Chapter 3 Tae
TAE
“Look Daddy, look, snow!” We’d been driving forever and all we’d seen so far was dirt, pine needles and trees. When the floofy white stuff finally appeared, my tummy got all tickly excited. “I love the snow.”
Daddy smiled. “So, you’ve said, though I believe this is your first time seeing it up close and personal, isn’t it?”
I waved my hands around, pointing it all out. “Daddy, snow.” Didn’t he get it? Once, twice or a million times was never enough. But he was right, I’d only seen it in pictures and on TV until now.
“Alright, silly boy. Before we get to the cabin we have to pick up groceries first.”
“’Kay, Daddy.” I turned up the radio and sang along with the songs.
My Stitch stuffie danced in my lap, just as happy as I was.
“Go Stitch, go!” I cheered him on. Daddy let me pick the music on road trips and thank the music gods for that.
His metal songs were kinda scary, and I never understood what they were saying.
All the screaming was like watching Hell’s Kitchen and that show gave me hives.
First time he played one of the bands he liked for me I ran out of the room crying.
From then on, we both started wearing earbuds while on jobsites.
“We’re here, Silly Boy.”
Daddy came around and undid my seatbelt, and I left Stitch in the truck to protect our stuff while we shopped. We grabbed a cart outside the door and whoosh, the doors whipped open and the air nearly took my Stitch beanie off.
“Big whoosh, Daddy.” I tugged it back down over my ears.
“Yes, lots of air pressure. Why don’t you find the toy aisle and get a new coloring book and crayons while Daddy does the shopping.”
“Yay!” Must’ve been too loud ‘cause the lady passing by shook her head at me. “I’m on vacation.”
“That you are, my love. Don’t let anyone steal your sunshine. Wait for me on the toy aisle which is,” Daddy glanced up at the signs. “Aisle seven. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”
“See ya!” I skipped off toward aisle seven.
They didn’t have much, just a bunch of plastic toys and a handful of coloring books.
Ooohhh, and story time books too. Now Daddy can read to me at the cabin when it’s bedtime ‘cause I forgot to pack mine.
I sorted them all out, searching through the lot for just the right one. “There.”
“What’s there?”
“Ah!” I jumped and grabbed my chest. “Daddy, you scared me.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. You were so lost in this…” he eyed all the piles I had made. “Mess? Did a a book explosion hit aisle seven?”
“Yeah, I um, had trouble picking just one.”
“How about this, pick two reading books and two coloring books. Can you do that for Daddy?”
“Yes,” I shook my head. “I know just which two I want.” I grabbed them off the top of the piles and placed them in the cart then put the rest back where they belonged. “Now it’s nicer than it was when I got here.”
“I bet it is, Clean Boy. Ready to go?”
“Oops, I almost forgot the crayons.”
“Grab the big box, you’re due for a new pack anyway.”
My daddy was seriously the best.
We paid and loaded the bags into the back seat, then Daddy seat belted me in, and we were on our way to the cabin. I couldn’t wait to have Daddy all to myself for a whole week. “We’re gonna have so much fun, Daddy.”
“Yes, we are.”
The cabin wasn’t far from the store at all.
Just down the road then down another one that wasn’t paved but was all gravelly and made me vibrate.
Trees blocked the view, but they were so pretty and then it appeared.
“There it is Daddy! Squee! It’s so cute.
” The tiny cabin surrounded by the woods was adorable, and I couldn’t wait to get inside.
It was like a big log treasure chest I got to dig through.
I’d find where all the secrets were hidden for sure.
“Off on the quest we go, Stitch!” I swung him around.
“Careful, sweetheart, don’t hurt yourself.” Daddy parked and finally came around to let me out, but it took forever and the stupid seatbelt held me back from our mission waiting inside. Stitch and I were gonna be great super sleuths and Daddy would be so proud of us.
Daddy entered the code into the keypad thingy on the front door then it beeped and he opened it wide. “Home sweet, week away from home.”
“Whoa.” There was a lot of wood. “Look at the big fireplace.” Huge rocks covered the front of it and went all the way up to the ceiling then disappeared. Poof!
“Hopefully, they left firewood or we’ll be going back to the store for some.” Daddy walked around, checking out the bedroom and stuff while I bounced, bounced, bounced on the bed. “Alright, bouncy boy, wanna help Daddy unload the truck?”
“Yep.”
It took a while, well, only a few minutes but it felt like forever before we finally got it all inside.
“What’s next, Daddy?”
“Hmm,” he got his thinky face on. “Why don’t you color while Daddy gets the groceries put away.”
Daddy pulled my new books out of the bag and sat them on the table for me. I flipped through the pages on the Under the Sea one and found a page with a giant lobster and a bunch of tiny lobsters around it. “Lobster Mommy,” Daddy laughed.
“We can put it on the fridge when we get home so don’t tear it out yet.”
“’Kay, Daddy.”
Like always, I got lost in creating the perfect picture for my Daddy while he did Daddy stuff. I sang the song from my favorite TV show and shook my booty in the chair and had the best time. No worries, just Daddy’s silly boy playing away.
“Daddy, did you bring my bottles?”
“Yes, empty ones for Daddy to fill.”
“Good Daddy.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” I got back to my picture. It was important to use the right shades of red for the lobsters and blues for the water or it just wouldn’t make any sense.
“Dinner’s ready, Little Artist, time to put your toys away and wash your hands.” While Daddy fixed our plates, I tucked my new toys into my backpack with the others I brought with us and washed up.
“Yummy, Daddy. Sharky fish sticks and fries. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, my love. Daddy bought all your favorites for our fun vacation.”
“Daddy loves his Little Artist.”
“More than words can say, sweetheart.”
“Good, ‘cause I love my Daddy too.”
“I know we got here kind of late today so how about tonight we relax in front of the fire and make s’mores. Daddy bought special sticks to cook the marshmallows on.” He always thought of everything.
“Yay! Samores!”
He chuckled. “S’mores and yes. What would you like to do first tomorrow?”
“Umm,” I thought hard and ran through the list of all the fun stuff I’d planned in my head. “Snow angels.”
“That sounds wonderful. Then we can visit the town afterwards and have lunch, maybe do a bit of shopping. Sound like a plan, Little One?”
I loved all the silly nicknames Daddy had for me. “The perfect plan, Daddy. You’re so smart.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“That’s okay, ‘cause I do. You own your own business,” I held up a finger, “Oops, ketchup,” then sucked it off and started again. “You drive a big truck. You made Oscar a business partner. He was so happy about that, Daddy.”
“It was the right thing to do.”
“You can build anything you want. You take good care of your boy, and you planned the perfect ‘cation for us.” There, I said it all and that was a lot.
“You’re a silly boy but thank you, you humble your Daddy.”
Not sure what that meant but Daddy was smiling, so it must’ve been something good.
“Daddy, I bet you could build us a cabin, huh?” It would be so awesome to have our own place to escape the busy city from. “I could run and hop with the bunnies and feed the Bambis and play in the snow all the time if we had a cabin.”
“Sounds like you have this all planned out.”
“Uh-huh. Easy peasy.” At least it was to me, but I didn’t do the building stuff. Daddy pulled his phone out and started typing away. “You said no work this week, Daddy.”
“Your fault. Now you have Daddy thinking about buying land and building a cabin on it.”
Shoot, I guess that was my fault. “My bad,” but I wasn’t very sorry at all.
“Ha-ha, yes, your bad, but not in a bad way. Daddy just made a few notes to remind him to talk to Oscar about this once we get back home.”
After we got the kitchen cleaned up, Daddy made a fire then pulled out the samores yummies from their hidey place. “Sneaky Daddy.” I peeked around him, trying to guess where he’d hid them so I could sneak some more later. Oops, sneaky boy but… samores were the best.
“I have to be with my little sugar gremlin running around,” Daddy winked. I was a wild boy who got a mad case of the zoomies when I had too much sugar for sure. The running around part was fun but the coming down from it, not so much.
“Come over here, Tae,” Daddy patted the cushion beside him.
He’d taken the pillows from the couch and set them on the floor in front of the fire.
“Be careful not to let it drip. Here,” Daddy handed me a pokey stick with a giant marshmallow on the end.
“Hold it over the fire and keep turning it so it doesn’t catch fire. ”
“But the burnt ones are crunchy and yummy.” I liked them that way.
“Okay, but if it does, we have to blow it out. Don’t shake the skewer or it’ll fly everywhere and may burn down the cabin.”
“That would be bad, Daddy.”
“Yes, that would be very bad indeed.” Knowing Daddy, he was in panic mode already, afraid it would happen. Upset Daddy wasn’t one I liked ‘cause it made me sad. I’d be a good boy and take extra care of…
“Oops,” my marshmallow turned into a big flame and Daddy took the skewer from me and blew it out.
“Yours is done.” He pressed it between two graham crackers and made the chocolate chunk all ooey gooey. “Here you go.”
Daddy finished making his and by the time I’d finished mine, like in two point four seconds, I was all… “I’m sticky, Daddy.” His eyes got all bulgy and it made me giggle. “You belong in a cartoon, Daddy, with your buggy eyes.”
“Sweetheart, how did you manage to cover half your face in marshmallow and your hands? Two of your fingers are stuck together?”
I sighed. “I know, I can’t get them apart.” I tried really hard but they just stayed that way.
“Don’t cry, just um, just sit still while Daddy finishes his real quick then we’ll get you in the shower. Unfortunately, the cabin doesn’t have a tub.”
I forgot about that.
“Shoot.” Now I was stuck. It wasn’t fair to ask Daddy to stop eating his treat, so I waited. And waited, then waited some more. Daddy was taking forever.
“Don’t get huffy with your Daddy, you did this to yourself, Tae.” He took his time cleaning everything up then started the shower water. “We’ll have to see if there’s a laundromat in town tomorrow. These clothes won’t wait another week, or they’ll have to be thrown out.”
“No, Daddy, this is my favorite Stitch shirt.” My head dropped and my chin got stuck. “Daddy, I’m stuck.”
“It’s no wonder. How a single marshmallow made that much mess I’ll never know. Come on, let’s peel your clothes off.”
“You bought the super-duper ginormous mallows”
“Yes, because those are your favorite ones but at home you never get this messy.”
“Sorry, Daddy.”
Daddy wasn’t happy, but he didn’t yell. In all the time I’ve known him he’s never hollered at anyone, even when one of the vendors messed up. It took a bit of scrubbing, and I think some of my skin came off with it, but as soon as I was dried off, Daddy dressed me in my footie jams.
“Pick a story and I’ll read to you during milky time.
” I grabbed a new one out of my backpack while Daddy made the fire come back to life.
He took off his binder and sat on the couch, then I crawled up on his lap.
“Let’s do the left side first tonight. Okay, what are we reading?
Hmm, Little Piggy Goes to Camp. Should be cute. ”
Daddy started reading while I got my sucky on. Nummy milk to wash down the sugary samore. Snuggled up on Daddy’s lap all nice and warm.
My favorite place to be.