“Dad, are you coming to my concert today?” Daniel Garipey looked up from his desk and saw his 14 year old daughter, Alexa, standing there with her violin in hand.

“Shoot,” he muttered to himself under his breath before asking out loud, “Is that today?”

“Yup, at 3 o’clock. You promised you would come. You missed the last two. And my middle school graduation,” Alexa replied anxiously. She looked at him through the best puppy dog eyes that she could make. Daniel thought about it for a few minutes. He had the rehearsal at 2:30, but maybe he could get that pushed back. After all, they couldn’t record Kramer’s First Christmas without Kramer there.
Daniel glanced over at the blue puppet in the corner. He was propped up on a pedestal, his big black eyes surveying the room over his purple nose. Daniel sighed. He knew he couldn’t miss this rehearsal. They were already behind in the taping and the deadline was coming up.

“Listen Sweetie, I’m really sorry…” Daniel tried to explain but Alexa interrupted him before he could finish.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” she said in a flat voice. She turned from the room so he couldn’t see the tears beginning to gather in her eyes and stomped out. “I don’t want you and your stupid puppet to come anyway.”

Alone again, Daniel turned back to his computer. He felt horrible. Alexa had been talking about her violin concert for months. How had he forgotten? But there was no way he could miss work today, he reminded himself. Plus, a small part of the back of his mind forced him to admit to himself that he would rather go to work than the concert. He loved his daughter, but this was an important rehearsal that he didn’t want to miss. She should understand that. Also if he hadn’t worked so hard, then they wouldn’t have had the money to send her to a violin teacher. So he was justified in his decision, he convinced himself.


At 1:30 Daniel grabbed his car keys and began to sneak toward the door. He wasn’t sure that his wife, Kate, knew yet that he wasn’t going to the concert. He hadn’t told her, but maybe Alexa had. Either way, he didn’t want to face her wrath.

“Where are you going?” Daniel had just begun to open the door when his wife strode into the room. He turned to look at her and could tell from her hard expression that she already knew.

“Look, I know this concert is important, but so is this rehearsal. We are already so far behind and…” Daniel began to plead. She had to understand, she had a job too.

“This is so important to her. She was so happy you were coming.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” he asked, suddenly angry. Everyone acted as though he wanted to miss the concert. It had been the same thing for days after the graduation too. Of course he wanted to go. He just also wanted to keep his job.

“I think you just don’t care. She is your daughter, your only daughter. You need to be there to support her and, recently, you haven’t been.” Kate’s voice was rising too as she spoke. “She worked so hard to be moved up to first chair. And do you know what the first thing she said to me when she found out she had succeeded? She asked ‘does this mean that Dad will come to my concert now?’”

“I’m sorry, but what do you want me to do? I didn’t choose my hours.”

“You could if you wanted. You’re Kramer, for goodness sake. You made him what he is today. They aren’t going to fire you just because you ask them to move one rehearsal.”

“It’s not about that,” Daniel said, and it wasn’t. First, this truly was important. They had to finish the taping by the end of the day or else there wouldn’t be enough time to send it to the editors. Second, if they didn’t get it done in time he would be crushed. There was something inside of him that just felt complete when he was at work making those puppets seem alive. He loved the magic of watching the tape of a performance. He loved seeing his blue creature flying across the screen and knowing that he was the one who gave it life. Why would he rather be at a violin concert than doing something he loved?

“You know, if you put half as much effort into raising your daughter as you do into raising that stupid puppet, you could be a pretty good father.” With that, his wife turned on her heels and walked back the way she came.

Shocked, Daniel stood frozen in the kitchen. He knew that he shouldn’t leave. He had already been able to feel his relationship with his daughter falling apart, but now he could feel it happening with his wife too. Finally, a few minutes later, he reached out, turned the doorknob, opened the door, and walked outside.


Daniel drove faster than he normally did. There was no reason to because he had left early, but it made him feel good. He rolled down his window so he could feel the wind and pressed down harder on the gas pedal. The car sped up and he leaned back farther in his seat. Daniel pulled his sunglasses down over his eyes, cranked up the music, and almost felt young again.

Why didn’t they get it? Daniel didn’t understand. He was putting food on their table and still managing to do something he loved. Why couldn’t they just be happy for him? In this economy, less and less people had jobs. There were even fewer people who had jobs they truly enjoyed. Would his family like him better if he just quit and spent the whole day at home, lying on the couch? That was what would happen to him if he lost his job. Daniel had wanted to work with puppets since he was 5. Now he was 53 and it was his time to enjoy the life he had created for himself.

At the same time though, a feeling of guilt began to creep up in his chest. This concert really had meant a lot to Alexa. She had been practicing so hard and was finally the first chair. When he had been younger, Daniel’s mother had gone to every single one of his shows. She always dropped whatever she was doing the second he asked and would sit right in the middle of the front row.

Daniel’s foot eased up on the pedal as he thought about this. His mother had died two years ago and it had been tremendously painful for him. She had raised him in small house in Miami. She had been a single parent but never once seemed to drop the ball on anything. Thoughts of his mother caused Daniel to begin rethinking his decision. Realistically, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he said he couldn’t make the rehearsal. They could do it later tonight, after the concert, instead. Daniel pulled out the phone and called his boss.

An hour later, Daniel pulled up in front of the school where the concert was being held. It looked huge. Daniel had forgotten how much he had hated high school. Most kids hadn’t looked too favorably upon the geek who still played with dolls.

Daniel locked his car and began heading up to the front of the school. The concert had started ten minutes ago, so he was the only one in the parking lot. He reached the front doors and stepped into the foyer. There was a sign with an arrow on it pointing down a long hallway to the auditorium.

Daniel followed the arrows through the twists and turns of the school. He was almost to the end when he heard his wife’s voice from around the corner.

“You made it!” she exclaimed. Surprised, Daniel was about to reply when another voice answered first.

“Of course I did. Did you really think I would miss it? Alexa finally made first chair!” Daniel froze in place. He didn’t recognize this male voice who was saying his lines.

“Well, I’m glad you were able to. Daniel never comes to anything.”

The man laughed before continuing the conversation. “Selfishly I was glad when you called and said he couldn’t come. I know how much Alexa was hoping he could, but maybe this will help her move on faster after the divorce is final.”

Divorce? The word echoed inside Daniel’s head. Kate was planning a divorce?

“Hopefully having you to look up to will help.” Daniel waited a few seconds but neither of them said anything else. Unable to resist seeing who this man was any longer, Daniel walked around the corner. Standing straight in front of him, right in front of the auditorium doors, was his wife kissing another man.