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God, Bob was tired. But really, what else is new?
Nowadays he’s always tired. No one ever said raising a four year old, six year old, and eight year old simultaneously would be easy; but damn, was it harder than he expected.
There was screaming coming from the other room. But once again, what else was new?
Gene and Louise definitely weren’t the quietest kids on Earth. And even Tina could get loud at times. So high pitched little kid voices screaming through the tiny apartment was something he was used to. If anything it was silence that would worry him.
But right now was no different than any other, the kids were somewhere else in the house being loud and unhinged, and he really needed a minute of shut eye. And that’s what he was gonna do, damnit.
He should’ve known that would be too good to be true.
“Dada?”
Bob gave an inaudible sigh, not wanting Louise to feel his slight agitation at her presence because really it wasn’t her fault. He opened his eyes slowly and turned to the toddler.
“Yeah, Louise?”
“Can I see your wallet?”
He just stared at her for a minute. Immediately he knew this was probably a bad idea. Louise was, despite only being four, known for her mischievousness. He couldn’t even conjure a reason why she would want his wallet in the first place, let alone it being for a good reason. It’s not like there was any money in it, if that’s what she wanted, and that’s something she definitely knew by now (She’d taken his wallet many, many times to swipe quarters for her and her siblings to use on those little machines that held old candy and random little toys).
“Why?” He asked, rubbing an eye with his hand.
She was silent for a moment, before replying, “Because.”
Wow, if that wasn’t just the best reason he’d ever heard.
But honestly, whatever. He was tired, and if she wanted to do whatever weird Louise thing with it, then who cares. There wasn’t any cash in it, and if he took his cards out then what harm could she really do, right?
..Plus it’d get her distracted for at least long enough for him to take a nap.
He sighed again, groaning as he stood up (god he was getting old), making his way to his room to grab the plain coffee-coloured wallet from his nightstand. Carefully he removed the cards from it, out of Louise's sight so she wouldn’t ask any questions, then handed the pouch to her.
“Here.”
She grinned, the toothy little grin she did now that all of her baby teeth were fully in. Even with how exhausted he was, that little smile always made his chest feel warm with adoration.
“Thanks, daddy!” She said, swiping the leather wallet from his hands as she raced out of the room.
He sighed residley, falling back onto his bed to hopefully take a nap that lasted longer than five minutes.
…..
Bob woke up slowly.
The first thing he noticed was how it felt like he’d definitely gotten more than five minutes of sleep.
The second thing was that it was still as loud as ever in the apartment. Gene was singing loudly from what sounded like the living room, and of course Linda was there to be his cheerleader. The six year old was slamming his hands wildly on the blue casio they’d given him last Christmas, the thing basically being attached to him by the hip since.
Bob sighed (he did that a lot now too), opening his eyes groggily and sitting up at a pathetically slow rate. He looked around his room, taking in his surroundings.
And finally the third thing he noticed were the debit cards laid on his nightstand.
He stared at them in confusion for a second, before recalling the interaction with his youngest right before he knocked out. He still wondered why she’d wanted them in the first place, it really couldn't have been anything good. Though by now she’d probably gotten bored of whatever it was she’d originally wanted the wallet for; toddlers weren’t known for their long attention spans.
He stood up, leaving the room to find wherever Louise had dumped his wallet. He walked through the door leading to the living room. The sight he was faced with was Gene standing in front of the TV, dancing and moving wildly with his casio in hand. Linda was sitting on the couch clapping and smiling widely, cheering him on with Tina beside her, a small sweet smile on her face.
Bob watched Gene for a second, momentarily forgetting his original task. He had to give his son some credit, he was very entertaining.
“Daddy! Come to watch my show?” Gene yelled, still jumping around and dancing, just now in Bob’s direction.
“Uh yeah. Well actually- I was looking for Louise. I can watch your show after I find her.” Bob said, rubbing one of his eyes as tiredness gradually left him with the vibrant energy of the living room.
“Oh Louise? I saw her go into her room a little while ago. I asked what she was doing but she said she was on ‘business’ and then shut the door in my face,” Tina said as she looked at Bob.
Bob gave somewhat of a laugh, blowing air from his nose as a small smile plastered his face. The dynamic of his children always humored him.
“Okay, thank you, Tina.” He replied, exiting the room. He could hear Gene continue playing as he got to Louise’s door.
“Louise?” He knocked gently to alert her of his presence before opening the door.
When it opened enough for him to see inside, he found her on the floor, and, startled, she turned around quickly towards him.
“Daddy! Wait, I'm not finished!” She stood up quickly, jumping up with her arms waving around, a sad attempt at blocking his view of what she was doing because unluckily for her she was still barely three feet tall, no match for Bob’s 6’0.
“Finished with what?” He asked as he looked behind her. Paper and crayons were strewn across the floor. Looking further he noticed scissors on the floor, which worried him as she was definitely not supposed to be using those without adult supervision.
“You’ll see! Just go!” She shouted, unsuccessfully attempting to push him out of the room.
“Louise why are there scissors out you know you’re not supposed to use those without me or your mom-”
“Because how am I supposed to cut the paper without scissors?!”
“Why do you need to cut the paper?”
“Ugh!” She stopped her poor attempts at shoving him to cross her arms in a pout. Bunny ears too big for her head coming to cover her eyes as she looked away, agitated.
Bob crouched down to her level, which, ow, that hurt, God he really was getting old, “Louise it’s okay. Just tell me what you’re doing and I can help you with the scissors.”
“No.”
“Louise” He sighed.
“It was supposed to be a surprise, daddy.”
“Okay well, surprise me now then.” He slowly sat on the floor (another thing that hurt) so she could easily showcase whatever it was she was surprising him with.
Louise looked at him, lip still stuck in a pout before sighing, “Fine.” She turned on her heel and went to the mess of paper and crayons, retrieving his wallet. She shoved a few more things inside of it before turning back around and holding it out to him.
Confused and honestly a little worried as to what she just shoved in his wallet, he took it from her, opening it and grabbing the almost rectangular (she wasn’t very good at cutting things) pieces of paper from the main pocket.
And… Wow. Whatever he was expecting it definitely wasn't that.
“It’s money,” Louise said standing in front of him.
“I..” Bob started, confused and at a loss for words, “Why?”
The young child moved back and forth on her feet, fiddling with her hands as she spoke, “Earlier at the restaurant you and mama were talking about how you didn’t have money. And when I took your wallet there was nothing in it… So I made you more.”
Bob stared at her for a moment, processing what she’d said. And then, he kinda felt like crying.
“Oh,” He looked away from her to stare at the pieces of paper, all of them drawn in crayon, and written at the corners was ‘100,000,000,000,000’ in big bold numbers. She probably didn’t really remember exactly what was written on money, so all there was besides the price was a poorly drawn man in the center, and ‘USA dollar’ written at the bottom, he guessed to signify that it was American money. (And unrelated, he noticed her handwriting was getting better.)
“I put so many zeros because more zeros means more money.” She said matter of factly, pointing to the price that was written.
He didn’t know what to say. He was still in shock, really.
The whole thing was just so.. Innocent.
Like, it was so sweet, and from the heart, that it made his eyes water. He just wanted to sweep the little kid off of her feet and hug her because even though the faux money had absolutely no value to anyone else, he could tell just how good her intentions were. And it was just so, so sweet.
The way a child looks at the world really touches him sometimes.
After a little, he’d apparently been silent for too long, as Louise was looking at him with a mixture of irritation and worry when he finally snapped out of his head.
“This is.. Thanks, Louise. This’ll really help me and your mom out a lot.”
She grinned widely, again that big toothy grin. And Bob smiled back just as wide, setting the wallet and makeshift money down to bring her into his arms.
The world from a child's perspective was really interesting. But so, so innocent and sweet. He hopes the real world doesn’t strip that kindness from her as she gets older.
He felt bad that she, despite only being four, was aware of the money struggles of the family. Even if she didn’t quite comprehend it yet. He hoped by the time she is old enough to understand, they’ll already be out of this money situation. Tina’s at that age where she’s beginning to get it, and he hopes it doesn’t take a toll on her, curse her sympathetic caring heart.
Bob will always feel bad for just how poor their family is, despite what Linda says he knows it’s his fault. The restaurant was his dream after all and he still doesn’t quite understand why Linda chose him over everything else to be her husband and the father to her kids. But he’s forever grateful she did.
Because of Linda, he gets to be the father of the sweet kid who tried her best to help her parents' money struggles. And maybe she didn’t quite get there, but she did help raise her fathers spirit.
God, Bob loves his kids.