A Single Second

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

DANIEL

Daniel Parker shut the door of his new storage space. He'd packed it so full he didn't think he'd be able to cram any more inside it. In fact, he'd had to throw out a lot of stuff that hadn't fit.

Nearly two weeks ago, Daniel had received a letter. He hadn't recognized the name on the envelope, and had his name and address not been on it, he would have thought it wasn't meant for him at all.

He hadn't heard from Debbie Williams in... Gosh! Had it been fifteen years already? And yet, here she was, sending him a letter out of the blue. He'd opened it with hesitation and interest. It wasn't often that you heard from old girlfriends like this, and it was lucky too. He was flying solo at the moment and was looking to get into something new. But the letter hadn't been what he'd expected. The letter had begun with an apology. I'm sorry for writing like this... But he hadn't been sorry, at least he hadn't been until he'd read the rest.

He had a daughter; that's what the letter had said. She was fourteen years old.

"That fits," he'd said to himself as he read.

It hadn't been until the end that he'd truly understood the reason for her writing to him. And so, here he was, packing away most of his possessions to clear out a room in his apartment. The letter had never said why, all it had said was that his daughter's name was Destinee and that she was coming to live with him for a while. He didn't exactly think the timing was great. It was less than two weeks until the start-up of school if he remembered correctly. Who would send their daughter to her first year of high school in a completely new place? The envelope had said Tennessee. He lived in New York. It would be completely different for her... and him. Not only would they have to adjust to life with each other, who they had never met, but she would have to adjust to this new place, where she had never been. Daniel remembered when he was a freshman. Basically, he had been the road kill that had gotten thrown into the middle of the road to be run over again and again by older students. Not to mention the fact that she would know nobody at all and had no idea what a big city was like. This Greenville place - there was no way it would be anything like New York was.

Daniel started up the rows of storage spaces to where the taxi was waiting to take him back to his apartment. Part of him had wanted to write and tell Debbie that there was no way he was taking in a fourteen year old girl with almost no notice at all, but after rereading the letter, he'd changed his mind. The letter had suggested that it was really important, almost urgent, that she stay with him for a while.

After several days of debating about it, he'd written back. His answer was simple. Instead of a wordy letter, he'd just gone and purchased an airline ticket and sent that instead.

He wasn't sure this whole "daughter" thing would even work, but for reasons unknown to himself, he was going to try it.