Notelet XII: More Than Meets The Eye

It was a nice autumn day. The trees swayed in unison with the gentle breeze. Daniel H. loved this time of the year. The colours, the beauty of sea green interspersed with burnt yellow and rust. "What a world", he thought to himself. Everything would have been perfect except...That still didn't stop him from daydreaming. It didn't hurt to. "Daddy", Isabel and her twin Bengy interrupted his thoughts. "Yes, my little stars", he turned his face to give them full attention. "When do we go to the animal farm again?" Bengy screamed. Isabel joined in, "it's been long". "Please daddy". Any father's heart would break if he saw the looks in these adorable duos eyes. His heart was breaking. He wanted to take his children out. Which father didn't. He just didn't have the means. After his wife's unexpected change in working pattern, he was lumbered with the job of looking after his stars since he was self-employed. He didn't mind but recently people were not taking up carpentry work as they used to. No thanks to all the YouTube vlogs which showed how to fix just about anything. He was the biggest earner and the slow going had put a strain on the family savings not to mention diapers costs - for two! At 2, the twins were going through diapers like water. What would he do? What could he do. After the next couple of months they wouldn't be able to keep up the mortgage not to mention maintaining the family car. The MOT was coming due as well as the road tax. "Oh bummer", he whispered to himself. All that could wait this moment. He needed to make his stars' day someway, somehow especially on the 16 September. But how?

He whisked both in his arms with one full swoop and planted liberal peckers on their foreheads. He would never get enough of their hearty laughter. DH lay tossed in bed beads if sweat all over his body. With no money how would he celebrate his stars' birthday. "Oh my God, am a bad father", he repeated to himself. The next day DHs posture was limp and strained. Even the stars could tell there was a change in daddy and they tried to cheer him up with hugs.
On the morning of 16 September, DH had only managed to buy them a toy each from the thrift store. His wife had managed to bake what looked somewhat like a cake with mixed soda and water. All their birthday splendours came to £10.00. There was a distinct knock on the door jut before the twins woke up. "Honey, who can it be at this time of the morning?", his wife asked. "I dunno, love", he replied. "We will find out". He opened the door to find stacks of presents at the doorstep with a note simply written, "for the stars". He stood there speechless with Candace next to him. "Baby", Candace said, "you could have fooled me". "But I didn't. This isn't from me", DH replied. The twins pounced on the presents at that moment tearing away the wrappers frantically. With the little words they knew they said, "daddy, mammi, tank ooouuu". Candace and DH had to revisit this surprise another day.
That evening, while making dinner with the tv on, DH heard the same distinct knock he'd heard in the morning. This time it was coming from the tv. The tv. He swang 90 degrees to see who the knock belonged to. At that moment, he saw hard-headed, mean, cold Grace Hathaway being interviewed. "Grace?" There was not a soft bone in her. Indeed she was wealthy but that was about it. Then He heard her story...Grace didn't start out cold. She'd always been giving. She had a secret life and although he couldn't make it out it involved children. Tears were in his eyes as he looked down at his stars who had crept up on him. But for Grace...

You are quintessentially special,

Love Abba