James MacInnes loved his daughter more than anything else.
She was the light of his world, the rock he hung onto in the swirling sea of his life. Everything he did he did for her; every hour spent at his job, every dollar spent at every store, all of it was to make Kristin happy. He would walk through hell and back to make her life better. When she smiled, there was no happier man in all the world. When she frowned, it was all he could do not to beat whatever saddening thing their was into submission.
And, to his great dismay, Kristin seemed to frown far more than she smiled.
Once upon a time, James had been a soldier, a proud Sergeant Major in the National Guard. He had a lovely wife, Emma, a beautiful four-year-old daughter, Kristin, and a happy life. For six blissful years, all seemed to be wonderful.
Then, war came to the world once more. Both Republics of the Congo, Democratic and not, went to war to try to conquer the other; this soon blossomed into an Africa-wide war. Ancient resentments came to the surface, and the larger powers, sensing an opportunity, dove in to re-carve the continent in their favor. The United States, wishing to secure its place, deployed troops everywhere they could; James' unit, bolstered with exuberant young officers and good, hardy enlisted, was deployed to the Gambia, a tiny country suffering badly under repeated attacks from Senegal- a country which surrounded the other on all sides but the sea.
Sergeant Major MacInnes saw many horrors there- horrors of combat, of supreme anger, of savage butchery. Lieutenant after lieutenant above him fell to haphazard gunfire; private after private under his command succumbed to malaria, to land mines, to vicious animals, to enemy machetes. He was only there for a year, but each day felt to him like a century. When he finally made it out, he was an entirely different man.
And, when he arrived home to his house, expecting a warm welcome from his wife and daughter, he found only a note stating in no uncertain terms that Emma had run off with a stockbroker and left Kristin in the care of her grandparents, "to be left till called for."
That had been six years ago. For those six years, James had devoted himself entirely to making Kristin happy. Whatever made her smile, even a little, he acquired in abundance. Whatever made her happy would be hers.
Unfortunately, now that very thing that made her happy seemed to be making her sad once more.
_____________________________________
"Daddy! I'm home!"
Barely had the door slammed behind her before James was up and out of his seat, heading for the door with a broad smile on his face. "Kristin, it's good to see you! How was your day?"
"Oh...it was fine..."
James was not about to be fooled by that. "Darling, you can always tell me what's going on. You know that, right?"
Kristin sighed, then drew in a deep, shuddering breath. "Oh Daddy...they made fun of me again!"
James frowned with grave concern and kneeled before her. "Come here, dear. Tell me all about it."
Kristin burst into tears and ran for her father's arms, knocking the wind out of him with a startled whoof. "I-In the locker room hic...before g-gym class...J-Jenny Woolesly made the other girls c-count the rolls on my wheeze m-my back..."
"Sh-sh, darling, it's gonna be okay. Daddy's here now, I won't let them hurt you anymore..." he whispered, rocking his beloved daughter into a sense of security. Over the years, James had fallen rather deeply into denial; therefore, he was firmly convinced that 324 pounds was a perfectly reasonable weight for a 10-year old girl. Furthermore, he had also managed to convince himself that more food was most definitely the way to go to make her even healthier. Hopefully even happier too.
But, in a dark corner of his mind, a small kernel of doubt, something that had never been there before, sprang into existence. Maybe she is a bit overweight?
James put the thought out of his head. Kristin would have to need a snack after her long day.
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