…He sits and casts a wayward glance across the horizon with tightly pierced eyes, while a gentle breeze blows over the peaceful sea of tranquility the lies before them.

“There is a world beyond everything you see, further and further, never out of reach, and that is as far as it needs to be. For the length is a little, or a lot. You decided, in here,” he says as he touches his forehead. “And in here,” he says as he touches his chest.

“But how far do you really mean?” she asks with curious intent, while she gently tugs on his dull coloured hoodies pull cords.

“Do you see those hills, the ones past the golden horizon?”

“Which ones?” she asks as she draws her focus towards the drawn line almost out of her eyes reach.

He smiles and squeezes his purse lips together, before pointing over to the hills off in the distance. “Those one, just on the edge of tomorrow.”

She shields her eyes with her hands and squints tightly, following along his chiselled finger, and peering towards the horizons edge.

“Really? Is it that far?” she asks as she looks up at him with brows unevenly raised, and eyes that stare past his and into his very soul.

“No!” he scoffs with a proud chuckle as he grips his jaw and manhandles it roughly before thrusting a pointed finger again. “Past those hills are even more hills after that, and then a valley where a stream runs through. Follow that stream until it hits the edge of a small town, and then carry on past that some more until you come to a squiggly road that goes on for miles and miles through dense forests.”

“That far? But I can’t see that far!” she exclaims as she looks towards the horizon once more.

“Further!” he says with excitement, as he lifts her up on his shoulder and stands tall. “When you come out of the forest, you’ll see another town, much grander than the first, but it is still not far enough, so you’ll continue on, further and further away, through bigger towns, and then into cities, but you’re still not far enough away. Do you see it? Can you imagine it?”

“I-I-I, I can, I can see the hills and the stream, I can see the forest and the towns. I-I, I can see them all.”

“Good,” he says with a broad smile upon his face. “For that is how much I love you, as far as your imagination can take you, and,” he says as he gently lowers her back to the ground, and stares into her eyes, with tear filled ones of his own. “And know, whenever you need me, no matter how little it may be, you’ll always find me there waiting for you.”

“B-But I-I, I don’t want you to go! I-I, I’m not ready!” she cries as she squeezes him tightly, tears cascading down her cheeks.

“I wish I didn’t have to honey, but I’m already gone,” he says.

She leaps up with a startled panicked from her sleep.

“D-D-Dad,” she stammers as she clutches herself tightly, while her tears flow freely….