"Daddy, can you please

read a story? Pleeeease?"

Charlie furrowed his eyebrows

and ran his fingers through the

tiny gray ends of his hair.

The kids had put a ton of new

found stress onto his crumbling

shoulders; on top of that,

college.

He thought that college was

supposed to be a new burst

of freedom, of late night stares

into the sky with her by his side.

Now he can't go to the bathroom

without tripping on a rubber duck

or suffocating a teddy bear with

his foot.

"Yeah, yeah, sure but only

one book. Okay? Not two,

not three, and certainly

not four. Not like last night."

He playfully glared at the

two toddlers, who resembled

someone that he hadn't

even told them about.

"Thank you, Daddy!" Adelina

and Theo replied in unison.

"Lina, it's your turn to pick

a book; go ahead."

"Daddy, we have read all the

books. Three times," She pulled the

words heavily out of her mouth. Out of

the blue, she stomped her foot and it

looked absolutely adorable.

Holding in a laugh, Charlie

stuttered (still working on it),

"Okay, I'll m-make up a story

then. Is t-that okay?"

"Daddy, everyone at

school has a daddy

and a mommy. Or a daddy and a

daddy. Or a mommy and a mommy.

Do we have a mommy? Where is

mommy?"

One question. Just one question

that can turn a whole day of

laughter into absolute gloom

and distress.

"Your..your what?"

"Mommy." Theo came over

to Charlie and climbed onto the sofa

next to him.

"Tell us about our mommy."

"Your mommy...well..

she's away right now."

"Is she working?" Adelina

asked, with a sincere

sadness tinting her tiny

voice.

"Yeah, she has a special job. She

looks after people. She even looks after

you two—did you know that?"

With a burst of surprise,

the two munchkins huddled

closer to Charlie. "She does?

How does she look like?"

A pause. Dreaded seconds

of a

heart, racing thoughts of her rushed through

Charlie's veins.

"How she looks like? W-well, she looks l-like..."

He shuffled through his pockets, fetched

out his phone, and scrolled through endless baby

pictures, trying to find the first picture

in his phone.

"This is your m-m-mommy."

"Wow. She's so pretty." Adelina gazed up

onto the screen. Her tiny finger traced

the smile of Azura.

"Hey, Lina, she looks like you!" Theo pointed

out. A beaming smile drawled itself onto his

tiny face.

Charlie let out a laugh. A real one.

"You do look like her, Lina."

"Our mommy is the best." The

two munchkins smiled proudly.

"She is, she really is."

Charlie let out a sigh of

relief. And a little quiet thank you

to the angel up above.