Chapter
11
Jessica
began to wake up. As sleep began to
fade, she heard noise downstairs. It was
the same noise that must have woken her up.
It was early in the morning and Jessica tried to clear her head. Then she remembered that it was Sunday
morning! She was going to church today! She heard the noise again and realized what
it was. It was her step-father getting
ready for work. He had to work for one
of his friends today. Howard didn’t
usually work on Sunday, but Tommy was out with the flu so Howard was filling in
for Tommy.
Jessica
hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen where Howard was rummaging around. “Do we have any coffee filters?” he
asked.
Jessica
could tell that he wasn’t in a good mood.
She heard toast pop up in the toaster.
Jessica said, “I know where the filters are. Why don’t you butter your toast and I’ll make
the coffee?”
Jessica’s
father seemed relieved. He was like
Jessica’s mother: neither one of them functioned very well in the morning. Howard went over to the toaster and retrieved
his toast. He opened the refrigerator
door and began looking for the butter.
Jessica
came over to the refrigerator to get the coffee and saw him searching for the
butter in the back of the third shelf.
She reached above him and got the butter down from the top shelf in the
refrigerator door. “Here it is, Daddy,”
she said, and handed the butter to her step-father.
“Thanks,”
he said. “I don’t know what I’d do without
you.”
“You’d probably
eat hard toast,” Jessica said. And they
both had a chuckle.
Jessica
put the coffee filter into the basket and measured out the coffee. She heard her step-father scraping butter
over his toast. She was sorry that he
had to work today. She wished that he
was going to church with the rest of the family. But her step-father wasn’t the church-going
type. He worked hard and he drank
hard. He was a hard man. But Jessica knew that he loved her. He just had a hard time showing his love.
“We’ll
have supper ready for you when you get home.” she said.
Howard
look satisfied. At least supper would be
better than breakfast. He took another
bite of his toast and chewed and thought.
Then he said, “So you are going to church today?”
Jessica
wondered what he was getting at. She
didn’t know if her step-father was picking a fight or not. She didn’t know how to answer, but, after a
brief pause she said, “Sure. And I wish
you were going with us.” And she
did. She knew that her step-father didn’t
want to go to church, but she wanted him to know that she wanted him to go.
Jessica wanted her step-father to feel included. She wanted him to know that she wanted him to
be part of their family.
“Well may
be next time,” he said. “That is if
there is a next time,” Howard added. He
wanted to make sure that Jessica knew that this church going thing was a one-time
event. He didn’t want Jessica to think
that she was going to church every week.
That would be too much.
Howard
changed the subject. “How about you make
me a sandwich while I start the car?
“Sure,”
Jessica said. And she went to the refrigerator
and got some cheese and lunchmeat.
Jessica remembered her step-father liked mustard, so she got the mustard
out too. She got out two slices of bread,
made Howard’s sandwich, and put the sandwich into a baggie. She got out the big bag of pretzel sticks and
put a few of them into another baggie and put both baggies into a brown paper
bag. Jessica had a thought. She got a yellow post it note from the
counter and wrote “I love you, Daddy” on it and stuck it to her step-father’s
sandwich baggie. As she rolled the top
of the brown paper bag, Howard came back into the kitchen. He took the bag that Jessica offered to him,
gave her a little kiss, and turned and left.
“Have a
good day,” Jessica called out after him.
“I will,”
he said as he walked out of the door.
Jessica
just knew it was going to be a great day for her too!
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