The life and times of Lafayette Ryder

When we get back home the meteor shower has already ended, the boys are both sound asleep in bed, and Twilight is sitting in the library reading a book and impatiently waiting for my return. I tell Dulcie to wait outside for a moment as I walk in.

“Twilight,” I say softly. She looks up from her book and frowns at me.

“About time you got back, I was worried something happened to you. You said you would be just a minute but it’s been an hour already.” She seems upset but at least she’s not mad at me.

“Something has happened Twi, something big.” I sit down next to her and stroke her mane gently. “Hey,” I call out to Dulcie. “Would you come in now?” the front door opens and my baby girl walks in nervously.

“Hi,” she says to Twilight with a little, halfhearted wave.

“Hi...” Twilight greets her back.

“Twilight,” I say. “You remember me telling you about my daughter right? This is her, this is Dulcie.” Twilight looks at Dulcie, Dulcie looks at Twilight, and no one says a thing for a long, tense few minutes.

“Want a chocolate?” My girl breaks the silence by offering her new mother in-law some sweets.

“Do they have caramel in them?” twilight asks quietly.

“Mmmhmm.” Dulcie answers.

Twilight levitates a few candies out of the bag and over to her. “I love caramel, the candy not the pony I mean.” I chuckle a little and then a lot, Twilight joins in and after a second Dulcie joins as well.

“Come on over Dulcie,” I tell her and pat the cushion next to me as we laugh. She sits next to me and smiles.

“Nice to meet you Dulcie,” Twilight says cheerfully. “Welcome to the family or welcome back I suppose, either way I’m glad to have you here.” Twilight sounds happy so I guess she’s OK with Dulcie being here.

“I’m glad to be here too, I’ve missed daddy a lot, I’ve missed mom a lot as well,” she sighs. “But now I’m back with daddy and I have a new mom,” she stops dead and her smile fades away. “Is it OK to call you that?”

“Absolutely Dulcie,” Twilight beams at my girl. “I’ve always wanted a daughter!”

The smile and the happiness return to Dulcie as she reaches over me to hug Twilight. “Thanks… mom, you wouldn’t believe how happy that makes me.” they hold on for a second and I decide to join in, embracing the two of them and grinning slightly. We sit like this for a while until one of the boys starts crying in their room.

“I’d better go check on them.” Twilight says apologetically. After she leaves to care for the boys I stand and stretch.

“Wanna go see your new room?” I ask her.

“Sure dad.” She stands and follows me to the guest bedroom.

“Sorry ’bout the mess, we just had someone stay here a few days ago.” Dulcie sits down on the unmade bed as I walk into the hallway to grab some things from a linen closet; I walk back in with an armful of pillows, blankets, sheets, and something else. I set the things on the bed and sit down next to my girl.

“Thanks,” she says while unhooking her breastplate.

“Nice armor, mine’s better.” She laughs and I grin. “Do you remember me at all?”

“Of course I do dad, I’ve been in your head for years and-”

“No, I mean do you remember me from when you were little? I know you were just a baby the last time I actually saw you but…” I sigh. “For two and a half years now I’ve worried that I’ve ruined your life by not being there, I know it wasn’t my fault that I died and there was nothing I could have done, but I still worried. I didn’t have to go on that third tour of duty you know, I agreed to it even though you had just been born, I thought I’d make it back, I was sure I would.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Yeah,” a tear rolls down my cheek and a few more follow as I give her what’s in my hand.

“A doll?”

“I bough that in Iraq,” I explain to her. “Swapped a man my lunch and dinner for it, his family ate that day and I had a present for you. I held onto it the entire time I was there, even had it in my pack when I went. I just couldn’t wait to be home, to see Lizzie, to see you. I’m sorry.” She leans over and hugs me.

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“Look,” she pulls her breastplate off revealing a wifebeater under it and a stash of candy attached to the metal at the bosom. “Heh,” she giggles. “If I didn’t have such a flat chest I couldn’t store my sweets here, or this.” She pulls out a wrinkled, dog-eared, chocolate stained picture of me holding her as a baby and standing next to Lizzie. “Mom, Lizzie, gave me this when I was ten, I’ve had it on me ever since and when I died I guess it went with me too.”

“So what’s heaven like?” I ask her.

“I dunno, I just made it to the angel’s office in purgatory, they gave me an iPhone and my choice of attire, I actually had been wearing a skirt and fishnet stockings but they got, er, ripped so I swapped them out for these pants.”

“Wait, they have iPhones in heaven?”

“Yep, Steve Jobs got into a little beef with God and is spending some time in hell with Hitler and Mr. Rogers building tech for all the angels and saints.”

“Huh, so you know how I bit it but I still don’t know how you kicked the bucket. What the fuck happened?”

“My dumbass boyfriend stole his old man’s bike and told me he knew how to drive it, he didn’t. We were going sixty down a highway when he hit a rock or something and biffed it; he flipped the hog and ate some road while I went flying into the back of a semi. Not a great one year anniversary.”

“Hell, now I really regret being there, I woulda killed the little asshole after the first date!”

“Oh dad, he wasn’t that bad… OK fine, he was a fucking idiot and I could of done better but… he was really good in bed so… yeah.” I facepalm.

“I thought you liked girls, why couldn’t you have just been a good little dyke and not gotten killed by some fucktard with a stolen motorcycle?”

“He was the main reason I started liking girls, him and the other angels that took the ‘communal’ showers very seriously.” I laugh until I start snorting.

“Oh good God this is an odd conversation to be having with my daughter.”

“I can make it worse by reminding you that your all time favorite book has a sex scene with me in it!”

“You little troll, you!”

We sit there and laugh for five or ten minutes until I hear Twilight call me from my room.

“Well duty calls,” I joke. “If you need anything the bathroom is the second door on the right, the first is the boys’ room and the third is my room, don’t come in anytime from eleven to one if you know what’s good for you. Be up by four for breakfast and be ready to travel tomorrow, we have to go have a little chat with the princesses.” I lean over and kiss Dulcie on the forehead. “Goodnight Dulcie.”

“Goodnight daddy.”

I help her make the bed and then I leave so she can change and get some shuteye. I look back at my baby girl as I close the door and think ‘Now I can make up all that lost time, now I can have a real family, maybe now I can be happy.’ I walk down to my room and find Twilight in bed waiting for me.

“How’d it go?” she asks.

“Good,” I tell her. “She’s taking the change well, though she’s been through a few universes so it’s nothing new for her.” I strip down naked and slid under the covers next to my wife. Twi snuggles up to me and starts kissing me.

“How would you feel if I got an actual job?” I ask in the midst of a deep kiss.

“That would be fine so long as you save some time in the afternoon for the boys and some time at night for me.” She slips a bit of tongue in and I chuckle.

“I’ll always have time for my kids,” I say as I roll on top of Twilight. “And I’ll always have time for you.”