It had started out as a beautiful day. Gene and his four year old daughter had walked the beach earlier that day in the cool breeze of the morning sun. Then, they enjoyed breakfast at the Capeview Café before going shopping for her Halloween outfit and candy to hand out to all the kids who would be trick or treating to their house in only a few short days.
It was sad that Gene had lost his wife a few years earlier and was raising his daughter by himself. But, he managed to do a great job. They woke up most mornings and made themselves pancakes. She would stir the batter and he would do the flipping. He homeschooled her since he made his living making furniture and chose to work his own hours while she was fast asleep, so he was all she knew.
He had plans of letting her get to know some other kids in a few years, but for now he was content with keeping her all to himself. After they returned home from their Halloween shopping, she went to her room to play with her new Halloween costume and he went into the kitchen to make lunch for the both of them. She came down the steps with her costume on when it was time to eat lunch and Gene caught a glimpse of how much his daughter had turned out to look just like her late mother. What an angel she made. It was as if her mother was still alive.
They ate lunch together in the kitchen and he told her to put the costume away after they were finished. They made plans to pop some popcorn and watch a video together.
"Something scary daddy!"
"Ok hon. But, not too scary. I don't want you to have any bad dreams tonight."
She fell asleep in his arms long before the movie was even over. It was about mid afternoon when Gene realized that he had left his keys in the car. So, he slid out from underneath his daughter and snuck outside to grab his keys before he forgot.
For some reason, it had started raining. It had gone from such a beautiful sunny morning to a rainy afternoon. "This is going to be fun," Gene thought to himself as he pulled his jacket up over his head and started out toward the car.
His car was parked in the street right in front of his house. So, he walked around to the driver's seat and opened the door. There were his keys, right where he left them. But, he hardly got a chance to grab them from the ignition... To Read The Rest...
The Lonely Daughter
To hear it, click the link that takes you to
Associated Content.com where you can listen to the audio recording of my Halloween story.
