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Father’s Day always excited Sadie. When Father’s Day was approaching, so was the second visitation day of the year. She’d started out just as enthusiastic as the other kids, vigorously working on her father’s day card in class when the teacher gave the assignment. As she grew older, that enthusiasm hadn’t changed. The kids around her thought it was weird for her to be so excited to make the card. When they would just slap sloppy, meaningless words on the colored paper, Sadie would still draw things and practically write an essay to her father. When she turned eleven, she found it silly of herself to be putting so much effort into it and stopped, but that didn’t mean her excitement for the day didn’t stick around.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sadie had always looked forward to Christmas Eve as well. It wasn’t for the promise of presents the next day, the cookies or sweets, or even to spend time with her grandparents. It was one of the two days in an entire year that her father was allowed to see her, and even though they always ended up doing boring things, it still became the day she looked forward to. When she was asked by her mates what she wanted for Christmas, she’d always tell them something popular at the time. A new phone, concert tickets... but really, she wanted to wake up in the morning and come running down the stairs to see her father, holding his arms out for a hug. When she was younger, she’d truly believed it was a possibility — but when she was ten, she decided four years of wishing, hoping, and believing was enough. It wasn’t going to happen. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ She could almost hear the maniacal laughing of the Fates whenever she thought of that awful Christmas Eve. The irony was just too much. Losing her dad on one of the two days she was permitted to see him all year just added more salt to the festering wound she’d had since she was six years old. As much as Emma and Liz had always tried to make her feel better about her situation, they didn’t truly get it. They had dads who were always around, they could see their dads more than twice a year. They didn’t understand what it was like to be separated from your family like that. ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Carter always acted like their dad wasn’t really gone, but as far as Sadie was concerned, he was. He’d been put into a coffin by an evil god, merged with the Lord of the Dead, and was presently ruling over the Land of the Dead. Seemed pretty dead to her. Unless she were to go on a dangerous trip into the Duat, she couldn’t even visit or talk to him, which was far too familiar to her. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Sadie stared at the calendar in front of her, a bright red marker hovering over the last day of school. As she drew a crooked smiley face on the square, her eyes trailed over to the present date. Her heart sunk as she read the finely printed words on the paper. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ father’s day. When she was younger, Sadie would always pick up the phone to call her father and wish him a happy Father’s Day. It didn’t matter how many times the call dropped, or how bad the reception was, she always did it. The thought crossed her mind that she wasn’t able to do that anymore. Setting the marker down on her crowded desk, Sadie trudged over to her unmade bed and sat down on the edge. A frown spread across her features as she found herself gazing blankly at the ground. Her gum suddenly tasted stale.
she had really taken him for granted, hadn’t she?
Brushing a pink strand of hair behind her ear, Sadie let out an audible breath, recalling one of the times she’d called her father on this day. As soon as Gran hung up the phone after gossiping to her knitting club mates, Sadie snatched it up. She sprinted up the stairs to her messy room and flung herself onto the bed, dialing the number she now knew by heart. As she waited to hear the phone be answered, a grin crept across her face. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "Hello?" ⠀⠀⠀⠀“Dad!” Sadie exclaimed in excitement. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Sadie? Hi--” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Happy Father’s Day!” She yelled, effectively cutting her father off. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Oh- thank you, sweetheart.” Julius replied fondly. “How’s school?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Fine,” Sadie answered, suddenly bored. “We finished last week.” ⠀ “How were your grades?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “Fine.” She replied again, letting out a sigh. He could tell he was boring her and tried to change the subject. ⠀⠀⠀ “... are you excited to see me next week?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Of course! What are we going to do? Can we get ice cream? Is Carter going to be boring?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“We can get ice cream.” He chose to ignore the comment about Carter. “Well, what do you want to do? We’ve got a whole day to plan.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “...only if your flight isn’t late again…” Sadie replied despondently. The two fell into silence for a while. ⠀ “Hey,” Julius paused. “Why don’t you come up with a list of things you want to do and we’ll pick some of them out when Carter and I get there?” ⠀“Okay…” Sadie replied softly, frowning a bit. The call was cutting in and out, and she assumed he had bad reception wherever he was. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I have to go now, Sadie. I’ll see you next week! I love you!” ⠀⠀⠀ “Love you too…” By the time Sadie replied, her father had already hung up.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sadie wiped her stray tears from her cheeks, internally calling herself dumb for being so upset. If Carter was acting like this, she would be making fun of him. Finally, she stood up from her spot on her bed and wiped her blurry eyes. She opened her bedroom door quietly and walked at a quickened pace towards Carter’s, hoping he was in there. When she found herself staring at his bedroom door, she took a deep breath and knocked on it three times. When she heard the muffled reply, she opened the door and trudged inside.⠀ “Let’s send Dad a Father’s Day message.” A crooked grin spread across the girl’s face.