“Daddy, look! The sky is purple!”

Rene was in the middle of making his daughter’s lunch, one hand grasping the butter knife, the other holding the jar of jam as she spoke. He glanced down at Emory, who was pointing with one determined little finger out the window. He followed the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, the morning’s sunrise was an incredible shade of violet. 

“Misha! Come look at this sunrise!” Rene called out to his husband. He set down the knife and the sandwich, and scooped up Emory, taking her out the back door onto the back porch to get a better view. He left the main door open, but closed the screen door behind him. 

“Is it camera worthy?” Misha yelled back down the hall. 

“It is definitely camera worthy!” Rene called through the screen door.

“Hurry, dad!” Emory insisted. 

It was a spectacular sunrise. Splashes of violet throughout multiple cloud layers, some deeper pinks. There was a hint of the golden sun on the horizon. The morning air was crisp and Rene felt his cheeks flushing from the cold as he squeezed Emory closer to keep her warm on that frigid February morning. 

He could hear Misha’s steps rushing down the hallway. A moment later, the screen door opened behind them and Misha gasped with glee.

“Gorgeous!” Misha breathed. 

“Told you!” Emory said. 

Misha lifted his camera and began to click photo after photo of that incredible sunrise. Rene nuzzled his face in Emory’s neck as he enjoyed their precious moment together. The sky was growing brighter now. The purple was beginning to fade, replaced by more vibrant pinks and golds. After a moment, Misha stopped snapping pictures, and wrapped his arms around Rene and Emory as they stood just admiring the rising sun. 

“I love this,” Misha muttered by Rene’s ear. “Screw work, let’s just stay here all day.”

“Dad, you said a bad word,” Emory pointed out. 

“Is screw a bad word?” Misha asked, sounding genuinely confused. 

“I think we may have established that one in the inappropriate section,” Rene admitted. He felt positively content standing there with his family, and would have loved to spend the day that way if he didn’t have bills to pay and a mortgage. 

“Well, I think we’ll let Emory say that one when she’s seven. What do you think?” Misha said. 

“Really?” Emory asked, sounding excited. 

“Yeah, as long as you don’t say it at school…or in public. I think we’ll give you that one,” Misha said. 

Rene laughed as he looked at Misha’s ocean blue eyes, which were sparkling mischievously as he presumably thought about what else their daughter could get away with. 

“My bus will be coming soon, and daddy hasn’t finished my lunch,” Emory stated. 

As adorable as she sounded bringing them suddenly back to the present, the moment was broken, and they realized they had to get back to getting ready. Misha gave both of them a kiss, then rushed back inside to finish getting dressed for work. He was always running late, having a particularly severe case of ADHD that was as annoying as it was endearing. 

Rene carried Emory inside and set her down before closing the door. 

“Brrrrr!” Rene said, rubbing his arms before hurrying over to finish making the sandwich. “Shame I had to put my space heater down to make her sandwich!”

“Sorry daddy. But if I’m late to school, how am I supposed to learn things?” Emory asked. 

“Good point,” Rene nodded as he finished putting peanut butter on the sandwich and put it into Emory’s brown bento-box.

“I think this morning will be a core memory for me,” Emory said. Rene was putting her lunchbox in her backpack when he looked at her and saw she was staring out the window thoughtfully. 

“What makes you say that?” Rene asked. 

“Just a feeling. A special moment.” Emory made a motion like she was taking a picture, and smiled. “There. Now it’s saved.”

Rene grinned as he handed her backpack to her. 

“Go grab your coat and give your dad a kiss goodbye so I can walk you to the bus,” Rene said. 

“Don’t you mean kiss dad goodbye then grab my coat?” Emory asked, setting her backpack next to the door and raising her eyebrows at Rene. 

“Whichever way works for you.” Rene pointed out. 

Emory took off down the hallway as Rene quickly put some leftovers into a separate container for Misha and placed it in his blue bento-lunchbox. Emory came running back down the hall and grabbed her coat. She was doing her best to put it on when Rene went to help her. 

“No daddy, I’ve got to do it myself!” She insisted. 

“I know I know, but I’m trying to speed up the process so we don’t miss the bus. We’ve got four minutes to walk down there and it takes us three. Let’s get going.”

“You could always drive me to school.” Emory begrudgingly let him help her into the coat. 

“But then I’d be late to work.” Rene squatted down to zip her up with a grin on his face. “We don’t want daddy to get in trouble, do we?”

“No. I guess not. Especially not at the library.” Emory pulled on her backpack, then took Rene’s hand and they headed out the door. 

“Love you, dad!” Emory called. 

“Love you, pickle!” Misha called back. 

Rene immediately realized he’d left his coat inside, but it was too late. He held Emory’s hand as they hurried down the cul-de-sac to the bus stop. There were four kids there already, with their parents. Paige Endor, their next door neighbor, and mother of Emory’s best friend Brooke, smiled and waved at them. 

“Did you see that sunrise?” Paige asked. 

“We did!” Emory exclaimed. “Dad took pictures! It was purple!”

“We got pictures too!” Brooke pointed out. “Mommy took them on her phone.”

“That’s awesome, Brooke,” Rene said, smiling at her. He glanced up at the other parents and couldn’t help but catch Colleen McCarthy scowling in his direction. Rene gave her a warm smile, which seemed to do the trick of flustering her as her face went red and she turned away from him and pretended to tend to her son Greg.

“It’s so sad when not everyone can appreciate the beauty this world has to offer,” Paige said. Rene looked at her and saw that she was looking in Colleen’s direction with a smirk. He couldn’t help but appreciate her support.

The bus was coming now. Rene gave Emory a quick hug before sending her off with the others. He chanced a glance at Colleen, who was giving him and Paige a wide berth as they walked back toward their houses. 

“Aren’t you cold?” Paige asked, looking at Rene’s lack of weather appropriate outerwear. 

“If I don’t think about it, it’s not so bad.” Rene said. 

“Your nose is as red as Rudolph’s,” Paige pointed out. 

“Well that just means I have decent circulation, I think. Well, I hope.”

Paige glanced around, presumably to be sure that Colleen wasn’t around. Luckily, she’d already gone into her own house which was closest to the main road. 

“Don’t let that witch get you down. She’s just bitter that you and Misha have such a great thing going and she’s married to a man who can’t stand to be around her.” Paige said. 

“She doesn’t scare me. Usually.” Rene said. 

“One day her ignorance will die out, and all that’s left will be calm reason and love for our fellow humans.”

“I don’t see that happening in our lifetimes, but a man can dream,” Rene said. 

“Have a great day, Rene,” Paige said as she reached her own door.

“You too, Paige.”

Rene realized he was definitely shivering as he made his way up to his front door. When he went inside, he saw Misha running around, still getting ready for work, looking completely befuddled. 

“Whatcha doing, love?” Rene asked, closing the door and walking over to stand by the heater to warm up faster. 

“I can’t find my jacket,” Misha said from the hallway. 

“It’s on your chair at the table,” Rene said without even having to look. “Your lunch is all set. Your briefcase is ready to go. Now why don’t you come warm me up before I turn into an icicle.”

Misha hurried into the living room. 

“I didn’t realize you needed thawing. Why didn’t you say something sooner?” He walked over and pulled Rene into a hug that immediately began to warm him from head to toe. Rene could feel Misha’s heart beating against his. 

“How’s this? Is it working?” Misha asked. 

“Yes, it’s working very well. I’m afraid I won’t be able to let you go for fear the cold will settle in again. Guess you’re coming to the library with me today.”

“Would that I could, Precious, but alas, I must make my monies elsewhere.” 

“Damn, and I was so sure you’d come through for me.”

Misha nuzzled his face into Rene’s neck and they just held one another for a moment. 

“Did you have any crazy dreams last night?” Misha asked. 

Rene thought for a moment. He’d forgotten his dreams when he’d woken up to get Emory ready, but now that the thought of them had been summoned he was able to recall them a bit. 

“I think it was a dream about the 1920’s. I lived in Ireland with a lady. I think she was my sister. We had a nice farm going. All kinds of animals. She ended up falling off a cart in an accident and breaking her neck. I buried her on the hill by our house.” As he spoke, Rene remembered more and more details, which always seemed to be the case when recalling his dreams. “A man came to work for us on the farm, and…well, I couldn’t see his face.”

“Ah, your faceless man strikes again,” Misha muttered. 

“Right.” Rene was always perplexed when he couldn’t see certain details in his dreams, and for some reason lately there had been a reoccurring faceless man. Well, not so much faceless as Rene was never able to get a good look at him. He considered it a symbol of the throng of folks he passed every day in his job at the library. He usually struggled with eye contact, so many people tended to be a blur of skin and hair and voices.

“When did you get into Irish history?” Misha asked, still cuddled against Rene.

“I was perusing a book on it last week. Someone had a project on the Irish Civil War, so I ended up reading quite a bit about it.”

“Hmm, so what happened with the faceless man?” Misha asked. 

Rene closed his eyes, trying to recall. 

“I think…he worked for me for a while, before and after my sister passed. Then we got in a fight, and that’s when the alarm woke me up.”

“Well damn, I was hoping for a more thrilling conclusion.”

“I love you,” Rene said. “And we should probably get going.”

“I love you too, popsicle.” Misha said. He finally let Rene go and ran around to collect his things while Rene grabbed his lunch and put on his coat and stood by the door. 

“Wait, my coat was…” 

“On your chair.” 

“Right!” Misha rushed into the kitchen and grabbed his coat then headed for Rene. 

“Your lunch.” Rene gestured to the kitchen counter. 

“Oh yeah!” Misha darted over and grabbed his lunch. Luckily, he already had his briefcase. 

“Am I forgetting anything?” Misha asked. 

“I guess you’ll find out later,” Rene said. 

Misha laughed as Rene opened the door and they stepped out into the crisp morning air. 

“Brrrrr!” Misha said, rushing to the passenger side of the car and tapping the door. “Unlock, please!”

Rene hit the unlock button and Misha quickly jumped in. Misha was still making funny noises in response to the cold when they had the heat running and were several miles down the road. 

“Poor poor summer man,” Rene laughed. 

“Well, you already cooled me down, popsicle. Now I can’t seem to get the heat going again.”

“That comes with your third coffee of the day,” said Rene. 

“And disappears entirely after the caffeine crash.” Misha said. 

“Guess you’ll have to keep your coat on all day, hmm?” 

“Maybe,” Misha said. Rene could tell that he was already beginning to zone out. His brain was resetting to work mode, booting up for the day so that he could be more effective at his job. 

Rene pulled in front of the finance building and parked, turning to Misha, who was already getting out of the car. 

“Umm, my kiss?” Rene said. 

“Hmm? Right! Kiss!” Misha leaned over and planted a sweet kiss on his lips. “Love you, popsicle!”

“Remember, if it’s too cold to walk later, text me and I’ll pick you up, okay? Do you have your phone?”

Misha tapped his pockets, then nodded, “got it!”

“Alright, love you. Have a great day.” Rene smiled as Misha got out of the car and rushed into the building. He watched Misha step back and hold the door for a young lady who was walking out. Then he disappeared inside, and Rene drove the rest of the way to work. 

The city was waking up. There weren’t a lot of people walking outside, due to the frigid temperature, but plenty of cars were flying here and there, trying to make it to work or school before it was too late. Rene had to slam on his brakes to keep from being hit by a Honda that couldn’t wait to turn left in front of him. He hated driving in the city, but it was worth it to get to work at the library. 

His dream job, and he’d been doing it for six years. Of course, there were days where the patrons were downright awful, and he had to wonder at just how gross humanity could be, but overall it was a wonderful experience. 

As he drove the final two blocks to the library, he spotted a man walking in a bright turquoise peacoat. Rene found himself continously glancing at the man as his car slowly passed him. The man was short, with dark curly hair and a very pronounced chin. His forehead was furrowed, a determined expression on his face, as though he were on a mission. Rene eyed the coat, suddenly wanting one for himself. Turquoise was his favorite color. 

A block later, Rene was at the library. He grabbed his lunch and headed inside. Frank, the security guard was standing quietly by the door, and caused Rene to jump in surprise.

“Shit! You scared me!” Rene said. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Frank said. Frank was a big old teddy bear of a man. He always had a sweet smile on his face to greet patrons, and the patience of a Saint when it came to deal with the more unruly members of the public. Rene clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. 

“Thanks for watching out for us, Frank.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Frank said. 

Rene headed upstairs and into his office. He closed the door, and sat down at his desk to check his work emails. 

He hoped the rest of the day was as lovely as the start of it. 

Part Two https://storiesfrommontana.com/2023/01/15/2023-writing-challenge-chapter-2-untitled/