“Daddy, can I watch television now?” Her tone of her voice was higher than usual. A question I had a million times from my sons when they were young.
“No, little one. We will not spend the whole day in front of the television. You have a ton of toys here. Go and play.”
“Yes, Sir.” It sounded disappointed and dissatisfied.
She sat down on the floor near her Lego stuff. Not Lego blocks I recognised, but Lego for girls. She put all kinds of fruit in a pot and there was a mixing machine above it to stir all of that. Next to it was a large revolving cake. She decorated it with frosting, chocolate and stars.
“What is that, little one?”
“It’s bakey with cakey fun from Gabby’s Dollhouse, of course. Do you want to join, daddy?”
I sat down next to her.
“Bang!”, she said. “Look Daddy, I have the real dollhouse here as well. Look, we have CatRat here and Pandy and Kitty Fairy. Isn’t she the sweetest? And Gabby, of course. That’s me.”
“Kitty Fairy?” I asked.
“Hmm Hmm. She is a Gabby Cat that loves gardening. I’m a good gardener too, ain’t I, Daddy? You said it last week. Kitty Fairy keeps an eye on off of her dollhouse friends. She lives at the Fairy Garden, of course.”
“Of course.”
“You can be CatRat, Daddy. There’s no space too small for him to squeeze in or out of, and you never know when he’s going to appear out of nowhere from somewhere inside the dollhouse! He’s a bit of a know-it-all and always thinks he has the answers to any problem, Dad. A bit like you. Oops.” She giggled, holding her hand before her mouth.
“What did you say, young lady”, I tried to say in the deepest voice I had, but failed miserably.
She giggled even harder. “Nothing, I said Daddy is the sweetest daddy in the whole wide world.”
“Sure, I am.” I love trains and all things miniature. So we spent an hour playing like two kids, or a kid with her dad if you like, on the floor. I stood up and said.
“Daddy is going to be reading now. I will get the book from my room and you, young lady, will clean up the clutter on the floor.” Jutta acted like I had said nothing and kept playing on the floor. When I returned, the floor was even a bigger mess than before as she got her big barbies out to play as well.
“What did I ask you to do, Jutta?” I said to her sternly.
“Go on and play nicely.” The sweet tone had gone, and it sounded bratty to me.
“You clean up all of it now, girl.”
“No… I am still playing.”
“Last warning, Jutta, don’t try my patience.”
She walked towards me and hit my chest with her fists. “You are mean, you are a mean daddy.”
“Let me show you just how mean I can be. You can stand over there in the naughty corner with your face to the wall, until I tell you to come back again to tidy up not only your Lego stuff, but anything that is lying around on the floor.”
“NO. I am not going to be in the corner. That is for little kids. I’m not little anymore.”
“Ah, you want to be punished like the grown-up you are, huh?” I said to her. Couldn’t be closer to the truth at that moment. “Come here and bend over my lap.”
Without further ado, she bent over my lap and I gave her two hard spanks on her fluffy overall.
“Auw. Auw. Auw.” She was rubbing her butt like I had shredded it to pieces and went back, throwing all the figures in a bin. Not tenderly, I might add.
“Be careful you don’t break them. You’re not getting new ones if you break it.” I said.
“Yes, daddy.” I sat down in the comfortable chair and started with the new Karin Slaughter book. In the Dutch translation, of course.
It took her half an hour to clean up the mess from the floor. It looked more tidy than ever.
“Good girl, little one. You have deserved a snack. Do you know where the snacks are in the kitchen?”
She nodded eagerly.
“Can I have a Mars bar?”
“You did such a great job cleaning up here, I think you have deserved one. But just one, mind you!”
“Thank you, daddy. You are the best daddy, ever.” She started kissing me, so I tickled her until she fled away. She came back holding a single bar in her hand, she returned to her desk and began colouring an complex mandala. She was completely absorbed by it. After she was finally done, she came over to where I was and crawled onto the love seat, snuggling up as close to me as she could. Almost instinctively, I started gently caressing her hair with slow strokes as I carried on with my reading.
“Daddy?” Her voice sounded small.
“Yes, kitten.”
“Please tell me a story?” she said, leaning in closer.
“What kind of story, little one?”
“Doesn’t matter. I like all your stories.”
“Flatterer. Let me think… Long ago, in a country very far from here, lived a young princess. Now she was not only smart, she was beautiful as well. In fact, she was so beautiful people didn’t have a word for it, so they invented a word for it Jutful. Her name was Jutta, you see?”
“Just like me!”
“Exactly. Because she was so beautiful, princes from far and wide came to the little kingdom to court the princess. Because the princess was so kind and sweet she kinda liked them all. But none of them stayed for more than a few days. They fled so fast, some of them left their clothes behind in the castle.”
“Did she smell from her armpits?”
I chuckled. “No, little one. She smelled like the mountains she lived in. Her scent was a delicate blend of jasmine and vanilla, so intoxicating perfume makers wanted to bottle it, if they could. No. The King was desperate, of course. When the latest prince fled the room of the princess, the palace guard caught him and threw him in the dungeon. Now, of course, this is no way to treat a prince of royal blood. He was the prince of Marstopia, you know the country where are the Mars bars are made.”
Jutta giggled. “Go on, go on, please”
“After a few days on bread and water, the prince finally broke his resistance to speak. They gave him a few Mars bars, and the king asked him why he ran so fast from the pretty princess. And you never believe what he said.”
“The princess had a wiener.”
“WHAT? How do you come up with a crazy idea like that? Don’t answer that. No, of course not. It was way more strange. The prince of Marstopia said all was fine the first day, and the princess was very kind and, of course, out of this earth Jutful. It was on the second day the princess wanted to play tea with him. She had one of those teasets, just like you have over there, and poured make believe tea in their cups and she drank the tea. She didn’t drink the tea, of course, because there was nothing in her cup, but she pretended to love it. When she commented how lovely it tasted, the prince stood up and ran out of the door.”
“Why did he run away, Daddy? I drink make believe tea all the time and you don’t run away from me?”
“Of course not, little one. But this prince had all these grownup plans what he would do with the princess. And he was shocked when she acted like a girl your age.”
“What did he want to do with her, Daddy?”
“You know, kiss and stuff. Anyway, the king went to see his daughter and asked her why she did that. The princess looked at him calmly and said…” “It’s little girls’ bedtime.”
“No Daddy, that is not what she said. Please tell me what she said, Daddy. I cannot sleep if you don’t. Please, please, pretty please?”
“She said the most beautiful thing the king had ever heard. She said that if a man cannot see the girl in a woman, he fails to see who she is. He missed seeing the strength and wisdom that made her who she was now. If he cannot dream with her, if he doesn’t hear her giggle, he misses out, and he cannot truly connect with her heart.”
“That is beautiful, Daddy.”
“It’s Jutful, kitten. And now it’s time for bed. I think you are already half asleep right now.”
“I don’t want to sleep”. She yawned. “I’m not sleepy.”
I lifted her and carried her to her bed.
“Of course you’re not sleepy. But you are going to try, anyway. And think of Jutful things we can do tomorrow.” I laid her in bed and kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, pretty girl.”
“You don’t go away, and you leave a light on?”
“I won’t go away and I that night lamp is already on. Goodnight, little one.”
“Good night Daddy.” Her voice sounded like she was already half asleep. “Thank you for a lovely day.”