Two

It's just about sunrise, and we're walking along the shore of Lake Huron on the end of Mackinac Island. As the sky lights, the geese sail in overhead to park themselves for another day of free food courtesy of the tourists (fudgies as they're locally known--based on the thousands of pounds of fudge sold every day on the island--and not shared with birds!). Just the two of us...and my thoughts then a year ago were on where I'd be today...She was already taking classes at the community college at 17, and I knew the truth...but I was in denial...or trying to be. She looked at me with that smile that's the mirror image of her mother's, and I knew the first tremors of the quake that would break my heart.

Somewhere down the road there'll be another day with music and flowers and a white dress...but I'm in enough trouble today with college. We're down to the point of hours rather than days. She can't wait to go...and I'm glad...and yet all I really want to do is turn back the hands on the clock and the pages on the calendar, and be her dad for just a little while longer.