Emily sat in her chair with her feet pulled up and hanging over the front edge. Her shoelaces were untied, but she didn’t have time to worry over that unimportant detail. Emily was worrying about much more important things, her parents. More than anything, Emily wanted her Mom and Dad to love each other.
They didn’t fight, not like her friend Jodie’s parents did. It was always painful going over to Jodie’s house. Emily’s Mom and Dad got along; but, that was the problem. They just got along. They were always wonderful with her. “Let your love shine, Emily, and fill the world with joy”. Cheesy, but wonderful. But, no matter how much she tried to shine her love on them both; with each other, they just got along.
So, Emily decided she was going to have to do something about that. She sat in her chair, eating the cookie that her Dad had brought her, and drinking the milk that her Mom had poured for her; and she thought, and she thought, and she thought; and she thought.
Desperate, she did the first thing that came to her. She reached out her arm and when she did, it brushed her treasure box. Before she could think about it, she had dumped the contents out onto the floor. She just stared at the treasures she had collected over the years; her wonder woman doll, the spiral sea shell, her tiger doll ‘Roughus’, the shiny pink stone from the family trip to North Carolina, her penguin ‘FlyAway’ (from her childhood, that was now a one-eyed penguin), a candle, a small notebook, an ostrich (from their trip to the zoo), a straw that she and her Mom and Dad had used to sip the root beer float they had bought at the beach, her small jewelry box, and her “best student ever” coffee mug. The coffee mug always made her smile. Neither of her parents drank coffee, just tea.
So, what to do? She could rip the tail off the tiger and get Mom and Dad to help her sew it back on. No, that wouldn’t work; Dad would sew it back on while Mom did something else. What if ‘FlyAway’ started screaming “help me, I need to be surrounded by love”. A little obvious, but wait, that’s it; a puppet show! Now Emily was on fire and she wrote the whole puppet show in her imagination! Puppet show complete, Emily called her Mom and Dad in.
Wonder Woman rides in on a speedy ostrich, just in the nick of time, and saves a handsome one-eyed penguin from a ravenous wild tiger. Then Wonder Woman looks around, pointedly, and lights the candle, and picks up the straw, and blows over the pink stone, blowing the candle out. Then Wonder Woman opens the magic jewelry box, under the pink stone, and picks out the note that she finds there. She reads it out loud. “All those whose hearts are open, let them look to the person next to them and let their love shine. The end”.
Then, as Emily sipped her tea from the coffee mug, she pointedly handed the note to her Mom and Dad.
They didn’t fight, not like her friend Jodie’s parents did. It was always painful going over to Jodie’s house. Emily’s Mom and Dad got along; but, that was the problem. They just got along. They were always wonderful with her. “Let your love shine, Emily, and fill the world with joy”. Cheesy, but wonderful. But, no matter how much she tried to shine her love on them both; with each other, they just got along.
So, Emily decided she was going to have to do something about that. She sat in her chair, eating the cookie that her Dad had brought her, and drinking the milk that her Mom had poured for her; and she thought, and she thought, and she thought; and she thought.
Desperate, she did the first thing that came to her. She reached out her arm and when she did, it brushed her treasure box. Before she could think about it, she had dumped the contents out onto the floor. She just stared at the treasures she had collected over the years; her wonder woman doll, the spiral sea shell, her tiger doll ‘Roughus’, the shiny pink stone from the family trip to North Carolina, her penguin ‘FlyAway’ (from her childhood, that was now a one-eyed penguin), a candle, a small notebook, an ostrich (from their trip to the zoo), a straw that she and her Mom and Dad had used to sip the root beer float they had bought at the beach, her small jewelry box, and her “best student ever” coffee mug. The coffee mug always made her smile. Neither of her parents drank coffee, just tea.
So, what to do? She could rip the tail off the tiger and get Mom and Dad to help her sew it back on. No, that wouldn’t work; Dad would sew it back on while Mom did something else. What if ‘FlyAway’ started screaming “help me, I need to be surrounded by love”. A little obvious, but wait, that’s it; a puppet show! Now Emily was on fire and she wrote the whole puppet show in her imagination! Puppet show complete, Emily called her Mom and Dad in.
Wonder Woman rides in on a speedy ostrich, just in the nick of time, and saves a handsome one-eyed penguin from a ravenous wild tiger. Then Wonder Woman looks around, pointedly, and lights the candle, and picks up the straw, and blows over the pink stone, blowing the candle out. Then Wonder Woman opens the magic jewelry box, under the pink stone, and picks out the note that she finds there. She reads it out loud. “All those whose hearts are open, let them look to the person next to them and let their love shine. The end”.
Then, as Emily sipped her tea from the coffee mug, she pointedly handed the note to her Mom and Dad.