MY 5-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER POINTED AT MY BOSS’S EAR AND KEPT SAYING, “DADDY’S THERE” — BUT MY HUSBAND HAD PASSED AWAY, SO WHEN I LOOKED CLOSER, I COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT SHE WAS ACTUALLY POINTING AT.
My boss, Desmond, had always been kind to me.
Our families had known each other for about ten years, back when he and my husband, Julian, worked their way up through the same firm in Cedarhurst, Georgia, becoming close friends long before Desmond ever became my supervisor.
Close friends long before Desmond ever became my supervisor.
A year ago, Julian passed away. Cancer took him from me, leaving me alone with our five-year-old daughter, Nora, in a house that still smelled like him some mornings for months afterward.
Desmond would stop by just to bring groceries, spend an hour with Nora, help me fix something around the house I didn’t yet know how to fix myself.
I was incredibly grateful for his support.
I was incredibly grateful for his support.
Yesterday, our company held a party at Desmond’s house by the pool, and he told me I could bring Nora along, since I had nobody to leave her with on a Saturday evening.
Desmond has a beautiful home — the kind with a real wine cellar and a pool house bigger than my first apartment. Everyone looked elegant, suits and cocktail dresses under string lights. The whole party carried itself with a kind of upscale ease I still felt a little out of place inside.
I still felt a little out of place inside.
Nora couldn’t sit still, running loose between the catering tables, and I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep her corralled near our own table.
Then Desmond smiled and scooped her up easily, settling her onto his hip the way he’d done a hundred times before at smaller gatherings.
I rushed over, already apologizing for her behavior.
“She’s fine,” Desmond said, laughing. “She’s always fine with me.”
She’s always fine with me.
Then Nora went suddenly still in his arms, staring at the side of his head, right where the string lights caught the edge of his ear.
“Mommy,” she said. “Daddy’s there.”
Mommy. Daddy’s there.
Desmond’s face drained of color instantly. He set her back down on the ground almost too fast, an odd, careful motion, like he’d been startled by something he couldn’t explain either.
Nora cried out again, pointing. “Mommy, but Daddy’s there. Look! You need to save him.”
You need to save him.
