My daughter, Lucy, and I were moving to a house in Lincoln County, North Carolina. I hear the place used to be really desolate, but now there is a lot of cheap housing and even a strip with retail stores and restaurants. The house was small, two bedrooms, one bath, a living room and kitchen. We had 2 acres of land, more than I had ever had in my life. We were both used to living in an apartment, but my job required me to move to North Carolina in a hurry and this was all I could find. I bought the place with a $700.00 a month mortgage and a 30-year contract.
Before we moved, I went to a video game store and bought her a pink Nintendo DSi so she wouldn't be so sad about moving. I also bought a few games for her. Franklin's Great Adventure, Sonic Rush, and Loving Life with Hello Kitty & Friends. I intended to give them to her as a gift when we got to the new house. The flight was long and I was very bored. I had put the DS into my coat before I got on board. Almost everybody was asleep, including Lucy. I unwrapped the DSi and decided to preview the games for her. While looking at the console I found there was already a
A pink Nintendo DSi
cartridge in the slot. I ejected it. The sticker read
"Super CARD DSTWO 2 in 1 www.SuperCard.sc" It was black and looked a little worn. You could feel the inner components of the card through the sticker, and see them indenting the label. It felt very fragile so I was careful with it. Curiosity told me to play the game, so I carefully inserted it into the DS and powered the system on. "ALEX RIDER STORMBREAKER THQ" I pressed "A" to launch the game and was faced with a purple menu much like the one I just navigated away from but it only had one option. "DS_GAME" I pressed "A" and was brought to another menu with only one option. The icon was a flower and the text under it read: "Cute car..." I highlighted it and the top screen said: "Cute Car(Unl) [!].nds"
I launched it and there was a table in the top and bottom screen. The top with white and pink slices of cake, and the bottom with chocolates, each sitting on an individual napkin. They one-by-one traded screens, and the game started with a cutscene.
SuperCard DSTWO is a DS game card that allows the DS to play home-made video games.
The art was very cute anime-styled with many varying colors. A cheetah spotted car interior was shown from the back seat, looking up showing two girls in the driver and passenger seats. The windshield was white as if light blinded the camera. The whole scene was very warmly lit. The driver was a girl with short light-blue hair and pigtails, wearing a white sleeveless shirt. The passenger had a long pink ponytail and was wearing a bright yellow T-shirt. The camera transitioned and scrolled in front of the car, looking in through the windshield at the girls. You could see the blue-haired girl's outfit was completed showing the sleeveless shirt was part of a long white summer dress. The pink-haired girl was wearing blue jeans. The camera also gave a good shot of the brightly colored buildings as it scrolled above-head the people on the sidewalk, also colored brightly but with slightly less detail. The buildings were all bright pinks, oranges, and violets. It is very cute and warm.
The scene transitioned back to the driver with blue hair, at an angle that showed the driver-side window behind her. "Hey, Yomi!" The subtitles read. "How about we go pick out dresses?" A similar angle was shown of Yomi, the Pink-haired girl, in her reply. "Sure, Aelita! I'm getting awfully tired of wearing boy clothes all the time anyway!" The camera transitioned to the back of their light green car showing it speed off while the subtitles read, "Aelita and Yomi are going on a shopping adventure! Help them pick out the cutest dresses!"
I was thrown into gameplay. The top screen showed their light green car driving along a slightly busy street from a top-down angle. The cars were very bright colors like everything else. Crazy colors that cars usually wouldn't be like pastel purples and teals. It seems the entire game is this girly. I thought about how ridiculous I must look. A full-grown man holding a pink DS playing a very girly game. Thankfully everybody around me was asleep.
The bottom screen showed a circular map on the left, and a pause button on the right, with a light blue fabric-looking background. The top screen had subtitles that read, "Hold B and use the D-pad to drive your car." So I did and found myself driving considerably faster than the traffic. I let go of the B button every few seconds to keep my speed regulated. "The yellow line in the map on the bottom screen shows you where to go next. Go to the dress shop." So I followed the map turn-for-turn and pulled into the yellow glowing circle in front of a pink building. "Press X to get out of your car" so I did. "Use the D-pad to walk into the dress shop." There were green arrows pointing to the entrance of the building so I walked along with them, with Pink-haired Yomi leading and blue-haired Aelita following. Both screens faded to white.
The bottom screen faded in a picture of Yomi still wearing her jeans and a yellow T-shirt on the right side and three dresses to choose from on the left. The top screen showed a picture of an adult on the left. She was wearing a grey suit with lots of white frills and had silver hair in a bun with two pencils holding it together. She was holding a clipboard and a blue pen. A white speech bubble filled the rest of the screen, but a blurred blue and burgundy background was visible around the edges of the screen. "Welcome to my dress shop. I made all of these dresses! Choose any you like!" I was instructed to use the stylus to drag a dress onto Yomi. I chose a red one with lots of frills, almost like a flamenco dancer's outfit. "This costs 3 chocolate bars. You have 6 chocolate bars. Would you like to buy this dress?" I tapped the green checkmark and the lady on the top screen said, "Thank you!". An identical scenario happened with Aelita. This time I chose a yellow dress for her. It was similar to the one she was already wearing. It cost three chocolate bars, thus depleting my funds.
A cutscene began. It was just as colorful as the other but showing their new dresses. It explained that they ran out of chocolate bars, which is their currency. I was instructed to drive to a car wash and help wash cars. I played a touch-screen minigame where I wipe the soap off of very beautiful and brightly colored vehicles using the stylus. I was paid 5 chocolate bars for the job.
I closed the DS, put it into my jacket pocket, and slept the rest of the flight. I was awakened by Lucy tugging on my arm saying that we're landing. She was wearing a blue skirt with white lacings and a white shirt that filled in the V on the top of the dress. She looked absolutely adorable, smiling with one tooth missing and her blue eyes gleaming. Her long brown hair was sparsely covering her face. "Daddy Daddy we're landing! I can't wait to see the new house! I bet it's a castle! Ooh ooh! Or a jungle hut!" Lucy had such a wild imagination. To her, getting milk out of the refrigerator was an adventure.
I took the key out of my pocket and opened the door. Lucy was jumping up and down excitedly. As soon as the door opened she ran inside, put her arms out like an airplane, and flew around in circles, making wooshing noises with her mouth. I watched her for a moment but was interrupted when the movers needed to bring our furniture inside. I stood back and watched her run around the movers and jump when they put the couch down. I love Lucy very much. She's my entire life and I wouldn't give her up for anything. "I bet that was heavy!" Lucy said in amazement looking up at the movers. "It's a living." One man said to her as he walked back outside to get the next piece of furniture. "Lucy," I said gesturing Lucy to walk past the door and into the kitchen doorframe, where I was standing. She jumped off the couch and ran over to me. "Here, let's stay out of their way," I said as she followed me into the kitchen.
There was a marble counter in the middle of the room and the same marble around the edges of the kitchen. There was a sink with a window overlooking the front yard. The cabinets underneath the counters were all wooden, and the walls were white. There were no hanging cabinets, so the area was very roomy. The sink is on the immediate right when you walk into the kitchen, and the opposite of that is a white door with beautiful patterns. "Let's explore the house, Daddy!" Lucy said with her bright smile, tugging on my arm jumping. We went through the door and found what is probably the master bedroom, with a window on the high right and a window straight across from the door, but bigger and lower than the previous. The room was completely empty, except for a closet on the left with the house's water heater. Right of the closet's door was another white door identical to the room's own, but this lead to a very small bathroom. Sink to the immediate left behind the door, toilet beside that, and a bathtub with a showerhead on the right. Another door was straight across from the entrance, and this leads to another bedroom, slightly smaller than the master. It also had two windows, across from the door and on the right, but both were big and about two feet off the floor. "Can this be my room, Daddy?" Lucy asked sincerely, and I replied with a bright, "Yes!" She jumped up and down excitedly and ran around the room. She found another white door identical to the others on the left of the room which leads back to the living room. From this angle, I could see the living room had windows on both sides of the door and above, with a very large high window on the right of the room.
The movers had crammed all of our furniture into the living room and were carrying in the last night table. There were two beds, two-night tables, a coffee table, a couch, a 3'x2' wooden toy chest which contained all of our dishes neatly wrapped in newspaper and our laundry, a large plastic container with Lucy's toys, two dressers, a television, television stand, and a laptop. "Where you want us to put all this stuff, man?" The man who had previously replied to Lucy exclaimed.
My Daddy was walking the men around the house and showing them where to put our stuff. I wanted to explore some more so I went outside. I knew Daddy probably didn't want me exploring a new place without him, but I already ran all around the house and wanted to see what else there was to do. There was a street pretty close to the front door. I walked over there and looked both ways to see how far it went. It was definitely the biggest road in the world because it went forever. I walked around the house a couple of times. It was big and the grass was up to my knees. It took a really long time. The backyard was really big too. It was on a hill, and there were some trees with flowers on them. I found a spiky brown plant with some blackberries on it. They smelled good so I wanted to eat them, but the plant was really sharp and I got cut on my finger. It hurt really bad and I started crying so I ran all the way back inside to see Daddy run over to the front door.
"Lucy! What happened?" I exclaimed in worry. Lucy cleared her eyes and started to talk, "I wanted to eat some berries, but, but... The berries were really sharp and it hurt me. I don't like that plant anymore! Hmph!" Lucy started to tear up once again. "Lucy, it's okay. Those are blackberries. They grow on sharp vines to keep animals from eating them. That way you can eat them!" "Really...?" "Yeah! Blackberries love you! Hey, we can look up a recipe for blackberry pie on the Internet later. That would be delicious." Lucy calmed down. "Yeah, that would be fun!" She started giggling and getting excited. "Hey, where are those men, Daddy?" "They finished moving all the furniture and left already. Let's get a band-aid on your finger and then you can look at your new room."
We walked into Lucy's room through the living room door. Her bead had pink blankets and sheets, the wooden toy chest now contained all her toys and there was a night table at the head of her bead on the left. The head of her bead was at the window on the left of the room, the toy chest at the foot, and her dresser beside the bathroom door.
I decided to give her the DSi as a celebration of our move. I was about to hand her the games but she was so excited she opened the DS and started playing the game I had left on from the flight. "Oh, Daddy thank you thank you!" She climbed onto the bed and jumped onto my neck, giving me a big ole' bear hug. "Haha be careful, Lucy! You don't want to break your DS on the first day!" I said cheerfully. She let go and landed on the floor. "Thank you Daddy this is cool!" Lucy said as she sat on her bed and started playing the game. I smiled and walked into the living room. I sat on the burgundy couch which is next to the kitchen's entrance. Opposite of the couch is the television, and between is the coffee table with a laptop sitting on it and the television remote. I have a long day at work tomorrow and have cable men coming later today. I should rest while I can.
That night I was enjoying my Cable. The overwhelming temptation to watch the entire series of an old show forced me to stay up all night, even knowing I have work tomorrow. The cable box showed the time as 3:00 AM. I heard a knock on the door. "Who could this be at 3:00 in the morning?" I walked to the door quietly so I wouldn't wake Lucy, and peeped out the side windows. It was raining really hard but I didn't see anybody. It was thundering too. I must not have noticed because I was so zoned into my TV. I headed back for the couch and I heard a knock again. It freaked me out a little. I yanked the door open to see little Lucy standing there, soaking wet covered in mud. "Lucy oh my God! Where were you?!" I pulled her inside and ran to the bathroom to get a towel for her. I came back and started drying her hair. I pulled her skirt-shirt off over her heard, then her shirt and finally her underclothes so I could dry her all the way. then I went to her room to get more clothes for her. After I dressed her I sat her down on the couch and asked what happened. Her head was kind of down, but her eyes sharply stared up at me, "I had a bad dream. The house was on fire and I had to escape." "Oh, Lucy it's okay. The house is fine. We all have bad dreams sometimes." I picked her up and carried her to bed in her pink onesie pajamas. I tucked her in nicely. I saw her DS was in the same game. I turned it off and laid it on the night table next to her. "Good night, Lucy." "Good night, Daddy. I love you." "I love you too."
The next day I brought Lucy to work with me. She sat in the chair in my office, and I did all of my work standing up. She played the game the whole time. She didn't say a word. I'm glad she's enjoying my gift, but this might be a cause for concern. In the car driving to a fast-food restaurant to get dinner, while she ate in the car, all through the supermarket to get food for the house, she played the whole time. She occasionally looked up, like when I handed her the food in the car. Whenever I asked her what she was doing she responded too. "I have to blow the sail to make the boat go, and it actually works! See, daddy? You try!" -And it did actually work.
After putting up the groceries I sat down on the couch and opened my laptop. I did an Internet search. "Is it normal for children to play video games all the time?" I found a lot of interesting stuff. It kept me reading for hours. Apparently, it's a form of addiction. It's not very harmful but I found that I should make Lucy exercise if she isn't moving around enough.
"Lucy, let's go pick some Blackberries!" I said as I woke Lucy up the next morning. "Do you have to go to work today?" she said while rubbing her eyes. I noticed she was holding the DS.
"Were you playing the DS all night?"
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Blackberries are edible straight off the plant, but have sharp thorns.
"Yes." That was certainly interesting to hear. I grabbed the DS and found that it was completely dead. I put it on the nightstand and plugged it into the charger. By the time I turned around I found Lucy had taken off her pajamas. She must be changing for the day. "Meet me outside when you're ready. I bought some baskets for us." I walked out of the room and closed the door. I went outside and started picking Blackberries. After about ten minutes I wondered where Lucy was. I walked back into the house and knocked on Lucy's door. "Are you in there, Lucy?" "Yes." I walked into the room to find Lucy wearing nothing but socks, sitting on her silky pink sheets with the DS plugged into the charger. Her hair was messy, draping over her shoulders. I walked over and grabbed the DS. "Use the stylus to pick blackberries so Yomi and Aelita can have some blackberry pie!" I shut the DS and put it onto the nightstand. I was slightly frustrated as I walked over to Yomi's dresser but somewhat amused by the coincidence in the game. I picked out some blue jeans and a green over-sized shirt for her to wear, as well as some white panties with yellow flowers on them. I picked some white sneakers for her feet.
After Lucy was dressed I gave her the tan wicker basket, identical to mine, and we walked to the backyard without many words. "Daddy?" Lucy said. "Yes?" "Why are people so selfish?" I stopped and got on my knees so I could speak to her eye-to-eye. "Not all people are selfish, Luc-" "-But most are. Why, Daddy?" Lucy was acting very mature all of a sudden. I didn't know what to say, so I talked to her like an adult. "That's just how people are. If you don't watch your back you'll lose everything you have." "Are you selfish, Daddy?" Lucy said with a somewhat sad look on her face. I decided to be a man and tell her a straight answer. "Yes. I am so selfish I keep you all to myself. I don't let anybody else enjoy how cute you are, or your imagination, or how you ask me such strange questions. Everything I do is to protect and take care of you. To keep you away from those who are selfish enough to take you." "Daddy?" "Yes, Lucy?" "Am I selfish?" "I don't know. Are you selfish?" Lucy seemed somewhat surprised by my response. Her face saddened and she teared up. Her lips were clenched tightly together. She shook her head no and started to turn but I grabbed her hands softly. She slowly opened her glowing blue eyes and the tears ran down her face. Her mouth opened as she took in a short cold breath from the warm sunlight. She had a chill, then spoke. "I didn't have enough chocolate bars to buy a new car, so I stole it. I'm horrible!" I stood up. On the inside, I was a roaring beast, but on the outside, I was a stern father with a simple goal to raise my daughter to be a clean, well-mannered woman. Long stomping strides, Lucy followed behind me still upset but mostly curious. I walked into the front door and ran to Lucy's room. Lucy stood at the front door peeking around the corner as I grabbed her DS and walked back outside. I walked out to the street and threw it down as hard as I could.
"No, Daddy! Don't break it! Daddy watch out!" Lucy started running towards me. I glanced left quickly to see a mac-truck speeding towards me. Lucy jumped onto me knocking me back and out of the way of the mac truck. The truck veered off the road into my yard barely missing my house. Its tires were locked on brakes but it skids until it crashed into the woods behind the house. Lucy got up and ran to the mac truck as it caught on fire. I stood up in utter shock as I heard Lucy's voice become incredibly high-pitched and angry as she started shouting at the driver, a big man with a rough grey beard, huge arms, and tattoos all over his body.
"You son of a bitch! What the FUCK were you thinking?! Get your ass out of the truck!" Lucy ripped the door open and dragged him out of the truck, then punched him one good time as she climbed into the burning truck. I ran towards her to get her out of the truck but the man was running away from the truck and pile-drived me. The truck started backing up and I rolled to get out of the way.
A Mack-truck similar to the one in the story.
BEEP BEEP BEEP The truck turned and was still backing up but more quickly now. Lucy backed it across the street where there were no houses, now going nearly 30 mph in reverse. I could see her through the windshield. Her face was incredibly stern, her gaze ever-fixed in the mirrors. One arm steering, the other holding a cane that looked like she was holding the gas pedal with it. The entire truck was on fire now. I saw the door open and Lucy jumps out. She rolled a good ten feet. The mac truck lost control without a driver and veered hard right causing the trailer to jack-knife backward. Lucy was running as fast as she could. Her shirt was getting in her face so she tore it off quickly. She was like an Olympic runner. Then the truck blew. The sound was like nothing I had ever heard. It was so loud and big, almost deafening. I could hear Lucy's scream but muffled by the cracking and booming. Lucy was picked up and thrown by the flames. The light was blinding. I put my hands up and gazed in horror as I watched Lucy tumble like a ragdoll in the air, and hit the street pavement on her face. She was on fire. I ran over to her quickly, took off my shirt, and started trying to suffocate the fire. I put her out quickly. I scooped her up with my arms under her knees and back.
Lucy's blue eyes opened. I saw a never-ending abyss of emotion. Her emotions were ever-changing, though her face was still I saw pools of angry reds, depressed purples, deathly black, excited pink, and happy yellow. I'm sure she saw the same in my eyes because I felt the same in my chest. Then Lucy's eyes widened. She pushed herself away from me, landing flat on her back on the pavement. She stood up and quickly looked both ways. Before I could stop her she darted off towards the truck driver. I tried to follow but I couldn't keep up with the both of them. I ran inside to call the police.
(How can this man run? He almost ran over my Daddy and he's such a little bitch he can't even face his mistakes. I'll teach him though. I'll show him that nobody fucks with me! Nobody fucks with my Daddy! He will rather hell by the time I'm done with him!)
"Holy shit!" The mac truck driver said as he tries desperately to carry his big muscles away from Lucy. "What the hell is wrong with this girl?! Hew hew ugh ugh" He stops and gasps for air. Lucy jumps onto his back, knocking his face into the pavement. She rolls him over and starts punching him in the face repeatedly. Just punching him, with each fist an emotional blow to the both of them. The truck driver puts his hands up to block his face but Lucy grabs both his hands and sits on them, then continues to wail on him. The truck driver tries to focus on her through his blooded eyes. He sees a large burn on her left cheek that goes down her shoulder and covers the entire left of her chest. Her face is all scraped up from hitting the pavement too. "I'm sorry!" He screams. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything! It was an accident!" Lucy stops punching him and stands up. The man starts crying.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He repeats it for five minutes until a lone police car stops beside them and gets out of the car.
A police car similar to the one in the story.
The officer stands up and is horrified by what he sees. A half-naked girl standing over a beaten mac-truck driver. "I need an ambulance! Get me an ambulance now!" He yells into his talkie as he quickly jumps over to them. "Oh my God..." He runs over to his car trunk and gets out what little medical supplies he has, rubbing alcohol, bottled water, bandaids, and an old T-shirt. "I NEED AN AMBULANCE NOW!" He screams into his talkie as loudly as he can. "I Need an ambulance now! GET ME AN AMBULANCE!" The mac truck driver is still apologizing and Lucy is still standing there shirtless and burned. The truck explodes again but smaller. The officer turns around and sees the truck with gigantic flames, spreading over the dry grass approaching the surrounding woods. "I need a fire truck! Get me some back up over here now!" "Daddy?" Lucy says as the officer turns around with his gun pointed. "FREEZE!" "I'm the girl's father!" The police officer uses the water to wet the T-shirt and he puts it onto the truck driver's face as he puts his gun away.
Daddy was there when I woke up. I was on a bed. I saw Daddy shake a man's hand. Everybody in the room was wearing blue robes and white paper masks. I sat up and everybody looked at me. I looked around and didn't know what to do. I saw some police officers and some cameras too. Everybody started cheering and clapping. I didn't know what was happening. Why was everybody cheering? What was happening? I stood up and hugged Daddy. A girl in a blue suit stood beside me and looked at one of the cameras. She was holding a microphone. "Little Lucy saved two men's lives today. A Mac truck driver who wishes to remain anonymous lost control of his vehicle and crashed it into the woods behind Lucy's house. Lucy got into the Mac truck and using the man's cane drove the Mac truck backward into an open field. She jumped out right before it exploded and dragged the man's body out as well. Her father was blinded by the explosion, but Lucy dragged the mac-truck driver along the street for 50 feet in an attempt to get him to the hospital. She collapsed right before officers arrived on-scene. Lucy suffered serious burns from the fire but lived without any serious injuries. Lucy is truly a hero. Isn't that right, Lucy?" I didn't know what to do as the woman pointed her microphone at my mouth. "Say yes." Daddy said to me. So I said. "Uh-huh." "There you have it, folks. A real-life hero!" Everybody started applauding again. I didn't know what they were talking about. The doctor handed me a mirror and I saw the burn on my face. "Why am I burned, Daddy?" My Daddy looked confused and sad. "Don't you remember, Lucy?" "No... What happened, Daddy? I don't know these people. Where are those men who gave us all of our furniture back? Is this our new house?" Everybody got real quiet. The room had even more people. Everybody looked sad. I wanted to cheer them up, so I smiled as big as I could!
A week later, Lucy's father returned to his job. "I destroyed the DS, but here is the game." He handed the card to a fat man behind the desk. "I saw the news report..." The man said in a deep breath, then continued after a puff from his cigar. "You did well on the mind control experiment. Are you ready to accept your next mission?" With a nod and a handshake, the cigar-smoking man explained that the agency set him up as the father of a newly born child in Hong Kong. He is to raise the girl from birth. When she is 6 years old, he will be delivered a new game and a new task.
2013 FicticiousAnimation
Author's Note[]
This is a fictional story. Any relations to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Story: Adventures of a Single Parent
Author: FicticiousAnimation
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Fictitious Animation, Beyond Imagination.