Wee Hours

"Uhh-mphh"

I was suddenly awake, thinking my name had just been called. When it repeated on the baby monitor, I headed out of bed and down to Daddy's room. It wasn't clear, but he sleeps with his mouth open and dry mouth renders his speech mostly unintelligible. Water helps. Either way, it was a call out.

When I announced my arrival to him, picking up his hand to hold as I sat next to his bed, he asked me to please go find Heather. He had something he needed to say to her.

"What did you want to tell me, Daddy?"

"I need to tell her to write a story, a good story like the Bible."

Oh, that's not presumptuous, not a bit.

"It doesn't have to be the Bible, just a good story like that."

Oh, that's good. 'Cause it's already, like, been written.

"OK Daddy, I can do that. In fact, I've been writing a lot. It's one of the things I do when I'm on the computer." It's called a blog, but you wouldn't understand that word.

"That's good. Say, you really are Heather, aren't you?"

A bit more conversation and I returned to bed. Of course, by now, there was no sleep left to be had.

Later, as I was getting ready to leave for work, he was busy admiring the apple tree growing out of the entertainment center and the orange tree growing in the dining room table. I wished Richard a good day. He was going to need it.