A Promise In His Past
Chapter 1
"Where is she? Where's my grandchild! I have a present for her!" the tall gentleman cried as he burst into the room. He didn't quite look old enough to be a grandfather – there wasn't a grey hair on his head yet, though there were a couple of wrinkles on his face from smiling so much.
"She isn't here yet," answered a woman from her place in a rocking chair beside the fireplace. She wasn't yet thirty-two but a pair of glasses already kept her nose company as she worked on her embroidery, using her bulging stomach to rest the work on. Putting down the work, taking off her glasses, and brushing a few errant red-hairs out of her face, the soon-to-be mother rocked out of the chair to welcome her father properly.
"I know the doctor said she was due today," she began, embracing the dark-haired figure that had once bounced her upon his knee. "But I never honestly believed any child of mine would be on time, even for her first ever birthday."
Returning the hug and letting go of his daughter, the older man sagged a little.
"I did so want for them to start their lives in this world on the same day," he said quietly, removing the gift from his pocket. "I put my whole heart into making him, just for her. I do hope she will like him."
"Oh Papa," she said, taking the doll gently in her hands. "You can't give this to a baby, she'd chew on his ears and bang him against everything in sight. No, he's too precious," she insisted, staring from the doll to her father and back again.
"Oh, I suppose you're right, Susan, but I made him just for your little girl." The aging man insisted upon this, even through his disappointment.
"What did you make?" another man asked, putting down the shopping in the hallway.
"A doll, just for my grandchild, and she isn't here to receive him yet."
"I think I have an answer," Susan said, handing the figurine to her husband when he came to peek. "Since he's such a fine doll, you keep him safe, and when our little girl is old enough to appreciate him and be careful with him, we'll unite them, is that alright with you Papa?"
'Maybe even keep him hidden, so that until that day, the two of them don't even know about each other,' the old man thought, a romantic at heart. He agreed, and took the doll back. "But what am I to call him? I wanted the baby here when we chose the name," he said, his hand already on the doorknob.
"You made him, Papa, with all your heart, you said, you name him."