Queen for a Day

Ch.11: My Little Girl

The following year, Thrash and I got married. And a year into our marriage, we had a daughter: Barbara.

She had muddy-red skin, red eyes, and a full head of bright red hair. She was quite the little ball of energy! Always running around and causing trouble, even at such a young age.

She reminded me so much of Roxy when we were younger...

I know dad told me to forget about her, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't. She was on my mind almost every second of every day. I would even have dreams about her. None of them were bad though. They told me that wherever she was, she was happy and safe...I just hoped that my dreams were telling me the truth.

I missed her so much, that I even dug into the back of mom's closet and pulled out some of Roxy's old baby outfits to put her in. She especially liked this white tank top that was covered in sequins, along with a frilly, pink tutu. Mom always did like to dress Roxy up in cute outfits that dad didn't approve of.

Dad, luckily, never saw her wear those outfits. Thank god.

Barb was always a wild card; you never knew what she was gonna do, and when she was going to do it. She'd always do the exact opposite of what she was told to do, which got a bit annoying, but Thrash and I found some solutions to control most of her rebellious nature.

They worked most of the time. Thrash liked giving her head scratches to calm her down, or he'd distract her with other things, like throwing a ball across the room and she'd run and get it. I swear, sometimes I wondering if she was secretly a puppy. But when bedtime rolled around...that was more my department.

———

"Barb, it's time for bed."

"But I'm not tired!" Barb screeched as she started jumping up and down on her bed.

"Barb...please. Do you want to be grumpy tomorrow when your dad and I take you to the stadium?" The two of us had promised that we'd take her with us to rehearsal tomorrow.

"I won't be grumpy! I promise!" Barb jumped off her bed and started running around her room in her pajamas. I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"Barbara...Mommy is very tired...please stop..." I groaned. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

"If you go to bed right now, I'll sing you the special song I wrote!"

Barb immediately stopped running around and looked at me. "Really?" she asked. I nodded.

"Now get in that bed, you cute lil' gremlin!" I giggled, and without a second to lose, she ran over to her bed and dove under the covers. She fluffed up her pillow, go all comfy, then grabbed her favorite teddy bear and started chewing on one of its ears aggressively.

"Okay, I'm ready! Now sing!" she demanded. I crossed my arms.

"What's the magic word?" I asked her.

"Oh yeah...I forgot..." She watched me sit down on her bed. "Please?"

I smiled at her and ruffled her hair up. "Thank you for using your manners, sweetie."

Barb giggled and waited for me to start singing. When I did, her eyelids started to get heavy almost immediately:

Fate has been cruel, and order unkind
I stood watch as you ran away
The blame was my own, and you chose to flee
The harmony's silent today

I was barely even halfway through the first verse, and she was already snoring loudly. I guess she really was tired after all. I got up and walked over to her bedroom door.