C4

It felt like ages since Daniel had been home. Even though he lived less than fifteen minutes away by car, it still felt strange being surrounded by his family after such an extended period of time. However, there was no doubt that they welcomed him back warmly, showering him with hugs and kisses on the cheek as soon as he walked through the door. It was almost surreal to see everyone back together again after so long; but even so, he couldn't hide the sadness in his eyes when he glanced around and realized that he would have preferred to be somewhere else right at that moment in time – alone, if necessary.

Maya immediately ran over towards him, stopping right in front of him to give him a big hug. She pulled back after a few seconds and stared straight into his eyes. Then she whispered something in his ear that caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

"Where have you been, Daddy?" she questioned quietly. "We've missed you so much... we worried about you..."

Daniel's heart sank further, and a lump formed in his throat as he struggled to find the words to respond to his innocent little girl. "Sorry, honey," he muttered softly, knowing that he sounded weak and pathetic. "I just lost my job recently, so we had to move."

She frowned, confused, wondering why he hadn't visited her at school lately.

"What did you say?" he repeated. "Did you mean 'at school' or 'on the street?'"

"At school," she answered. "You haven't been here for three weeks."

He shook his head slowly. "No, I haven't seen you at school either."

"Why not?!" she exclaimed in shock. "You're my dad, aren't you?"

He tried hard not to reveal the truth; however, the guilt and shame were becoming unbearable as his body trembled involuntarily. The tears continued to roll down his cheeks freely; however, he refused to shed them openly in front of her and her mother. Instead, he simply nodded and sniffed loudly like a sad puppy dog, hoping that they would believe him.

"I promise that I'll make it up to you, baby girl. I'm sorry. Please forgive me... I didn't know what else to do..."

Maya stared at her father, stunned and disappointed by his response. Her bottom lip quivered, and her lower eyelids began to droop as if she was about to cry herself. "But how could you forget me? You promised to take me to the zoo next week..."

His shoulders slumped, and he dropped his head slightly towards the floor in defeat. His daughter looked up at him curiously, wondering why he suddenly started bawling like a baby while holding a tissue in one hand. What could possibly be wrong with him? Why wouldn't he just admit the truth? If only he would open his mouth, maybe she would understand the reason for all of this...

"Don't worry," he reassured her, "I won't forget again." He raised his head up proudly, wiping the remaining tears off of his cheeks with the tip of his index finger. "But the thing is, baby girl, your mommy already bought us tickets for the zoo yesterday afternoon."

Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she stared at him in complete bewilderment – completely forgetting for a brief second why they were having this conversation in the first place. Then she remembered, and she gasped out loud before grabbing Daniel's arm tightly, shaking him back and forth in confusion.

"Wait a minute... you forgot to buy tickets to the zoo?"

The corners of Daniel's lips twitched upward as he gave her a fake smile, trying to conceal his inner feelings by pretending to laugh at her comment. "Not exactly, sweetie," he responded sarcastically, staring right back at her with a serious look in his eye. "Your mother went shopping instead – to buy you and me some matching outfits..."

His daughter's jaw dropped instantly, and she stared at him in total surprise and amazement. For a few moments she remained speechless, completely dumbfounded by what was happening before her very own eyes.

"That's impossible!" she blurted out loudly, struggling to digest the news. "My mother never buys anything unless I ask her to... especially not clothes for myself! It has to be a mistake... I'm sure that it is... Are you telling me that you actually forgot about our plans to visit the zoo?! And you waited until the last possible moment to buy the tickets too? Do you know how many people will end up waiting in line behind us? We probably could have gone earlier today if you had just taken us there as planned! And if you didn't want to spend the money, then why don't you just go without paying?"

Her father shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, sweetheart. It slipped my mind because I got so caught up with work lately... and I guess my mind just sort of wandered off to another place..."

"So you lied to get out of buying tickets?" she replied angrily, clearly upset by his actions. "Is that really how you wanted to start off the day after being away for so long?"

He nodded sadly, realizing that he should have been honest with his daughter from the beginning. "Yeah, pretty much... I apologize, baby girl... please don't hate me."

Maya's frown turned into a pouty expression as she crossed her arms over her chest. Then she grabbed both of his hands gently, forcing them apart before pulling him towards the kitchen table and sitting down on his lap. She stared deep into his eyes and held onto him tightly, wishing more than ever that he could explain everything to her right then and there. But even though it hurt her deeply to hear him talk in such an unconvincing manner, she decided not to push him anymore; she knew better than to argue with him and risk causing him even more emotional pain than he already had to endure. After all, they had to deal with each other for the rest of their lives... So she figured that there was nothing to lose in taking it easy on him and showing him some compassion rather than judging him harshly for his mistakes. Besides, the last thing that she wanted him to feel was regret. That might lead him to make similar decisions in future, and it definitely wouldn't help him grow as a man... Or so she believed.

After several long minutes of silence, Maya eventually released his hands and took a seat on the edge of the chair closest to him. She folded her legs under her, leaned forward against the wall behind her, placed her elbows on top of the wooden surface, rested her chin in her palms, closed her eyes momentarily, breathed deeply, and opened her mouth slightly like a fish out of water. Finally, after a short while spent thinking about her next move, she spoke again:

"Dad, can I ask you something? Did you have a lot of work these past three weeks? Were you busy doing something important? Something important enough to keep you away from me?"

He nodded. "Yes," he admitted, "but I also had some free time on weekends... And I couldn't help myself from missing you every single day..."

Maya smiled, glad that her dad finally revealed the truth to her. It felt like a weight was lifted off of her chest, and she no longer felt guilty about his lies or his absence. Now she understood the reason for his sudden disappearance.

"Wow..." she mumbled softly, gazing into the distance as she thought about what was coming next. "I wish that Mom was here right now..."

"Why's that?"

"Because then she could give you a proper spanking..."

"What?" he laughed nervously, unable to control his laughter in spite of his best efforts.

"Just kidding..." she grinned. "Mom's the least violent person in the entire world..."

"Well," he chuckled, "I'm sure that she wouldn't mind giving you a good hiding if that's what you truly want..." He paused briefly, glancing over at Maya for approval. "Wouldn't you like that, my dear? A nice, warm bath, followed by an even warmer spanking? It would surely make you feel better..."

For a split-second he saw an image of his wife sitting across from him, looking sternly at him with disapproval and disappointment, but the image faded quickly. When he glanced back at his daughter, he noticed that her cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment. It seemed as if she wasn't quite ready to accept her new role yet. However, he quickly realized that it would take some time before he was able to convince her... if indeed, he wanted to try convincing his little girl. After all, she was still only eight years old, and her thoughts were usually governed by her feelings of fear and vulnerability; they weren't always rational.

Maya stared at her father with pleading eyes. "Can I have another piece of cake?" she asked politely, not wanting to waste any more time discussing his job or her mother's lack of corporal punishment skills when there were so many other things for them to discuss.

Daniel nodded. "Of course," he responded happily as he scooped some icing onto the plate beside her. He cut two slices for them and set the plate back down on the table in front of her. Then he picked up the phone receiver, dialed a number, put the handset back down and looked straight into Maya's eyes – awaiting her reply with great anticipation.

"Hi honey, it's Dad... Yeah, it's okay, I'll bring the car around later... Okay... No, it's fine... Bye."

He hung up the telephone, sat down across from his daughter, and waited silently for several seconds in expectation of hearing the sound of the car door closing outside. There was nothing left for him to do except wait patiently for her response – hoping that she would be willing to follow through with his plan.

When she heard the crunching noise beneath her feet, Maya's face lit up with delight, and she stood up excitedly from the table, grabbed one slice of cake in each hand, jumped up and down, and screamed enthusiastically:

"It's here, Daddy! The car is here!"

She threw herself on him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck; however, it was obvious from her actions that she didn't trust him fully yet; therefore, she kept a watchful eye on him in case he tried anything funny... Such as pushing her into the backseat where her mother had once threatened to drive him over a cliff. Even though he assured her numerous times in recent days that there was no way that he could possibly hurt her, his words sounded hollow and unreal to her ears since he didn't seem too happy at the moment. In fact, he looked scared and uncertain in his own skin which made him appear dangerous to her young mind.

"Thank goodness," he sighed in relief as he hugged her tight. "We're finally going to have some fun together..."

They embraced each other in joyous excitement for nearly five minutes before Maya reluctantly pulled herself away from him in order to let him open the driver side door and climb inside. She remained standing behind the vehicle, watching her father curiously as he got behind the steering wheel, buckled himself in, started the engine, put the car into reverse, shifted gears, backed out of the driveway slowly, drove forward a couple of meters, stopped briefly, turned around carefully, and finally headed towards the main street.

As soon as he entered the road, she watched closely for a few moments to make sure that the traffic light remained green before stepping out of the car and walking along side of it. They walked towards the exit gate, crossed the parking lot, and climbed aboard the train station escalator, heading down to the underground concourse. Once they stepped out onto the platform, she stared out at the passing trains, wondering whether she'd have a chance to ride one of the subway cars this time around...

"Daddy," she said quietly as she stared intently at the moving vehicles, "can we go home now?"

Daniel looked at her with concern as they continued their journey down the escalators. "You want to go back home already?"

"Yes..." she answered, "we've seen enough."