The Father Who Listened Late

Every evening, little Eva tried to tell her father about school. Every evening, he answered while looking at his phone. "That's nice." "Very good." "Tell me later."

One night he walked past her room and heard her talking softly to her dolls: "Nobody has time for my stories."

He stopped as though struck.

The next evening he came home, put his phone in a drawer, sat on the floor and said, "Tell me everything." Eva stared at him in surprise, then began with great seriousness to explain a drawing, a lost eraser, a new song and a playground quarrel.

It took fifteen minutes. To him, it was small talk. To her, it was being loved.