Disclaimer – I own nothing.
Cammie sat waiting. She would always sit and wait for her dad to come home, she would try and distract herself but it never seemed to work. But today was different. When she got home from school she knew something was wrong, something had gone terribly wrong, her mum had been in pieces; crying in the living room – her mum never cried, she was Cammie's rock.
She told Cammie that her dad wasn't coming home. He might never come home, he was gone. But Cammie still sat waiting for her dad; she didn't even try and distract herself. She just sat and waited.
Her mum had left the living room, she had tried to talk to Cammie but she couldn't, she had just lost her husband after all. She had gone into her room, put her husband's clothes on, wrapped herself up in the covers that had the faint smell of Matt on them, and tried to forget this horrible mess.
Cammie sat in the living room, her mind not registering the situation properly. He's just late, mum's just worried, and he's playing a joke on us. That's all; he'll be here in a minute. She repeated in her mind as she stared at the door.
He's gone. He's not late; he's not playing a joke. He's gone. The logical part of her mind repeated. She didn't want to understand, she wanted to be confused, and she wanted to believe that her dad was fine. So, she continued to wait and she would wait until he was home.
As the night went on Cammie started to realise that her dad was gone, he would never be this late, and he would have rang. But no phone call came and nobody came to the door. Cammie didn't like to cry, but she couldn't help the tears, that before now she had been holding back in her ignorance.
She started to walk to her room, her dad would understand if she waited there, but stopped as she saw her mum crying into her covers while wearing her dad's clothes. Seeing this made Cammie fall to the floor, and cry like a baby into her knees. She didn't know how long she sat on the floor, wrapped up like a ball, crying but the next thing she was aware of was arms around her lifting her up, and carrying her somewhere.
She opened her eyes in alarm to see her mum's face, 'Hey, you're going to sleep with me tonight.' Her voice was hoarse from crying; she carried Cammie easily into the room and placed her down. She then climbed into bed and patted the bed at the side of her, 'Come here, sweetheart'.
Cammie lay down next to her mum, she turned and wrapped her arms around her; holding on for dear life. 'I want daddy.' Cammie said into her mother's neck, 'I want him to come home, mum.' She looked up at her mother hoping she had the words to make this right again, hoping she could bring her dad home.
But all Cammie's mum could do was cuddle her daughter back because she couldn't make this okay, she couldn't solve it with a few words. No matter how much she wished she could do. So, she just sat there holding her crying daughter as she cried. Praying that everything would be okay, both the Morgan's went to sleep, maybe tomorrow would bring new hope.
Cammie stayed off school, she lost count of how many days, but she didn't do anything but cry and wait. She waited for the tears to stop. She waited for people to stop coming around to say 'sorry for your loss', as if she had misplaced something – she hadn't lost her father someone had taken him. She waited for the pain to leave her chest. She waited for her mother to smile. She waited for everyone to smile. And she waited for her daddy to walk through the front door and give her and her mum a hug and a kiss.
She soon realised that she would never stop waiting for the pain to leave. And for as long as she would live she would always be waiting for her daddy, her hero, to give her his special dad hug and tell her 'that everything would be okay.'