Page 14 of Fireman Daddy's Impetuous Little

“Say it,” I commanded.

“I don’t have to do anything just because someone else thinks I should.”

“Good,” I said. “I want you to repeat back everything I tell you. You don’t have to have a high-powered career.”

“I don’t have to have a high-powered career.”

“You don’t need to have a graduate degree.

“I don’t need to have a graduate degree.”

She looked at me with a bemused expression as I continued.

“You don’t need to be rich.”

“I don’t need to be rich.”

“You don’t need to be anything at all that you don’t want to be.”

“I don’t need to be anything at all that I don’t want to be.”

Her anger relaxed slowly as she said these things and by the end her voice was far calmer. I finished with, “You are Rayna. You are beautiful and happy and perfect the way you are and no one—absolutely no one—can ever or should ever tell you to be different from who you are.”

She repeated that last, then asked, “What are you trying to get at?”

I knelt in front of her and said, “I was wrong earlier. I didn’t think I was ashamed of you when we first talked. Looking back on my behavior, I realized that I was. I never wanted you to be anything other than you are, but I worried about what other people would think. That’s exactly what I wanted you to stop worrying about and I did the exact same thing myself. I was wrong to do that. I should never have acted based on what I thought other people would think. You are my little girl, and you are perfect and that is enough for me. I realize that now. Will you forgive me?”

She didn’t respond at first and for the third time, I wondered if this is the end and everything I thought we could be was about to disappear in smoke.

Then she smiled at me and said, “I forgive you, Daddy.”

The next moment, we were in each other’s arms crying and laughing, and everything was right with the world again.

---