YOU SEE THE LIGHT ON

His daughter would call him often to come all the way  across town and read a bedtime story to her.

Even though he would be heading into enemy territory, Leo had only tunnel vision in carrying out his young daughter's wishes. He put his considerable ego aside as he knew her feelings came first. Her well-being was the only thing that ultimately mattered to him even if his own soul was currently on fire.

Walking back into a past life that no longer belongs to you is painful, but in some ways it made him stronger, realising that perhaps it had been for the best that he and the mother of his child had gone their separate ways.

Knocking on the door of his ex-partner's house, the atmosphere was thick with tension but he ignored it by making a beeline to Deana's bedroom.

"Daddy!"

She wrapped her arms tight around his neck as if clinging onto a life raft.

"You okay, little one?"

Deanna nodded as Leo removed a special night light in the shape of a smooth silicon pebble from his backpack and handed it to her.

"Here you go. You can turn this little light on when you wake up in the night and know Daddy's spirit is in the palm of your hand. So it's your job to protect my spirit for me, eh?"

"Why does your spirit need protecting, Daddy?"

"It goes both ways sometimes. I look after your spirit. You look after mine."

"You're too big to need looking after, Daddy."

"Don't you believe it."

As he pulled out Deanna's favourite bedtime book she clapped her hands with excitement.

"You brought it!"

"Yep!"

Picking up where they last left off with the story, Leo began to read to his daughter.

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change.”

But as he read from the book (he had to admit almost on auto-pilot) he could hear an argument taking place below the floorboards beneath his feet.

He'd known that all was not well with his ex and her new partner lately and he sensed that the more his daughter had called him to read her bedtime stories, the more problematic the couple's relationship was becoming. Deanna was the canary in the proverbial coalmine so to speak and Leo felt increasingly with every visit he made now that tensions were reaching boiling point.

"Daddy. You stopped reading!"

"Oh. So I did."

He continued for another half an hour until Deana's eyelids became heavy and she drifted happily off to sleep.

Finally kissing her on her forehead, Leo left her reluctantly, noticing Deanna had the night light pebble clutched tightly in her hand.

As he made his way down the staircase to the front door, he caught sight of his ex's partner staring drunkenly toward him from the gloom of the kitchen further down the narrow hallway.

"Don't let the door bump your ass on the way out."

Choosing to ignore the drunken provocation, Leo left the house and headed back to his own home.

As the red-crimson sun began to fizz slowly out on the horizon, Leo suddenly felt uneasy about leaving his daughter back at his ex's house.

Later that night, Deana woke up with a jolt.

She was alarmed to find her Daddy no longer there at the end of her bed.

Remembering the light pebble in her hand she turned it on; it illuminated her bedroom and spared her from the oppressive dark shadows across the walls she was so fearful of.

Somehow, she felt safer knowing her father had given her this tool to eliminate the darkness. But hearing her mum arguing downstairs once again, she knew it would take more than this talisman to make her feel like she was truly home again.

Leo had only just fallen asleep when he was woken up by the glow of his mobile phone instinctively aware that his young daughter had now thrown up her bat signal to him.

The time had come.

She was ready to come home to Daddy.