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CHAPTER 10
The Play Date
Cia
“Hey, I’m Anna, I’m seven,” the woman said and gave me a good long looking-over.
“I’m Cia and I’m supposed to be five, I think.”
“Do you want to play with Barbies?” she asked.
“No, not really – how about a board game?” I suggested and couldn’t believe Anna actually broke into a pout.
“Daddy,” she cried out, “Cia doesn’t want to play with Barbies.”
What the hell?
Mark, who was sitting close by and talking with Gabriel looked over. “Sweetie, try to find a compromise, maybe you can play ten minutes of Barbie and then do what Cia wants to do.”
“No, Daddy, I don’t want to compromise,” she pouted.
“Baby, I want you to be a good girl. You know what happens to naughty girls.”
Anna lowered her eyes. “Yes, Daddy,” she said in a tiny voice.
I was still temporarily in shock that she was so invested in the role-play but agreed to compromise and picked up a male doll that she handed me.
“You can be Ken and I’ll be Barbie,” she said.
“Okay, what do you want me to do?”
“Well I don’t know, you’re the man, you’re in charge.”
“Excuse me?”
“Hi, Ken, how was your day, would you like something to drink or maybe a massage before dinner?” she said in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.
Okay, here’s my two cents. The brilliant thing about playing with a person who is a cuckoo is that you can have fun with it. I made my best imitation of a deep male voice and said; “Hey, Barbie, honey bunny, you look good. I don’t want anything, my dear, except maybe to rub your feet and make sure you feel good… would you like me to cook dinner tonight?”
Anna shot me a displeased gaze but continued in that horrible voice.
“Oh no, Ken darling, you know my greatest joy is to please you, my dear. I made your favorite meal and I was thinking I could run you a hot bath.”
“Only if you come with me, ha ha,” I laughed in my deepest voice, trying not to crack up over the stupidity of two grown women playing with dolls.
“Sure, I’ll come with you and do that thing you like so much,” Anna purred.
“Oh, you mean wash my hair,” I said a wiggled the doll from side to side.
“No, that other thing,” Anna said amorously.
Eww!I threw Ken down. “I don’t want to play this game. It’s stupid.”
“No, it’s not,” Anna said and tried to make me pick Ken up again.
“If you want to play, we can find a board game or something,” I said and felt damn proud for setting my personal boundaries. I don’t know in which disturbed reality Anna lives, but I’m not stupid and I have no interest in playing a porn version of Barbie and Ken for her amusement.
She pouted but agreed to play Candy Land.
