He drops his suitcase by the door,
She knows her daddy won't be back, anymore.
She drags her feet across the floor,
Trying to hold back time,
To keep him holding on.
She paces the floor, silently, choking back painful tears. Daddy can't be leaving me...he loves me. He climbs down the stairs, angrily, while her mother's voice still yelling upstairs, her footfalls heard throughout the house; they sounded more like a stampede than a stomp. Daddy barely gives her a look as he grabs his briefcase and luggage, and she lunges at his legs, in a small attempt to stop him before he makes a poor decision that he'll regret later on, as the tears overflow the brim of her eye.
"Daddy, daddy, don't leave. I'll do anything to keep you, right here with me. Can't you see how much I need you? Daddy, daddy, don't leave me...mommy's saying things she don't mean! She don't know what she's talkin' about!"
But her father gently removes her from his leg, pushes her hair off her forehead, and continues out the door, on the same route he had been on. She runs out of the door, following close behind him, arms outstretched. "DADDY! DADDY!" The tears are coming faster, and she grabs onto his suit. "Please don't leave me daddy...I love you...I'll be good, I promise...don't leave..." Burying her teary face against his leg, she clings to him. He picks up the child, hugging her close to his chest.
Father, listen.
Tell him that he's got a home, and he don't have to go.
Father, save him.
I would do anything in return.
He sets the child down, gets in his black Sedan and leaves. The small girl falls to her knees, looking after her father, long gone now. Her mother storms out of the house, yelling even after the car is out of sight and far away; none of the words make coherent sentences to the girl, as she sits in the driveway, tears falling onto the cement, her heart breaking with each moment her daddy's gone.