While Dad's Away

Mr. Whittaker lets a young couple, Peter and Sarah Oliver, into a house for sale in Odyssey. He isn't a real estate agent, just a neighbor doing the agent a favor, but the Olivers are curious: why is such a nice house selling so cheaply? Peter, who has watched too many scary movies, half-jokingly wonders if the place is haunted or if the previous owner was dangerous. Whit assures them it is nothing like that, but he agrees they deserve to hear the story of the Bretman family, who lived there before, and the "circumstances" that forced them to sell in a hurry.

Whit remembers the night it all began. He was having dinner at the Bretmans' when Michael Bretman burst through the door with big news: after years of working his way up from the stockroom, he had been named Vice President of Sales at Odyssey Automotive. Michael was overjoyed, but his wife Janice quietly admitted to Whit that the promotion worried her. Michael had never really asked whether she approved, and she knew a bigger job would mean bigger responsibilities for everyone. At the celebration dinner, the downsides appeared right away: Michael told his son Duane he couldn't sponsor the baseball team anymore or come to Saturday's game, and he told his daughter Laura he would miss her piano recital because of a business trip to Detroit. Still, he promised to call home whenever he traveled and insisted everything would be okay.

At first, his trips are chaotic. One phone call home is a comic jumble of crises, including Duane putting the dog in the toilet for a science project, an empty checking account, and Laura crying over a failed spelling test. But as the months pass, something changes. When Michael calls, Janice has already handled the plumbing problem herself, the coach is helping Duane with his batting, and Laura proudly reports that Mr. Whittaker is her new study partner. The family is managing beautifully without him, and Michael doesn't know what to say. Since everyone seems happy, he says nothing at all, takes longer and longer trips, and the family quietly drifts apart.

Everything comes to a head on a ten-day trip when Michael learns, days after the fact, that Duane has broken his arm at football practice. He is hurt and angry that no one called him, but Janice points out that learning to handle things on their own is exactly what he asked of them. When he protests that he spends plenty of time at home, she tells him, "Even when you're here, you're not really here." The call ends with both of them upset.

Alone in a fast-food restaurant, a distracted Michael meets a seven-year-old boy who asks him to sit near the door and pretend to be his father, since children aren't allowed on the playground without a parent, and the boy's daddy is gone. The words sting. Agreeing, Michael admits, "I've had a lot of practice at that lately."

When he gets home, Michael is honest with Janice at last. He confesses that in chasing the perfect career, supposedly for his family's sake, he has become a lonely pretend father watching his wife and kids grow complete without him, and he asks if there is any way he can join their family again. He has even talked to his boss about opening a branch office in Detroit so he can stop traveling, and he offers to find a whole new job if Janice would rather not move. Janice tells him she has prayed to hear him talk this way. Being a family, she says, means commitment, devotion, and sharing everything from broken arms to laughter, and you "can't do those things over the phone."

Back in the present, Whit finishes the story for the relieved Olivers: no, the Bretmans did not divorce. They sold the house at a loss and moved to Detroit, where they still have plenty of work to do rebuilding their relationship, but they are a family again, and Whit thinks that is worth it. Then he cheerfully leads the couple off to see the kitchen.