𝐁𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐞

XXVI

December 8 was a good day for Doris. She spent the whole morning playing with Sean, whose games she never got tired of, and Rosaura had made lunch for both of them. The three of them had had the apartment to themselves, as John and Yoko had been in the other apartment all morning and then gone out on errands afterward.

The afternoon had passed peacefully, Doris spending some of it reading out on the penthouse balcony while Sean had his nap. She'd found a small book with her father's face on the cover that morning, the title In His Own Write a clever pun that had caught her eye. When she'd asked about it, Rosaura had said with a grin that it was from John's Beatle days and was a bunch of dull nonsense.

After cracking it open, Doris had to agree that it was nonsense- but it was far from dull. Even though none of the words she read registered any reasonable meaning, she loved the randomness of the writing, and at last saw her father's humor manifested. She wondered how long it had taken him to come up with it all; if it had just been quick scribbles or if it had taken years. It was one of many things she planned to ask him about at dinner tonight.

In the middle of a poem called "I Sat Belonely", a title which made Doris immediately think of herself, Rosaura was sliding the glass door open, tapping eagerly on the pane.

"There's a phone for you."

"For me?"

Rosaura nodded. "From your father."

Doris picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Hello hello," said a warm voice on the other end: Dad's, sounding far happier and less nervous than he'd sounded yesterday. "Is it Doris Day speaking?"

She giggled to herself. "Of course, at your service."

"Well, now I know you must be joking." John said fondly. "Listen, me an' Yoko are gonna be here longer than we'd planned. I know it's still early, but we're looking to stay another few hours, an' we probably won't be back till around eleven."

Staring at her father's face on the cover of the book in her hand, Doris' smile fell.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

He had clearly sensed the disappointment in her voice. "Listen, don't wait up all night for us, okay? Go an' eat. We'll see if we can't all go out tomorrow. Take Sean too."

At this Doris smiled again. "All right."

"Sound good?"

"All right, yeah. I'll, uh, see you when you get back then."

"I'll see you then," John responded in a dramatic, theatrical voice. "Ok, bye bye Doris Day."

"Bye."