”Daddy? What’s a mutant?” Uhh… Last week she asked about sex and I told her to go ask from her mother. Marie was kind of pissed off after that, but hey, she’s ten. Ten years old. Things I know about her chosen subject weren’t exactly rated to her age group.
“A mutant? Where did you hear that word?” How much she already knows? She knows that mommy and daddy are special, but we haven’t used that word –mutant- on purpose. There are people around us who are better off not knowing exactly what we are.
“I heard Tommy shouting it to this one kid in school.”
“Uh-huh… Hand me that hammer, would you?”
“He shouted to that girl to stay away from us because she was a filthy mutant. I don’t think she was filthy. She had clean clothes on and everything. But her eyes were bit funny… All yellow.”
“Yellow? What did you think about it?” Night vision, maybe?
“They were different. Pretty. I liked the way she looked, but when Tommy shouted at her she got scared and run away.”
“I don’t want you to hang out with Tommy anymore. He sounds like bad news to me…”
“Dad…”
“Anna, trust me on this. On the long run you’re better off without him.”
Nice. Why do I even bother to try? And where the fuck is Marie when something like this happens? In a fucking conference. On an other side of the fucking world.
“Anna?”
“Go away!”
“Not before you open this door and we have a little talk.”
“We talked already! You don’t like my friends, so I don’t like you!” Logic of a ten-year-old never ceases to amaze me. Everything’s black and white to her.
“Fine. You don’t have to like me. But open this door. I didn’t have the chance to answer your question.”
“What question?” Snappy. Preparing to bite my head off. She learned that tone from Marie, for that I’m sure.
“You wanted to know what a mutant is.”
“Like you would know…” Oh, fuck this. Marie will have my hide once she gets back home…
“Dad! How did you get in… What are those?!” Eyes glued to my claws. She has seen them exactly once before, and I kind of doubt she remembers that. She was about three hours old at that time.
“I’m a mutant. Just like your mom. Mutants… We are just people. Different kind of people.”
“Special?”
“Special. Every one of us. As special as every living creature on this planet.” She’s trembling a little. Afraid? A little. Fuck. Wasn’t really my intention to…
“Daddy?” Claws back in. Oh, shit! Haven’t needed them for a while. Forgot how it hurts… Ah…
“Yeah… Pumpkin?”
“Do they hurt? Your claws?” Well, what the fuck do you think, brainiac?
“No… They don’t hurt… Come on. Want some hot coco?”
“What about mom? Does she have claws, too?” How the hell to explain this? Come on… There has got to be a way!
“No. She’s different than me. I have claws and I heal from everything. She… She can borrow my mutation.” Yeah. That’ll work. For now.
“Like if she gets hurt. It’s her skin. She can touch me with a special way, and her skin takes a small bit from my healing, and that way I can heal her.”
“Oh…” Pat on the back would be in order right about now. I think I handled that pretty well…
“Is that why she kept asking you to touch her last night? Did she got hurt?” What the hell?
“What do you mean, pumpkin?”
“I was supposed to be sleeping already, but I couldn’t get sleep. I was reading in my bed when I heard mommy shouting that you should touch her already.” Oh. Um…
“Yeah. She... She struck her toe to a coffee table...“
“Daddy? You’re blushing! I’m going to tell mom that you blushed!”
Marie. Please. Come home. Come home before I stuff our precious daughter to a cardboard box and ship her to Antarctica.
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