{"id":3666,"date":"2017-11-13T04:55:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T04:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2024-05-06T01:27:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T01:27:45","slug":"helping-bruce-ransom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/helping-bruce-ransom\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u00a0Helping<\/h2>\n

Helping Me Up<\/h2>\n

by Bruce Ransom<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to be my new daddy?\u201d she asked directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, looking down at the flowery dress squirming beside him on the edge of the living room couch.\u00a0 \u201cI like your mom, but to get married you have to really, really like each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean love each other\u201d the little girl corrected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he laughed nervously.\u00a0 \u201cYou have to love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you love my mommy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUhh \u2026 I don\u2019t know, honey,\u201d he stammered.\u00a0 \u201cIt takes time for two people to figure out if they love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know exactly.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy for you kids to love someone.\u00a0 You either do or you don\u2019t.\u00a0 But adults have a way of complicating it.\u00a0 Sometimes they make it difficult to love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWelllllll\u2026I\u2019m not sure,\u201d he dodged, his eyes meeting the inquisitive brown ones that looked up at him.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe it\u2019s because they are mean to each other sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know, really.\u00a0 They just get mad or scared, or both, and wind up hurting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean like when someone pushes you down?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he said, quickly moving his eyes away from her gaze.\u00a0 \u201cYes, honey, like when someone pushes you down,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid my mommy push you down?\u201d she persisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, of course not\u201d he clarified.\u00a0 \u201cI think if your mommy saw someone push me down she would come over and help me get up.\u00a0 Your mommy is very nice that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid anyone ever push you down?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, everyone at some time \u2026,\u201d he started to say, then stopped.\u00a0 \u201cYes, honey.\u00a0 Someone pushed me down\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I saw you pushed down I would help you get up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked down at the child straining her neck to look back up at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he whispered.\u00a0 \u201cI know you would,\u201d he said, and reached out to stroke back the hair from her forehead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you would\u201d he repeated.<\/p>\n

She rewarded him with a grin of total contentment, then scooted back in the couch and asked, \u201cCan you read me a story?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he said under his breath.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I can read you a story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAre you going to be my new daddy?\u201d she asked directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, looking down at the flowery dress squirming beside him on the edge of the living room couch.\u00a0 \u201cI like your mom, but to get married you have to really, really like each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[425,359,284],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary","category-family-story","category-love-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3669,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/3669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}