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written by: Helen Dowd Biography
ERIN’S NEW DADDY
Erin was sitting at the table coloring in her new coloring book when the phone rang.
“That was Auntie Bev,” said Karen, Erin’s Mommy, hanging up the phone. “She will be staying with you and Joey while Mommy is away. Karen took the big calendar from the wall and sat down beside Erin. “Can you read these numbers?”
“Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen,” said Erin, grinning up at her mommy.
“Those are the days Mommy will be away. If you color one number every day while I am gone, it will make the days go faster,” said Karen. “Then on the fourteenth I will be home. And I will be bringing a Daddy for you and Joey.”
“My own Daddy?” Erin jumped up from the table. “My Daddy’s coming back. My Daddy’s coming back,” she sang.
“No, Erin, not that Daddy. He’s with Jesus, like I told you a long time ago.”
Erin frowned. Why was Mommy bringing home a new Daddy? She didn’t understand She had noticed, though, that her mommy didn’t seem sad anymore. And lately, sometimes when her mommy read the mail, she would smile. That made Erin happy. But right now Erin wasn’t very happy. She didn’t like hearing that another Daddy would be coming. She wanted her own Daddy back. She knew he had gone to heaven, ‘cause
Mommy had told her, but she had thought that maybe if she prayed hard enough he would decide to come back. Just now, screwing her face into a pout, she said, “What Daddy? I don’t want another Daddy.”
Karen pulled her daughter on to her lap. “Remember Daddy’s friend? The one you called ‘Uncle Bill’? Well, Uncle Bill is going to be coming here, and he is going to take over Daddy’s store. Mommy and Uncle Bill are going to be married.. So Uncle Bill will become your new Daddy. Won’t that be nice? You and Joey will have a Daddy again. He will love you and Joey and Mommy just like Daddy did..”
“I don’t want a new Daddy. I want my own Daddy back.” Erin pushed her way off her mommy’s lap and ran outside. She began playing as hard as she could. Maybe if she pretended that what her Mommy had just told her wasn’t going to happen, it wouldn’t.
Erin worked really hard while her mommy was away. She helped Aunt Bev do the dishes, fold diapers, and sweep the floor. And she looked after little Joey all day. But she wouldn’t look at the calendar Mommy had told her to color. She hadn’t colored one single day. In fact, she didn’t even know how many days Mommy had been gone. And she didn’t care. She wasn’t even thinking about Mommy.
One day the phone rang. When Aunt Bev came back into the kitchen after answering it she had a big smile on her face. “That was Mommy,” she said. “She and your new Daddy will be home in a little while.”
Erin was standing on a chair drying the dishes. She jumped down, and pressed her hands against her ears, and ran to her bedroom. “Why did Daddy have to go away and leave me?” she said, flopping onto her bed.
Pretty soon she began to think about some of the things her Daddy used to tell her. He told her that Jesus loved her even more than he or Mommy did. “Jesus loved you so much that He died for you,” she remembered her Daddy saying. “He wants you to love Him too. And if you do, you will love others.” She sat up. It was just like Daddy was in the room with her, talking to her right now.
Right in the middle of thinking about her Daddy, Erin heard a door slam. Then she heard Joey’s baby-voice squealing, “Mama, mama!” She forgot all about the new Daddy. She just knew that she wanted to see her Mama. She ran out of her room, right into Mommy’s arms.
Erin did her best not to look up at the man standing beside Mommy. She couldn’t even remember what ‘Uncle Bill’ looked like anyway. She was only four when she saw him last, and that was a long time ago. A whole year! Maybe if she didn’t look up he wouldn’t be there, standing next to Mommy. But finally she heard her mommy saying, “Erin, say hello to your new Daddy.”
The man–‘Uncle Bill’–stretched out his hand to greet Erin. Erin folded her arms tight against her chest and scowled. Still smiling, Bill turned to pick up Joey. Joey giggled and grabbed at his glasses. Erin ran from the room. She was angry. Joey liked the new Daddy, and she didn’t want him to.
The next day Daddy Bill was busy working on something in the yard. Erin didn’t play outside all day. She stayed right by her Mommy’s side.
“Karen,” called Bill from the yard, “do you have a screw driver?”
“Here, Erin. You take this out to Daddy Bill.” Erin’s mommy handed her a screw driver.
Erin grabbed it, slammed the door, and stomped out to where Bill was working. “Here’s you old screw driver,” she yelled, throwing it at the ground, “:And you’re not my Daddy!”
She turned and ran to her room. She was so angry she hadn’t even looked to see what Bill was working on.
During dinner Erin looked down at her plate and played with her food. Mommy seemed cross, but she didn’t say anything. Erin knew that Jesus wasn’t pleased with her either, but she didn’t want to think about it.
The next morning Daddy Bill said, “Erin, come with me.”
Erin wanted to run to her room instead, but his voice sounded stern, so she obeyed. While she was walking behind him she noticed his bandaged hand. “I wonder if I did that,” she thought. She had heard him gasp yesterday when she had thrown the screwdriver at him.
A little voice inside her, the one that speaks whenever we do something wrong, was speaking to her now. She remembered that her Mommy and Daddy had called it her “conscience.” She didn’t feel very good. She was trying hard not to listen to it, but she couldn’t shut it up.
Erin walked quietly behind Bill. At the garage door he took her hand, leading her inside. She began to shake. She was sure that he was going to punish her, and she knew that she deserved it for the way she had been acting ever since he’d come yesterday. But at the front of the garage Bill let go of her hand, walked to the side door, switched on the light, and went out.
Erin’s eyes followed him. Then slowly she turned her head. Her eyes grew big. There in front of her was her bicycle, fixed, and painted the most beautiful red she had ever seen. Her bike had been broken for months, since long before her Daddy had died. She walked to the bike and ran her hand up and down the gold and white pin-stripe. She rubbed her hand over the shiny handlebars. Right in the middle was a big blue ribbon with a card attached to it. It read: “To Erin, my Beautiful New Daughter, With Love, Your New Daddy.” She couldn’t read all the words, but she knew it was to her because she could read, “To Erin,” and “love,” and “Daddy.”
She heard that little voice inside her again, “How can he love you, Erin? You are so nasty.” Her eyes clouded with tears. She could hear her first Daddy’s voice telling her: “Jesus loves us even when we are selfish and naughty.” Right there she asked God to forgive her.
Erin steered the bike out of the garage. She kicked the kick stand. The bike stood by itself for the first time ever. She ran over to Bill and threw her arms around him. “I’m so sorry I was mean, and I’m sorry about hurting your hand. And I’m glad you are my Daddy.”
Erin’s new Daddy picked her up in his big strong arms and hugged her. “And I’m glad you’re my little girl.”
Mommy and Joey had joined Daddy and Erin, and the new family walked together into the house.
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