Those Sundays

She wishes the Sundays could go to her father, or at least on day could go to him. She would get up early for him. His hands, his working hands that probably ache from his labor each weekday, would be waiting for a bear hug. It seems like this child adores her father and just reminisces on those good days.
He takes that day, Sunday, to break on his life with his family. He shows her love in his own little special way. He’ll wash the dishes for her when it’s her turn and he sees that she is tired. He’ll come ask her about her about her homework and try to help when he sees that she is frustrated. He’ll occasionally wake up early and make a big hot breakfast and have it waiting for the whole family when they wake up and walk in the kitchen. She wishes she could spend more than just those winter Sundays with her daddy, like Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays in the warm presence of her daddy.

She wishes she could put her little hand in his and swing it back and forth, or rub his cheeks when his five o' clock shadow came back, and let it tickle her hand. She longs to look him square in the face again and brush his bushy mustache, while he squint his tiny eyes at her. Sometimes he'd pick her up and put her on his bear back and crawl around the living room until he was tired. Only a five nine man, he was a manly man, and you couldn't say otherwise.

Now she can spend everyday with him, and doesn't mind doing so because he deserves it, but things will never be the same. Jackie still feels like she gets her special attention, but often blames herself for why he can’t do some of the same things he used to do.

On a walk to the park just Jackie and her father Robert, they lingered on the sidewalk at a slow pace eating the ice cream they bought from the corner Saundra. Jackie had an orange sherbert push up and her dad had a blue freeze pop. They always took the long way there because it gave them more time to talk. This particular Sunday afternoon as they walked, they approached a neighborhood dog that never harmed anyone before, but that day something was different about it. There was a look in its eye, and it came closer and closer as they bagged up. It growled ferociously at the two. They continued inching away from the beast until Jackie was so frightened that she turned and began to run.

"Don’t run Jackie, don't run" Robert screamed, but it was already too late. Jackie had taken off in the other direction and at that moment the dog took off behind her. Jackie dropped her push up, and smeared it all over her shirt, but she didn't care. All she knew was that there was a dog chasing her and she wanted to get away.

Robert dropped his freeze pop on the ground and ran after Jackie and the dog. He caught up with them quickly and tossed himself on top of it, with a dramatic thud to the ground. He was on top of the dog trying to wrestle it to a halt. Now Jackie had noticed that the dog was no longer chasing her so she stopped running, and turned around to see why. The battle was on between her dad and that dog. The dog had a strong grip on his leg, ripping his pant leg to shreds and beginning to penetrate the flesh. There were red blood spots seeping through his blue jeans and dripping on the concrete. Robert had his arm around the dog's neck in a choke hold trying to slow its reaction, and make it stop, but it was no use, or at least it seemed like it. He kept tugging harder and harder until the dog let out a strange groan and freed Robert's leg from its grip.

From Jackie's view it looked like a blood bath, because blood was everywhere. It was all over the dog and all over her dad and all over the ground. Tears had already begun rolling down her face and flowing down her cheeks like a waterfall. Her eyes were pink and her hands were shaking like chattering teeth. Frozen in that one spot she screamed to her dad asking him if he was ok.

"Go get your mother" he responded.
Jackie took off running back home to get her mother. Some how she took on extra powers and ran like a fighter jet taking off the runway. Her small legs got on up in a time of need, and before she knew it she was back at home. When she tried to tell her mom what had happen, it sounded like another language, like gibberish. She was talking so fast trying to explain the horror she had just come from. Her mom kept telling her to slow down and to speak slower, but it was no use. Jackie grabbed her mother's hand and ran back to the scene.

Robert was still on the ground with the dog right beside him. It was barely moving, but it was still alive. He hadn't released the choke hold yet, so they were in an awkward position on the ground. Robert couldn't even get up if he had tried. His leg was too wounded from the bite. Both Jackie and her mother ran over to him, each grabbing one arm trying to help him to his feet. Luckily he was a skinny man, so they successfully lifted him up and sat him on the neighbor's porch. Her mom knocked on the door to get some assistance, and to use the phone to get an ambulance. Looking again at the dog on the ground, Jackie's mom noticed white foam around its mouth, and looked again at her husband’s leg.

"That dog has rabies" she screamed, "We have to get you to the hospital now!" They didn't have a car, but the neighbors had on and were nice enough to drive them there. They piled into the red station wagon and headed there. The doctors saw him immediately, rushing him into a room at the sight of all the blood. Robert insisted that he was alright and could wait like all the other people. Jackie sat in the waiting room with her neighbors. Hours later her mom came out with the doctor and told them they could go see him now.

They all walked in the hospital room that Robert was in. Jackie looked at him and began the water works at the sight of her father’s distortion. The leg he was bitten in was missing. It wasn’t there anymore, and Jackie couldn’t bare it. Her dad with no leg was a little too much for her to handle. She ran out the room and stood in the hallway crying her eyes out. Her mom came out to comfort her, but nothing she said could soothe Jackie, nothing at all. About thirty minutes later Jackie returned in the room, still a little shaky, but with dry eyes.
"I'm o.k. Jackie" he said "just a little dog bite."

“Dad how could you say that? You don’t have a leg” Jackie said.
“This little ole thing here, it’s not gone stop me. I’ll bounce back. I'm still here, but don't think about that, we have many Sundays to come."