TM found himself being hugged and although pleasant, she was beginning to cut off his air. "Um I can't breathe." She let go of him abruptly. He looked at this beautiful young woman standing in front of him. This was his Starr all grown up and with a daughter. As Starr reached to take her daughter's hand, he noticed she wasn't wearing a wedding band. She was awfully young to be a mother of a little two year old, if he had guessed the little girl's age right. What had happened? In order to give his daughter time to compose herself TM crouched back down in front of the little girl and said "I think it's time we let the bug so back home. He's probably missing his family" He removed the bug and set it down close to the hedge. Then he stood back up and gestured to the bench he had vacated just a short time earlier. Starr nodded and they sat down.
He wasn't sure whether he should start the conversation or let her take the lead. It saddened him to realize that he had missed out on eight years of her life and he figured she had questions as to where he had been all these years. Those questions were going to be hard to answer. How do you explain to your daughter that you've been out of commission for eight years because of a mental problem. Even he was having trouble with that explanation and he lived it. "You must have a lot of questions, but before you ask them could you answer one for me. What's your daughter's name?"
"Her name is Hope" replied Starr.
"I see. She reminds me of you at that age." said Todd, he looked at her and said "I'm sorry I wasn't here. It looks as though a lot has happened while I've been gone."
Starr finally gathered her thoughts. "I'm sorry too. I reacted rashly, but when you called me Starr, all I saw was the dad who had left so long ago, standing in front of me. The thing is, you can't be my dad. My dad has been here all these years. He doesn't look like you, but that's because he had plastic surgery because of injuries sustained in 2003. Who are you and how do you know my name? Why are you acting like I'm your daughter?"
TM was stunned, one minute she was hugging him and calling him Daddy, and now she was telling him he couldn't be her dad because her dad was someone else. He knew there was a man in town claiming to be Todd Manning. It became painfully obvious that he was going to have an uphill battle proving he was the real Todd Manning. Even his own daughter didn't believe her own eyes. "You are my daughter. I'm not sure what I can do to make you believe that. I'm aware there is another man in town who claims to be me. He's not. I'm sorry you don't believe me. I haven't been back in town for very long and I'm trying to get my life back on track. I came here looking for you and your mother. You're the first one I remembered when I came to."
"What do you mean, when you came to? You're not making any sense." asked Starr.
"Very well, I'll go back to the beginning. A couple of weeks ago I woke up in a strange facility where it appears I had been a resident for eight years." Todd looked at his daughter, "I was catatonic for the entire eight years. My last memories are from 2003. I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that I've lost so much time. Only a few minutes ago you hugged me, calling me Daddy. I'm begging you to give me a chance. I came looking for you because I love you. Something in you responded to me. Deep down you know I'm really your dad. I need your help Starr, just like all the other times. You helped me with Tea all those years ago. You were the one who made it possible for me to return after being lost on the island. As mad as you were at me back then, you wouldn't let your mom send me to jail. Please Starr, don't turn your back on me now."
He was so sincere and when he started talking about the times she had aided him, she recalled those instances and so many others. Again she found herself drawn to him, he was hurting. She sensed a certain confusion about him. Was it possible, could he have been so traumatized eight years before that he had entered a catatonic state? Her mom had told her of the period when she was younger that her dad had been catatonic. At that time he had only been in that state for a short time. What could possibly have transpired for him to be out of it for eight years?
Her thoughts went back to those first months with Walker. He had said he knew her dad was alive but that he couldn't come home just then. Had Walker known that her dad was catatonic? Had he lied to them all these years? If Walker had lied, then it was possible her dad was indeed sitting opposite her. The man in front of her was asking her to trust her gut. Starr decided then and there it was time for the old Starr to come out. She had been playing things safe for far too long because of Hope and now she felt something inside herself she hadn't felt since the last time she had schemed with her dad. Suddenly she smiled and said. "Okay, I'm going to go with my gut. My head is telling me one thing, but my heart is telling me something else. I'm not sure I understand everything that is going on, but I'm going to help." She looked directly at him and said "I'm going to help my Dad!"
Wow, you did what I wanted! Cool, thanks! I'm the one who asked for a part two, by the way. Thanks, I loved it!
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