It was a dark and rainy night in the town where little Timmy lived with his mother in a small apartment. He was lying in his bed and thinking about his family. Little Timmy had never met his father. Mother said it could either be a truck driver, a postman or a criminal who had escaped from prison who was Timmy's dad. Timmy hoped it was the criminal and proudly told all the other children at kindergarten about all the crimes his thought his father had committed.

"My daddy once took all the money from a big bank and he killed two of the people working there with a big knife. Mummy showed the pictures to me from the newspaper and there was blood everywhere."

"And then, one other time, he stole a car and the police chased after him. They almost got him, but he turned the car and ran over two whole families that were out walking. The police car stopped because the police had to throw up because of all the blood and arms and legs and heads and even a dead dog."

Little Timmy liked stories with lots of blood in them. He thought his father was a real hero. Like Robin Hood who was also a criminal. And a fox, which he saw when he watched the DVD one night when his mother was sleeping on the sofa after a hard day's work. Timmy's mother worked a lot because she could not get a good job that would give her a lot of money, so instead she had several small jobs. She sold coffee, she packed bags and she had some other jobs too that she never told Timmy about.

Some of the days, Timmy had to walk home by himself from kindergarten, but he lived so close to it that he never felt scared. He would never know what days he would have to walk home by himself. It was when he saw the grown up people at kindergarten begin to clean up after the day and put their jackets on that he would know he would have to walk home on his own. He always had a key with him and small piece of paper where the code to the front-door lock was written.

This evening when Timmy came home he was surprised to see that his mother was already at home. But why had she not come to pick him up? Then he heard a strange voice from the other room. There was a man here too.

"Oh, hello Tim-boy," his mother said. "There is someone here I want you to meet."

This was nothing new to Timmy. Over the years he had met many men who wanted to be friends with his mother and him. Different kinds of men, but all with one thing in common; they all disappeared after some time.

This time the man was tall and wore a suit. His hair was almost all grey and his eyes looked friendly. He leaned down and took Timmy's hand.

"Well, hello there, young man. It is nice to finally meet you. I have waited for this moment for so long."

"What does he talk about?" Timmy thought.

"Tim-boy," his mother said, "this is your father. His name is Glenn. He came to my work one week ago and he recognized me. We talked about how we met the first time at a bar and I told him that I have you, Timmy, and that he could be your father. So we did something called a DNA test and guess what, my son? He is your daddy!"

"Wow," Timmy thought, "my daddy?"

The thought felt strange in his head. Then he smiled and opened his mouth.

"How many people have you killed, daddy?"

His father's face looked in a strange way at him.

"What did you say, Timmy?"

"How many people have you killed? Was there a lot of blood?"

"Jeez, no, no! I haven't killed anyone. Why would you think that?"

"Because my dad is a tough criminal!"

His father looked at him and said in loud voice:

"I am most certainly not! I own a store which sells new and used sofas. I have never committed a single crime in my life!"

"When I met you mum," he continued, "I was working extra as a postman in this area. One day I was delivering a package to you mum and that's when you were made."

Timmy's head felt strange and he did not know what to say at first. He felt so disappointed and tears began running down his cheeks. With a shaking body and a trembling lower lip he finally shouted:

"NO! NO! NO! YOU ARE NOT MY DADDY! MY DADDY IS A CRIMINAL! HE HAS KILLED MANY, MANY PEOPLE!"

"Tim-boy! What on Earth are you talking about," his mother yelled, "this man is your father and he has come to take care of us and you behave like this! Little man, I think it is time for you to go straight to bed."

And so here Timmy was, under his favorite blanket with all these thoughts in his head. That man out there was not his father. He was sure of it. He was just a stupid sofa-selling person and his sofas probably smelled bad. Like he did. And they looked stupid too, he was sure of that.

From the small kitchen the sounds from Glenn -- not daddy -- and Timmy's mother made their way into Timmy's room. He hated every single sound and could not sleep at all. Why could his mother not see that Glenn was not his daddy? All because of some strange dee-enn-ai test, whatever that was. The test was wrong. Didn't his mother think that he would recognize his own daddy?

As the hours passed, the sounds from the kitchen slowly disappeared and he could hear his mother and Glenn kissing as they lay down on the sofa in the living room to sleep. Glenn said something about the sofa and they both laughed. Timmy was still awake and he knew that Glenn would stay. Tears once again rolled down his cheeks and onto the pillowcase where they left dark wet stains.

Outside the rain came down and made a loud noise when it hit the windows. Cars were still driving by. Timmy could hear them drive through the puddles and he imagined how the water splashed up against the walls of the houses. He was still upset, but he was also very sleepy. His eyes were closed when he heard the sirens.

The sirens came from far away, but the sound got louder and louder and perhaps there were gunshots too? Yes, there were gunshots. Sirens were nothing strange to Timmy, but this was the first time he had heard gunshots also. They must be chasing a very tough criminal. He opened his eyes and smiled.

Glenn woke up and in the dark he could barely make out the small shadow standing by his head. As he blinked with his eyes to see better he could see how the light outside the window was reflected in a part of the shadow.

"Timmy...?" he whispered in surprise as the small shadow lifted the bread knife above its head.

The shadow looked down on him and the small teeth were visible in the smile.

"Daddy is coming home soon and he is going to sleep there."