Chapter Text
October 6, 2024
“DAD! HURRY UP!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
Ellie rolled her eyes as she practically ripped open the car door. She sat in the passenger’s seat, shoving her dad’s work junk into the backseat and pulling down the passenger seat mirror to check her makeup, adjusting the red stars around her eyes. She pushed the mirror up again, fiddling with her necklace.
I swear to god, if I’m late to this concert I’m going fucking insane. She opened up the car door again to yell out,
“DAD!”
She heard a muffled response coming from behind the front door, and her dad stepped out. Lo and behold: the ugliest concert outfit ever known to mankind. Her dad closed the door behind him, doing a little spin, holding his arms out.
Oh my god. “Dad, you can’t wear that.”
Her dad narrowed his eyes. “Did you not say the album was yellow and black?”
Ellie eyed over the outfit. A eyesore yellow polo, and then the dad jeans. Always the dad jeans. And then the classic black zip up hoodie. Costco. The fucking Costco adidas hoodie.
I wish I could drive.
“Dad, this is, like, retro eighties style. Are you seriously wearing that polo?”
He opened his side of the car door, plopping down on the seat. “Remind me, which one of us lived through the eighties?”
“Yeah, but you don’t get a say. Nana Wheeler dressed you until you moved out.”
Her dad gave her a reproachful look as he turned on the car and began to pull out of the driveway. “I need to show you some photos of my freshman year of high school.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “I had quite the rebellious phase.” He gestured to his head. “Long hair, the works.”
Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Ew.”
Her dad nodded at the necklace she was fiddling with. “So is that the album thing?”
Ellie looked down at the necklace. Silver, with a teardrop and a star. “Yup.”
He nodded again, evidently trying to quash the awkward silence that was inevitable with every father-daughter ride. “Cool, cool.” He looked over again, pulling to a stop as the light turned red.
Oh no.
“So,” he segwayed, “Anyone you got your eye on at school”
Nope, nope. Abort.
“Dad, seriously?”
“Not even Abby?”
Ellie widened her eyes, turning red. This was mortifying. She pulled the front of her hoodie to her face, sliding down her seat. “Dad, no.”
“Are you sure?”
Change the subject, change the subject- “Can I have your phone? I want to put some music on.”
He handed over his phone from his pocket. “I’m just saying, I am the one driving you over an hour to see this Connor Gray-”
“Conan, dad. I told you-”
“Conan Gray. I think I deserve a little of the drama. What do you call it? Tea?”
Ellie couldn’t help but laugh. “Dad, please stop trying to be cool.”
He smiled, leaning over. “I was always cool.”
She pushed him away, laughing. “Alright. Have you heard any of his songs? I’ll put some on before we get there.”
She leaned over the dashboard to connect to “Mike’s iPhone,” and dug through his spotify a little bit before looking for Conan. Ugh. He was so boring. Why is there like, one playlist?
She continued, looking through. Should she put on Sunset Season? Nah. Kid Krow? Hm, maybe. Superache might be too depressing for the occasion.
“Ok, so this is my favorite from his debut album, his last tracks are always so good-”
She rambled on, not noticing the way her dad was scrunching his brow, listening to the lyrics.
Let me tell you a story
About a boy and a girl
It's kinda short, kinda boring
But the end is a whirl
“Is he talking about himself?”
“No, dad, that's later, keep listening-”
They were just sixteen
When the people were mean
So they didn't love themselves
And now they're gone
Headstones on a lawn
Her dad gripped the wheel, focusing his eyes ahead. There was something in them she couldn’t name. Was that- sadness?
“Dad, are you good?”
He cleared his throat, widening his eyes and sitting up. “Uh, nothing. Just reminding me of someone. Your namesake, actually.”
Ellie widened her eyes, pausing the music. “I have a namesake? You mean you and mom didn’t just pull straws out of a hat one day?”
He winced at the mention of her mom, clearly the divorce was still a sore spot. His eyes stayed trained on the road. “That’s a long story for another day. Can you turn the music back on?”
Ok, this is clearly a sensitive topic. Ellie obliged, unpausing the track just in time for the next verse.
And when I was younger
I knew a boy and a boy
Best friends with each other
But always wished they were more
Ellie looked over to see her dad back to clutching the steering wheel, this time with another look in his eyes. Regret maybe?
Oh my god. Is that a tear? Is my dad crying to Conan Gray?
Universal experiences are universal experiences. Ellie turned back to looking forward.
'Cause they loved one another
But never discovered
'Cause they were too afraid of what they'd say
Moved to different states
The car jolted forward, then back, tires screeching.
“FUCK- DAD!”
“SORRY!”
Ellie rose up from slouching in the seat, incredulous. “Did you have to slam the brakes that hard? Jesus, it’s just a red light. What the hell happened?”
Her dad didn’t answer this time. He kept one hand on the wheel, and turned away, resting his head on his other hand, looking out the window. The music kept playing in the background.
Yeah, it’s a sad song, but Ellie couldn’t recall anyone she knew having a visceral reaction to it. The light turned green.
“Dad?”
A sniffle. “Uh, what?”
Ellie softly answered. “The light’s green.”
He nodded, moving forward. “Mhm, yup. Can we change the song? I- uh- want to see more of his music before we get there.”
There’s over an hour left of the drive. “Uh, yup, yup. Uhm, I’ll just skip through the album, I have it on shuffle anyway-”
The next song popped up.
Something's gotten into you
You don't really look at me the way you used to
“Oooh, this one’s called Fight or Flight, it's super cool. I’ve actually learned this one on guitar a couple weeks ago, you probably heard me practicing-”
“Mhm.”
Ok, so he was going to be dry the whole ride. What the fuck is this music doing to him?
Ellie decided to humor him, sitting in silence as the chorus played.
Well, fight or flight, I'd rather die
Than have to cry in front of you
Fight or flight, I'd rather lie
Than tell you I'm in love with you
“OH MY GOD, DAD!”
“WHAT?”
“Dad, you just turned into the highway at the sharpest possible angle, what the hell is up with you right now?”
He sat in silence for a couple seconds, eyes glaring at the highway ahead, like it personally offended him. “Who the hell is this guy anyway?”
Ellie resisted the urge to jump over and take the wheel herself. “Conan Gray, dad. We established this. We are literally going to his concert right now.”
Her dad leaned his head back, bumping into the headrest, groaning something that sounded suspiciously like, “fucking hell we are.”
“Do you want me to put on the radio?”
“Please, I think I can wait to hear Conan Gray until we get there.”
Ellie obliged, switching the button to FM and tapping the hit station. She leaned back, hearing a familiar tune.
“Oh my god, I love this song.” She dialed up the volume all the way, looking at her dad and dramatically acting- singing, in efforts to cheer him up. “WHEN YOU WAKE UP NEXT TO HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHTTTTT-”
_________
By the time they pulled up to the venue an hour later, Ellie’s dad looked like he had been dragged through both the world wars and back. Scratch that, add an apocalypse.
He turned off the car and stepped out, adjusting his ugly Costco sweater. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” He pulled up his phone, trying to find the tickets, muttering incomprehensibly about how he misses when tickets were physical and not on some app. Ellie zoned out, looking around the parking lot.
Hot. Damn.
Everyone was dressed in bright colors, with leather jackets and star makeup. This is so amazing.
“See dad? I told you to dress up-” Ellie cut herself off as she looked back to see-
No reaction, he kept walking ahead. “Mhm, let’s get to our seat.”
Ellie resisted the urge to ask him a lot of questions as he walked slightly in front of her towards the venue. The list was:
- Was he relating to the lyrics of The Story? She knew her dad was always secretive about his childhood/teenage years, so there was little she could decipher about that.
- If he WAS relating, why did the second verse give him such a reaction?
- Who was the other boy?
- Is this mysterious figure related to his aversion to Chappell Roan and the Good Luck, Babe! bridge?
Ok, this is weird. Speculating on some random person was one thing, but her dad? There’s no way he could have hidden an insane lore drop for that long. He was old, old. Like, fifties old.
She looked up to realize he was standing there, looking disgruntled a few paces ahead, waiting for her to catch up. She jogged forward, all thoughts of her dad’s questionable behavior moving away as she heard the pre show playlist blasting Olivia Rodrigo.
_________
Everything was perfect. Everything was amazing, actually. The first stretch of the show went without a hitch. Ellie screamed along to every single song, (especially People Watching,) and paid no mind to her dad beside her.
That was a lie, actually. She did glance over a couple of times, just to see if he was still in his weird mood from the car, but he seemed to be out of it for the most part, bobbing his head approvingly during Never Ending Song and Wish You Were Sober.
God, he was awkward though. Might not have anything to do with the songs being played, but he did stand like it physically pained him to. Which maybe it did, he was in his fifties.
And then the opening notes to Jigsaw hit. Ellie leaned in to whisper-yell to her dad.
“This one’s really depressing- this whole stretch is.”
“Is this the one about his dad?”
“Yeah.”
Ellie’s dad got away from this song with a clenched jaw, as if the lyrics physically pained him. Ellie pretended to tie her boots when the drop came. However, it was nothing compared to the next song.
Scattered 'cross my family line
I'm so good at telling lies
That came from my mother's side
Told a million to survive
Oh fucking hell, not again.
Her dad was crying, again.
Scattered 'cross my family line
God, I have my father's eyes
But my sister's when I cry
I can run, but I can't hide
From my family line
When he noticed Ellie looking at him, concerned, he hastily wiped away some of his tears and feigned a smile, nodding.
What a weird ass day. After never seeing her dad cry, she was now seeing him cry at least three times in the span of, like, four hours. And honestly, it threw her for a loop.
Her dad didn’t like talking about his childhood. She knew some things: his close friend went missing and almost died, he had a traumatic mysterious involvement with the weird Hawkins incidents from 83-87, and then magically went back to normal. Aunt Holly had also gone missing, and all the while Nana Wheeler had drank like crazy and her distant grandfather had remained indifferent, pulling away from his family. Ellie didn’t know what he said to her dad, but she knows it made some large impact on him, because he doesn’t like to talk about it.
Maybe she should have asked.
Clearly, this shit had been weighing on him for ages now, and growing up in the eighties in a conservative family probably didn’t exactly encourage him to express his trauma in any healthy outlet. God, he was her age during all the shit that Hawkins had.
That was slightly jarring to think about. Maybe she would ask him later, when he was most composed and less… emotional.
And then the familiar guitar strum whipped her back to the present.
Let me tell you a story
Oh, fuck.
Was this on the Found Heaven setlist?
Ellie looked over at her dad. He didn’t look so sad anymore, just really, really annoyed. The second verse came and went, and with each note his brow furrowed farther and farther. By the end of the song, he looked so deep in thought that he probably wouldn’t have noticed if she had done a backflip off of her seat.
Fuck, this was too much shit to think about. Why the hell was she thinking about this right now? She came to enjoy the concert, goddamit!
Ellie vowed not to look at her dad at all as Astronomy played, because given his track record with the other songs, this would probably trigger another depressing reaction.
Ok, so she did peek a little bit during the bridge, and the distress on his face was… very telling.
Astronomy was written about best friends drifting apart… interesting, interesting. The puzzle pieces began to fit together, slowly, slowly, like a jigsaw. Ha.
As Astronomy ended, Ellie jumped up and down, screaming, and pulling on her dad’s sleeve. “Oh my god, this one’s the best, it's the opening track off the new album.” He nodded, looking zoned out.
No God above us
Can we repent this sin?
No soul is innocent
Everybody wants to love
Her dad leaned in. “Is this a religious song?”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Dad, listen.”
You walk alone into the darkest night
You'll never sleep until you're satisfied
You need love, you need one
You need him
You'll never get your mama's wedding ring
Father always said you ruined everything
But you prayed, begged and prayed
Heart unchanged
Her dad couldn’t possibly ruin this one… right?
Wrong.
Ellie looked over at him to see… no crying this time. He had this wide-eyed trance-like stare at the stage, nodding fervently at each line. There were no tears, but she could tell. He liked this one.
Don't be scared, little child
You're no demon
There's a God in the sky
Don't believe him
Don't be scared, little child
Of that feeling
You're in love
You found Heaven
.
This time there were no waterworks. Ellie watched as her dad stared, almost in awe, at the stage, eyes layered with so many emotions at once. Regret, but also love, and on top of all that was some extra layer that looked resigned. Tired, with a hint of acceptance.
Holy shit. Did he know what the song was about?
The singular tear in the corner of his eye said enough. He definitely did.
Holy.
Shit.
Ellie turned back to the stage, but her mind was not thinking about the song anymore. The implications were stacked, and they all pointed to a very specific direction.
Her dad leaned in. “I-uh. I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
_________
It wasn’t until the reveal of the encore shirt did Ellie turn around to find that her dad was, in fact, still not there.
Where the fuck was he?
Ellie checked her phone, groaning. If her theory was correct, there was a ninety percent chance that her dad was currently having a crisis in the bathroom. And sure, when she checked his location, he was still there.
Fuck it. She turned from her seat and walked towards the bathroom, opening the door to the men’s restroom and storming in. (Yes, it was empty, nobody was in the fucking bathroom during encore.) Her eyes turned to scan, finding her dad, with his hands on the sink, staring into the mirror.
It was a little unnerving, actually. Her dad was never like this. Ellie took a step forward.
“Dad?”
He stood up straight, shaking his head, which looked like a lousy attempt to nod off whatever was going on in his mind.
“You okay?”
He wiped his eyes. “You know what? I think I’ll wait in the car.” He hastily reached for his phone, averting eye contact.
Ellie furrowed her brow. “Dad, there are two songs left.” She softened slightly before continuing, resting a hand on her dad’s shoulder. “You know, if something’s bothering you, I’m here. You can tell me.”
He smiled down at her sadly, not answering. The speakers blared in the bathroom, the boppy beat of Bourgeoisieses loudly juxtaposing the heavy feeling in her dad’s eyes. He looked away briefly, evidently trying to change the subject. “So, are you enjoying the concert?”
Ellie looked up at her dad, noticing the way his smile only reached his cheeks, without crinkling the corners of his eyes the way they do when he’s excited. “Yeah, it's, like, fun, but dad,” she sighed, “I’m kind of worried about you.”
He gestured to the door, absent once again. “You like this song, right?”
“Yeah, I mean, but dad-”
“Let’s go back.”
___________
See, Ellie completely understood being obsessed with a song. But this song?
It was on. All. The. Time.
Cleaning the house? Blasting from a speaker in the kitchen. In the car? You best bet it was on. The lyrics to Found Heaven were always there, being reaffirmed in the background of her day-to-day life, like a mantra her dad was trying to console himself with. He was a victim to the middle-aged fear of airpods and radiation, but that all seemed to go out the window with this new development.
Not only that. Ellie noticed how her dad had acted after divorcing her mom. He was always a little… distanced when they were together, carrying some type of facade constantly. After, he moped, listened to classic dad rock, and ordered takeout. There was no big epiphany afterwards, and Ellie knew that it was more amicable than most separations. She didn’t get fought over, there was no yelling, no screaming. But there was a period of blankness.
Which was weird, now that she got to see a side of her dad that was never on display. Mike Wheeler, 2.0, if you will.
Ellie definitely noticed the very specific meaning of the song, and while she was hesitant to, like, label why her dad might like it so much, she was glad that he was happy. If the song helped recontextualize some old, (probably horrible), internalized hate, then she was glad. It did give him some confidence to pry about her life, which was a little bit embarrassing. Especially post-school car rides.
Her dad hummed as Ellie hopped in the car, closing the door behind her. She looked up to see him smirking, eyebrows upwards as he nodded behind her.
She looked back, then at him again. “What?”
He turned back to the wheel, and began to pull out of the pickup line. “Hm,” he smiled, “Nothing. Was that Abby you were talking to?”
Ellie groaned. “Dad, I swear, we’re working on a chemistry project together.”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
“DAD.”
He grinned, absentmindedly tapping the wheel as he drove. The silence was comfortable, with an underlying hum of music. Ellie didn’t have to look at the console to know that the album image would most likely be yellow and black. She turned her head to the left, to see her father bobbing his head to the song, humming along.
Don’t be scared, little child
You’re no demon
Was this basis for digging up some more info? Maybe not, but Ellie was nosy. If he caught her looking, she could say it was payback for teasing about her love life. Or lack, thereof.
Fuck, downside to being an only child is definitely not being able to dog on her father even more with someone who also was subjected to this current bout of Conan Gray psychosis. Her friends at school weren’t that close, except for, well…
Nope. Too close.
Imagine that conversation. “Ha! Guess what! I think my dad was in love with his childhood best friend! Must run in the family, right?”
Ha.
Upon getting home, Ellie raced up the stairs to the attic without a word. Nana Wheeler was practically a hoarder, and every couple of months she would come back to their house with a new box that she found buried in the bottomless pit that was her grandparents' basement. Which means, knowing Nana Wheeler, a LOT of photos.
She reached for the light switch, turning it up to illuminate a kaleidoscope of cobwebs strung over boxes and boxes. Ellie made her way towards the biggest pile, taking in the labels.
The Party, 1984
Interesting.
She took down the first box. She was immediately greeted with tan fabric, which when pulled out, appeared to be a ghostbusters costume, probably from Halloween. Attached was some black gadget. Having never watched Ghostbusters, Ellie pushed it to the side to dig, finding a small array of photos.
The first was of a small black-haired boy, holding up his gadget and grinning. She flipped it over, and found, in her grandma’s neat scrawl, Mike, 10/31/84. Damn. Practically ancient.
The next couple of photos were all of a group. The Party. All in matching costumes, grinning and laughing. On the right she recognized one of her dad’s friends, who she vaguely remembered pulling up for thanksgiving with his wife and kids some years back when she was around ten. She begrudgingly was forced to play with a four-year old redheaded menace for hours, not noticing the hushed and serious conversation that the adults were having. Luke? Lucas?
All the way on the right was a small, round-faced and curly-haired boy she could only guess was her Uncle Dustin, who stopped by sometimes in between moving around to his next research project. Ellie vaguely remembers him trying to teach her to play DnD a couple years ago. She wasn’t too interested, but he was pretty fun to hang around.
Next to Dustin in the middle was her dad, smiling as he looked at…
That’s him.
Standing beside her thirteen-year-old father was the smallest of the group, with a brown bowl cut and hazel eyes, looking like he was mid-laugh. Considering her dad was always talking about his friends and how close they were, it was weird she didn’t know his name. Ellie set this photo in a separate pile she deemed “evidence.”
The next few photos were labeled Snow Ball, 84,’ which brought up some amazing shots of her dad looking like he was yelling at the camera, trying to cover it up with his hands. There were a couple of photos that looked like they were taken at the Hawkins Middle gym. Those were a little more confusing. Next to her dad stood a girl with short hair, eyeshadow, and a blue dress. She turned this photo over to see the label, this time written in her dad’s handwriting: Mike & El.
El.
Ellie.
The pieces slowly began to fit together. Could this be her namesake that made him so emotional at the concert? What happened to her?
Ellie sifted through the rest of the photos in the box, even finding a couple that included a girl who she recognized as Lucas’s wife from that Thanksgiving. Max. She was fun.
More and more digging proved there were no more photos of El. Not in this box, at least. Just as she began to set the photos back in, she noticed a binder sitting at the bottom. Ellie dug it out, careful as to not breathe in the copious amounts of dust that had no doubt been sitting there for years. She tenderly opened it to the first page, softly turning the pages.
These were crayon pictures. They looked like a child’s drawing, full of wizards and knights and dragons. Ellie flipped the pages, noticing the drawings getting more and more advanced as time went on, each year tagged with a tab. The beginning started circa 1976, and the last was marked 1987. Towards the end were scraps of lined paper, no doubt doodles from notes passed in class. Ellie gingerly took one out, where the doodle was of a small dragon. She flipped it over, and on the lines was a little note was her dad’s cursive:
Free for the arcade later? Dustin finally agreed and Lucas says he can come after the hospital.
__Yes __No
Instead of checking off, the recipient drew a smiley face above the yes. Ellie picked up the next note.
My mom told me we have to pick up Holly before we go home today, she has some stupid hair appointment.
Um, we go home? Did they live together? Ellie had heard about some quarantine back in the mid-late eighties, so maybe that was it. Her dad’s writing was smaller in this, with an unrecognizable font underneath:
Sounds fun, we’re going to boost her fifth grade street cred.
Dude, just say you know my sister has the hugest crush on you.
Oh my god, this was funny. She would have to ask Aunt Holly about it later. Guessing from the date of the tab this was in, it looked like it would have been around 1987, which meant her dad and his friend would have been around seventeen.
In an envelope behind the notes was a cassette tape, reading, For Will.
Will. His name was Will.
Ellie grabbed it, shooting up to run around the attic.
Wasn’t that a romantic thing back in the day? Mixtapes?
After looking around in vain for a couple of minutes, Ellie realized that nobody owned a cassette player anymore. Luckily, in the envelope she found a list of the songs.
Just Like Heaven- The Cure
Heroes- David Bowie
Are Friends Electric?- Tubeway Army
Oh my god, her dad was whipped as a teenager. You don’t look at this and not see a face of yearning. Ellie carefully notated the rest of the songs on her phone for later, and put the tape back away. If her dad still held onto it, it probably meant he never ended up giving the thing to, well, Will. All these years.
She shoved everything back in the box and moved to another one, simply titled, 1986. This one, rather than having a bunch of photos, carried a stack of letters. On the top was a letter addressed to her dad, with some sentences scratched out in vain.
Hi Mike,
How are you doing? I am fine.
Why is writing letters so hard? Talking to you is always easy. I guess because a letter isn’t like a real conversation. I have to say a whole bunch of stuff and then wait weeks to hear your reply. It’s like a conversation between two people who have been hit by a Slow Spell. Annoying!
The drive was very long. Jonathan kept falling asleep and snoring when he wasn’t driving. Mom had this big list of historical sights and national parks she wanted to visit. She said it would be ‘enriching.’ But she also wanted to get here as fast as she could, so she never wanted to stop for long. National parks are huge. You can’t see much of them in two hours (other than the parking lot.)
California is okay, I guess. It’s way hotter than Hawkins and it’s always so sunny. There has not been one rainy day since we arrived! I miss clouds. I miss you.
Jonathan says hi.
Mom also says hi. Or she would, if she wasn’t so worried busy.
El is going to say hi in her own letter.
Wow, ok, so there was the name drop of El again. Was she Will’s sister? Her dad’s old girlfriend? So many questions.
Ellie knew it might be a little too presumptuous to assume, but she IS assuming, because she can. Will definitely had a crush on her dad. At this point in their life, at least. Below this letter, she finds around five more from Will, each more pining than the last. Towards the end, he seemed a little frustrated:
Hey Mike,
How’s it going? I know you’re probably really busy, starting high school and all. I saw in your letter to El that you joined a new DnD club. Sounds fun. I haven’t played DnD since that one disaster of a campaign last summer, so I’m glad you don’t think you’re too cool for it anymore like it again.
I don’t know if my letters are going through, but if you want to reach out and you don’t have time, you could totally just say hi in your letters to El. She loves reading them to me. I totally understand.
Why don’t you write to me?
Anyway, I think that if you want to talk, we can just call or something. School’s busy and stuff.
Will.
Oh she was going to murder her dad. Just imagining that boy from the Halloween photo, earnestly grinning, sitting in a room writing to his friend, only to not get anything in return.
Ellie can guess that El is Will’s sister now, and she was definitely dating her dad. Poor Will, that must have been tough.
This letter does answer a lot of prior inquiries about her dad’s reaction to The Story. Two best friends, moving to different states before they knew how much they meant to one another. The confusing thing is according to the doodles, Will had come back in 87’ to live with the Wheelers. That must have been awkward.
At this point, Ellie was bursting with the urge to ask her dad about what was going on, when she looked under the stack of Will’s letters. She could feel the thrum of the bass from Found Heaven still playing as her dad hummed downstairs, oblivious that she just found a new stack of letters.
These were clean, clearly unsent. There was no envelope, and no address. Ellie brought the first one to her line of vision.
Dear Will,
Oh shit. This was so poetic. Before reading the rest, Ellie thumbed through the stack of papers. She counted a total of fifty three unsent letters, all signed Love, Mike.
She stood up, ready to take them and shove them away for her to read in her room when she heard footsteps coming up the attic stairs. Graced with the gift of a horrible reaction time, Ellie stood stark in the middle of the attic, holding a stack of letters in one hand and the halloween photo in another.
There was a soft knock on the door. “Ellie?”
She opened her mouth, whispering under her breath, “shit shit shit-”
The handle turned and there he was. “Hey, I thought I would make some burgers, seeing as we haven’t eaten anything edible in weeks. Do you want swiss or chedda-” He was cut off as his eyes locked in to her right hand, and there he stood, jaw open.
“Dad,”
“Shit.”