"Dad! Dad!" Melissa Willard hollered as she walked through her home of 9 years in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"Mel, do you have to yell like that?" Carrie asked as she walked into the living room behind her daughter.
"Do you know where dad is?" Melissa asked and turned to face her mother.
"He is probably still at work. I'm not sure when he will get home from the hospital." Carrie responded running her hand through her twelve year old daughter's hair.
"I wish he would hurry up, I need him to sign this permission slip for my field trip." Melissa stated. Carrie looked at her daughter and put her hands on her sides.
"And what's wrong with me signing your permission slip? I'm your mother." Carrie asked her.
"I just want dad to sign it. I feel like he doesn't know what's going on in my life right now. If he reads this he will at least know what one day in my life is going to be for." Melissa replied.
"Oh Melissa, I'm sorry. I will make sure to send your dad up to your room as soon as he gets home. Why don't you go upstairs and work on your homework?" Carrie asked.
"Sure." Melissa looked deflated and her face fell, but she went over to the stairs and walked up the stairs by pulling on the handrail. Carrie started walking around the house dusting after Melissa went upstairs. After about an hour John Curtis walked in the door. Carrie ran over to him and hugged him.
"How are you today? How was work?" Carrie asked.
"I'm just glad to be home with my favorite girls." John Curtis replied and kissed her. "Work was just as it usually is."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Carrie said. Carrie took his coat and put it in the closet next to the door. "You need to go upstairs and talk to Melissa."
"What's wrong?" John Curtis questioned looking at his wife of 15 years.
"Nothing. Melissa just feels neglected because you are so busy at the hospital and don't have a lot of time to spend with her." Carrie responded.
"Should I tell her about how things were when I was growing up?" John Curtis asked.
"Not that again John Curtis Willard." Carrie said as she crossed her arms.
"What? When I was a boy my father was in the war and my mother was in medical school. I didn't spend a lot of time with them either." John Curtis replied.
"John, that was different." Carrie stated.
"How?" John Curtis questioned.
"Just please go talk to her." Carrie pleaded with him.
"Okay. Okay, I will go talk to her." John Curtis finally said and started walking up the stairs. When he got to Melissa's door he knocked on it.
"Who is it?" Melissa asked from inside the room.
"It's your dad." John Curtis said.
"Oh come on in dad." Melissa replied. John Curtis walked in and sat on the bed next to his daughter. Melissa was holding onto a pillow and her history book was in front of her on the bed.
"What are you guys learning about in history?" John Curtis asked tapping the book.
"We are talking about World War II right now." Melissa responded picking it up and putting the book in her lap.
"Did I tell you that my father was in that war?" John Curtis asked her. Melissa closed the book and looked back up at him.
"No, you never did; but Grandma told me once that he was. She told me that he died at Pearl Harbor. I'm sorry dad. I wish that you would have known him. She said that he died when you were just a baby." Melissa replied. John Curtis looked down at his hands and then back up at Melissa.
"I wish I could have known him too because he was my father, but the way your Grandma talks he didn't really want to have anything to do with us; me and Grandma. So when she married Grandpa Jonesy when I was about eight, I was happy to have him. I finally had a father to look up to. But you know that I lived with Grandma and Grandpa Walton, your great-grandparents and all my aunts and uncles growing up. I wasn't starved for attention by any means." John Curtis stated.
"What are they like?" Melissa asked.
"Who?" John Curtis questioned looking at Melissa with a puzzled look on her face.
"Grandma and Grandpa Walton." Melissa replied. She picked up the picture of her great grandparents that sits on her dresser and looked at it. "They look like they are really loving people. Why haven't I met them?" Melissa asked looking up from the picture of John and Olivia.
"They are very kind and caring. Grandpa is strong, but so is Grandma. She is loving and sensitive, but she puts her foot down when she needs to." John Curtis replied. He rubbed her head with his hand. "I will talk to Grandma and see the next time they are going to go see Grandma and Grandpa Walton and we will go see them ok?" Melissa nodded excitedly.
"Are you serious?" Melissa asked.
"Sure. I haven't seen my grandparents in several years." John Curtis responded. Without Melissa or John Curtis realizing it Carrie had walked up the stairs and was standing in the doorway when John Curtis stood up and walked over to the door. He leaned down and kissed Carrie.
"Thank you." Carrie mouthed to him before she kissed him and smiled.