Chapter 25

“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.