Recap: Rikki called Herb back and told him about the threatening phone call.
“You must stay on the main road. This man is a dangerous terrorist. You must be vigilant.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry,” Rikki said.
I tried to shake away that whole terrifying experience. I told my mother about it. She hugged me and told me she wanted us driven to the rink from now on.
Just then her phone rang. “It’s Allie.” My mother handed me the phone.
“How are you? Did you contact your father yet?”
I wanted to tell her about almost being kidnapped by that terrorist, but I wasn’t allowed to speak about it to anyone.
“No, I’m going to do it today,” I said. I had to call him.
“I’m sure it will be good!” Allie said.
I hung up and then pulled out the paper with my father’s number.
I punched in the number. My heart was pounding.
“Hello,” a deep voice answered.
“Hi,” my voice squeaked. “This is Evie Gold.”
“Who?”
“Evie,” I said.
“Evie?”
“Your daughter,” I said. Why didn’t he know who I was?
“Evie!”
“I’m at Aunt Ruthie’s house and I thought I should call and…”
“Evie, it’s so good to hear from you. I want to come see you.”
He was going to come. I was actually talking to my father.
“Yes, please come.”
“I’ll work it out with Ruth.”
I hung up and was in a total daze. Was this really happening? My father was going to come to meet me.
I called Allie back.
“That’s great. Good luck,” Allie said.
“When is he coming?”
“He’s going to speak to my aunt. I have to go to the rink now. I just can’t believe I’m actually going to meet him. Allie, I’m scared.”
“It’ll be good. He wants to see you.”
Herb drove us to the rink. “Remember to be vigilant,” he said.
“Thank you for driving us,” Rikki said.
I went onto the ice with Rikki and encouraged her to go around. “You can do it,” I said.
At first she was wobbly, but after a while she started gliding around.
We high-fived as she went around the fourth time.
Then Mrs. Laster appeared. “Are you ready?” she asked crisply.
I nodded.
Rikki waved and exited the ice so my coach and I had the ice to ourselves.
I moved through my routines. My mind was on meeting my father.
“You’re not focusing!” she barked. “Do that spin again and include the arm motions.” She demonstrated.
I tried to clear my mind and focus the best I could.
Her constant criticism made me nervous. I popped my triple axel.
“If you want to win, you are going to have to put in a lot more effort.”
I sighed. I missed the days when Mother was my coach and not this critical lady.
After practice, Herb drove Rikki home and then dropped me off. “I’ll drive you for the rest of the week just to make sure you’re safe,” he said.
When I walked in the door, Aunt Ruthie greeted me with a smile. “Guess whom I just got off the phone with?”
I shrugged. I tried to erase the upset feeling that still tightened in my stomach.
“I spoke to your father. Steve is coming over tonight to meet you. I arranged it at a time when I know your mother will be out.”
“My father is coming tonight?” I asked.
She nodded.
I couldn’t believe it. I was going to meet my father tonight. My dad, the star of the dream I always had, was coming to meet me.
I ran upstairs to choose a meeting-father outfit. I tried on several dresses and discarded them.
Aunt Ruthie strode into the room. “I’m happy that he’s coming to see you.”
“Do you think this light blue dress is good?” I asked.
“Sure, that’s lovely. I’m going downstairs to finish cooking.”
“I’ll be down in a few minutes to help.” I called Allie but she didn’t answer. Then I decided to call Rikki and tell her the news. I realized Rikki had become my best friend in Utah.
“Rikki, guess what! My father is coming for dinner. I’m going to meet him tonight. I’m so excited. I’m so nervous. Daven for me.”
“Of course, I will. Good luck. I’m sure it will go well. Think good and it will be good. That’s what we believe.”
“Thanks.”
At 7:00, the doorbell rang.
My neck muscles tightened. I heard someone come in who had a deep voice, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
If only I could stop the fluttery feeling in my stomach. I headed downstairs. My father was standing near Aunt Ruthie. He was tall with brown hair and blue eyes. There was a slight streak of gray by his temples.
He looked up and waved at me. “Evie, you must be Evie.” He smiled at me and then asked if he could give me a hug.
I nodded, but I suddenly felt shy.
“Come into the living room so you two can get better acquainted,” Aunt Ruthie said.
How odd to be saying that to a daughter and father, I mused.
We sat facing each other. I sat on the sofa, and he chose a nearby reclining chair.
“I’m so glad you reached out and told me you were here. I’ve missed you,” he said.
I wanted to say, then, why didn’t you call all these years and why did you walk out on me, but I didn’t say any of that.
There was a beat.
“You’ve grown a lot,” he said.
Well, what would you expect, since the last time you saw me, I was four!
“So, Ruthie tells me you’ve moved here to Utah.”
The painful question lodged in my throat. Why did you walk out on me when I was so young? How could a father do that to a child?
His phone buzzed. “Excuse me.” He rose and moved to a corner of the room to take the call.
I heard everything he said.
“I’ll be home after dinner. Yes, I know about the dinner party but something important came up. I’ll be there later. Bye.”
He was giving up a dinner party for me.
He strode back to the reclining chair.
The awkward silence stretched on and on. I couldn’t think of anything to say to him. He was a stranger. He’d been here around ten minutes, but it felt like hours.
He cleared his throat.
“I’ll show you a picture of my wife and my two girls,” he said. He held out his phone so I could see them on his screensaver. His wife was a petite woman with dyed blonde hair. The girls were little. There was a skinny blonde girl who looked like she was four or five standing by a baby stroller that held a girl with blonde pigtails who looked around two years old.
“Jessica and Veronica.” He pointed at the two girls. “That’s my wife, Victoria.”
What was I supposed to say? So nice that you have a whole different family!?
“So, tell me about yourself,” he said. “What do you like to do? What grade are you going into?”
Things a father should know.
“I’m going into seventh grade. I ice skate. Mom told me you were a professional skater,” I said.
“Ah, well, I gave that up a long time ago.”
Aunt Ruthie came into the room and invited us into the dining room for dinner.
I sat across from him. She tried filling the awkward silence with small talk. Emmie was a good distraction. She babbled away and Aunt Ruthie told my father the story of how they got Emmie.
Then she brought a homemade pizza to the table.
Normally, I would have loved to bite into a piece, but right now my stomach was in knots.
After the uncomfortable meal, my father bent over and kissed my head. “It is so good to see you, Evie. We must get together and I want you to meet Vicky and the girls.”
I had no desire to meet them. I nodded mechanically.
“Sorry, I can’t stay longer but Vicky is waiting for me for the dinner party.”
He headed towards the door. “Please call me when you have time and we’ll spend time together.”
I didn’t walk him to the door. I sat there frozen. What had just happened? I’d met my father, the person I’d hoped to meet for years. He’d come, and eaten dinner with me, and it was not what I thought it would be. Why, what had I expected? He said he wanted to spend time with me. Why was I so upset?
The pain in my heart was like a physical wound. I couldn’t move.
I was like a colorful helium balloon all pumped up then poked by something sharp. A slow steady hiss of disappointment had deflated my hopes into nothingness.
I realized with a start that he never asked me about my skating or the competitions or anything about my skating aspirations.
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of Captured (Menucha 2025), an historical fiction novel, Please Be Patient (Menucha 2024), Flight of the Doves (Menucha Publishing 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha Publishers 2022) , A Bridge in Time (Menucha Publishing 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha Publishers 2020), Denver Dreams, a novel (Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha Publishers, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021-2022) and Alaskan Gold ( 2023-2024).
