Daniel stood on the front step, arms crossed, and stared at the empty driveway. When Ginger turned the corner and drove up the street, she could see him concentrating. It was almost as if he were trying to will her car into its usual parking spot.
He didn't seem to notice them approaching, but when she pulled in, his head snapped up and he suddenly realized that they were real. He made them appear. He manifested them. Ginger and the little girl opened their car doors, but before Ginger could come around to the step, Daniel grabbed his daughter by the arm and shook her enough to frighten Ginger.
"Where have you been?" he growled. The little girl went limp in his grip. All the personality that Ginger had encountered over the last few weeks disappeared, and she was the little girl with the blank face again. The one who didn't speak.
"Hey!" Ginger shouted and took a step forward. Daniel released the girl's arm, and she slid to the ground. She laid there in a pile. Ginger looked from one of them to the other.
"What the hell?" Ginger said.
"You can't just take her," Daniel said. He stepped toward Ginger with his index finger pointed at her face. "You can't just take her."
Ginger started to smack his hand out of her way when she noticed the little girl shake her head at her. Instead of start a fight, Ginger lowered her voice and said, "I'm sorry. I had an emergency and I didn't want her staying here alone."
Daniel lowered his finger. "You can't just take her," he said again. Then he said it one more time. "You can't just take her."
"I can't just take her," Ginger said. Daniel's face was blank for another second, and then he looked at his daughter lying still on the ground. He went over and sat beside her in the grass. He whispered something in her ear, but she didn't change her expression at all. She stared ahead, away from Ginger, away from the house. Ginger watched them sit on the ground in silence for a few minutes. Then she shook her keys and said, "Do you want a beer?"
Her tenants looked up at her but neither said anything. She unlocked her front door and stepped inside. She turned to look at them, but they were both staring off into the distance by then. She shut the door, turned on the lights, walked to the kitchen and reached for a longneck. She was tired, but she was also concerned. She went to look out her front window and saw that father and daughter were still in the same spot.
Ginger walked outside with her beer in her hand. She approached them carefully, slowly, but neither looked up at her again. She was standing over them before Daniel seemed to notice her. The little girl didn't bring her focus back to the immediate area. Her stare reached more than a thousand miles.
"Go inside before I call the cops about a couple of vagrants sleeping on my lawn," Ginger said.
Daniel stood up first. He reached down and scooped the little girl up. She was completely limp in his arms, her head dropped back dramatically, her hair practically brushing the ground as he carried her toward their apartment. Ginger turned to watch the little girl be carried away. The little girl's face was upside down, but Ginger thought she saw a tear run up the girl's forehead. It disappeared into the little girl's hairline. Ginger stepped forward and then stopped herself. She watched Daniel open the door, cross the threshold, close the door behind them. Ginger took a swig from her beverage and sighed.
"You can't just take her," Ginger said to the closed door. Then she sat down in the grass and finished her beer.
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