SG Vol. 1 pt. 5

Sitting out on the front porch, I have nothing to do but smoke my favorite poker pipe and wait for Naomi to get home. I won’t smoke around her, but I know she loves how this blend of tobacco smells. It smells like sweet vanilla. The more I smell like it, the better for her. It’ll also give her a fun clue that I’m here.

Even if I’ve only been gone for a month, I know she’s going to light up as soon as she smells the lingering scent in the air.

Her bus rolls up and stops directly in front of the house. A small girl using a white cane takes her time carefully getting off of the bus, and the bus driver waves to me before driving off. She’d usually wait if there was nobody here.

My precious angel, Naomi, freezes once she starts walking down the sidewalk.

I hurry up and dump out my pipe into the sealed ashtray next to my chair.

“Papa?!” Naomi practically shouts as a wide smile spread across her face. She sniffs the air. “Papa! You’re back!”

Like the little dumbie she is, she drops her cane and charges straight up the path toward the porch.

She knows how dangerous it is to do this when there’s a couple of steps she might trip on. But, she also knows that I’d never let her trip.

I get out of my chair and intercept her, grabbing onto her and lifting her up to swing her around in the air!

“You’re back, you’re back!” Naomi happily cheers and giggles as I spin her around.

“How do you know I’m not some stranger snatching you up?” I tease her.

“Ehehe! Because you smell and sound like papa!”

I can’t resist any longer. I pull her in and tightly wrap my arms around her, hugging her against me and kissing the top of her head. “I missed you, angel,” I whisper against her head.

“Do you still have my picture?!” she excitedly asks me.

“Of course I do. I don’t go anywhere without it. Hey, you must not be paying enough attention in school if you’re asking such a dumb question.”

“Ehe… I knew you had it! I just wanted to hear you say it!” she admits and giggles, nuzzling her face against my chest. “Papa, when can I smell like vanilla?”

“When you’re older.”

“How much older?”

“When you’re old enough that I let you smell like vanilla.”

“But how old is that?!”

“One-hundred and… seventy-three.”

“That’s too old! No fair!” she whines. She may be whining, but she’s still giggling and happily kicking her feet around. “Hmph! You’re mean!”

“I know, I’m just the worst dad ever, right?” I tease her.

“Nu uh! You’re the best! The best papa in the whole world! Oh! Do you still want me to call you ‘papa?’”

“You know it. It’s still the cutest.”

“Okay, papa!”

She’s too dang adorable.

“What’d you do this time you were gone?” she asks me.

“How was school?” I ask her.

“Oh! It was good! It’s almost Halloween and we’re gonna be allowed to dress up! I wanna be a honey bee! Can I? Can I be a honey bee?” she asks, looking up in my direction with cute, pleading eyes. She doesn’t even need to use eyes like that to get her way with me.

“You can be whatever you want. You can be the queen honey bee. We’ll have to find a nice, gold crown for you to wear,” I tell her, placing a kiss right on the top of her head where a crown belongs.

“Yay! You always say how important they are, so I wanna be important!”

“You’re already far more important than you could ever understand,” I whisper against her.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean… is… this!” I toss her up into the air! She flails around and screams like a mad woman, but bursts out into an insane fit of giggling as soon as I catch her.

“Again!” she asks.

I toss her up again.

“Again!”

And again.

“Again!”

And yet again.

“O-okay, that’s enough! I’m too hungry for more…” she whines.

“Stomach bothering you?” I ask her.

She nods her head.

“Alright. Hang on,” I say, walking over to her cane to pick it up and then head inside with both her and her cane held onto.

“Is – is mom here?” Naomi asks me. The weak, submissive voice that she uses to ask that question is enough to remind me of my – no, calm down. This isn’t the time to be upset. This is the time to cherish with my daughter.

“She had to go out,” I answer.

“Oh, okay!” Naomi says, sounding instantly cheered up.

I sit her down on the couch and say, “Stay put. I’ll look for some food for us.”

“Okay, papa!”

There’s nothing in the fridge, nothing in the cabinets, nothing sitting out – nothing. It’s only when I open up the freezer that I find it stocked full of frozen, microwavable meals that are garbage for a growing girl.

“Hey, want to go pick up Grandma and go out to eat? Think you can handle waiting a bit?” I ask Naomi.

“Okay! Oh, oh! Can we go on your umm, your motorbikey?” Naomi asks me.

Part of me wants to correct her and tell her to call it what it is, a motorcycle, but that’s an extremely tiny part of me in comparison to the part of me that believes she is always right without fail. “All three of us can’t fit on there. We have to pick up Grandma, remember?”

“Oh… okay! Can we ride it later? Please?”

You’re too good for this world, Naomi. “Alright. Promise. We’ll go for a sunset ride after we eat and bring Grandma back. Any place you’re in the mood for?”

“The moon!” Naomi says before imitating rocket sounds.

“For food, silly.”

“Oh. Umm… are there restaurants on the moon?”

“Maybe someday. Maybe you’ll be the first person to ever build one there.”

“Yeah! I wanna do that!”

“You can name it the Galactic Honey Bee Queen Grill. Or something like that.”

“I love it! Thanks, papa! I’m definitely gonna do that when I’m older!”

“I’ve got faith in you. But, for now, you’re gonna have to figure out where you want to eat here on Earth.”

“Booorrriiiinnnggg!” Naomi playfully whines.

“I know, but it’s all we’ve got.”

Hang on.

“Wait a second, Naomi,” I tell her.

“Okay!” she answers.

I pat the back of my pocket. Nothing. I look in the bedroom since it might have fallen out while we were stripping… nothing.

That… fucking bitch took my wallet.

“Dad!?” Naomi screams. “What was that?!” she sounds panicked.

Fucking…

That’s another hole in the wall. Think I might have broken one of my fingers with that one.

“It’s nothing, angel. I just tripped and banged my hand on the wall because your papa is a big dumbie,” I tell her.

“Are – are you okay?” she asks.

“I’m fine. And uh, sorry, but… I know you’re probably tired of them, but how about Aunt Jasmine’s Shack?”

“Okay, sure!”

You’re seriously too pure for this world, Naomi. How did I get such a perfect daughter? Any normal kid would groan upon hearing that place’s name, especially with how much we end up going there, but you’re smiling and…

Damn it. I’m sorry, Naomi. You deserve better than what I can give you. You deserve a real mom, too.

The hell am I doing wasting my time fighting losing battles when this perfect angel is here needing love and care that nobody else can give her – will give her? Maybe… maybe being a teacher is the best option for me after all.

“Papa? Are you crying?” Naomi asks me.

I wipe away the tears. “I’m crying from how impossibly perfect you are. You’re literally the best daughter in the whole world. No, you’re the best daughter that has ever existed, that exists right now, and that ever will exist.”

Naomi giggles louder the more extravagant the praise grows.

“You’re so silly, papa!” Naomi tells me.

She might think I’m silly, but I meant every last word of it.

If passing on my skills to new brats at the academy is going to lead to a better future for Naomi than some aging, one-eyed jackass clinging to being a pilot, then that’s what I’ll do.

I’ll do whatever it takes to make this world better for my precious Naomi.

I look outside the front window. My truck is gone. Her mother’s car is still parked there, but she only has one key for it and I’d bet a million dollars that she took her keychain instead of mine.

“Want a super-fast piggyback ride?” I ask Naomi.

“We’re not driving?” she asks me.

“I feel like going on a run. We’ll take shortcuts to Grandma so that we can even save some time, alright?”

“Okay! Whatever you want, papa!”

I promise, Naomi.

I promise to make this world worthy of you no matter what it takes.