ALONE?
Chapter Three
"I need to go out,"
Rose said to Jack the next morning. "I’ll be back soon. Less than ten
minutes. Just watch Jackie for me?"
Jack wondered why she felt she
needed to ask. "Of course."
Rose kissed him, hugged her
daughter, who was coloring, and left, leaving a father and daughter who knew
nothing of each other in her wake.
Jackie struggled to draw the bird
sitting on the fire escape railing outside the window. Every attempt was deemed
unacceptable and was either turned over to the fresh white side or crumpled and
thrown in the trash. Jack watched for a few minutes, then surrendered to the
pull he always felt toward paper and a pencil whenever they were around.
He knelt beside the small girl.
"Do you want help?" he asked gently.
She turned her blue-gray eyes on
him. For the second time, he felt a shuddering sense of déjà vu, looking into
those calculating orbs that seemed to see everything for what it really was.
They were his eyes.
Jackie, stubborn as both of her
parents, shook her head. Very independent and fiery, like her mother. But after
a few tries to draw the little robin again, she turned back to her father and
nodded. He smiled. Exactly like her mother.
He put his hand over hers and
guided it over the paper, smoothly creating the joints and feathers of the
creature on paper. When she got the hang of it, he took his hand away and let
her finish. She didn’t even notice he had left. She just continued drawing, not
perfectly, but she was mesmerized by her own ability. When she finished, she
stared at her work in awe.
"It looks like the
birdie," she said. Jack grinned. She was amazed that a drawing could look
so much like real life. "Thank you," she said, glowing with pride.
Then she faltered, and finished, "Daddy."
Rose stood in the doorway,
looking on this scene. Close to tears, she wondered if she had ever felt so
happy. Not just happy, proud of her daughter, and of Jack that he was able to
break through to her. Jackie would be less awkward, more loving toward him. He
would be her father. Not just in the literal sense, but in her mind, too.
Jack turned and saw her. For the
first time in over four years, he had a real grin on his face.