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So I had a shitty dad, but lots of people were in that situation and still made the most of their lives. Why would I let his failure define me?
I wouldn’t. Not any longer.
“What are you doing?”
The voice made me look back over my shoulder to see Anna watching me.
“I’m painting.”
“Oh, cool, I want to paint too,” she said.
It annoyed me, but I couldn’t really say no, since it wasn’t my private place or even my articles.
“Suit yourself.” I focused on my own painting.
“What should I paint?” Anna asked in that annoying little-girl voice.
I didn’t answer so she started calling out to her dad, loudly. Mark was talking to Gabriel at a nearby table. He made a few suggestions and Anna finally decided on a dog.
It was hard to focus with her constant chitchat.
“Daddy wants to know if you want him to babysit you… you can come with us to the forest, if you want,” she said.
“No thanks.”
“Why not? It’s fun, and there are so many good games we can play there.”
“Like what?” I said dismissively.
“You know… Daddy-daughter games.”
No, I didn’t know because I’ve never played any daddy-daughter games and had no clue what she was referring to, so I lowered my pencil to look at her. “What do you mean?”
She winked at me. “My favorite game is when I’ve been a naughty girl and Daddy disciplines me. We call it the P game.” She lowered her name to a whisper. “You know, P for punishment.”
“Your daddy hits you?” I asked with concern – surely that wasn’t part of the program.
“Yes,” she purred and it had me so confused. “But afterwards we play the… ehh…” – she looked thoughtful – “let’s call it the snail game… and he gives me lots of kisses to make me happy again.”
“The snail game. What is that?”
She rolled her eyes and stepped close enough to whisper in my ears. “You know, the snail between your legs, the one that tickles when your daddy kisses it.”
I was stunned and didn’t answer. Was this woman seriously calling her clitoris a snail and telling me that her “pretend” daddy licked her after spanking her. It’s not that I’m a prude, but I honestly don’t care for other people telling me about their sex life. Unfortunately, Anna misread my stunned silence and kept talking. “Have you ever seen your daddy’s snake?”
She turned her head and looked over at Gabriel. “Your dad is gorgeous; he can babysit me anytime he likes.”
That’s it!
I slammed down the pencil and marched right out of there.
“Where are you going, honey?” Gabriel called out, but I was fuming with anger and didn’t stop to answer. Instead I went straight to the common area where I found Bruce, who was with a young man around twenty and his mom. The guy was wearing the black and yellow baby jumpsuit and looked miserable sitting close to his mom on the couch.
“Bruce, can I talk to you for a second?” I said and tried my best to conceal to the newcomers how angry I was.
“Certainly, why don’t we step outside?” he said and excused himself to the mom and son.
Gabriel caught up to us and we all went outside to the empty playground.
