Daddy’s Gift by Vanessa Danville I helped him with his shoes then held his little light blue jacket open for him and watched as he slid his arms into the sleeves, as I zipped it up the Hello Kitty logo on the chest of the jacket seemed to wink at me. It looked like it might rain so I pulled his hood up then lead him outside. It was just a 10 minute drive so we only got to listen to a couple of Disney songs before we turned the car into Auntie Karen’s street and then pulled up outside. I lead him up the path with a nervous knot in my stomach, were either of us really ready for such a drastic change?

~o~O~o~
“Come on Leon, we need to get to Auntie Karen’s,” I said.

It was partly my fault we were running a little behind but he had this knack of disappearing into his room at just the wrong time.

He came slowly down the stairs with a book tucked under his arm. He gets his love of books from both of us, and I’m glad of that, so many kids spend all their days playing computer games but he prefers to get lost in storybooks.

I helped him with his shoes then held his little light blue jacket open for him and watched as he slid his arms into the sleeves, as I zipped it up the Hello Kitty logo on the chest of the jacket seemed to wink at me. It looked like it might rain so I pulled his hood up then lead him outside.

It was just a 10 minute drive so we only got to listen to a couple of Disney songs before we turned the car into Auntie Karen’s street and then pulled up outside.

I lead him up the path with a nervous knot in my stomach, were either of us really ready for such a drastic change?

Karen opened the door before I had a chance to knock.

“I heard you pull up,” she said. “Oh I do like your jacket and I know Carly would love it too if she were here.”

“What did you do with her?” I asked. Carly was an amazingly loving cousin but she had a tendency to fuss.

“Oh she’s round at a friend’s house for the afternoon,” Karen replied. “But she made me promise to tell her all about it.”

I took his jacket off, undid his shoes and placed them against the wall.

“Are we ready,” Karen asked.

Leon looked at me but I wasn’t the one being asked and anyway I still didn’t know if I was.

“Are you?” I asked.

He smiled, let go of my hand and took his aunt’s.

“Lets go and look through the things Carly has left for you,” Karen said and lead him up the stairs, I followed on behind.

I heard an ‘ooooh’ as I got to the bedroom they were in, laid out on the bed were an assortment of cute clothes, tees and skirts and dresses and god knows what else.

“Do you see anything you like?”

“Ye-es, all of it,” was his reply.

“Is Carly really ok with this?” he asked.

“Yes, these are all things she has outgrown, they should fit you perfectly though.”

He picked a few things up and looked at the designs on the front, a lot of them had the familiar kitty face but not everything; Carly was a real Hello Kitty freak but her wardrobe contained other stuff too, like the t-shirt with the glittery pink ‘Princess’ logo that he was looking at now.

“Would you like me to pick out some things for you to wear, honey?” Karen asked.

“Yes please,” he said. He was always polite.

If Carly had been here she would have been rushing around him, wanted him to try on everything at once and as long as I had breath in my body the only way we were doing this was at his pace.

“Now then Daddy, I think you should wait downstairs while we get him changed.”

I nodded and left them to it, I still wasn’t sure I was ready but it seemed to me that my son certainly was.

It felt like I had been waiting a long time but in truth it could only have been a few minutes until I heard them coming downstairs. I tried to remain calm but I was really nervous, if I didn’t like the way he looked I couldn’t show that in my face.

When they appeared in the door I knew I need not have worried.

“You look cute,” I said, and I meant it.

I should have guessed that he would be wearing the princess t-shirt, but he also had on a pleated denim skirt and a pair of tights with pastel stripes on them.

He gave me the biggest smile imaginable.

“There are some other things we need to do before we’re ready to go,” Karen said.

“Go where?” he asked.

“We’re taking you out shopping,” she replied.

I wondered if he might not be ready for this but his only reply was “Okay”.

Karen took his hand and lead him out into the kitchen.

“I’m going to give you a haircut, so I need you to hop up onto this chair and then I can wash your hair.”

He did exactly as she said, she put a hairdresser’s cape around him and gently leaned his head back over the sink.

Karen had worked in a salon for some years so she knew what she was doing, these days she plied her trade in people’s homes. When she was done with the water she took her comb and scissors and worked away.

He tried his best to see what was going on, to begin with that made life difficult.

“Please keep still sweetheart, otherwise the only way it will look straight is if you put your head on one side,” she said, then with a smile added, “Or I could just cut it short.”

That gave him a reason to keep his head still now it was only his eyes moving. At one point he was trying to look through the top of his skull to see what his aunt was doing. It looked so strange had to stop myself laughing and of course whenever Karen stopped to see what the problem was his gaze was back to normal which just made it even funnier.

In the space of a few minutes she transformed his androgynous mop into what I’m told is a pageboy style, whatever it was called, his hair now framed his face.

“Can I have a look?” he asked.

“Not yet honey,” Karen replied. “We have a few finishing touches to do.”

She disappeared into the other room and came back with a small makeup bag.

“Lets start with those nails,” she said.

Gently she took his hand.

“Good, you’re not a nail-biter,” she said. “I will just give them a quick file though.”

Then she pulled out a bottle shaped like a teddy bear and started to paint his nails a pale pink.

“Now the other hand.”

Compliantly he lifted his right hand up and let her work on that.

“Okay, now keep your hands still on the table and while I put a little bit of makeup on, they should be dry by the time I am done.”

Obviously as he was just a little kid the makeup was really light, a little bit of blusher on the cheeks and some gloss for the lips.

“Can I see now,” she, I mean he said.

“Of course you can,” Karen said, and started to manoeuvre him towards the hall where there was a full-length mirror.

“Oh wait, I’ve forgotten something,” Karen said and reached for the makeup bag.

She grabbed a hairbow and fixed it off-centre in his hair.

As he turned to face the mirror I held my breath.

Silence. That couldn’t be good could it?

Slowly there were little movements, then a little smile, then a bigger smile, then a grin, and finally words.

“I’m pretty.”

“Yes, you are,” I said.

“And I have a hello kitty bow,” he said, touching the big pink bow above his left eye.

“That’s right.”

“In fact you are far too cute and pretty to be called Leon,” Karen said. “what shall we call you instead?”

He thought about it for a few seconds.

“I don’t know.”

Karen gave a few suggestions. “How about Leonna, Leanne, Leela, or something entirely different, how about Claire. I know, what about Kitty.”

He giggled.

“What about Leah,” I said.

He repeated it a couple of times.

“Yes Daddy, I’d like that.”

“Well then Leah, lets put your shoes and jacket on and go shopping.

I have to admit the jacket looked much better with what Leah was wearing than it had with what Leon had worn but the shoes, well they needed work. I guess we would pay a visit to the shoe shop while we were out.

It took almost half an hour to get to the big shopping center, there wasn’t a space near any of the entrances so we had quite a walk. I made sure to hang on to my new daughter and she showed no signs of wanting to run ahead.

Our first stop was Claires, that’s right, she’d only just started dressing as a girl but she was already getting pierced ears. It was no surprise that she wanted the Hello Kitty studs but she couldn’t have those to begin with so we picked out a pair with little pink stones in them and got the HK ones for when her ears had healed.

I told her to be brave but I need not have worried, there was barely a movement from her and certainly no tears, and the smile when they held up the mirror was as big as when she first saw herself.

I’m glad I had my credit card with me, it wasn’t just the ear things, we walked out of there with hairbands, hair clips, a couple of bracelets, a hello kitty necklace, some pens and a bag shaped like a hello kitty head which Leah insisted on putting on her shoulder with most of her new goodies inside.

We didn’t have far to go to find the right shoe shop, it wasn’t staffed by kids, there was an older lady who saw the logo on my little girl’s t-shirt and did her best to treat her like a princess.

“Now then sweetheart, lets measure those feet, I’ll try not to tickle,” she said.

“What kind of shoes are we looking for, high heels? No you don’t want any of those, not for a long time, army boots? No too plain.”

“Pretty shoes,” Leah answered.

“Oh we’ve got lots of pretty shoes, how about we start with the very shiny ones?”

She brought out three pairs of black patent shoes, and showed each pair to her before putting them on her feet and getting her to walk up and down and asking if they pinched anywhere.

“So which pair do you like the best?” she said.

“Those ones,” my daughter replied.

I figured she would go for the t-bars, there was just something about them that made them unmistakeably little-girl’s shoes.

“We’ll take the ones with the bows on as well,” I said.

The savvy saleswoman smiled and said, “we have those in other colours too, navy and burgundy and... sorry we’ve sold out of the red.”

I didn’t know if there was a burgundy outfit for her but I don’t think I’d ever seen shoes that colour before so I added them to the pile. That got us to the main reason we had come here, trainers, again our saleswoman showed she was no fool.

“I’ve got just the thing,” she said and produced a pair of white trainers with that oh-so-familiar kitty face on, they also had pink bits on the side and had the ‘hello kitty’ script on the velcro straps.

“How did you know?” Leah asked, forgetting about the logo on her jacket, the new bag and the bow in her hair.

She just tapped the side of her nose and winked.

As she put them on Leah’s feet she said how cute they looked and how much easier velcro straps were for little hands to do. Leah couldn’t resist unfastening and fastening them a few times before she had a little walk around.

“Are they comfortable?” the saleswoman asked.

After a little hesitation she admitted they were a bit tight but would be okay.

The saleswoman would hear nothing of it and made her take them off. For the first time on this little trip my daughter looked glum.

“What’s the matter sweetie,” I asked.

“I really wanted the kitty shoes,” she replied.

“It’s okay, you can still have them, she’s just getting you a larger size.”

“Oh, that’s alright then.”

The smile returned.

We took everything to the cash register.

“I’ve taken the liberty of adding a pair of hello kitty socks and some frilly socks for the smart shoes,” the saleswoman said.

“What do you say to the nice sales lady, Leah?”

“Thank you very much nice sales lady.”

“No, thank you Leah, the pleasure was all mine.”

As we walked out of the shop Leah turned around and waved goodbye. That lady had definitely gone above and beyond, if she wanted our repeat business she was more than welcome to it.

I hadn’t thought about stopping there originally but when Karen nudged me and pointed towards the Bear factory I wasn’t going to argue. No prizes for guessing that we left there with a Hello Kitty plushie and it was dressed in a fairy outfit that Leah took a particular shine to.

There were a few places I thought about checking for a dress to match her burgundy shoes, but Karen thought making her undress in a shop’s changing room was pushing it for her first shopping trip. We looked at a few shop windows as we walked around then before I knew it we were right across from the Disney Store.

As soon as Leah spotted it she let go of my hand and raced inside, I hurried after her.

“Daddy, can I have one of these please?”

She was pointing at a Rapunzel dress from the movie Tangled.

“Are you sure that’s the one you want, and not one of the other princesses?” I asked.

“Well I like Ariel and Snow White and Jasmine but I love Rapunzel,” she replied.

“Ok then,” I said and got Karen to help me pick out one that would fit her. I wondered why we didn’t need the changing rooms here, apparently dress-up clothes are different.

“And can I have this playset and the cup and bowl as well?”

“You can have the cup but everything else will have to wait for another time,” I said.

“Okay,” she said.

“Good girl,” I said and ruffled her hair.

“Daddy! You’ll mess up my bow.”

“I’m sorry honey, I’ll try to remember next time.” That was definitely something I would never have heard from my son.

“I see the t-shirt isn’t enough, someone wants a princess dress,” said one of the parents in the queue to pay.

“Yes, she’s never had one until today, so it was definitely time.”

“Really, is that right?” the woman asked my little girl.

Leah just nodded shyly.

When we got out of the store I looked for the quickest route back to the car, we had been here long enough. Once we got outside I picked Leah up and carried her until I needed a spare hand to find my car keys, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done it but it felt like the right thing to do today.

As we left the shopping centre I felt my tummy rumbling.

“Is anyone else hungry or is it just me?” I asked.

“I could do with something,” Karen said.

“I’m hungry too daddy,” Leah added.

So we stopped off for fast food. I had seen so much change in my child that I wondered what she would ask for but some things never change.

“Can I have the nugget meal with a pink milkshake please Daddy?”

“I should have known, of course you can.”

I had a deluxe chicken burger and Karen had a basic hamburger and as I ate mine I watched Leah eating hers. I had been warned to look out for ungirl-like manners but it was silly really, she was eating like a kid eats. Still, I kept watching just because I could. She did manage to get barbecue sauce on her face but that always happens.

It didn’t seem like too much longer before we were back at Karen’s place.

“Do I have to change back now?” Leah asked a little glumly.

“Sweetheart, you don’t ever have to change back unless you want to,” I replied.

“Really?”

“Of course, you’re Daddy’s little princess now and for as long as you want to be,” I said.

“Thank you Daddy, thank you,” she said as she leapt into my arms.

We bundled everything up and loaded it into the car, I thanked Karen and drove my little girl home. We sorted through her new things before I put her to bed they included a set of lavender Hello Kitty pajamas that she just had to wear. I read to her from a book of fairytales and stayed in the room to watch her sleeping peacefully.

From now and for the rest of time this day would be Leah’s birthday.

Playing Dressup

A fun little tale about two kids playing together.

by Vanessa Danville

 

“Will you two hurry up, if we don't go soon the shops will be too busy.”

“Ok mum, give us a few minutes to change back.”

“But I don't want to change, I want to go as I am.”

“You can't and there's no way I'm going looking like this.”

Mrs Johnson sighed and made her way upstairs. The kids normally played nicely together so she wasn't sure how a game of dress-up could have ended in acrimony.

As she looked up into the attic she understood half the story, her eldest, Jerry, stood there wearing a tutu over his jeans, partly inflated armbands just past his elbows and a pink sunhat on top of his head.

“That's an interesting outfit,” she said.

“Yeah, we were just messing about, trying things on, there wasn't much else that would fit me,” Jerry replied.

“You don't need to explain, just change quickly,” his mother said.

“No problem.”

“Spoilsport,” said a younger voice.

“C'mon squirt, I'll help you change back too,” said Jerry.

“Nope, I'm going like this.”

As her youngest came into view Mrs Johnson tried hard not to giggle. When Ellie went up there she had been wearing denim shortalls over a pink t-shirt but now she was wearing an Arsenal football shirt, fairy wings, a feather boa and a dark blue baseball cap.

“You can't go like that,” Jerry said again.

“I can too, can't I mummy?”

Mrs Johnson sighed again.

“Yes, you can go like that, now go downstairs, we'll be there in a couple of minutes.”

“But Mum!”

“What's the matter Jerry?”

“The football shirt, the cap, it's not exactly girlie is it?”

“No, not as girlie as, oh I don't know, my old tutu.”

He blushed.

“Times have changed, girls can wear pretty much anything these days, they can have short hair just the same as you could have long hair if you wanted, some boys paint their nails...”

“Goths and Emos maybe.”

“Yes, and other people too, and if you wanted to wear pink you could find shirts and things to wear so don't feel like you have to take the tutu off.”

It was a bit late for that, he was already tugging the mass of frills down his legs.

“It's not about stereotypes mum, I just wanted to protect her, I mean what if she gets read because of the shirt, I've heard all sorts of things online.”

“Jerry, I don't think she could have a better big brother but, like I said, times have changed, okay there are girls in her class who want to be princesses, there are also a few who wear football shirts and others who play in the mud, girls can do anything these days, even Ellie.”

“I suppose.”

“Come here.”

She gave him a big hug.

“You've lived with her for years, what do you see, boy or girl?”

“Girl, totally girl.”

“Exactly, and so does everyone else; you don't need to worry about things like that, that's our job. Now lets get going.”

He started going downstairs.

“By the way, are you planning on keeping the armbands on?”

He looked back sheepishly.

“Silly Jerry,” said Ellie from the bottom of the stairs.

“I'll show you silly,” he replied. “I've put my tickling fingers on and I'm coming to get you.”

He jumped down the last few steps and started chasing his little sister.

“Nooooo, mummmeeeeee, heeeeeeelp.”

“Can you chase her towards the car please,” said their mother as she passed them and grabbed her jacket and keys.

“No problem. Squirt if you get to the garage by the time I get to ten I'll stop chasing you.”

Mrs Johnson shook her head, in a couple of years' time Ellie wouldn't want to play like this with her brother but until that time came she would happily watch them clowning around, and who knows, maybe one day her eldest child would come to the same realisation as her youngest already had.

The Pink Painting Smock Nessa D.

Milo couldn’t understand how it had happened, all of the boys in the class knew that when it was time for art class you either brought your own apron or made sure that you got to the art cupboard first, yet here he was at the end of the line and the only thing left was the pink painting smock.

‘Why didn’t one of the girls take it?’ he thought. ‘After all, girls like pink.’

He tried to persuade a couple of his female classmates to swap with him but one had already put her apron on and the other said she didn’t care for pink.
He also tried to sneak back to his table without an apron and start painting, unfortunately that was when he heard Miss Brown’s voice.

“Milo Taylor, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“No Miss.”

“Where is your apron?”

“I couldn’t find one Miss.”

“I see, then what is that one over there?”

She pointed at the offending article.

“I must have missed it Miss.”

“So it has nothing to do with the colour.”

“No Miss.”

“Bring it over here then.”

He trudged back to the cupboard, grabbed the smock and walked over to his teacher like a condemned man.

She took it from him and held it open in front of him so that he could slip his arm into the pink sleeves, reluctantly he did and pushed his hands through the elastic at the wrists.

“Turn around please,” his teacher asked.

Oh no, as if it wasn’t humiliating enough just having to wear the pink smock she was actually going to fasten it onto him. Milo wished for something to happen, the fire-bell to ring, the headmistress to appear, Batman to swing through the window but nothing did. He just stood there as his teacher tied the ties at his neck and made sure that the velcro was fastened all the way down the back.

His cheeks must have been as red as the bottle of poster paint that waited for him as he made his way back to the table.

Someone said “cute” as he passed them but he did his best to blank them out.

The other boy on his table didn’t even acknowledge his presence next to him so Milo just grabbed the red bottle and squeezed a tiny bit into his palette, that would be for the sail. He needed plenty of blue for the sea so he got a big blob of that, then some white for the waves, oh white and a little bit of blue for the sky, a little bit of green for the cliff top and some black for the edges of things.

Before he knew it he was completely absorbed by what he was doing and had forgotten about the colour of apron he was wearing. He also took no notice of the changes that were happening beneath it, to his clothes and to him.

The next thing he remembered was his teacher looking over his shoulder, admiring his work.

“That is outstanding Milly,” she said.

‘Milly! Who is Milly? Oh, that’s my name now,’ thought Milo as his mind caught up with the rest of him. ‘What a fuss I made about wearing a pink painting smock, it really doesn’t matter and actually I kind of like it now.’

“Look class, look at this painting and see how the sea isn’t just blue, the tops of the waves are picked out in white, the sky is a different blue and there’s a little red sailing boat.”

Milly heard one of the boys call her the teacher’s pet but she didn’t care about that either. She looked at the clock, it was almost home time and she had finished her picture.

“Miss, can you unfasten my smock for me please?”

“Of course I can... there you go.”

As she took the smock off she became fully aware of the changes that had happened to her clothing while she had been painting. Milo’s socks had spread all the way up her legs and joined at the top to become her tights. His shorts which hung above his knees had become a pleated skirt of precisely the same length. His sweater had split down the front as it turned into Milly’s cardigan and even though she couldn’t see it all she knew that Milo’s shirt had transformed into her blouse.

She hung the pink smock up in the art cupboard and walked back to her desk, she looked down and saw Milo’s lace-up shoes on her feet.

‘Ugggh,’ she thought. ‘I shall have to ask mummy for some new shoes, these just aren’t me anymore.’

The bell rang for the end of school and everyone rushed to get their things. Milly went to get her bag, Milo’s choice of navy blue and silver was quite smart but now it was something else that needed to be changed.

“Oh Milly, I almost forgot to give you this,” said Emma as she handed over a brightly coloured piece of card.

It was an invitation to Emma’s birthday party at the end of the week.

“Thank you Emma, I would love to come, I’ll check that it’s okay with my mummy though.”

“Great, see you tomorrow.”

Emma disappeared outside and Milly followed, when she got out into the spring sunshine she saw her mother waiting for her at the school gate.

“Mummeee,” she said and ran up to her.

“Hello darling, I couldn’t find your games kit and you’ve got netball tomorrow so I decided to go and buy you a new one, then I thought if we’re going shopping we might as well do it properly and get you some things for summer.”

“Oh mummy, I just got invited to Emma’s birthday party, can I go?”

“Of course you can sweetie, lets see if we can find you something pretty to wear for it.”

Milly smiled, her mother was totally prepared for what had happened and was about to take things further. She skipped along the road to the car, hopped up into the back seat and was driven off to get some new clothes to go with her new life.