I thought I was prepared, turns out I was hopelessly underprepared. Wandering back and forth, arms gone limp. The mind a mixture, like a thick soup. I snapped out of it. She clasped my hand tighter than ever, “I’m scared”. I pulled myself together, focus, focus, focus. I realised now this was my first job as a father. Stay strong like a mountain. A baby needs its mother. Pretending to be calm, I kneeled close, “It’s going to be ok”. Our eyes locked in a trance, time slipped away for a moment, floating upside down in space. Like the shattering of a teacup, the noise pulled us back to Earth. That sweet cry of our firstborn, arms outstretched. Our fingertips touched, and the bond formed in an instant. A father and his son, a family as one.