Author's Note: I've updated to correct some issues based on comments. Also I'm still fleshing out the story. I'm trying to figure out how to move this plot faster?
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The summer days fell upon Leo, who sweated too hard to enjoy the vacations that all the "family men" of his quaint, quiet town left with their rowdy families. Leo was a tired black haired man and with charred middle-aged skin, everything he labored for could be found in his twin daughters, Anna and Irene. The two seven-year-olds took after their deceased mother with curly locks of blonde.
Leo was once a lucky and short teenage boy who charmed his late wife by being a hard studying student. And also being direct in answering for her popular hand in high school. He didn't have many friends years or ago or even now, but the few he had known him to be paradoxically shy and bold.
And both of them married young after high school, went to the same college for the sake of frugality then to the local university that was barely respected. Theresa could have went to the University of Alabama, but she chose the little town that Leo committed to coming back to.
But Theresa had faded from fate long ago when the twins were infants. Everyone went out in a spark of an anniversary party of theirs at a nostalgia venue. His kind mother and father went out with a whimper while Theresa's own parents burned. Leo ran through the fire and ignored many pleas for Theresa. Those haunting voices still guilt him til this day.
Leo pushed his way out covered in flames, he desperately pulled once vibrant wife lifelessly out. But he would forever be scarred from her passing and from his vain efforts. The twins were safe asleep at home with a babysitter, but only Leo survived with only a corrupt judge declaring the venue insolvent.
Leo was still a young man after the tragedy, but jobs were hard to come by and his young friends had their families to care for. All of them took turns to care for his daughters while he laid in the hospital full of scars and grafts, ashes seemed to fall out of his life for those months. Even his daughters would not approach. Some nurses gossiped and slowly his friends faded.
A bureaucrat came to his hospital bed and asked questions. Who could watch over his toddlers daughters? Leo knew reality was damning, and he would not give up what remained of his family. Immediately, Leo went into the forest. He knew wild fires were common in the ancient forests, but he intended to be employed as a logger, that was the most dangerous profession but the highest paying one in town.
Daycares, babysitters, and everything two-year-old daughters needed were expensive. Not even money could overcome his reputation as a melted and cursed man. Everyone in town seemed to charge Leo a premium. His daughters knew of his fatherly love, but their eyes were ashamed and children had ears too. Rumors and lies flew around while Leo labored. Only his fellow loggers had sympathy.
His engineering degree was worthless. Even in a suit, his face was leathered just enough to stand out. The flames that took his wife and family had raged everywhere on his body artificially, but Leo was still strong. But the damage was done. No white suit men would shake hands with leather hands. He toiled in the forests and leather soon became callouses, familiar nerves were rebuilt in his body that he felt were once killed.
Years had passed.
But words never stopped whispering. Leo still was factly financially ruined despite the gossip. He had never fully repaid the hospital debt because of thousands of dollars in daycares, summer camps, haughty teenage babysitters and discriminating home daycares ran by pretty housewives that charged him to dry tears. For his smiling and bright daughters, he worked inhumanely overtime and became the most senior logger within five years.
Most of his camaraderie of loggers rose to higher positions or left as transients to the oil fields west. But he remained close to the trees. Only other desperate bachelors and impoverished men joined him in the forests now. Eighty fresh workers out of a hundred stayed for a few weeks to a month, but Leo stayed for five years.
Everyone knew Leo now. His skin healed and his body was beastly. Would small Theresa recognize her short husband now from heaven? He was once so pale and thin, but now he was stout and tanned. His leathered skin showed him more of a menace and the sun whipped a stern character of him. However, little Anna and Irene only saw his forced smile in the past five years.
Five years, he sighed before beginning his dangerous twelve-hour workday once again.
The day ended past sunset, with him dazed and tired. He commuted a long way home in his financed beater of a truck and eventually reached that little well maintained house that Theresa and him chose so eagerly for their fairytale dream of a family. The lights were on and a young, irritated babysitter waited impatiently at the door.
"You're late again," she said factly. "Mr. Daniels, I cannot keep babysitting for you with how often you're so late!"
Leo took out his leather wallet, his sweat had dried, but he fumbled for the appropriate bills to respect her time. He handed her a generous wage. "I'm sorry, there's more for you."
She shook her head. "I earned it, but it's not about money, it's time."
He understood and nodded his head disappointedly. This babysitter was a college aged girl, she needed money and at least put a farce. Leo had somehow run through the whole town, he seemed to have another job sourcing out help for his daughters. It was difficult to find vetted help; it wasn't hard to pay.
"Thank you for the past few weeks," he said professionally. Leo had given this talk many times to many girls, women, and providers. "My daughters will miss you. Please don't hesitate to reach out again if you are available."
She smiled pitifully and left without a word.
Another babysitter was gone, that one was Stella, the daughter of an old friend.
Immediately, Leo went to his children's room to find them sound asleep. He chuckled at their spoiled bedroom and his terrible fate, but he was smugly happy to have this moment of peace seeing his daughters safely asleep.
In the dimly lit kitchen table, he rolled through a set note books. Leo seemed to had met and known many, many women. Not that he wanted to, but he had to. A single father like himself required other vetted eyes to watch over his children. He brooded as he ran down names and rebuilt branches of relationships in his mind.
Leo was at the end of the line now. He could not trust just anyone with his daughters, but not a single name rang in his mind and he desperately knew he needed someone by tomorrow. Work never stopped and he would not risk the bureaucrats poking through his windows for child abandonment. Nosey housewives gossiped behind his back, but Leo still called them for referrals and contacts for sitters.
Call after call to various women and family men late at night on his outdated phone was met with awkwardness, deflection, rejection and prayers.
He sat there quietly.
His face fell on his calloused hands, Leo knew he had to keep calling down the list. This house had a long mortgage. Theresa's fairy tale for two was now his lone prison. Tip toes cranked the wooden flooring of his hour and Leo turned to see Anna's curious round blue eyes.
"Daddy?" Anna rubbed her eyes.
Leo smiled and knelt beside his daughter. "My sweet Anna, did you have a nightmare?"
She nodded shyly, and he hugged her with what little energy he had left. Everything he had that was still good would be for her and Irene.
"The other kids were laughing at you," Anna whispered as Leo carried her small body back to bed. "And they laughed at me and Irene, too."
"Those kids don't know any better," Leo said confidently. "Stars like you and Irene shine too bright."
"Like mom?" Anna asked cheerily, pointing at framed photos on the walls.
Leo paused and smiled. "She's our silent moon, but you both are my radiating stars. I'm just a tree. I'll stay out of the way but I'm here for you and not them."
His more vibrant daughter giggled and touched her father's rough face. Her mind was more direct than her more quiet sister. "Irene said you keep scaring away our teachers and many misses!"
"I don't look that bad, darling," Leo insisted, showing a scary face. "Just a thicker skin."
"It's not your skin!" Anna rolled her eyes. She was bright, her teachers said so!
Leo raised a brow. "What is it then? What does everyone say about me?"
"It's your eyes. They're scary!"
Leo placed her on her bed and pulled her under her blankets. Irene played asleep, but Leo knew his other daughter snored just like her mother. "Does my eyes scare you then?"
"Not anymore, daddy." Anna admitted, covering her place. Leo kissed his daughter's forehead before exiting.
"Good night, my darlings." Leo said tiredly before returning to call numbers.
Strangely, one person did respond to his call.
"H-hello?" a raspy voice croaked over Leo's phone.
"Hello, is this Mrs. Wilson?" Leo spoke seriously. "This is Leo, ma'am. Leo East, if you remember."
A moment of pause went through the old woman on the other side. "Oh! Leo? It's been so long! Has life been treating you better? I heard your girls been well?"
"Yes, ma'am," Leo said. "It's been a while. Life is still turbulent for me and my girls."
"What's the occasion?" Mrs. Wilson asked sternly. "This must be a serious matter if my most serious student when I was still a teaching is reaching out so late at night. I have not heard from you since graduation, but news has reached even me of your life."
"Gossip does travel far," Leo shrugged over the phone. "But I do have a serious request for help. I hope I haven't bothered you, ma'am."
