The sun rose on beautiful spring day in New York City. James Tucker awoke to the shrieks of his daughter Gracie,

“Dad! Dad! Get up, I wanna watch Spongebob”

“Okay, okay. I’m getting up Gracie”, he replied.

“Can I have a pop tart for breakfast dad?”

“I’ll make your poptart. Why don’t you get ready for school, I’m dropping you off a few minutes early because dad has a corporate meeting at 8 in one of ‘the big buildings’”, replied James.

“Come on, get in the car”

“...But dad, I need my lunchbox”

“Wait here. I got it”, replied James in the nicest way possible.

Coffee cup in hand, James and Gracie were off in his BMW into the narrow streets covered by shadows of the tall skyscrapers creeping down on them. He dropped Gracie off at school and was off, only to hit treterus amounts of traffic on his way to work.

8 am struck, on his new Rolex watch, as he pulled into the parking garage. He ran into the building bumping into people, and dropping his papers everywhere. He walked into the elevator that was capable of fitting about 30 people if need be. Ding...first floor….Ding…. Second floor… Ding….fifth floor.

“Sir, what’s your name?”, asked the petite woman sitting at the door to the office.

“James Tucker, here for the corporation meeting”, James said as he scurried along.

He walked into the meeting at 8:15 with that nervous look on his face, that also showed slight embarrassment. The whole meeting room turned around to look at him as the the two push doors swung open. He sat down angrily avoiding eye contact. Thoughts overtook his head;  he might as well not have even gone to the meeting because he didn’t pay an ounce of attention. He was not himself in any sense. These thoughts followed him everyday.

Being a single dad, made everything a struggle. There was no help. He had to live everyday like this. His daughter was a priority, but he was constantly overwhelmed and disorganized. His boss has thought about dropping him after several occasions of being late. This job is the only thing keeping him from falling apart. He has to choose between his daughter and his job on some occasions. One is always affecting the other. The weight of this is constantly holding him down because he just does not have the time in the day to do what he needs.

Whatever, time for bed. The next morning was better because it was friday, the easy day. If James got to choose, everyday would be like this. This day left him with a sense of relief in his life that he needed before the next week came with more challenges.

By Monday, he knew it was all gonna start again. The same routine as always. He got out of bed, brought gracie to school and went to work. On his way to work, he noticed an unfamiliar bright yellow car, with tinted windows pull into the parking garage behind him, but when he got out, it was nowhere to be found. He thought maybe it was just another New York City tourist who was lost. After work, he picked up Gracie and went to McDonalds because it was quick and Gracie begged him to bring her there. As they were leaving, he heard a car turn on and the light’s glaring. James put Gracie in her seatbelt and drove away.

After a long day, Gracie was ready for bed. He read Gracie her favorite story and let her watch one episode of Spongebob, so comfy that he even fell asleep. After an hour or so, he woke up and realized he had work to get done still. He got up to open Gracie’s door to leave and he heard slamming footsteps making their distance from the the doorway. They sounded almost as if someone was running away like they didn’t want to be caught. He figured he must be tired, these papers can wait until tomorrow, he thought.

He went to be and the next day awoke to footsteps walking into his room and popped up to greet Gracie, but it was 3 am. Gracie was still asleep. He got up quickly and walked into Gracie’s room, only to see her asleep in her bed.

“Gracie, do you need me?”, he exclaimed, but no response followed, so he figured she must be asleep.
He walked back into his bed, heart beating out of his chest. He lied in bed, but couldn’t sleep, so he got up and looked around the apartment, looking around every corner.

The next day, he woke up and everything was fine, on his way to work, the yellow car popped up again. It joined behind him at the same spot. This time the car pulled into the garage and stayed there as if it was waiting for James. No one got out, so james went up to the bright yellow sports car and knocked on the window,

“Hey, you need a parking sticker to park here”, said james nervously into the black tinted window, but no one responded, and he couldn’t see through the windows to tell if anyone was in there. He was gonna be late for his meeting again, so he didn’t worry about it figuring he would just get ticketed anyways.

After work, he picked up Gracie again from her after-school program and on his way home from that, he saw the yellow car, as close to him as possible. He didn’t think much of it, he was just excited to get home and spend time with Gracie. The car was gone as soon as he pulled down his street and it was not in sight when he got home, so he got out with his daughter and walked to the front of the apartment building happily.

He swiped his key card and open the door to the apartment and stood there holding the door open for gracie, but Gracie had disappeared without warning. For weeks the police searched for her and nothing. The apartment building's security cameras had been temporarily shut off due to maintenance. There was no clue or sign, but the yellow car still followed him, in fact, the yellow car was everywhere now. It was apart of him.