“Seriously? You’re pouting over me not giving you a nickname?”
“Daddy, I should have a pet name,” she said.
Raphael scratched at his mustache, then his neck, and finally his chest. Karli calling him Daddy had begun to cause red welts to form on his skin, and he didn’t like it one bit. What he didn’t like more than anything was a 10-year-old being right and giving him directions. He parked the vehicle, searching the surroundings for potential threats.
“Okay,” he said, hoping to lessen the itching. “I will call you Angel.”
“Boring!” she huffed, reaching for the door handle. “I need to pee. Can we go inside? I think I want some smashed potatoes. Do you think they have smashed potatoes with cheese?”
“Karli, stop it. We have to have a plan. We never make a move without a plan. It is important for you to be able to read my movements and react, and I can do the same with you,” he said, as if she would understand his instructions.
“Daddy, how are we supposed to do that when you can’t even come up with a simple pet name for your adorable daughter? People are going to think it weird when you speak to me in public and use my actual name,” she said, looking at him with let that sink in your thick skull look.
“Oh shit, you’re right,” he said, turning in the seat to look at her. Parents rarely used their children’s actual names in open spaces. Predators who lurked in public facilities would mimic the child’s name to lure kids into aiding in the search for a non-existent lost puppy.
“And you can express yourself with using potty words,” Karli added to her reprimand.
“And I can save myself a big ass headache by taking you inside, calling the police, and going about my merry way,” he reminded her.
Karli sat back in the seat. Her face showed signs of defeat, but he didn’t buy it. Thus far she’d mastered the handful of cards she held with precision timing. Everything in him screamed he was being played, but now he was more curious than anything about her next move. He sat behind the wheel and waited.
“Daddy,” she said, “Willow Rayne, my mother unit for our nest, taught me to always be ready for an opportunity to escape from Him. This is my chance for all of us to get free. She taught me to be smart. Willow Rayne taught me how to look in a man’s eyes and see his heart. I have looked into your eyes and I see you. Now, would you please select a nickname for me so I can go and pee?”
“Wait...what? Hold on, Karli, like I said, we need a plan,” he said, stunned, shocked and a bit shook. A name popped into his head out of the blue and he thought of Pooh Bear. His sister never went anywhere without that damned stuffed animal in the red tee shirt. Even when its head hung on by a thread, their mother had sewn the animal back together and added more stuffing. His sister even took it to college when she left home. Raphael went with it, hoping she liked the new name. “Pooh Bear. I think I would like calling you Pooh Bear, so when Daddy says we need a plan, then that’s what we have to do, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy,” she said with a satisfied look on her face.
He knew that he’d been thrown on the field, tossed a ball, and told to run towards the end goal. The more he spoke to the little lady as he went over how they would enter the facility, the use of the family bathroom, and having dinner, she nodded, squirmed, and agreed. Karli didn’t argue or question when they stepped out of the vehicle, and she slipped her small hand into his. The air was cooler than he’d anticipated, and she was sleeveless. The second thing he planned to do after relieving his complaining bladder centered on finding a sweatshirt to go over the simple summer dress.
“Let’s move, Pooh Bear,” he said, taking smaller steps so she could keep up.
“BLESS MY SOUL AND WATERY eyes. My goodness, you have a mini lookalike sitting across the table from you. She has your eyes,” a middle-aged woman with a reddish bouffant chirped. “Her manners are absolutely impeccable, and I can tell she’s Daddy’s little girl.”
“Yes, my little Pooh Bear knows how to pull on my heart strings,” Raphael answered, adding an uncharacteristic smile.
“I love that little sweater! Do you buy souvenirs when you stop at places like this?” the lady inquired.
“Not usually, but the weather changed, and it’s cooler than expected, so I don’t want my angel catching a cold,” he said. “It would be hell to pay with her Mama when we get home.”
“You are incredibly lucky to have such a doting father, young lady. Make sure you tell him often how much you love your Daddy,” the red-haired lady scolded, looking over her shoulder at a man in plaid pants who urged his wife to move her ass. “Oh, put a sock in it, Harold. I’m a-coming. Nice meeting you two.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you as well,” Karli said, showing off a mouth full of teeth. The yellow sweater accompanied the purple dress and colorful flowers well, and she buttoned the two highest buttons. It seemed everyone who passed their table commented on her manners, how cute the kid was, and how much she favored her father.
In his head, it was more horseshit. He and Karli weren’t related and there was no way in hell he planned to check into a hotel room and share it with the kid. Tomorrow, once he had her mother with them, maybe then a hotel room and maybe that would work. In the meantime, he’d buy a travel pillow and warm throw for the back seat, and she could sleep there. He would sleep in the front seat and be absolutely miserable until he got home to his own bed.
“You’re going to like her,” Karli said, looking at the sleep pillow, but spying a unicorn travel set that came with a suitcase, pillow, and matching unicorn blanket. “Daddy, oh my goodness. It’s a unicorn. I love unicorns. Can I have this, please? Please, can I have this?”
“What...that?” he said, trying not to frown in utter disgust at the loud, colorful, cheaply made suitcase with matching accessories. “You want that?”
“It has all my favorite colors, yellow, purple and that blue on the unicorn horn is adorable. Please can I have it?” Karli asked, touching the suitcase as if she’d just discovered the last of the lost jellybeans from the Easter bunny. “If we don’t have enough money, I understand.”
A man in dark denims, listening close by, offered to chip in to help Raphael pay for the $70 set of ugliness, but he refused the assistance. Two mothers who overheard Karli’s pleas also offered to chip in 20 each. His Pooh Bear was working him and he knew it.
“Thank you, but I have it,” he said, lifting the set off the shelf. “You sure you want this?”
Karli twirled twice in the floor, gave him a smile that radiated he was her personal hero, and she did a dipsy doodle. At least that’s what his mother used to call his sister’s attempt to do a herkie and a happy jump at the same time. “Well, I guess that fancy move deserves this, too,” he said, reaching on the shelf to grab the stuffed unicorn to go with the rest.
“Thank you, Daddy; you’re the best!” she said, grinning up at him and rolling the case to the register.
The look of defeat on his face struck a chord with every father in the family-friendly travel stop. He could tell that several were either on their way to a theme park or coming from a family vacation. Weariness in the eyes of the men at being locked up too long with family showed. Raphael’s heart rate picked up at the thought of two more women in his shop, in his home, and in his life. In the past hour, he’d spent $165 on a stuffed unicorn with matching suitcase, pillow, throw, and a yellow sweater – plus the cost of dinner. He presented his credit card to pay for the items and looked down at the girl. Joy radiated through her eyes as she slipped her hand inside of his.