***
"You missed it, daddy!" came Sarah's highly amused voice from behind already before the ball would hit back on the ground.
"Uh - guess you're winning in a rout. How shall I hold my pace with that, huh, Sarah? Any idea?" Derek smirked as he turned around towards his six-year-old daughter, leaving the golf ball where it had come ashore.
Sarah was first showing a wide grin, yet that would soon change into one of her pouting faces. "I know that you're not givin' it everything, daddy."
"Sarah," he replied with a playful tone of bewilderment, raising his free hand to his heart. "I-I - uh - well, I just can't express how very hurtful that is to me. Maybe I
am just this awful of a player of this game. Have you considered this at all?"
She laughed again, whereupon also Derek's mask of playful seriousness dropped, just like with her pouting before. "So - uh - you grant me a revenge, or must I go to bed crying?"
"Hey, it's still my turn!" she suddenly complained.
"Oh yes, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting the rules of this uh - golf, isn't it? My bad."
"Daddy---"
Derek had to chuckle. His sweet pie just knew when he was acting stupid on purpose. "So, then. All eyes on you. Show me what you got, little superstar."
Sarah looked like she was trying hard to keep her serious expression, although she was still doing it better than Derek. Without uttering more words, she placed her little hands around the club and prepared for another swing when suddenly something on the ground made her stumble as, almost simultaneously, Laura's voice interrupted their play.
"Derek!"
With her balance regained, Sarah looked up at her daddy instead of into the direction of the house. Derek sent a playful eye roll towards her. She smiled at him in response. Then Derek finally drew his eyes to his wife. "Give mommy and daddy a little moment, will you?" he said to Sarah in passing, gently caressing her hair.
Once he had reached Laura at the door sill, the worry on her face changed into anger. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't make me the fun killer again, Derek."
"I didn't say anything, or did I?"
Granted, sometimes looks were saying more than words. It probably hadn't been fair of him to have sent that eye roll in their daughter's direction, yet he didn't see a reason for that to become another argument between them. "Laura..."
She gave him another look of indignation, along with a sigh of annoyance, before just walking past him and towards Sarah. "Come on inside, okay?" Laura said as she took their daughter by her hand.
"Nooo--! I wanna play some more with daddy!"
"It's getting late, honey. Please."
"That's not fair!" Sarah countered while angrily tossing the golf club onto the ground. "I wanna spend more time with daddy!"
Laura turned once again towards Derek, giving him a slightly accusatory while at the same time sad look before softly speaking to their daughter. "Daddy wants that, too, honey. And you know what? Today he's gonna read to you, okay? But now, please go inside, will you?"
Eventually, Sarah allowed her mother's words to calm her. Taking on Laura's hand, the two ladies walked up into the house. And while Laura avoided sending another look Derek's way, Sarah smiled at him wider than before. How could that smile not cause him to feel like the happiest father in the world? At least for as long as it lasted, it could bury any worries and difficult times that Laura and him went through with her at times underneath.
***
By the time Sarah had started to get ready for bed, the argument that had been about to surface while they were outside was almost forgotten for Derek's part.
Nearing Laura as they stood in silence for some moments, about to give her a kiss, she suddenly turned her face away from him, though. "Don't be late to put her to bed. You heard what she said. She's missing her dad."
"I'm here, Laura. I..."
"When she wants someone to play with, yes, Derek. Then you're there, at times at least. But where are you when she needs someone to look after her? When she has, yet again, broken an arm or leg, not seldom because of an accident that happened while you were there for her playing games because it always has to be something that isn't good for her. I mean, why not giving her a golf club into her hands while we just wait and see what happens when a swing she takes makes her stumble and fall? Who's there then, Derek, who?"
Derek was going to interrupt her, but she just went on, her voice continuing to increase in its volume.
"I'm telling you who, Derek. It's
me. I'm the one who has to walk her inside and make sure she's staying there, or even taking her to the hospital, watching the sad look in her eyes when having to explain to her that she can't do all the things other kids her age do. Just like I'm the one who has to explain to her why her dad doesn't stay at her bedside while she has to rest there. Why
you are only there when it's easy to be there."
"You're not being fair now, Laura. You know that what I'm doing is all for Sarah."
"Do I?" Laura pressed on while there was something in her eyes that showed almost desperation. "I mean, do I
really? Frankly, I don't really know what it exactly is that you're doing day in, day out. Don't you think a job, one that you restart to take seriously, would help us more than what you're doing for more than half a year now? I'm starting to believe that the only person you're doing this for is yourself. For the sake of getting answers and investigating something that leads nowhere. I mean, when was the last time you gave a lecture even?"
He sighed, not with annoyance but with regret about Laura seemed to have bottled up a lot of things for quite a while without ever saying anything to him. Or maybe she had, but Derek wouldn't have taken it as seriously as this suddenly felt. "This is not about golf anymore, is it?" he tried it with misplaced humor to ease the situation.
"No, Derek." She hesitated for a moment, her indignation changing once again into something different before she continued with regret as well. "It's about
us. Our life together. Why do I feel like I'm the only one who cares? I always had while you were just having a good time, running away from every little responsibility, anything mature. I know you don't like to talk things out, but..." Her voice broke off for a second. "Well, I guess, that's basically why we're here now."
So, it
had been him who was the problem, as for them not talking things out because he hadn't been focused on them enough. Then suddenly, her last words made Derek wonder, looking up at her in a slight shock.
"What do you mean
here?"
For some more moments, there was but a thick silence covering them before, eventually, Laura looked up at him with a mix of sadness and deep regret, while at the same time something settled, in her eyes.
"I want us to get a divorce."
