Safe Returns
This is Milka, Ichiji's adopted daughter. She has skin the color of strawberry milk, hair the color of chocolate milk, and eyes the color of unaltered milk. She's six years old.
Ichiji woke with a start, heart already pounding and sweat forming on his brow. It didn't take him long to realize the shrill shriek was real, and the sobbing was coming from his daughter's room across the hall. He scrambled out of bed, but when he got to her room, she was already standing in the doorway, probably on her way to his room. She looked up where his face should be, white eyes scrunched as tears waterfalled down her cheeks. "Da-da-da-ddy..." she tried to say between heavy sobs. Ichiji wanted to move quickly, to save his daughter from whatever scared her this badly. But paternal instinct reminded him that she needed calm and steady right now. "I'm here, Milka. Daddy's here." He bent down, stroked her arms as a warning he was about to pick her up. He lifted her easily and held her against his chest. Milka immediately buried her face in Ichiji's shoulder, sobbing openly in the safety of his arms. Ichiji carried her into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. "I'm not going anywhere. I've got you," he cooed. He rubbed her back and stroked her hair while humming soft a low. All that, combined with his warmth and sheltering arms, eventually convinced Milka to slow her breathing and gulp some air. "I had a bad dream, a nightmare," she explained when she was calm enough. Tears still spilled from her eyes, but she pulled her face away from his shoulder so she could talk easier. "That does sound scary. Do you want to tell me about it?" Ichiji adjusted his arms to Milka could lay her head back in the crook of his arm. He was glad she couldn't see how worried his own face looked. "They were laughing. All of them," Milka explained. Ichiji wondered vaguely if people born blind could dream in vision. But now wasn't the time to find out. "All the kids were laughing and pointing. All the adults had their backs turned away. The water was over my head. I tried to swim up, but I couldn't stay up. No one was helping me." Milka explained the dream so vividly, but it was the complex feelings behind the dream that he picked up on. "Oh, my precious child. You will never be alone like that again." "It was real. It really happened," Milka insisted. "I know it felt real. It was just a dream," Ichiji assured her. "No. Last summer. A life guard pulled me out and lectured me on swimming too deep." Milka's tone suggested her sadness and fear were being overwritten by anger. "Oh..." Is all Ichiji could say. He pulled her tighter against him. "Never again. Never again." It was a promise to himself as much as to Milka. "Daddy, I don't wanna be alone ever again. I don't wanna be scared," Milka mumbled with vulnerability. "You will never be alone like that as long as you're my daughter. If I can't be with you, I'll find someone I trust to be with you," Ichiji promised. He even realized in the back of his mind, if it came down to it, he would overcome his own anxiety and ask the man-child himself to babysit. Milka's breathing grew deeper and steadier. Her eyelids started drifting and fluttering. Ichiji resumed humming and rocked her gently. When she appeared in deep sleep, he laid her carefully on the mattress and covered her with the blankets nice and snug. He found Berry the stuffed strawberry on the ground and tucked it in beside Milka. He watched her sleep for a long time.















