Chapter 3
Danny wasn't sure how long he dozed, but it didn't feel like it was very long when Amelia's pleading cries suddenly broke through his consciousness.
"Uncle Danny! Uncle Danny!"
"Mmm?" Danny moaned, not wanting to wake fully until the nightmare was over and he didn't care how many new princess came flying out from behind the curtain.
"Uncle Danny!" Amelia repeated, this time with a few urgent pats to his head.
"What, sweetie?! What?!" Danny whined as his eyes slipped open.
Amelia was standing next to him bouncing up and down and doing the dance that all parents knew could only mean one thing, but she didn't hesitate to spell it out for him just in case it wasn't clear. "I gotta go number one!"
"Oh, no...really!?"
"Yes! Please , Uncle Danny! I gotta go potty real bad!" she pleaded while squirming uncontrollably.
"Jesus! Let's go kid!" he ordered while grabbing Amelia's hand and leading her up the stairs as fast as her little legs could manage, snapping his fingers at one of the ushers milling about the main corridor of the arena. "Bathroom! Hey! Where's the closest one?!"
The lackadaisical usher barely had his hand up and pointing to Danny's left before he scooped Amelia up into his arms and sprinted down the corridor searching for the restroom signs. Maybe picking her up while she was straining to hold it in wasn't his best idea, but he figured it was the fastest way to get there. One minute later, they were standing in front of the bathrooms, but Danny Reagan didn't know where to go. He was no stranger to the Garden and there was no way in hell he was taking his sweet, little Amelia into a grimy men's restroom lined with urinals...sure this wasn't the usual rowdy, drunken sports crowd and he'd been forced to use many restrooms much scuzzier than those here at the Garden, but no way, no how was she going in there. Danny turned to consider the consequences of running into the ladies' room, which he could only imagine as an immaculate haven lined with wide stalls stocked with potpourri and plush three-ply bathroom tissue. But he couldn't risk getting arrested for that either and there was absolutely no way he could let a little four-year-old girl in there by herself. He was Frozen with no idea on what to do, fearing he'd soon have a bigger problem on his hands...literally.
"Uncle Danny, I can't hold it anymore!" Amelia whimpered, dumbfounded by his lack of movement.
But someone up there must have been watching over them, because soon there was an angel standing behind them.
"It looks like you two could use a little help," an older African-American woman wearing an usher's uniform and an understanding smile commented to the pair.
"What?" Danny asked, turning to face her as he placed Amelia on the ground where she continued her pee-pee dance.
"Your daughter," the usher nodded to the writhing child, "she needs to use the bathroom, I take it?"
"Uh, yeah. She's my niece, but yeah, she needs to use the bathroom, but," Danny paused as he looked back over his shoulder at his choices.
"Don't you worry, my dears. Just follow me," she instructed and walked away without another word.
Danny followed obediently but panicked as they moved farther and farther from the restrooms with no idea of where they were going or how long he had before Amelia would burst. "Where are we going? I really got to get her to a bathroom."
"Family bathroom," the kind lady replied as she led them to the other side of the corridor, away from the more public restrooms and to a door with a sign that had male, female and child stick figures. "You came at a good time since most everyone is still enjoying the show. You'll have it all to yourself and there's no line, something that never happens at these things. You're not the only man bringing a little girl by himself, " she chuckled. "Lots of single daddies and loving uncles here today."
A relieved Danny ushered Amelia toward the door of the more private family bathroom. "Oh, you are an angel, uh," he began to say, realizing he didn't get the woman's name.
"Margaret," she smiled back with a tap to her nameplate.
"Margaret?" Danny repeated.
"Uncle Danny!" Amelia bellowed with a pained expression.
"Well? What are you waiting for, Uncle Danny?" the older woman laughed. "Get her in there or you're gonna be buying that child a whole new costume for the ride home and let me tell you something, they ain't any cheaper in here," she warned.
Danny shook his head and sent her a kind smile in return. "Thank you! Thank you, Margaret!" he replied through the diminishing gap of the closing door.
"You're welcome, honey."
After a trip to the family restroom and a couple of hotdogs at intermission (of which Danny ate one and a half), both uncle and niece returned to their seats to await the start of the second half, which for Daniel Reagan, considering that his niece was fed and should be good for another hour or two (he hoped) without the need to go potty again, meant that he could try to snooze through the rest of the show...but Amelia had other ideas.
"Uncle Danny!" she shouted with a hard tug of his sleeve when the music began. "It's Ariel!"
Not sensing any true alarm in the little girl's voice, Danny remained still with his eyes closed and his head resting against the back of his chair. "Who's Ariel?" he mumbled.
"The Little Mermaid!" Amelia replied excitedly, but not even that was enough to fully rouse her chaperone. He was not willing to budge an inch unless absolutely necessary. Danny Reagan had long ago learned how to nap in the noisiest settings and he was finding this about as equally cacophonous as marine barracks, a wore-torn country in the middle east and the shoebox in the middle of the squad he'd bunk in from time to time when he needed to catch twenty winks. But not even his talent for sleeping in the most harrowing of environments would help him when the little chatterbox sitting alongside him insisted on engaging him in conversation. "Guess what!"
"What, Amelia?" Danny sighed, continually amazed by the amount of patience he had with this child, immense compared to the patience he had with his own children.
"No. Guess, Uncle Danny!" she ordered while her eyes continued to follow Ariel and Sebastian as they sailed across the ice.
"The Disney empire is a genius, brain-washing, money-sucking machine?" he cracked.
"Huh?"
"Nevermind...Just tell me sweetheart. Your Uncle Danny's brain checked out back at security."
"Ariel is mommy's favorite princess!"
"Is that right?" Danny said with some intrigue and rolled his head toward his goddaughter. Unfortunately, he had to straighten up in order to do a full turn in his seat and glare at the complete antithesis of what a Disney fanatic should be after the lunkhead had the gall to shush him and Amelia as his own kid blabbered on next to him.
"Yeah! She always watches Little Mermaid with me!" Amelia said, stopping only to sing a few chorus lines of the song blaring from the speakers. "She knows all the songs and words too!"
Determined to keep his niece talking just to annoy his neighbor, Danny said, "Well, I'll have to remember that." He couldn't picture his sister-in-law sitting in front of the TV watching children's movies, but he knew you sometimes had to do those things for your kids. "I didn't think your mommy liked all the girly stuff. Tell me more, sweetie."
"Mommy said she loves to watch the Little Mermaid more than me. She said she had the movie looong before I was born and has the music on her iPod so she can listen to it whenever she wants, but she said it was a secret and not to tell daddy," Amelia prattled on.
"So it's okay to tell me?" Danny asked.
"Uh huh," Amelia answered. "You're not daddy."
Danny smiled at the preschooler, knowing that they were all going to have to be careful with her. "No, sweetheart, I'm not. But don't worry, I won't tell him either," he promised.
Danny smiled as Amelia continued to sing along. It might not be the way he would have wanted to spend a Saturday afternoon, but he guessed there were worse things than this...just not many.
"I wish mommy was here," Amelia sighed with a hint of melancholy when Ariel began to belt out the song that her mom sang the best, especially when she pulled out a dinglehopper to brush her hair just to make her giggle.
Danny grimaced at her words. He'd been complaining the whole time he'd been here and had forgotten that this was supposed to be something special that the little girl should be doing with her mother. He liked to think that Amelia loved to hang with him, but he knew he wasn't her or anyone's first choice of companion to an event like this. "I know, sweetheart. She really wanted to come along too, but since your daddy had to go to work she needed to stay with your little brother," he told her, hoping she could understand.
"Little brothers are a pain," Amelia commented, laying blame on Mikey for her mother having to bail out.
Danny smirked, feeling the same way...most of the time...well, more so when he was younger, no so much anymore. But he didn't want her resenting her little brother for getting sick and keeping their mother at home. "Don't I know it...But hey, you love your brother, right? I've seen the way you play with him and take care of him like he was your very own little baby," he said, turning around to shush the little monster that was now causing a raucous behind them and interrupting their heart-to-heart.
Amelia shrugged but didn't answer, preferring to gaze at the performers below.
"Your little brother needed your mommy a little more today because -"
"'Cause he was sick," Amelia finished for him.
"That's right! And she would have done the same for you if it had been you feeling all yucky, right?"
"Yup," she agreed with a nod and a small smile.
"Good girl! Now watch the rest of the show, love bug. If I'm lucky, there's not much more left."
"Uncle Danny?"
"Yes, Amelia?"
"I'm happy you came with me!" the little girl beamed back at her uncle just as she flung her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Danny's heart melted into a puddle, his arms going around the little girl as he breathed in her sweet scent. It made him wonder what it would have been like to have a little girl of his own. Danny pulled Amelia over the armrest between them and placed her on his lap. "How about we watch the rest of this together, huh?" he asked, dropping his chin onto her shoulder to get the same view she had of the magical performance (or at least that's how they described it).
"Okay!"
A lot of you thought something bad might happen to poor little Amelia during Danny's snooze, but I just couldn't hurt her..maybe I need to get back to torturing Jamie like I usually do. LOL!
One more chapter to go...Sunday dinner, of course.
