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Part 12
Harm left Mac to sleep, the next morning, while he went to make breakfast for Kim.
But he found that she had beaten him to it, sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of Cheerios.
"Morning Dad…Has the Major gone, already?" Kim asked, her spoon halfway to her mouth.
"No, she's still sleeping…Does it bother you that she's here? I didn't think it would be a problem, that I brought her home with me."
"No, of course not…I like the Major," Kim shook her head, "I just wondered where she was…"
There was a beep outside and Kim stood to lift her bowl over to the sink.
"That'll be Major and Mrs. Patterson…I'd better go…"
"Okay," Harm gave her a hug, before fishing some money out of his wallet, "I'm sure they'll insist on buying you lunch, they usually do, but I want you to treat everyone to drinks, at least."
"Yes, Dad," Kim nodded.
"And I don't think I even need to tell you to behave, do I?" Harm mused
"No, of course not, Dad," Kim smiled then asked, "Will the Major still be around when I come home?"
"I'm not sure," Harm told her, "Maybe not. I don't know what Mac's plans are, for today. We'll probably head out and get some lunch, but I'm not sure what will happen, after that."
"Okay, well, I'd better go," Kim picked up her bag, "I'll see you later, Dad."
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Kim was very happy to see that Mac was still there, once she got back, that evening.
"Hi, Major MacKenzie!"
"Hi Kim!" Mac smiled, from where she sat reading the newspaper, at the kitchen table, "Did you have a good day?"
"Yeah! It was great!" Kim took a seat at the table, "I got some great photos of the camels…Major Patterson said he'd get me some copies, because they're on his camera. What did you and my Dad do?"
"We went down to Kuta to get some lunch," Mac told her, "Then we went and did some shopping. Your Dad tells me that it's going to be your birthday in a couple of months."
"Yep," Kim smiled, "I'll be turning eleven. So, did my Dad get me anything nice?!"
Mac laughed, "I don't think I should be telling you anything about that…"
"I'll take that as a 'yes!'" Kim grinned.
"Your Dad is just out getting some groceries, then we'd planned on having a barbecue out in the backyard," Mac let her know.
"That's great!" Kim was delighted that Mac would be staying, but didn't want to seem so enthusiastic, so added, "I love barbecue! But Dad's not that fond of meat…Bet he gets seafood, too!"
Mac just laughed, she'd teased Harm about the same thing, before he'd left for the supermarket.
The evening went great; the two ladies in Harm's life got along very well with each other and Harm reckoned that they were really starting to make headway.
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It was the next day that Harm noticed a difference in his daughter. She seemed to be quieter than usual, which was saying something because she normally was quite reserved anyway, first thing in the morning, any day during the school week. But today, Kim was showing a strange interest in her breakfast cereal and her posture at the table was uncommonly lethargic.
"Something bothering you, sweetie?"
Kim shook her head, 'no.'
"Then why so quiet?"
"Just thinking…"
"About what?"
Kim seemed to pause, to think through her words first, before she gave voice to them.
"Do you ever wonder why you met my Mom, all those years ago…and not Mac?"
"I met your Mother so that I could have you, which I wouldn't ever change..."
"But if you had met Mac, instead of Mom then you could have been together all of this time…"
"Then I wouldn't have had you…I wouldn't trade that for anything. And this way, I've met Mac and been able to be a Dad to you. That's the best eventuality that could have occurred."
"Do you ever think that fate was maybe…playing some kind of joke on you? That maybe there was some sort of mistake made, which led you to meet Mom and not Mac?"
"Kiiim…I thought we were past this…"
"I know they're not the same person, but…"
"But what!?"
"But they look so alike! Couldn't they have gotten things mixed up?"
"Who?"
"I don't know…somebody…"
"Some divine being? The fates? Kim, you know that life is what we make of it, nothing more. There isn't anybody guiding our decisions like some giant game of 'Battleship.' I've always brought you up to take charge of your own life."
"Many of the people here believe in divine forces…Is that really so terrible?"
Here, Harm really did get unreasonably angry with his child.
"Do you really think that a divine force would allow us to go through all of this, if there was some way to prevent it? Do you?! From the end of your first year up until we got here, we had a miserable life! Did either of us enjoy moving from place to place? Playing 'hunt the absent mother'?"
"Of course not!" Kim struggled to find the words, "But…but who says it has to end as unhappily…That wasn't forever…"
"It sure felt like forever for me," Harm laughed, ruefully, "those six months after your Mother disappeared were the worst of my life. Nobody could give me answers, not even the police. You were unhappy and screaming yourself to sleep every night and I had to figure out a way to search for your Mother and support both of us, at the same time."
"But I don't understand…You said you'd found her…When we came here, you said you'd found her; that all of this would end…But it never did…What happened?"
"You know; your Mother decided to resume her commission, leave Indonesia and take a posting, back in the States."
"I know; I've heard your colleagues mention it, but why? Why would she do that when we came all this way for her? You were supposed to bring her home…"
Harm's temper flared, aimed more at his wife than his daughter, "I did everything I could to get her to come back to us…Told her about you, how you were missing her, how I was missing her…But it wasn't enough. She wanted to stick with the other life she'd made for herself…"
"What?" Kim's voice was quiet and disbelieving.
"She had already found what she wanted out of life…Unfortunately we didn't figure into that; that's why she served me with divorce papers."
"But…but that's not the way it was supposed to happen…"
Kim's words came out of shock more than anything, she was barely aware she had uttered them.
"Damn it, Kim! This isn't some little fairytale out of your book! There isn't a storyline that all of the players have to follow! The sooner you grow up and start living in the real world, the sooner you'll realize how it works and you'll be much happier for it! Your Mother wasn't the beautiful princess who was kidnapped from the prince, against her will…She left us. She chose to dump her husband and child and go to the commanding officer. That doesn't make her either a princess or a villain, just an everyday person, with a will of her own and the ability to make her own decisions. And Mac has not been sent to me by some divine being, to make it up to me because they somehow screwed things up on the first go-around!"
Harm couldn't tell which of them was more shocked, by the time his angry tirade had come to the end. Kim just sat, staring at him with flooded eyes that were so heart-achingly like his own and, even worse, her face reminding him of the unhappy expression his ex-wife had seemed to wear more and more, in the months following Kim's birth.
Harm was really fighting to find something to say, some way to adequately apologize to his daughter, when she pushed back her chair with a harsh scrape, bolting from the table. Once out of the kitchen, she grabbed her book bag in the hall before charging out the front door.
"Kim!"
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