Steve: Cinderella Man
"You want a 'real story?'" he asked and she replied with a nod. "All right..."
Once upon a time there lived a man who no one believed could be anything more than that scrap of a man. He was short and scarecrow like and asthmatic but he lived in a time where the entire world was dancing. His father and mother served their duties in the war to end all wars-his father a soldier, his mother a nurse. But his story didn't start then, nor did it start while his family lived through the great depression, or the day he lost his father…or when he lost his mother. His story started December 7th, 1942, a day that neither he, nor the rest of the world would ever forget. It was the first time, his home had been attacked and you see this little guy wanted nothing more than to protect his home.

"Like a knight!" she interrupted enthusiastically.
"Yes. A lot like a knight…"
"Daddy?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"Is there a little girl in this story?" she asked him with bright, innocent eyes.
"There will be, but that's much later in the story," he explained.
"But, daddy...can there be a little girl now?"
"I thought you wanted a 'real' story," he chuckled.
"Daddy. There hafted to be little girls, right?"
"Yes. I'm positive there were."
"Then why can't there be one in your story?"
"All right, all right. You have a point." The man sat back in the chair pondering for a moment this new addition to the story. After a moment, he leaned forward again and nodded.

But before he could go fight bad guys and save dame-sels, he had to become a knight and to do that he'd have to prove he was strong and noble enough to put on his armor. You see, all the generals and sergeants thought he was too small and weak to be a knight. So, every time he asked to join, each one told him he couldn't.
"That's mean, daddy," she scowled. "They need-they need to be nice coz they're knights and knights are 'sposed to be..kind."
"They didn't mean to be unkind honey, but knights have to be strong enough to fight and many of the people were worried that man would die. They were trying to protect him."
"Oh…okay...what about the little girl daddy?Is she a knight too?"

Well the little girl was one of the few people to believe in him. Every time the man was turned, that little girl was right there telling him not to give up. So he traveled farther away to places like Jersey, Buffalo, Poughkeepsie and New York. Five times he asked and was turned down. Then, one day a doctor overheard this guy and decided to give him a chance. The little guy took that chance, willing to prove that he could be strong enough to fight.
"He has fairy godmother!"
"What?"
"Daddy, he got to be a knight coz his fairy godmother made him one," she explained, her eyes sparkling with the tale. Steve's forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows pinched together. An image flashed through his mind melding his memory of the noble Dr. Erskine with a vivid image of that blue cloaked woman from the Cinderella movies. He blinked his eyes, unwilling to let that train of thought continue its course.
"Well, he was definitely giving the fella a chance. And he was like a wizard-like your uncle Tony," Steve rationalized to the baby.
"Oh. Oh-tay, I think he was a fairy, but he can be a widard too," she conceded. "And he got to be a knight?" She asked him, a yawn smothering her sentence.
"Yes, sweetie. He did get to be a knight."
"Whadda about the little girl?"
"She stayed his little princess," he smiled at her.
"But, daddy, does she gots to be a princess?" she asked. "Can she be a knight too?"
"Yes, honey. She can be a knight too."
"Good," she answered, her head snuggling into the soft pillow. "Knights are cool…I wanna be a knight."
"Maybe when you're bigger," the man replied, tucking the covers around her.
"I am big, member?" she pointed sleepily to the wall where a succession of several brightly colored marks recorded her height.
"When you're bigger than me," he amended.
"Awww daddy, that takes forever," she grumbled.
"Maybe," he replied, stroking her curls, remembering a time, not so long ago, when only tufts of red hair were just barely covering her head. "Maybe not."