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Maddie's Story- As told by Reggie Dabbs

It was a week from Christmas and Maddie sat at home alone. She was 5 years old and her daddy had bought her every Christmas DVD he could find.She had Home Alone one through 29. Tell me, how many ways can a little white boy get lost?! But every DVD showed something she had never known before; tradition.
So when her daddy came home that night she said to him, she said; "Daddy I want to start a tradition."
Her daddy looked at her and he said;
"Okay baby, here's what we'll do: in seven days, after dinner, before the relatives come over, we'll make our own tradition."
Every day, for seven days, Maddie begged her daddy to tell her what their tradition was going to be, but her daddy was strong, he didn't break. Finally, Christmas eve rolled around. At dinner Maddie ate her dinner so fast it was like, 'swoosh', gone! But her daddy said I don't eat like that, here's how I eat. Get a little, get a little more, get a little, get a little more, get a little get a LOT more.
When dinner was over Maddie jumped up from the table and ran to the living room and waited as her daddy followed slowly. Them she watched as he walked over to the record player (that's an old man's IPod)and placed the needle carefully on the record. When he was done her turned around and he reached out to his little girl and he said, he said,
"Baby lets dance."
Now Maddie was so small she had to stand on her daddy's shoes just to get high enough and when she looked up at him, her daddy was crying. She said to him,
"Daddy what's wrong"
He looked at her and he said,
"Nothing baby."
"Why are you crying then?" she asked. He said,
"I'm just so happy. You remind me of your mum."
You see, Maddie's mum had died giving birth to her and Maddie's dad missed her so much. So the two danced and when the song finished the relatives came over, but Maddie and her dad didn't tell them about their tradition.
So every year, on Christmas eve, after dinner, before the relatives came over, Maddie and her daddy would dance. Five years old turned to seven, seven to ten, ten to thirteen and thirteen to sixteen. When Maddie turned sixteen, she began to hang out with this boy down the street. She had no other friends, only him. Her daddy told her she couldn't just hang out with him, she needed to have other friends. But Maddie didn't listen.
On Christmas eve in her sixteenth year, Maddie was walking up the stairs and her daddy called to her, he said,
"Maddie it's almost dinner time. It's almost time to dance."
But Maddie told him that she was going out with her boyfriend that night, they were going to a party. But her daddy told her she couldn't go, that the relatives were coming over. So Maddie screamed and she cried and she told her daddy that she hated him. Then, when the fight was over she went upstairs and she called her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend told her that tonight was the night she had to choose between her daddy and him. If she chose him, she could pack a bag and they would go stay with his brother in Huston. Maddie chose her boyfriend. She packed her bag, snuck out the window and drove away into the night.
Maddie and her boyfriend only lasted seven days. Seven days isn't long, but it was long enough to give him something she could never give again. On the seventh day he told her it wasn't going to work, that he had only used her to get what he wanted, and he threw her out. Maddie had four dollars in her pocket.
She went to the salvation army safe house, where she could buy a cot to sleep in and a bowl of soup to fill her stomach for two dollars. But after two days all her money was gone, she had no where to go. In the cot next to her, there was a girl counting money and she said to Maddie, she said,
"There's this place I work at all you do is sit in front of a dresser and dress, then dance for others. They're looking for more girls and they pay good."
So Maddie went, and for months she sat in front of a dresser and dressed, and danced for others. Then one day at the corner store she saw her ex boyfriend's brother and he called her over. He said,
"Maddie, tell your dad where you're living so he'll stop sending these." From the back of his car, he pulled out a box full of letters. But Maddie didn't read them, she put them underneath the dresser where she dressed for others and she continued as if nothing had happened.
It was Christmas eve, Maddie had been gone a whole year and rather then sitting at home and remembering how she and her daddy used to dance, she decided to go out and dance for others. When she got to work, there was an envelope on her dresser. There was no stamp, to outside simply said 'Dear Maddie'. Maddie tore open the envelope and she began to read.
When she had read the note inside, Maddie dropped to her knees and began to open the letters in the box under her dresser. There was one for everyday she had been gone. Her daddy had written to her everyday. Maddie didn't finish all the letters before she was running from the building, hailing a cab, all the time muttering,
"If I could just go back. I gotta' get home." the note still clutched in her hand.
When she arrived home, she knocked, tears streaming down her face and her uncle opened the door, looked at her and called for her dad. Her daddy was real cool, he walked over to the record player, placed the needle down, held out his hands to Maddie and said,
"Baby, let's dance."
Maddie dropped the note on the floor and ran into her daddy's arms, tears still streaming down her face, and they danced. On the floor, the note lay for forgotten, the words in her dad's curly script asking her to come home, to dance with him one more time. Just one more time.
Maddie's dad died three days later.