For the past few days, the women seemed to be bending over backwards to make sure that Meadow knew she was loved amidst all the baby nonsense. Shows and shopping with Inara, dancing with River, cuddling and playing with Kaylee, and… whatever the hell it was she did with Zoe.
In Jayne's opinion, it was codswallop. New baby ain't a reason t'spoil a' already rotten little girl, he thought as he walkedthough the shipone afternoon when Serenity was docked. Ifn I'd acted tha' way when Matty were born, Ma'd a cuffed me n' tha'd been that.
Meadow was still dressed up from one of her outings with Inara when Jayne walked into the kitchen to find her sitting on her knees in the middle of the table, hunched over a large piece of paper.
"What ye doin,' Squeaker?" he grumbled. It was a moment before she answered, but when she did, she jumped to her feet and held out the paper. It was so wide, she had to hold it from the top to display the entire scene. "Don't jump 'roun' like 'at ona table," he scolded as he took the paper from her hands.
"I drew you a picture, Uncle Jayne," she said proudly, completely ignoring his reprimand. "Auntie Nara took me to see Hamlet and this is the part where everyone dies at the end," she said with a little too much enthusiasm, bouncing slightly as she talked. She moved to the edge of the table so she could point out everything. "See, this is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, that's his mother who drank poison meant for Hamlet, and Claudius who killed Hamlet's father so he could be the king, and that's Prince Fortinbras who comes after everyone's already dead and takes the Danish throne."
"Very exciting,'" Jayne said, highly impressed in the way the girl had captured all of the violence and bloodshed. He looked down at her feet and noticed she was not only in shoes, but her toes were well over the edge of the table. "Now, wha'd I tell ye 'bout standin' on th'table?" he demanded as he lifted her up and deposited her on the floor.
"That if I fall and die you aren't going to bothered with being sad because you warned me so many times, it's my own fault for being so jing-chang meiyong-de," she said, pouting just enough to appear pathetic.
He frowned and tapped a knuckle on the top of her head. "None a' that," he warned. "Ain't like t'work on me."
She smiled sweetly, twisting back and forth a little. "Because you were the first one to meet me proper?"
He nodded. "Damn straight."
Giving him a reproachful look, Meadow said, "You aren't supposed to swear in front of me, Uncle Jayne. Auntie Kaylee will be quite upset."
"Simon swears fronta ye more'n I do," he complained.
"Auntie Nara bought me a book with lots of detailed pictures," she abruptly changed the subject. "May I read it to you? I'll do all the voices, but there are some animals, so you'll have to do the growling." With an annoyed look, Jayne agreed and Meadow pulled her book off the table and carried it to the lounge, clearly expecting Jayne to follow. She crawled up onto the couch and when she opened the book up on her lap, it was nearly as big as she was.
He plopped down next to her and looked at the book suspiciously. "These ain't really some them princess stories?" he asked.
Meadow looked up at him and gave him an incredulous look that came straight from her mother. She turned back to the first beautifully illustrated page and primly read, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue…"
>>>>
She's reading the Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, and in the future, they have a fully illustrated version.
jing-chang meiyong-de: completely useless
