headed for the door. "You're right, Seth, she'll always be up there watching over us. Come, let's go see her one more time. We have a lot of things to do in the coming days!"

"Okay! Dad, I help too!" I quipped, glad that Dad was feeling alright again, and that we're going back to see Mom.

"Alright. When we settle down in our new home, let's take a picture and show it to your Mom, " Dad added, rubbing my head affectionately as we made our way to his car.

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Today marked the first day of café operations. Since the day I last saw Mom, Dad had been very busy; setting up our new home, his new workplace and doing what he called 'research'. When I had asked about it, he explained that our café needed a menu, and he was researching to create one. I 'oohh'ed in serious understanding, despite not really grasping what exactly it meant. No matter, I would find out eventually. At that time, I had climbed onto his lap to help him out with his research, despite my lack of knowledge in our act. I like to believe we both had a great time.

Dad had given me a little apron in uniform of the café's work outfit so I could put it on, since I had insisted on helping him run his café whenever possible. I proudly donned the navy blue apron with a little polar bear holding a cup of coffee printed on the front.

After we both put on our uniform, I hurried over to the table to grab the phone, bringing it over to dad. "Picture for Mom!"

Dad gently ruffled the crown of my head, bent down, picked me up and took a selfie. He made quick work of printing the picture out onto some photo paper, took a frame from the stack that pay next to Mom's photo, placed the photo in the frame and finally placed the frame next to her. Our first new family picture in our new home! With that, we left the room and headed out to the cafe downstairs.

"Now Seth, remember what I told you. Only at the store front and never out of my sight!" Dad handed me some flyers and sternly reminded me for the umpteenth time.

I nodded earnestly and toddled out of the glass door that Dad held open for me. My task for the day was to hand out flyers of our café's opening to passers-by. I steeled myself and approached the bustling morning crowd. "Hi Miss and Mister! Would you like to try my Dad's cafe?"