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“I just put her down,” Jackie sighed, closing the door to their daughter’s room.
“Mommy!” Hyde heard through the door. Jackie groaned and closed her eyes, leaning back against the wall.
“She’s been a nightmare tonight,” Jackie explained, “just like every other night this week.” She added for good measure to remind Hyde that it was Friday, and she was over it.
Hyde gave his wife a small smile and pulled her into a hug. “Want me to try?”
“Oh my god, yes, please.” Jackie leaned on Hyde’s shoulder. “I didn’t know it was going to be so difficult raising a mini-me. All she ever wants to do is play dress up and be treated like a princess. She just keeps demanding story after story, I had to walk away before I screamed. I think I’ve created a monster.”
“Kit is not a monster, Jackie. She’s our headstrong daughter who just so happens to love the color pink and everything her way, just like her mother.” Hyde kissed the top of Jackie’s head with a smirk, “Go read your Cosmo or whatever, I’ll take care of it.”
“Good luck,” Jackie rolled her eyes, she doubted Hyde would be able to put Kit to sleep. This was a battle they had every night recently, and Kit undoubtedly won every time. Sometimes Jackie would wake up in the morning crunched up in Kit’s bed, and Kit would be snuggled in Jackie and Hyde’s bed with her dad.
Tonight, she’d had enough, and walked away before the five-year-old could convince her to read her another story, which usually put Jackie to sleep instead of Kit. It was Hyde’s turn now.
Hyde slowly opened the door, peeking his head in. This week he’d been getting home later than usual. The record store was testing new hours to stay open until 9, and that was past Kit’s bedtime. The past couple of nights, he’d gotten home to find Jackie asleep in Kit’s bed and Kit quietly playing with her doll house.
“Shhh,” Kit would say with a smile, “Mommy’s sleeeeeeeping.”
“Daddy!” Kit exclaimed, bouncing on her bed, causing her dark curls to fly into the air.
“Hey, bug,” Hyde said, walking over to the edge of her bed. “Are you giving Mommy a hard time?”
She shook her head, her face in a firm frown. Hyde raised an eyebrow.
“Mommy said time for bed, but I’m not tired.” Kit shrugged, plopping down on top of her covers. “I want another story.”
“How many stories did Mommy read you?”
“Only this many!” Kit said, holding up one hand, fingers spread.
“Five whole stories!” Hyde feigned shock, “I don’t know if there are any stories left to read!” He sat down on the bed, kicked off his boots and swung his legs around. He sat with his back against the headboard, and his legs straight out.
“Yes, there are,” Kit protested, snuggling up to her dad. He put an arm around her shoulder, and brushed her curly hair out of her eyes. “You can make one up!”
“Oh, yeah?” Hyde asked.
“Yeah,” Kit furrowed her little brow. “Tell me a story, Daddy!”
Hyde thought for a moment, “How about I tell you about a princess and how she finally found her prince?”
Kit’s eyes lit up, and she hugged Hyde. “Yes, I love princesses!”
“I know,” Hyde laughed.
“Tell me!”
“I will, but you have to promise to go to sleep after this story, okay?”
Kit nodded.
“Okay, so once upon a time, there was a princess, she was the most beautiful girl in all the kingdom of Point Place.” Hyde began, Kit looked up at him, giving him her total attention. Hyde didn’t notice Jackie was peeking in the door, a coffee in her hand. She watched her two favorite people as Hyde told the story.
“So, this princess was sought after by every eligible man in the land, but she was only interested in the kingdom’s court jester. So, she and the jester—“
“What’s a jester?” Kit interrupted.
“A fool, like someone who entertains the kingdom,” Hyde explained. “Okay, so she and the jester were courting, which is like dating, you know: boyfriend/girlfriend… The jester would take her on dates to see the animals in the kingdom, but the princess didn’t love being jumped on by a bunch of dirty dogs. She would tell the jester to take her somewhere nicer, but when they went to the neighboring kingdom’s fair, the jester got lost and the princess had to be escorted home by a knight and her lady in waiting. But even after all that, she still loved the jester. He made her laugh, and always called her the prettiest girl in the entire kingdom.
“The king and queen were not big fans of the jester. They thought he was nice and funny, but they didn’t think he would make a good prince or leader for their kingdom. The princess tried to hide that the jester was courting her, but the word got out, and the king and queen cut the princess off from all their riches.”
Kit gasped.
“So even though the princess couldn’t buy any new dresses or jewelry, she still stayed with the jester because she thought he was in love with her, and she thought she loved him. She got a job at a local food stand and started selling cheese in a disguise. But she hated it because she always went home smelling like cheese at night.
“Then the jester did the unthinkable, he was recruited to be a prince and a model in another kingdom!”
“What!” Kit’s eyes were wide. “But he’s just a jester!”
“I know! And that’s what the princess said too. She said he wasn’t allowed to be a prince in another kingdom because she was the princess, and she was the most important. The jester didn’t like that, he thought that it was his right to be a prince if that’s what he wanted. The princess, after some time, finally accepted this. But she was sick of being a cheese maiden.
“She told the jester that they could still be together if he was a prince, but to please her parents, he had to marry her. If he didn’t marry her, he would just be a rival prince and her parents would send her away.
“The jester didn’t know if he wanted to be married and become the prince of Point Place, and he was a fool, so he ran away to the other kingdom. It was called the Kingdom of Malibu, and it was there where he realized that he wanted to be a prince, but not with the princess of Point Place.
“The princess of Point Place found out that her jester had abandoned her, so she sent a letter by horseback to declare that they were over. She told her parents, and the king and queen gave her access to all her riches again. She was happy to have her riches back, but she was lonely. The jester had been her source of company outside the castle.
“So she started hanging out with the knight who had accompanied her to the fair in the other kingdom. When the knight removed his helmet, the princess realized that he was the best-looking man in all the land, and because they had become such good friends, that she wanted him to be her prince.
“But the knight wasn’t sure, he liked being a knight. He liked the princess, but sometimes she was a little too rich and snobby for him. It took a little while, but soon the knight and the princess realized that their love for each other was stronger than anything else that tried to come between them.
“The princess remembered all the times the knight had protected her, and how the knight would often listen to her sorrows when the jester had made her sad. The princess knew the knight was the one for her, but the knight still wasn’t sure because he had spent his whole life thinking he’d be a knight and not a prince.
“One day, the princess decided she would leave Point Place, and rule another kingdom that her parents owned. The knight wasn’t sure he could leave the kingdom, it was his duty to protect it. The princess said she would stay if he would marry her, but the knight didn’t know how to respond.”
“Why doesn’t he want to marry her if he loves her, Daddy?” Kit asked as a yawn crept up in her chest.
“I don’t know bug, and he didn’t know either. It didn’t take him long to realize that he couldn’t live without the princess, and he went off to the other kingdom to find her. When he got there, he had to fight off the now evil jester, who had intended to keep the princess as his queen. The knight easily defeated the jester, and the princess and the knight went back to the kingdom of Point Place together. They got married, and pretty soon a new little princess was born. Her name was Kit. And they all lived happily ever after.”
Kit’s eyes lit up, “Are you and mommy the knight and the princess?”
Hyde smiled at his daughter, kissed her head, and stood up. “Now, you promised to go straight to sleep after that story, so get in.” He tucked Kit into her blankets, “Sweet dreams, princess Kit.”
Kit smiled, closing her eyes tight to show her dad she was going to keep her promise.
Hyde picked up his boots and quietly left the room. Jackie was still standing in the hallway, she’d heard the whole story.
“My knight in shining armor,” Jackie beamed. “Did you make Fez a lady’s maid?”
“Shut your pie hole,” Hyde said, but he laughed, and put his arm around her. She was his queen, after all.