In the Night

The Cough is back to fuck with Adinah, and last night she asked me to sleep on the couch next to her room. After I gave her Sultanol, Flixotid and Singulair, rubbed her back and suggested she make up a story about Pegasus the Flying Horse in her head, she fell asleep.

At about 3:30 a.m., she called out to me. She was coughing a lot, but she woke me up because she wanted to go to the toilet. So we did that, and Adinah started down the hallway to go back to her room. I switched off the light above the toilet and turned to join her. I thought she might want me to hold her hand as we walked back to her bed in the dark. I couldn't see her, so I had to reach out a little tentatively to find her hand. She was standing about where I expected her to be, waiting for me. But then she took my hand and started walking again quite confidently.

For a moment, it was unclear who was leading who, the daughter or the father.


It struck me as a perfect, diamond-bullet sort of metaphor for parenthood.