In the first ever Short Story Sunday, we looked at how comparison is the thief of joy. Let’s continue with this fiction writing experiment (or at least fictional stories inspired by real life events and observations) with this humble parable. Enjoy!

It hadn’t been a particular good night’s sleep, but it would have to do. He let out his usual old man groan and begrudgingly got out of bed. Just another work day. And it’s not like he didn’t like what he did for a living. It’s that he had to get out of bed each day to do it. The struggle has been and always will be real.

After going through the usual morning routine of brushing his teeth, making his coffee, and changing out of his nighttime pajamas and into his daytime pajamas, he embarked on the long commute down the hallway to his home office. Coffee mug in hand. The computer boots up as he takes his first satisfying sip, still groggy, not yet up to speed for the day.

Then, his daughter waltzes in. “Hi daddy,” she says. “Want to color with me?”

“Maybe later,” he responds. He’s barely awake at this point. “I’m busy. Daddy has to work to do, okay?”

“Alright,” she responds.

Another sip of coffee. Forging through the emails he received overnight in a futile effort to achieve inbox zero, he takes a look at the to-do list he scribbled out the night before and gets started on the first task. “Start with something easy,” he tells himself. “Just get the momentum going. Remember the 10-minute rule?” After getting through a bit of this and that, perpetually distracted by social media notifications that are increasingly impossible to ignore, he walks into the kitchen.

“Daddy, can we play the dancing game?” his daughter asks.

“Maybe later,” he responds. “It’s time to eat lunch. Look at the yummy noodles that mommy made us.”

“Alright,” she responds.

After lunch, the daughter asks, “Now can we play the dancing game?”

“Maybe later,” the father responds. “I have to wash the dishes and then I have to go back to work.”

This goes on. “Daddy, can we kick the soccer ball at the park?” she asks. “Daddy, come play the matching game with me,” she requests. “Let’s watch something, Daddy,” she suggests.

“Maybe later,” he says. “I’m busy.”

Years go by, she grows up, heads off to college, gets a job, moves out.

“Hey sweetie! Wanna catch the new Star Wars movie together?” They’d always enjoyed watching Star Wars together, ever since she was little and was introduced to the Skywalker saga for the first time. He remembers when she did her impression of Baby Yoda “falling asleep” after using the Force a little too hard. It was spot on, cuteness overload and all.

“I already saw it with my friends,” she responds.

“Oh, did you want to just grab lunch then? There’s this new sushi place that…”

“Maybe some other time, Dad. I’m busy with work.”

Dejected, he replies, “Alright. Maybe some other time then.”

He walks back to his home office, coffee mug in hand, and sits down in front of the computer. He looks up at a rainbow she’d drawn when she was 4, now framed and hung up on the wall. “That’s okay,” he reassures himself. “I have work to do. I’ll see her again soon anyway. Maybe later this year.”