"No, Daddy, no!" squealed the little girl as her father held her high above his head and spun her around and around.
"Stop!" she yelled.
Instantly he stopped spinning her and placed her gently on the ground.
"Why'd you stop?" she demanded.
"You told me to, Galinda," he told her.
She pouted at him. "I was only kidding, Daddy. You weren't supposed to really stop," she said with the air of someone explaining something to a mentally challenged person.
"Oh," was all he said as he turned to leave the room.
"Where are you going!" exclaimed the little girl.
"I thought I would leave since I obviously don't know you well enough to play with you," he said with a trace of a grin.
"No, Daddy! Stay and play with me! Please?" she begged.
He walked back over to her and pulled a golden curl because he knew it annoyed her. "Okay. What are we going to play?"
"Dollies!"
He sighed as she handed him a doll done up in purple with yellow bows.
"Her name's Jessamine. She likes to fix her hair and is friends with this one, Maggie. Maggie likes to..."
Galinda's father tuned her out at this point and just concentrated on playing dollies badly enough that she asked him to leave.
"Daddy?" she asked a few moments later, laying down her doll.
"Yes?" he asked, while hoping that her next words would reprieve him of dolly duty.
"You would do anything for me, right?"
"Of course, Sweetie," he told her reassuringly.
"You would do anything to make me happy?"
"In a heartbeat," he said, not realizing he was stepping right into a trap.
Galinda looked up at him. "I'm not happy, Daddy."
"You aren't?" he asked, surprised.
She shook her head.
"What would make you happy?"
"A pony," she said, biting her lip.
"A po--?" he groaned. She had done it again. She managed to trick him into buying something for her at least once every week.
His little girl grinned innocently at him and smirked at her dolls once he had left to find a pony.