Spain Dad, a baby blog

Photo by Jeffrey Beall.

I set down the suitcase and took the envelope out of my back pocket. On the front was handwritten, “Room #526.”

I was studying the arrow signs pointing down two long carpeted hallways when April and Alleke rolled up next to me with their suitcases.

“Oh no,” April said.

“What?” I asked.

“They have a pool,” April said, underlining the word piscina on the sign with her finger.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked, nodding at Alleke.

April sighed. “I forgot our swimming suits,” she said.

Alleke, who had not heard a single word about a swimming pool until this point and had been elated about spending a weekend at “the hotel in Portugal,” was now in ruins. She had just endured eight hours in a car confined to a car seat, and as tired as she was, her mom had given her the worst possible news a kid could suffer: the hotel had a pool, but she had no swimming suit.

April and I cringed as Alleke covered her face with her hands and her shoulders shook as she wept quietly.

I couldn’t bear to see Alleke so disappointed, and as her father, at times like this I felt the incredible need to be her hero. Especially in situations where Alleke thought all hope was lost and she was ready to give up, I had to find a way to make the impossible possible.

“We’ll find you a swimming suit,” I said to Alleke. And so the following morning while April was listening to speakers at the conference in the hotel, Alleke, Teo and I walked along the side of the highway under an umbrella in the rain towards a small Portuguese village looking for a shop that would sell us a swimming suit out of season for a three-year-old.

It was a crazy pursuit, and if we had failed to find a swimming suit, I’m sure I would have learned a much-needed lesson about being a responsible parent, but the truth is we found a shop with kids’ clothes. Actually, it wasn’t so important that we found the shop itself, but the shopkeeper who was nice enough to rummage through her out of season stock during her lunch break and bring back a few suits to her store.

We went back to the stop in the afternoon when the sun was shining, and the shop owner had the suits laid out and waiting for us. Alleke picked the suit she liked, and we paid way too much for it. Alleke was our little mermaid for the rest of the weekend.

I am aware that one day I won’t be Alleke’s hero anymore. We all realized at some point that our parents were normal human beings, right? We had to teach them how to work their VCR remotes for goodness sakes.

What I do hope that lasts is Alleke’s simple belief that even when things seem impossible, there is often a way through, even if she doesn’t see it at first. Usually there is a way to get from Point A to Point B, even if the bridge is out.

For now Alleke believes her dad can find her a bathing suit, and hopefully by the time she’s grown up and finds herself in a truly difficult situation in her life, she’ll believe she can find her way too.