The Family Man

Today was the day that Ashley was leaving to go on tour. He was all packed and ready to go. All that was left was the good bye with the kids. I had no idea how they would react to it. By the time he got back from their last tour, the twins were still three years old. They knew he toured, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that they didn’t remember him being gone.
“You’ve got everything right?” I asked him again.
“Yes Belle, I have everything I need.” He replied. “I have done this before you know.”
“I know, I just like to be sure.”
A honk came from outside. I looked out the window to see the tour bus waiting in front of the house.
“All right then, I guess it’s time for me to head out.” He said, grabbing the last of his bags.
“Samantha, Jack, come downstairs!” I yelled.
They both came running out of their room, following us downstairs. I opened the door to see Andy, waiting to help Ashley with his things.
I quickly leaned over and whispered in his ear. “You know what to do.”
He nodded his head and headed out to the bus with some bags. I knew Ashley would never willingly cheat, but that one incident always came to mind when he toured.
“All right kids, time to say good bye to Daddy.” I said.
“Bye Daddy, I’ll miss you.” Samantha said, giving him a tight hug.
“I’ll miss you too Samantha.” He said, giving her a squeeze.
“Bye Daddy.” Jack said. “You’ll be back soon?”
“I’ll only be gone until the end of March.” Ashley replied. “Why don’t you mark it on the calendar? Then the two of you can cross off the days until I get home.”
“Okay.” They both nodded.
“Come here.” He pulled them both into one last giant hug.
“Where’s my hug?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Right here.” He hugged me close and kissed me.
“I’ll miss you.” I said. “I love you Ashley.”
“I love you too Belle. I’ll call as often as I can.” He gave me one last kiss before taking the last of his things and walking out to the tour bus.
The twins and I waved as we watched it drive away. Then we went back inside and got the calendar before I could forget.
“Here you go.” I said. “Daddy comes home on March 24th.”
I gave Jack a red marker and he circled the date on the calendar.
“So every morning you can cross that day off and it’ll be one day closer to Daddy coming home.” I said.
They both nodded at me.
“Can we go play now?” Samantha asked.
“Of course.” I replied.
They both ran up the stairs to their bedroom. I smiled, that could have gone a lot worse.

It had been three weeks since Ashley had left and the twins seemed to be taking it rather well. Every morning one of them would put an X through that day on the calendar. Occasionally they would complain about missing him, but not too much. I was also doing my best to keep them distracted. When they weren’t at school I would take them places, like the zoo, or the park. They were also spending a lot of time with Anna and Tara. Ella, Juliet and I were also keeping each other company.
I was preparing dinner for the twins when it started. I suddenly felt light headed and a little dizzy. I steadied myself on the counter and in a few moments I was fine. I continued what I had started. Then it came back even stronger and I could see black spots in front of my eyes. Then I blacked out.

Notes

Dun dun dun! Lots of drama coming! Please comment.