“Once upon a time –”
Gabby flopped over in bed, burying her face into her pillow. “Not that story, Daddy,” she grumbled into her cotton pillow case.
Thomas White looked from his daughter, her brown curls tousled around her pinking cheeks, to the dog eared copy of Princess Nora Slays the Beast. “Why not, honey?”
She twisted over again, pulling the covers up over her face so that only her small, pinched-looking nose showed over the blanket. “Because I want you to tell me a different story.”
He skimmed over the book shelf beside her bed. “Well which one do you want me to read you?”
“I said tell, Daddy, not read.” She tossed over a second time and started to rummage around under her pillows. Thomas waited patiently for Gabby to reveal a small, twice folded slip of paper. “Tell me the story ‘bout this.”
He took the paper from her small fingers, realizing that it was actually a crumbled up Polaroid. Unfolding it, he saw a much younger Thomas, Tommy in those days, staring back at him. And hefted in his arms was a Juliani piglet.
“So, Daddy, are you going to tell me.”
Thomas smiled down at Gabby who was now sitting up in bed, her little mouth stretched taunt with anticipation. “Of course I will. But you have to let me start with, ‘once upon a time,’ okay?”
She pulled herself back under her blanket, nodding her head anxiously.
“Once upon a time, there was a boy a few years older than you. And he lived on a big farm with Momma and Pa and three big brothers.”
“Just like you and Uncle Mike and Uncle Andy and Uncle Wes did!”
Thomas nodded. “That’s right, honey. Well that boy was the youngest of his brothers and they often liked to make fun of him because of how small he was. He couldn’t move hay bales with them, jump over fences, or even see over the steering wheel of Pa’s truck without sitting on a big stack of phone books.”
Gabby giggled as he stretched his arms out wide. “He must have been really small, huh, Daddy.”
“Indeed he was. But the boy’s Pa though that he needed something to keep him busy on the big farm. So one day, Pa went into town and when he came back, he had four presents in the truck. The oldest brother got a brand new camera. The next got a fine leather hat. To the next, Pa gave a shiny pair of boots. And for the youngest boy, Pa gave him that pig.”
“Wow, Daddy, can I have a pig?” Gabby exclaimed.
Thomas chuckled, scanning over the small room she took in their even smaller apartment. “Maybe one day.” He looked down at the picture again of himself in his overalls, dirt all over his face. “But you see, the pig was quite small and the boy liked that. He named his pig Travis, made him a small collar, and took him on walks like you would with a dog. They were absolutely the best of friends.”
But Thomas’s mind quickly drifted off and he recalled the day he had woken to the sounds of screaming coming from all throughout the house. The barn had caught fire. And he knew that somewhere in the back of the barn, resting in what was meant to be a dog’s bed, had slept his pig. Only a couple of the horses had survived by the time the fire was out that morning.
For days, he dug through the rubble of the fire, searching desperately for a sign Travis had not been lost. Eventually, though, Pa had ordered him to stay away from the debris – had told him that life happens and that eventually he would have to grow up and understand.
Gabby tugged abruptly on her father’s shirt sleeve. “Daddy, why are you crying?”
Thomas wiped at his eyes. “I just keep thinking about how fast you’re growing up. That’s all.”
“Is that the whole story?” She asked, laying back down, squishing her cheek into her pillow.
He nodded. “Now I think it’s time you go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll go look at pigs, okay?”
“Okay,” she sighed, already lost to sleep.
Happy writing!