Daddy, when are you coming home?

It’s been a few months on the road, long hard days, not only for me, but a family that I have left behind. Left behind to keep life going without me and fill in the gap that I have left as well as doing their own bit.
Then there is a little person, Jade, a child who is like a bud that is slowly unravelling into a magical flower, that needs nurturing, love and guidance and attention.

Awakened with the morning rays bouncing into her room, she scurries into my room excitedly looking for me, but no, once again my place is empty, her heart sinks as she frowns with confusion, “Where is my Daddy?”.
At night as darkness reaches out and steals the last ray of light, she rolls over calling for me, that comforting hug, the bedtime story, but once again she must fall sleep with that unanswered question that she just can’t comprehend, where is my Daddy?

For me the worst are the calls home when she won’t speak to be as she feels that I will never come home. Then when my wife finally manages to get her to talk to me, what a special moment, that little voice, all the questions about the animals and the island just roll as her little imagination runs amok. Then comes the question, Daddy when are you coming home? I have been running the past few days with her little voice in my head over and over asking me. “Get home to the little one, they are only at this special age for a short while, surprise them with a story”.