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"It's OK, Dad . . . do we have any kid's Advil?"
"Why?"
"Just a sore throat."
"You comin' down with something? Come here."
Daniel pulled her closer and grabbed a flashlight to look in her mouth.
"Say 'Ahhh.' "
"Dad, you're not a doctor."
"Yeah, but I can see if it's red or something. Do you need to stay home?"
"I don't think so . . . it's not that bad."
"But you need pain pills."
She relented and let him look at her throat, but he realized the light wasn't perfect.
"You're right; I don't know what a throat is supposed to look like anyway.
He got her the chewable pills and insisted she calls him at work if she needed to come home.
"I will, no worries."
Daniel drove her to school and went immediately to the lumberyard to get started. His workplace had been great with him since Candace passed away. They let him adjust his hours to take care of Tina as needed. He ran the forklift in the yard of the biggest building supplier in the state, and it was simple to work, just moving things around the yard or loading trucks, but it paid the bills. He even saved some college money for Tina between his income and Candace's life insurance.
He was halfway through his lunch break when he got a call from Ashley, and she had news he hadn't seen coming so soon.
"Hey, Ashley. What's up?"
"I just wanted to mention something about Tina cause I think you need to know, but it's a little delicate."
"Jesus! What is it?" he asked, jumping to conclusions at the drop of a hat.
"She was over yesterday playing with Sarita and . . . she started her period, Daniel. I told her she should tell you about it, but since you didn't call me flipping out, I presume she didn't say anything."
"That's impossible! She only just turned 12."
"Sarita got hers months ago."
"What? I thought this was a 13-14-year-old thing."
"Nope. This is about the usual age."
Daniel couldn't understand how she was changing, and he still had no mother figure for her.
"What am I supposed to do about this?"
"I took her to the pharmacy and got her what she needed but she was a little shaken, and I didn't want to have 'the talk' with her without your say so."
"The talk?"
They haven't covered this stuff in school yet, and she seemed a little freaked out so you could talk to her about what's going on.
"Jesus, I don't even think I know," he chuckled nervously.
