Daddy Bear’s Epiphany
written by: Peggy Gerber
The announcement came over the loudspeaker, unexpectedly, disturbing the passengers and inciting howls of protest. “Sorry, folks, there’s going to be a delay. Our train hit a deer, and we have to assess for damage.”
Chelsea muttered a few obscenities under her breath and scowled at her boyfriend. As usual, Derrick was completely unfazed by the message. They were going to be late for the wedding now, and yet there he was sitting across from her with his arm around her four-year-old son, looking calm and collected. They were coloring together as if they didn’t have a care in the world. She shook her head and, not for the first time, wondered if her boyfriend was a robot.
Derrick was a great guy, he fixed things around the apartment and did sweet things for her all the time, and Rowan was already attached, but he was emotionally unavailable, and it was beginning to drive her crazy. When he had proposed to her a week earlier, and she told him she’d have to think about it, he wasn’t even upset. He didn’t even ask why. He just put the ring back in his pocket and said, “Okay.”
She, on the other hand, had stayed awake all night, stress eating chocolate chip cookies and debating what to do. She didn’t want to lose him, but she had already made one mistake with Rowan’s dad and couldn’t afford to make another. The time had come to confront him, and she decided if she couldn’t squeeze an emotion out of him, they were breaking up.
Chelsea fake coughed to catch Derrick’s attention and beckoned him over. When he spotted her, he whispered something in Rowan’s ear and scooted next to her. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Derrick, I was just wondering, when was the last time you cried?”
Derrick’s jaw clenched as he unwittingly flashed back to his unhappy childhood. He still had nightmares of how his father would taunt him whenever he cried. How he would wave his fists in Derrick’s face and scream, “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.” He learned early to hide his feelings.
That’s why, when Chelsea turned down his proposal, he’d kept it together until he got home. Once he walked through the door, he flopped onto his bed and sobbed, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. As he thought about that awful night, he began to sweat and needed to take deep breaths to stay calm.
Chelsea cleared her throat. “So, when was it?”
“Um, I guess it was the day before high school graduation when my mother told me she had cancer.”
Chelsea’s eyes flew open, “Oh my God, your mother had cancer, and you didn’t think it was important enough to tell me?”
“No, that’s not it. She’s okay now, and I didn’t see any reason to upset you.”
Chelsea took Derrick’s face in her hands and sighed. “Honey, that’s the problem. You keep everything bottled up. I’m worried about you. I’m worried about us.”
Derrick sat silently for a couple of minutes, letting Chelsea’s words sink in, instinctually knowing they had come to a crossroads. Lost in thought, he was roused from his trance when Rowan piped up. “Mom, I’m hungry.”
Chelsea looked at her son and smiled. “Okay, sweetie, let me get you a snack.” She picked up her backpack and, while rummaging through, spotted something that inspired her. She pulled out Rowan’s favorite book, “Daddy Bear’s Epiphany,” and placed it in Derrick’s hands. “I dare you to read this without crying.”
Derrick scoffed. “I don’t think reading a book with bears on the cover is gonna make me cry.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” snapped Chelsea. “It’s a sweet story about a daddy bear who finally musters up the courage to tell his son he loves him. I’ve read it to Rowan at least a hundred times, and it still makes me cry.”
Derrick clucked his tongue, opened the book, and began to read. By the third page, he was triggered, and by page ten, the tears were streaming down his face. His first instinct had been to stuff the book back in Chelsea’s bag, and run to the bathroom to compose himself, but then he thought about what she said about being bottled up. His heart began to hammer in his chest as he forced himself to stay there and allow Chelsea to see his real self.
Chelsea stared at Derrick, watching his tears soak into the pages of the book, and her heart melted. She sighed with relief; he was human after all. With a smile lighting her face, she got down on one knee and asked, “Derrick, will you marry me?”
Derrick looked at Chelsea on the floor, and his mouth dropped open. A new wave of tears began as he sniffled out, “Of course.” He then pulled a ring out of his pocket and placed it on her finger. “I always carry it with me just in case,” he said.
As he bent down to kiss her, the train lurched back into motion as if it were divine providence.
A few minutes later, with a diamond sparkling on her fourth finger, Chelsea tumbled into the seat next to Rowan. She gave him a kiss on his chubby cheek and gushed, “Okay, sweetie, you can call him Daddy now.”
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