"B-but daddy, when will you be home again?" Tears were swelling up in the little girl's eyes. "I don't know sweetheart, but, until I do come back..." He pulled a toy space-man out of his back pocket. "This is the Space-man, and he's all yours. Keep him safe for me, until I do come back, will you?" The little girl sniffed, and look at her dad. "S-s-sure, I c-can do th-that." Then she ran right into her dad's arms.

Days turned to weeks, weeks metamorphosed into months, months transfigured into years. Ever the little girl kept the toy her dad gave her safe.

"Make a sharp turn left! Load the guns! We'll outrun these aliens yet!" The Space-men told her as they sped through the cosmos. "Maybe we'll see daddy out here!" She was livid with excitement. Even with scads of hordes of aliens at their tails, she maintained an irrepressible attitude.

Their spaceship passed another, and through a porthole, the little girl saw her dad waving at her, and she waved back. She began to cry, and her pretend world came shattering back into her bedroom. She tore down the stairs, and asked her mom when her dad would come home. "Honey, I have something to tell you... Your dad isn't coming home."