Chapter 4
It was Friday night, the end of Silas’ first week back in school, and the first of two days he would spend with his daughter. While awaiting her arrival, he worked frantically to make major leeway on his Humanities paper, realizing that once Hurricane Ava landed all bets were off. After hearing his doorbell ring and peeking through the peephole, Silas was beyond excited to greet his baby girl and make her feel at home.
“Ava!” he cheered, grinning from ear to ear, as he swung the door open to his apartment.
Hoisted on her mother’s hip, Ava smiled and then coyly buried her head into Kalyn’s shoulder.
“Oh, so now you’re playing shy!” Kalyn mused looking down at her baby girl. Ava peeped back at Kalyn and grinned like she was totally in on the gag.
Silas playfully nudged Ava, to draw her attention, and then held his arms out. She laughed as she reached out to him and made the figurative and actual leap from her mom’s world to her dad’s.
“Hi Pop!” Ava cooed after latching on to Silas’s hip and before sticking her thumb in her mouth.
“Hi baby!” Silas said, placing a kiss on her forehead. He then looked over at Kalyn. “C’mon in,” he said, inviting her into his apartment and stepping aside to give her enough space.
“Alright, little girl!” Kalyn said, carting Ava’s bags over the threshold. “It’s you and Daddy – I mean, Pop – again this weekend!” she continued, depositing Ava’s things onto the ground.
Silas closed his door and walked over to the couch steps away from the front door. After landing another soft peck on her cheek, he gently placed Ava onto the couch.
“I’ll be back to get her Sunday morning,” Kalyn said nonchalantly to Silas.
“Sunday?” Silas repeated, looking confused. “Wait. I thought you said you would be back to get her on Saturday,” he probed, this time with a stern look in his eyes. He couldn’t believe how Kalyn tried to casually change their original agreement, audaciously telling him that she would be back a day later instead of asking if that was OK.
“Oh, right!” Kalyn replied, her eyes darting to the floor. “I’ll need to be out of town a little longer than I initially expected.”
Silas’ eyes narrowed. He felt like he was being pushed into a corner and resented Kalyn for springing this latest development on him in front of Ava.
“I’ll try to get back as soon as I can,” Kalyn promised, looking at Silas with apologetic eyes.
Silas sighed. “I’ve got things I need to do too, Kalyn.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, for letting you know so last minute. I just found out about the change in plans myself.”
“Well next time you need to – “
“Pop!” Ava interjected, distracting Silas. Apparently, quite proud of the latest trick she had learned, Ava triumphantly held the shoe she’d just unlaced and removed from her foot in her left hand.
Kalyn diverted her attention over toward the couch. “You guys don’t have too much fun, now,” she said, walking over to Ava. “Love you, Love bug,” she chirped before giving Ava a hug. Kalyn reluctantly looked back over at Silas. “She should be ready for bed in about an hour or so,” she mentioned while Ava was hard at work unlacing the other shoe
“OK!” Silas sighed, walking over to open the door and then motioning Kalyn towards it. “Listen,” he said in a whisper, as she crossed into the hallway, “don’t spring something like this on me again – especially not in front of Ava!”
Kalyn sighed and left without acknowledging Silas’ final words to her.
Feeling a mix of confusion and resentment, Silas didn’t really know what to make of her behavior. He wasn’t sure if she had actually found herself in a jam at the eleventh hour – with little recourse – or if she’d just played him like a fiddle. Either way, they would definitely have a conversation about it later – he knew he needed to nip whatever this was in the bud and fast!
Silas stood at the door for a minute, just trying to get his mind in the right space before he dealt with his daughter. After counting backward from 10 to 1, he walked back over to the couch and took a seat next to Ava who was playing with his remote control.
“Who’s ready for bath time?” Silas asked a distracted Ava.
Somewhat oblivious, Ava smiled and crawled into her dad’s lap, handing him the remote control once she was snuggly in place.
“Let’s watch TV another time,” he gently coaxed. “For now, let’s get you your bath, OK?” Silas insisted, standing to his feet and switching Ava from his lap to his hip. “We’ll give the rubber ducky a bath, too,” he said, as they walked toward the bathroom together.
After a bubble-filled bath time, with tons of splashing and laughter, Ava’s eyelids began to get heavy and droop. As she valiantly fought sleep, Silas dried her off, slipped on her pajamas, and tucked her into his bed, surrounded by pillows. Once he had sung her a lullaby and turned out the lights, he sat down at his kitchen table, lifted the screen on his laptop and tried to get some work in.
Exhausted, and much more interested in taking a nap than starting a homework set, Silas bit the bullet and powered through. He began by working on a quick but intense Javascript Programming assignment where he created a small function, injected it into a codebase, and ran it to ensure that he got the right output. Thinking that he should do a little more work on the Humanities paper next, he opened up the GoogleDoc Chance created and made a few edits. Before long, Silas realized that he was much too spent to try and keep the momentum going.
“I’ll just have to get back to it in the morning,” he yawned as he lowered his laptop screen and walked back to his room. As soon as he closed his eyes, Silas found himself in the land of Zzz’s. When he opened them again, it was the next day and the sun was shining brightly through his window. He looked over at Ava and was shocked to see that she was still asleep.
He sprang up and headed to get breakfast started but doubled-back quickly when he heard a distinctive whimper. “I know, baby!” he said, going back into his room and picking up a groggy Ava, “I didn’t want to get up either.” After carting her off to the kitchen and placing Ava in her high chair with her favorite toy, Silas went about making her a bowl of cream of wheat.
While she ate, he resumed working on another one of his sections to the Humanities paper, proud to see that his parts were shaping up nicely. Though the near-final versions of his sections were a little behind schedule, as he was still in heavy edit mode, Silas considered what he had completed so far to be some of his best work. Although he wasn’t sure how she would react to him falling slightly behind schedule, he fervently hoped that Chance would understand.
“Who wants to go to the park?” he sang to a giggling Ava as he finished up his work and prepared to take a break. Hoping to have some fun – and tire her out so that she would sleep through the night again – Silas got Ava dressed and headed out to a nearby playground. As she ran around excitedly, trying her best to keep up with a few of the older kids, Silas got an e-mail from Chance.
“The paper’s looking good!” she wrote, shocking Silas in the process. From his perspective, Chance wasn’t the kind to render empty compliments and he was relieved that she appreciated what he had done so far. “Are we still on for Sunday afternoon?” the message continued in her attempt to confirm that the appointment they had originally set was still a go.
Reluctantly, Silas confirmed, slightly unsure whether Kalyn would return to collect Ava in time. “Sure!” he replied, “Let’s meet at the library on campus.”
After prying his baby girl from the jungle gym and treating her to McDonald’s for lunch, Silas could sense that Ava was well overdue for her nap. The next few hours of naps, dinner, sleep, and Silas’ intermittent schoolwork, were somewhat of a blur after they returned home. But, all things considered, Silas was quite pleased that he was able to make it through in one piece. So far, as he had suspected, being a dad and a student was far from easy. Yet, as he continued to take everything one step at a time, he grew confident in his ability to find the right balance.
The next morning, after he got Ava up, fed, bathed, and dressed, Silas packed her bags so that she would be ready by the time her mother stopped by the apartment. As Ava sat and watched cartoons, Silas got a call from Kalyn.
“Hey, are you close?” he asked, peeking at his watch and realizing that the late morning was slowly turning into an early afternoon.
“No, I got stuck in Maryland. I actually – I won’t actually be back until this evening.”
“Kalyn, you’re kidding me!” Silas bellowed, his blood boiling as he reached the end of his patience. “I was really counting on you to be back earlier than later in the day!”
“Listen, I’m sorry!” she barked, somewhat defiantly. “I don’t know what you think but this wasn’t planned,” she continued.
“…and neither was this weekend,” he said, “You know this was my first weekend back in school. I really needed this time to study – ”
“Look, I will be there as soon as I can,” Kalyn interrupted, clearly not in the mood to fight.
“I’ve got a study group at 3:00 PM, I’ll bring Ava by your place after that. Around 5:00 PM,” he concluded. Trying to tamp down his anger.
“OK, I should be back by th– ” Kalyn said before Silas hung up, seething with anger. He had hoped that Kalyn would be an ally in his journey to providing a better future for their daughter but – so far – that seemed to be a dream deferred.
Still upset and not even trying to conceal it this time, Silas got Ava all packed up, into his car, and over to library. When he got there, although he was about thirty minutes early, Chance was already in place.
“You are always early,” he mused, carting Ava on his hip, as they approached the table where Chance was sitting. “It doesn’t even matter how early I am, you always beat me!”
As she watched Silas approach with a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl, Chance’s eyes grew wide and a soft smile appeared across her lips. “Who’s the munchkin?” she asked, with her head tilted.
“This,” Silas said, putting her on the floor, “is my daughter, Ava.”
“Ah! I didn’t know you were a dad!” she said, still smiling at the toddler.
“Well, yeah – this is actually the prior obligation I was talking about later,” he admitted sheepishly.
As if they were kindred spirits, reunited, Ava ran over to Chance and immediately got in her lap. Silas watched on in disbelief. Ava was social but very picky when it came to people she hadn’t ever met before. The way she gravitated toward Chance and, in turn, how Chance welcomed her with open arms made him feel silly about his reluctance to bring Ava along.
“Can she have some candy?” Chance chirped. Before Silas could answer, she had reached into her pocket and offered Ava an array of LifeSavers to choose from. “Now, are you going to be good while your dad and I work?” she asked Ava, nodding her head “yes” to steer the wide-eyed 1-year-old in the right direction. Returning the nod with a mischievous smirk, Ava grabbed a red piece of candy and struggled to break through its unyielding cellophane wrapper.
“Good!” Chance said, content that Ava would keep her promise. Ready to get to work she lifted Ava from her lap and placed her firmly in the adjacent chair. “Dad and I are going to need quiet, OK?” she explained. “Play with this pen and paper,” she insisted reaching into her bag and then placing the tools in front of Ava. As the toddler delighted in making a series of random lines, curves, and markings, she seemed much too engrossed in the task in front of her to be concerned with anything else.
“So,” Chance said, switching her attention back over to Silas and barely missing a beat. “I like how everything looks so far. I think we’re on the right track for a good submission,” she said, her eyes dancing. “Have you had a chance to read through it yet – from beginning to end?”
Silas couldn’t tell if time had chipped away Chance’s shell or if Ava had somehow melted it altogether, but he could sense a more mellow, warmer vibe radiating from the other side of the table. One that, quite notably, was missing during their very first conversation.
“No, not yet,” he admitted, “her mom was supposed to pick her up earlier today but – well – as you can see – that didn’t go as planned.”
“Ah!” Chance said. “Well, I’ve read it all the way through and I think we’re really close to the final draft - what we have is actually quite good.”
“That’s good to hear,” Silas said, registering her compliment with pride.
“Yeah – actually,” she began, looking over at Ava, “I think I can carry us over the goal line. It looks like you’ve got your hands full!”
“You sure?” Silas asked, feeling like a little bit of a slacker. “I can – “
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she continued, “All I’ve really got to do is buff the rough edges. The important parts are all there; at this point, it’s just a matter of connecting everything and making it coherent. Trust me – I got this!”
Silas smiled and thanked Chance for everything, truly grateful to have a solid partner.
“Bye cutie,” Chance said to Ava as Silas lowered her from the chair and grabbed her by the hand. Ava waved in return. “Hope to see you again real soon,” Chance remarked to Silas’ surprise.
“Soon,” Ava echoed with the vigor of learning a brand new word.