Windows
The sunset had an air of unreality about it. The sky seemed to be framing the street as is if were a set for a stage play. Heavy fog curtained the scene and the huge clouds threatened to explode any second. The panicked people rushed to the train station holding colorful umbrellas as firm as holding swords to fight with the evil spirits descending from the clouds.
Except for him whose hands were empty. He did not notice the extraordinariness of this scene but headed towards the shelter of station. Neither did he have the patience to wait for the Windows update. But he left it to run in the office. He was too tired to ask whether that was the only way to solve the speed problem.
“A new computer will solve all the problems. Leave it overnight and go home. ” His friend teased at his impatience. He did not object to it but nodded with a smile, pretending not to understand the meaning outside that comment. Now a branch of dusty leaves was bent down at his jacket, which failed his attempt to overtake two students. He sighed and slowed down then tried another way at his right side.
A woman with a baby in trolley also stopped there. She failed to light a cigarette in the wind. “How can she smoke before her baby? Such an irresponsible mother!” He could not think more as the thought would hurt him. His daughter Heidi was not grown up enough to know why she had to leave her daddy and live with a new uncle. But he rather wished she would never grow up, or never become a mother like her mother. No matter how skillfully they pretended to be good parents before their daughter, he could not hide the fact that he had to leave Heidi for a while and would only come to see her under authorized visitations. He would miss her pinky cheeks and the secret between them. One day he would explain to her that husband and wife alike should respect marriage, in which is not a fairy tale that a happy princess married a handsome prince. God knows how much he tried to be the ideal man in Sally’s life.
But she easily got annoyed at his nervousness in bed. “Kelvin, you are as boring as the sermon on Sunday service.” When she eventually told him frankly, she ha already moved out to sleep with Heidi for a week. Heidi was happy to have mum at her bedside and would not let her go.
“She must shiver at the thunder now.” A long roll of thunder groaned across the sky. He speeded up the pace and overtook a girl who put her hands on her ears. “Is she running to her room to hide in the quilt? Poor girl! Her snoopy quilt is too flimsy! Sally should close the windows for her!”
He was slowed down by a branch dropping before him. He raised his eyes to look at the leaves snatched in the wind as helpless as him. The sight of this lent him a glimpse of the red shelter of the station. He began to realize how much he desired the shelter of the station more than the real one of his home. “’Coz there is no one to care.” He murmured to himself and could not accept the fact that Heidi had left him for a month. On that day the girl would not know the truth but ask her daddy to come along.
“No, daddy is busy.” He did not lie. At that time they were busy at signing the divorce agreement. “I will go for a big job to create the biggest playground for my Heidi, bigger than
“Will you come home?” Her little shoulders were too thin to know how to address her step-father.
“Promise me to be a good girl.” He pull Heidi’s soft hair back to her ears and touched her small cheeks. “I will call it ‘Snoopy Land’. How does that sound?”
“Yah! Daddy Daddy, it is good! Can you do it now? But can you remember
Sally stopped her, “You will sleep in his house, darling. Say good-bye to daddy. ”
Heidi was upset by her mum’s interruption and stood still to receive the warm kiss from him.
“I will come to see you and you have to tell me the latest snoopy news.”
“But you have to call me snoopy first. My name is not Heidi.”
“Ok, see you, snoopy.”
* * * *
“Take care!”
Hearing meaningless words from other people’s mouths, he had been in front of the gates of the station. They were words that he could not speak to Heidi at the last minute. If he did, he would cry. How could he do this before his beloved daughter? Flashes of lightning streaked across the sky. He remembered his daughter’s bright eyes shining with slyness.
“Daddy Daddy…”Heidi suddenly turned and ran to him before she jumped in the car. He was surprised to see her return; He was surprised to see his train already stop at the platform. He ran to her as fast as he ran to the closing door.
“Heidi, don’t run! I am here!” He received her like receiving the most valuable gift in his life.
“Daddy, I forgot to tell you, don’t tell our secret to others. If you do, you cannot have ice-cream in three weeks.”
“Yes, darling, of course I won’t.” He was expecting something else from her but she ran away back to her mother. Her leaving pull out all her daddy’s weight of being and his brain was blank. After quite a while, he blamed himself that he should not forget that Heidi dreamt to marry Charlie Brown.
“Daddy daddy, shhhh…” She turned her head before getting in the car and put the index finger on her pouting month, rejecting her mother who was busy to pulling on a jacket over her jumper.
The jacket was Heidi’s Christmas gift when she was graduated from kindergarten. He was pleased at seeing this. Then he stood up and saluted to her to say that he knew her mind. She was giggling as usual but her sound was drowned quickly in the noise of engine.
The carriage door was closed before he could go in. A dazzling light shone on his eyes and he felt uncomfortable. He continued to walk along the platform away from the crowd. The rain fell as if the sky opened its windows. The sound of raindrops had never been so clear, like a universe clock that clicked at its fastest speed and disturbed people’s hearts. Everyone stopped talking in the heavy rain. Even the trains lost voice. But the rain can never overcome the sound of his daughter’s giggling in his heart. Instead it was as if his daughter was giggling from the sky, short of breath, full of excitement. Yes, excitement, that’s what Sally was after for years but she rarely made him feel excited. Heidi will grow up one day and find her man. “Maybe like her dad.” He smiled at himself, triumphantly.
* * * *
“Hey, I saw a message popping up from the Windows update when it was done.” He walked up to the station with his friend the next day. “ It said, ‘Do you want to restart now?’” He told his friend, rubbing a pinky snoopy scarf in his hand, “and I chose ‘yes’.” His eyes were blinking with something that his friend never saw before - A freshness was born from the air after the rain.
