Chapter Four: Tiny

"Git down here, girls! Dinner's ready!" Mama Firefly called up the stairs. "Rufus, darlin', go get yer brother."

"No Mama, I wanna surprise Tiny!" Daisy yelled.

"Go ahead. 'E's down in th' cellar!" Mama answered.

"I'll go with ya," Baby told her friend as they walked down the stairs.

They went into the cellar, where Tiny sat reading a book.

"I didn't know 'e read!" Baby whispered in surprise. "I thought Otis was the only dumbass who did that!"

Daisy giggled. "I'm goin' in." She walked into the room and stood in front of Tiny, waiting for him to notice her.

It took him a few moments before he realized there was someone else in the room with him. He raised his bald, scarred head to look at her with surprise. Daisy grinned and skipped over to him before he could do anything, grabbed his notebook and pen out of his pocket, and wrote "Guess who?" on the paper. Tiny took the pad back tentatively and scanned the writing before glancing back up at her. He grunted happily and put his arms around her.

Daisy embraced him back and waited until he was looking at her before she spoke. "I take it y' remember me, then?" she said with a smile.

He nodded and smiled back as far as his scarred lips would let him. "When did you get back?" he wrote.

"Earlier," she answered, "but you know me. I had to get a little tipsy 'fore I came down to see ya."

Tiny smiled and nodded in response. "You haven't changed," he wrote, "not at all. Remember how drunk we used to get?"

Daisy laughed. "Of course I do. We were insane. But we can pick up where we left off."

He shook his head and began scribbling in his pad. "I don't drink anymore," he wrote, "it makes my heart hurt."

"How are y' feeling nowadays?" she asked him, knowing that his heart gave him trouble sometimes. It had ever since they were children, a side effect of his gigantism.

"Good. I only have problems once in a while."

"That's great!" She hugged him again as Baby came in, smiling at her brother's rare display of happiness.

"Ain't y' hungry, Tiny?" Baby asked. "Mama's got dinner ready. An' you can sit next t' Daisy. We gotta protect her from Otis."

Tiny's brow wrinkled. "What do you mean?" he wrote.

"I don't think our Otis likes Daisy much," Baby explained.

"Why not? You two are like twins, and Otis adores you," Tiny answered.

Baby shrugged while Daisy laughed.

"I don't care," Daisy reassured him. "So long as you still love me, Tiny, I think I'll be fine."

He patted her on the back. "Otis won't touch you," he wrote. "I'll protect you."

Daisy pouted. "Do I look like I need protectin'?"

"Otis can find a way to do anything."

"Then I guess I need my knight in shining armor. Should I call ya Sir Tiny?"

Baby giggled. "Sir Tiny! Sir Tiny!"

The girls joined hands and danced around him, singing "Sir Tiny!" over and over again until they collapsed into a giggle fit.

"Come on Sir Tiny," Daisy told him, "let's go eat some of Mama's meatloaf."