try begging
The child looked up at him and tilted his head. It seemed that he did not know what Norse was. So he asked in Norse where he had learned this word. The child excitedly answered in Norse. He had learned it from his neighbor.
Neighbor? Did you escape all the way to Norden?
"Then where did you live with your mom before here?"
"uh...."
The child thought deeply for a while and then described the characteristics of the place where he lived. He said that when he took a deep breath, he could smell salt and that in the morning, there were large white birds with yellow beaks sitting on the window sill.
"How did that bird cry?"
"Crunch crunch, cry like this."
As expected, it was a seagull. That means it lived near the sea. There was no sea in Norden. Besides, there was no reason for it to run away to another country and come back here. I searched the suburbs of Abington Beach thoroughly, so it didn't seem to be there.
Is it a port city where Norden immigrants live together?
He lived in hiding among people who were slow to catch up with news in immigrant districts where public authority could not reach.
You're good at thinking.
He wasted two years because he had not even thought about this. While he was feeling bitter and defeated, a child suddenly ran up to him.
"How can a baby cry because it's hungry?"
Then he took back the rabbit doll and the bottle he had been holding.
He realized only after he found out that the child was a girl. He had been secretly imagining a son. He must have been unconsciously looking forward to the day when he could do for his son the same things his father had done for him.
Because of that, I didn't know how to deal with my daughter.
"Don't you know how to give baby mama?"
Seeing him scolding him like my mother and giving milk to the doll, I know one thing.
It's lovely.
The child wrapped the doll in a blanket, put it next to him, and patted it to put it to sleep.
The baby is crying.
Leon suddenly remembered something and took his bonnet out of his jacket pocket.
"This is yours. Don't you remember?"
I took off the crown from the child who was shaking his head and put a bonnet on him. It felt like he had grown a lot in the meantime, but the bonnet was small.
"Eww, it's stuffy."
The child threw the bonnet off his lap, throwing it in his lap. It was the same baby who had thrown the bonnet off at the harbor. A wistful smile spread across Leon's face.
"I'm bored?"
The child asked that and began to search under the side table next to the sofa. I wondered what he was doing, and he was struggling to get out a thick book. When Leon took it out for him, the child placed it on his lap.
"Have you seen baby Ellie? Have you not seen her? If you're bored, go see baby Ellie."
What the child gave me was an album. Then he raised his index finger to his lips and whispered as if it was a secret.
"Ellie is no longer a baby, so don't tell Mommy. Mommy thinks Ellie is still a baby."
"It's a baby," Leon said, chuckling and gently pinching the child's soft cheek.
As the child began to rummage through the toy basket again, Leon, who had been smiling happily and looking down at the album, hardened his face as soon as he saw the name written on the cover.
Elizabeth?
"Ellie."
"Huh?"
"Is your name Elizabeth?"
"huh!"
The back of his neck felt sore. Leon gritted his teeth and muttered.
"Your mom really...."
"Mom, you're really pretty!"
"... That's right."
That wasn't what he meant, though. The child, completely unaware, started bragging about his mother.
"Mom, you're so soft when you hug me."
"That's true too."
"Mom, you smell good too."
"yes."
"Mom is good at singing too."
"okay?"
I didn't know that. But you wouldn't know that your mother is a wicked genius at drugging your father.
"Phew... ."
I guess I should change my name. Leon sighed deeply and opened the album.
Each photo had a detailed story written in the woman's handwriting, along with the date and the child's age. At first, there were only photos taken in a photo studio, but gradually the number of photos taken outdoors increased.
At 19 months, she cried on Santa's lap at the department store. At 23 months, she rode a pony for the first time at the zoo. At 24 months, she chose her own second birthday cake. At 25 months, she went to daycare for the first time away from her mother.
As the moment of memory approached the present, the smiles of the woman and child in the photo grew brighter. However, Leon's face gradually darkened.
This is time that will never come back. The album reminded him more poignantly than anything else how precious moments he had missed.
As the blank pages began to appear, Leon turned to the front. Unfortunately, there were no photos of him when he was younger than six months.
Ellie's first photo was taken with my mother at a photo studio. The baby was smiling brightly in the photo, but Grace's face was trying to smile but failing. Looking at the date, I could see why she couldn't smile. It was just before we were going to send the baby to him.
When I realized that Ellie, who was only six months old, looked so much like him, my regrets only deepened. I should have held her that day on the cruise ship. Leon, who wanted at least a picture, knelt down in front of the table and asked the child who was busily telling stories.
"Dad, can I have this?"
"Don't touch it. That's Mom's."
"Then what about this?"
"Don't even give me that."
He became fed up with the continued rejection and lifted the child up into his lap, asking,
"Then what about Ellie?"
"Mom, turn it off, of course!"
The child was resolute to the point of being pitiful. Then he looked blankly at Leon's face and jumped down from his lap, adding:
"Instead, Dad will give it to Ellie."
He called her daddy. And on top of that, he said she was mine. Where on earth did he learn to do the foxy thing of patting a person's heart right after he'd stabbed them in the heart? While Leon was mulling over his daughter's words dozens of times, the girl went back to playing house.
"Okay. Eat up! It's delicious!"
After a while, the simplest yet most precious tea table in his life was set up on a small coffee table.
"What are you going to drink?"
"Uh... coffee?"
"No such thing. Drink strawberry tea."
The child tipped the kettle into a toy cup and held it out to him. Leon took the empty cup. He felt an unspoken pressure as the child watched him with expectant, turquoise eyes, and he awkwardly tipped the empty cup.
"Would you like to drink?"
"huh."
"Then let's eat the cake Ellie baked too."
This time the child held out a fork to the empty plate.
"Would you like to drink?"
"Yeah, it's delicious. There's nothing Ellie can't do."
"swimming...."
At first, it was very awkward, but gradually, this childish game became fun. The small house that had seemed shabby gradually began to feel cozy.
Evidence that he lived with a generous heart, even if his wallet was not full, was visible everywhere in the house. This house was full of things that money could not buy. Things that his house did not have.
Leon looked down at the toy teacup in his hand. It seemed as if he could feel the warmth of the teacup filled with love instead of expensive tea.
"Eat this too. You have to eat everything."
This time the child held out a toy plate containing two pieces of real chocolate.
"Thank you, Ellie."
When I kissed the child on the forehead, he laughed again.
After Ellie finished setting up the 'tea table', she didn't take her eyes off him. She kept smiling and asking him excitedly if he liked what she had prepared. I didn't expect her to treat me like my mother, but I never imagined she would treat me this well. Leon asked me to eat all the chocolates he had given me and put them in the child's mouth.
"Ellie, do you like your dad coming?"
The child blushed and nodded vigorously. Leon's heart pounded happily at the words he added brightly.
"Ellie, there's a dad at home now."
In fact, I had felt lonely ever since I came here. The woman and child lived happily without him. When I realized that they didn't need me at all, it felt like a nail was driven into my heart.
But the child needed me. He had already come to accept me as a member of the household where he and his mother used to live alone.
Leon put down the plate, picked up the angel, and sat him on his lap.
"Ellie, did you want a daddy?"
"huh."
"So, does your dad like you?"
The child looked at him, sucked his thumb shyly, and nodded. It was so adorable that it took my breath away.
"Has your father ever been at Ellie's house? Have you ever called another man 'dad'?"
Anyone who dares to hear the word 'daddy' from his daughter will have a bullet put in their ear.
"Has any other old man ever come?"
The child shook his head to all three questions. Leon kissed the child's cheek and whispered,
"Well done, my daughter."
He had already confirmed that there were no male belongings in the house. Leon was relieved when Ellie confirmed again that Grace had never brought another man into her or the child's life.
"When Mom comes, she says she wants Dad to stay at Ellie's house the whole time. Promise."
"promise."
I can't believe you already listen to your dad so well. You're truly an angel.