fletcher

Kordillia was barely listening nor paying attention to Fletcher, quite frankly. Linden, whom she had known for five seconds, had already stolen her heart and she was in love, beaming and cooing at the baby girl. 

 “Hm? Oh, well, I’m sure she’ll be fine. I doubt she’s even gonna look up at the eclipse. If you’re worried, just hug her to your chest for a while and she should be happy enough, I’d imagine… Huh, baby girl?” she chirped to the child, grinning at her. 

 “… Bad joke? Yeah. Sure. Why not. Do it. I dare you, in fact.”

“Do you want to hold Linden? She isn’t shy, not much a surprise. Well, it is since babies are supposed to be shy towards strangers, but I think she learned off of me.” He shrugged his shoulders. Fletcher was an awful, but loving father. He didn’t have the best parenting skills, but the amount of love and effort that he gave up for Linden made up for it. “How do spacemen cut their hair? Eclipse it.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Benj shrugged as he glanced from the man to the baby resting on the side of his hip, “babies naturally don’t look in the suns direction. They clearly are smarter than most adults.” Benj wasn’t sure if his worries were wholehearted or part of his satire personality. Explode? Does he really think a baby is going to explode from an eclipse? With a friendly smile on his face, Benj nodded his head in response, “let’s here it. I’m a sucker for bad jokes.”

“Man, that’s true. I wonder how many people are going to go blind today. It’s weird to think that the sun could blind you, like the one thing that is supposed to keep us alive and do something so awful? We all have our flaws.” The boy never ran out of things to say, something some could consider a blessing and others would recall it’s a curse. “How to space men cut their hair? Eclipse it.”

Teddy slaps his forehead with his palm, a groan, and an agonized smile tugging at his lips. “That… That was horrible, Fletch. Terrible!” Teddy exclaims, removing his hand from its spot covering his eyes. Nonetheless, Teddy still chuckles a bit at the horrible joke. Looking back up at the sun, of course through his glasses, and choosing to pretend as if the joke hadn’t phased him a bit. The sun is now almost completely covered by a shadow, a sliver of orange light peeking out. After seeming completely awe-inspired by the eclipse, he turns slightly to the side and mumbles, “I’ve got one for you…” His lips forming a smirk, “Why did the dog constellation never laugh at a joke?”

“Oh c’mon, it couldn’t have been that awful! I heard worse today.” The boy exclaimed, believing that it wasn’t the worst, but not the best as well. Fletcher had a short attention span, so staring straight into the sky didn’t exactly catch his attention like the other people standing around. “Why?” He asked, glancing over at his pal, ignoring his daughter tugging on his shirt, yanking it in every direction possible.

Belle had her glasses on, and hearing the nervous father speaking suddenly made her think of her daughter, wondering if she and Tobias were watching the eclipse and if she had her own special glasses on. “I think there are some special kid friendly ones that they’re selling in the stall over there, and that would be your best bet.” she said, hopefully helping him out with not being too nervous, she didn’t think the little girl would explode. “Uhm– sure… but I’m not promising that I’ll laugh at it, if it’s bad.”

“I bought every type of glasses they got from the stand, I just didn’t know which ones would be comfortable or nice.” He rambled, smiling at the girl who did manage to calm his nerves. It was nice, coming from someone else other than his mother. “Okay, so, how do men in space cut their hair? Eclipse it.” He smiled at how awful it was, but his daughter babbled and had small laughter. 

Tobias chuckled seeing the gentleman sqerm from afar. Walking up towards him he shook his head as his five year old grabbed onto his leg. “Calm down, she’ll be okay. Just keep an eye on her and if she seems to want to watch it, you should put the glasses on her” Tobias mused picking up Ana from the ground. “Sure, whats the joke?”

“True, you got a point. It isn’t bad for babies? I put sunscreen on her and gave her the hat, but, I wasn’t sure if there was a prototypical for this.” He motioned towards the small sunflower, floppy hat on his daughter’s head. “How does the space men get their hair cut? Eclipse it.” The young father smiled, glancing down at the little girl clinging onto his leg, giving her a small wave.

“The most scared I’ve ever been was probably moving here, away from the ocean and area I grew up in. I’m not a fan of change, but I guess things happen for a reason.”

“The first time I caught a wave when I lived in Chula Vista–but it was at Ocean Beach beach. The area was a bit poor, but I swear the best people lived there. They were all light heart people and–one of them taught me how to surf. It was great. I never felt a rush like that before.”

“She’s only one years old, I don’t think there would be anything I’d change about her. I’m scared she’d want to meet her mom, and I’d let her, but I just don’t want her hopes to get high because she abandoned both of us.”

“The hardest part of being a father is probably me feeling like I won’t be a good enough father. I don’t need help raising her, but I want to be the best dad I can. I don’t want her to dislike me when she grows up.”