Chapter 6: Play Time
Wearing my ladybug dress with my rainbow butterfly wings, I zip and zoom around my large playroom. I'm pretending to be a Ladybug Butterfly Princess. Daddy and Uncle Em are playing with me too. Uncle Em is wearing a giant fuzzy Great White shark mask and Daddy has on an eye patch and a black pirate hat with a skull on the front of it. He's pretending to be a pirate, he even has a plastic sword in his hand.
We're playing Save the Ladybug Princess. It's a game where Daddy, the good Pirate King has to save me, the beautiful Princess from Uncle Em, who is the bad ol' shark. It's a really fun game.
Running around the room with Uncle Em chasing me and making shark noises. I giggle as he almost grabs me and Daddy saves me by using his sword. He gets between me and the bad shark. I am saved.
"No. Bad Bruce!" I shout at Uncle Em as I run around the room.
Still chasing me, Uncle Em laughs.
When I was littler, Uncle Em taught me that all sharks are named Bruce. I thought that was from "Finding Nemo" because there's a shark in that movie that is named Bruce. But Uncle Em corrected me on that. He said it was from a scary movie called "Jaws". I'm told I'm not old enough to watch that movie but I take his word for it. Anyways, when we play this game he's always Bruce the shark.
"Snap. Snap. Snap." Uncle Em says, pretending to be Bruce the big scary shark.
"RRRR. I'll save you." Daddy says in his best pirate voice. He jumps in between me and the mean shark.
"Get the shark!" I yell to Daddy.
Before Bruce the shark can bite me - just for pretend. Daddy, gently grabs me, putting me behind him. He holds up his plastic pirate sword to hit Bruce with but that naughty shark switches directions and starts swimming the other way. Daddy, the best pirate in the world, goes after Bruce the shark. We play that game for the longest time. It only ends once Bruce is captured by the good Pirate King.
Once that game is over they want to know what I want to play next. Both of them seem to want to keep me very busy.
I announce that our next activity is bouncing in my pink, yellow and blue indoor jumping house that's in the corner of the room. Daddy and Uncle Em are fine with that. I smile as I run over to my jumpy house.
The jumpy house is kinda big but it fits good in my large playroom. I scramble up the little ramp, climb inside and start bouncing, while Uncle Em and Daddy play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who gets to take a turn in the jumpy house with me first.
When any of my family members bounce with me in the jumpy house there can be no more than two people at a time. We learned that the hard way. I used to have a jumpy house that looked like a wrestling ring that Uncle Em got for me when he was educating me on the knowledge of the WWE wrestlers. By the way, The Undertaker is the best Wrestler of all times, according to Uncle Em. Then after that it's John Cena. I really don't care about wrestling but I know so much about it.
Anyways, the importance of wrestling was such a boring topic to learn about. Something I could have gone my whole life without knowing. That was until he bought the jumpy house wrestling ring. But I only got to use it for two days until both of my uncles and Daddy played in it, pretending to be wrestlers and popped it. After that, Grandma and Grandpa made a rule that only one teenager is allowed in the jumpy house at a time.
I do a backflip in the jumpy house as Uncle Em wins the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. He walks over to the ramp and gently climbs in and jumps with me. I giggle and show off my somersault moves. Daddy and Uncle Em both say they are impressed with what I can do. Uncle Em jumps with me, showing me how to do some awesome wrestling moves.
Soon it's time for Uncle Em and Daddy to switch places and Daddy jumps with me. He and I jump around for a while, until they switch places two more times before I want to do something else.
With bouncing over and done with, I run over to my giant wooden American Girl Doll house that Grandma made for me. It's as tall as Uncle Em and fills up one whole wall of the playroom. It has beds and everything else a real house needs.
"We're going to play vampire dolls." I say happily, looking at my Daddy and uncle.
I know my American Girl Dolls are dolls that are supposed to be human girls with historical backstories, but that's not how I play with them. I like to pretend that they are vampires, like me. So they don't eat food. Instead they hunt animals.
"Sure." Daddy agrees.
"I love playing vampire dolls." Uncle Em says happily.
I smile really big as they come over to me. Both of them sit on the floor cross legged in front of the doll house. Before we can play we need dolls. All of my dolls are sitting in their living room. I look at all ten of them and try to make the best decision for what doll Daddy and Uncle Em get to play.
"Which doll do I get to play with?" Daddy wonders.
I think he was reading my thoughts and was to guess what doll I was going to give him. But I didn't think of the name in my head so he doesn't know, I didn't want him to know. I wanted it to be a surprise.
Without saying a word, I reach in the dollhouse and grab the doll with long black hair.
"You get Samantha." I say, handing my Samantha doll to Daddy.
"Why do I get this one?" Daddy wonders holding the doll and looking at it.
I smile. He doesn't know why I picked it for him since I'm doing a good job not thinking about it. I like to trick Daddy. I don't think it's fair that he gets to know everything and everyone else has to guess.
Daddy raises an eyebrow at me. "Preness, I don't know everything." He says and Uncle Em snorts.
"No. But you think you do." Uncle Em jabs his elbow into Daddy's ribs
Daddy playfully shoves him. Uncle Em thinks something that has Daddy rolling his eyes. He then asks me again why I picked that doll for him to play with. He's really interested since he knows that they have different years in history that they are from, as well as different back stories. He really wants to hear my answer.
"Because she's from 1904 and that is close to when you were born." I explained.
"The year is close. I was born in 1901." He nodded his head, smiling his crooked smile.
I smile. He seems to like the doll I picked for him.
"Good choice." Uncle Em approves. "So what doll do I get?" He rubs his hands together like a human might do when they are cold. But he's not cold. He's just happy.
I turn around and look at my dolls. I grab my doll Kit and hand it to Uncle Em. "You get Kit." I hand him the doll with short blond hair. "She's from 1934. That's the year after Auntie Rose and Grandpa Carlisle saved you from the bear." I say before I am asked the reason behind my choice.
Uncle Em grins. "You do know your family history." He says. "But let's see if you know what year The Care Bears first appeared on TV."
I stare at him. Now why would I know that? I don't even know what a Care Bear is. But I don't plan on telling him that. I already know too much weird information that he tells me. Like, that playing dance music can ward off mosquitos. Or that a group of hippos is called a "bloat". Or what all the characters' names are on the Transformers cartoon. And the weirdest of all, is that Pringles are not really potato chips, they are actually potato crisp. I don't know why Uncle tells me half of what he does.
Hearing my thoughts. Daddy groans in irritation. "Why must you insist on filling my daughters head with these strange and useless facts?" He says to Uncle Em.
"I'll have you know that everything I teach her will help her in life." Uncle Em insists. "How else is she going to learn the necessary information to pretend she's human?"
Daddy doesn't say a word. He only pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Let's play." I grab the doll of my choice that is supposed to look like me.
"Okay." Daddy says and looks at Uncle Em. "Will you stop with the useless facts about food? No one needs to know that in the 1910's pickles were considered junk food."
Uncle Em falls backwards on the floor laughing.
I guess he was sharing food information with Daddy through his thoughts. I roll my eyes. Uncle Em always thinks it's funny to annoy Daddy.
Once Uncle Em stops laughing I start explaining the rules of how to play vampire dolls to them. I figured that it's easier to explain it to them than for them to just pretend on their own. I had a very bad experience with Auntie Alice. She thought that playing vampire dolls was all about changing out their outfits a hundred different times in a roll and nothing else. I mean, that's kind of fun, but for a good game of vampire dolls, you have to do much more than change out their outfits. There has to be some suspense and drama. Not just fashion overload.
Hearing my thoughts Daddy laughs.
I continue explaining so there's no mix up with what we're doing. Once I'm done we begin playing.
Daddy and Uncle Em try to follow my rules for the game but they aren't very good at it. Neither of them really know how to play dolls. I like playing better with Mommy and Auntie Rose or even my Grandma, they really know how to play dolls. These two don't. But at least they are trying. Though I can tell they won't want to play dolls for much longer. They kinda look bored.
We play for a few more minutes before Grandpa comes into the playroom. Then the four of us play Candyland until Grandpa reminds daddy that they have to go to the hardware store and get a new door to replace the one that Daddy broke, when he was in a rush to take Uncle Em's phone away from me. Soon Daddy's ready to go with Grandpa. But since I don't want to go with them I get to stay with Uncle Em.
Daddy gives me a kiss before he and Grandpa leave. Now it's just Uncle Em and I.
I quickly put away my Candyland game on the shelf where my games go. I then skip over to the walk-in closet in the playroom. That's where my dress up clothes are. I begin grabbing fancy hats with flowers and feathers on them, feather boas and a hanger that has a lot of pretty beaded necklaces on it.
From where Uncle Em stands in the room he watches me. Once I have everything I need I sweetly tell him to sit down so we can play a new game. He listens and sits down on the floor.
"What is next on our agenda, Small Fry?" He asks me, very curiously.
"You're going to get a makeover!" I start putting the beaded necklaces on his neck.
"Ohhh." He stretches out the word.
Uncle Em sits as still as a statue while I put ten colorful necklaces around his neck. Next is the yellow hat with peacock feathers and red roses on it on top of his head. I then wrap a rainbow feather boa around his neck. Uncle Em is the greatest. He lets me give him makeovers. I once even decorated his hair with twenty bows, he didn't even mind. He left them in for the whole day. I did that to Daddy once and he didn't like it much.
I finish putting all the pretty items on him then I say 'tada' once I'm done.
"Do I look pretty?" He wonders, in a high silly voice when I'm done.
"You look gorgeous." I say, proudly.
He looks very pretty in a silly way. I love that Uncle Em lets me do anything to him. Daddy doesn't like to play dress up that much and Uncle Jazz has limitations and so does Grandpa. But not Uncle Em. Last Halloween he played Extreme Fashion Makeover with Auntie Alice and I. I decorated his hair with a blond wig and a bonnet and she bought a little Bo Peep dress for him. He happily put the dress on and went Trick or Treating with me and the rest of our family as Little Bo Peep.
I run to my closest and pull out a pocket size mirror that I keep in a sparkly purse. I run over to him, open the mirror up and show his reflection so he can see just how pretty he looks. Uncle Em looks in the small mirror and laughs.
"I told you! You look pretty." I say as I close up the mirror.
Uncle Em chuckles. "But do I look fabulous?" He says seriously. "That's the important part."
"Yes." I nod my head. His words give me an idea. A light bulb goes off in my head.
Uncle Em looks at me. Even though he can't read my mind he notices that I'm thinking about something.
"What's going through your mind, Small Fry?" He asks.
"Wait here. I'll be back." I run out the door to the playroom and down the hall. I quickly run up the next flight of stairs, to the top floor where my bedroom is.
Inside my room that's decorated for a princess, complete with a canopy bed and vanity set. I go over to my vanity set that Auntie Alice has stocked with the best nailpolish. I open the drawer on the side and get what I need. I then turn around to leave my room.
In a blink of an eye I'm back in the playroom. Uncle Em, who listened to me and didn't get up from his spot on the rug. Looks at me as I make my way over to him with thee nailpolish bottles behind my back.
"Guess what's behind my back?" I happily ask, sitting on the floor in front of him.
"I don't know. Why don't you just tell me?" He wonders, not answering my question.
I frown. I wanted him to guess.
"Alright." He says. "You want me to guess. Don't you?"
I nod my head. I really do.
"Hmmm." He says, looking at me. "Let's see. You have an enchilada behind your back." He laughs.
I smile and shake my head. "Wrong." I hold on tightly to the nail polish bottles.
Uncle Em Puts his index finger on his chin like he's deep in thought. His eyes look up at the ceiling and then at me. I sit down, patiently waiting for his answer. I love when he guesses because he's silly and never gets it right.
"An alien monkey?" He wonders.
I laugh as I picture what an alien monkey looks like. He always comes up with the funniest guesses. I laugh so hard I can't talk so I just shake my head 'no'.
"I know!" He says all happy. "I got it now. A giant submarine made out of shoes and cheese?"
I look at him as I laugh even harder, rolling on the floor. He laughs along with me. Without meaning to, I let go of the three nail polish bottles and they roll on the floor right to him. My back is facing him but I hear him pick up the little bottles.
"Are you planning on painting my nails?" Uncle Em asks in a very surprised voice.
I can't tell if he's happy about that or not. I roll over and sit up at once. He's just looking at the bottles of light pink, magenta and purple nail possish like. He keeps staring at the little bottles like they might jump at him any minute.
"Yup." I smile, reaching for the nail polish that he holds. But he pulls it away before I can get it back from him.
I look at him and he shakes his head. I raise an eyebrow, wondering why he doesn't want his nails painted.
"I go to school, Small Fry." He begins. "I can't have my nails painted. But I'll tell you what, I will paint your nails."
I smile at that.
Uncle Em opens up the nail polish and starts painting my nails. We talk about video games and cartoons that he and I watch together as he paints my fingernails and toenails. When he is done he closes up the nail polish and asks me what I want to do next.
I don't really know what I want to do next. But I do have a question for him. Very carefully, so I don't smudge the nail polish on my fingernails, I put my hand to his face and replay my question from earlier. The one about where babies come from.
Uncle Em shivers and looks sick as he sees what I showed him.
"Why do you keep asking me that?" Uncle Em's voice sounds funny.
I shrug. "Because you look you know the answer." I say, moving my hand away from his face.
Uncle Em looks at me and starts bursting into laughter. I can't figure out why. The way he's laughing it seems like I'm missing a joke but I can't figure out what the joke could be.
"So will you tell me?" I asked when he stops laughing. "I want to know where babies come from."
His mouth screws up to the side and he shakes his head. He then grabs the bottles of nail polish and hands them to me.
"I changed my mind." He says quickly. "You can paint my nails. As long as you don't ask me that question ever again."
I tilt my head to one side and look at him. He won't tell me what I want to know but when I asked him he gave me what I wanted...to paint his nails. That's interesting.
I grin. I open the purple nail polish and begin painting his fingernails.
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