cloak
Today, she wants to be a magician.
Yesterday, it was a doctor. The day before a vet.
Simon pops round with some of his old stuff, the stuff he won't be needing once he's been shipped off to university. He gives the stuff to his almost sister with a smile, in a cardboard box, and leaves her to explore. The box is sat in, bent slightly by her body weight as she trawls through what she has been given with an eagerness to discover something she does not already have.
The pack of cards she finds at the bottom of the box baffle her upon first instance. She throws them at Daddy's head because the noise that escapes him when the cards make impact is funny and because the cards seem grown up - and whilst Daddy may not be the most grown up of grown ups, he still knows more about such things than she does.
"Daddy. What are these?"
He picks up the pack and turns it over in his hands.
"Playing cards," he says, quite simply. "They're used in magic tricks."
Immediately, her interest is piqued. Her eyes sparkle and she is leaning over the box, willing for him to continue.
"Magic?" she gaps. It's almost as if she doesn't quite believe him.
"Yeah! Proper magic!" He tips the cards out onto the rug they are sat on, all fifty two of them overlapping, but spread equally apart. "Pick a card; any card."
His voice is full of excitement, excitement which rubs off onto her and can be seen clearly in her smile, in her eyes that watch him with such a great level of care. Her actions in reaching for a card are so animated that she almost rips the box with the effort it takes for her to lean over far enough.
Daddy teaches her how to do the only magic trick he knows. He isn't very good at it - but, then, neither is she when her time comes to try it. And neither care. She is that caught up in the game that they are playing that whether or not she is playing it correctly does not come into it.
She is having fun and that's all that matters.
An hour later, when Mummy arrives home, she tells her of her newfound love for trickery. To say Mummy is confused would be an understatement.
"A magician?" she exclaims. "What happened to — ?"
But she is interrupted.
"Yes, Mummy! A magician! A magic one!"
Mummy's smile is a soft one.
"What kind of magician are you, then, eh? You've got no cloak, no wand, no hat. No bunny rabbit."
"Rabbit?"
She should've known the trouble that one would cause before the word had so much as left her lips.
"A bunny rabbit?" The excitement from earlier is back. She is bouncing on the spot, clawing at her mother's clothes as if to grab even more of her attention. "Does this mean I can get a bunny rabbit, Mummy?"