Sweet Girl

Be Your Only Dream

Placing the toys and dress-up-gear in a vintage stroller she'd bought on a whim, Stevie turned to the little girl by her side.
"Shall we get some food? You've got to be hungry after all this!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms toward the bush of new toys in front of her.
Bella fiddled with the hem of her dress, trying to engage with the signals in her body, estimating how hungry she was.

"What would you like?" Stevie's voice softened, as she bent down, steadying herself on the stroller handle.
Bella put her finger to her lips, trying to conjure images of food in her mind, against the tumultuous voices clamouring past her.
She turned her head toward the blaring women behind her, to the children ahead, screaming playfully while their parents slushed behind them. At every sound, her eyes propelled around to find where it came from.
Noticing Bella's head flicking left to right, repeatedly, she placed her hands on the little girl's arms.

She jumped, upon feeling two hands grip her arms, recoiling into her neck as she turned to find who they belonged to.
Stevie's face, no longer fringe-swept in the wind, greeted her.
Bella moaned as she walked closer to her, resting her left cheek in Stevie's chest.

"You okay, sweetheart?" She heard a muffled voice through the skin she'd pressed against her right ear.
Her brain began to swell against the surface of her skull, feeling, but not identifying, the blood stretching the veins' bounds, like overwhelmed valleys in a river tributary.
She shook her head.
"Is it loud for you out here, honey?" Stevie asked, trying to meet Bella's eyes. They nodded to each other, as Stevie twisted Bella's right pigtail around her forefinger.
"Okay." She smiled warmly to her, lifting her and hooking her knees on her hips.

"My, have you got your hands full!" A pruned lady remarked, pointing her walking stick at them, wobbling a smile.

Stevie smiled back, slightly embarrassed at how she resembled Eve's Donkey.

"Aren't you sweet!" The lady cooed at Bella, who upon realising she'd been perceived, buried herself in Stevie's neck.

Stevie chuckled and rubbed Bella's back, as the lady continued to dote on her, comparing her to a china doll.
"I know, she's very precious," Stevie replied, stroking Bella's arm, silently letting herself swim in the collective cherishing of the little girl in her arms, as the lady hobbled away.

"I know where to take you" Stevie smiled to herself, trolleying the toys through the lines of restaurants and promotional stands, stuck up like pins in the pavement. Trying to balance herself with a child in her arm, platforms getting wedged between the cobbles and a weighted pram to catch her stumbles, she scrambled to her favourite burger joint.

Seating Bella in the crevice of a booth, she placed her baggage against the end of the varnished table. She slid next to Bella, scooting her toward the inside wall. She leaned sideways to the stock of menus, perched against the wall. Bella watched curiously, as Stevie unfolded a beige, laminated list, tracking descriptions down the columns.
"Here, look." Stevie encouraged, placing the menu in front of Bella. Her nail lingered over the 'chicken strips and fries', reminding her to read it out.
"You want some chicken? Chicken in breadcrumbs." She clarified, dusting her fingertips.
"And you can get some fries with it, too", Stevie persuaded, trying to promise herself that she'd feed Bella something more nutritional the next meal.
Bella nodded shyly, unaware of the excess of options shut back in the menu.

Shortly after, a bouncy waitress greeted them from the precipice of the table.
She waved at Bella as Stevie listed her and Bella's meals.
Dipping her chin under the table, her smile was only legible from her eyes, gazing up endearingly in response.
Stevie ordered herself a coke, and a bottle of chocolate milk for Bella.

"So, Little Miss Bella," she lisped, turning herself toward the girl.
"Are you having fun?" she asked, the Arizona rhythm sliding out.
Bella nodded, poking her tongue out from her pale smile as she wiggled Bambi's hooves.
Stevie rested the side of her head in her palm, propped up by her elbow, gazing admiringly at the fidgeting little girl beside her. The bluebell jewelled dress spilling over her knees, milky fabric covering the space she sat in.
She had reconsidered the doll ensemble, having just returned herself to the restaurant, glancing at the casual setting contrasting against Bella's pristine 'costume'. She stared at her, from the headrest of her hand, helplessly radiating warmth as she blinked slowly.

She startled when a glass was placed in front of her, along with a bottle of cola. Slid across the table was Bella's glass bottle of chocolate milk, a mustard straw poking out, beckoning her to taste it. Still apprehensive, she glanced at Stevie, and waited for the nod of approval and reassurance she'd grown accustomed to over the last few days.

Stevie turned to her and smiled, bouncing her head forward, indicatively. Bella tentatively leant forward, realising that the drink was rather satisfying. She beamed through her purses lips, consuming half of the beverage in front of her. Stevie watched gingerly, cringing at the thought of Bella accidentally knocking it over.
As she polished off the inside of the bottle, Bella turned to Stevie, who chuckled, allowing herself to stand in the whimsy of the moment, before her self-judgement seeped in.
Fanning away her mind's wagging finger of disapproval, she swung around to face Bella, hooking Bambi in her arm and bringing him down to Bella's embrace, squishing his nose against hers.
Bella shrugged into herself, cracking a giggle through her bunched up cheeks.

After finding Bambi's nose poked around her shoulder, Bella opened her eyes to a tray placed between her and Stevie, who was already scattering the chicken pieces out onto the cardboard blanket.
She unfolded the box fries and laid it down, spilling the fries onto the tray.
She tried to reminisce, after she remembered, on the last time she unwrapped the same foil; unveiling a greasy patty, squished between two brioche rolls.

She took a bite, and set it down on the tray again, realising that Bella had stayed staring at her food, unsure of how to proceed. She picked up a chunky fry and handed it to Bella, who's inspections were taking less time. Apprehensively widening her mouth and wincing, Bella took her first bite of the fry. Stevie watched as her face contorted, then drew to a smile of approval.
She wondered what Bella had eaten before, what food her father had let her nibble on, after she'd presumably sat at his side as he indulged in the munchies.

"What about the chicken? Try some of this" she persuaded, scooting one of the pieces closer to Bella.
She observed it, stilly, before turning her head back to Stevie, with her tiny hands gripping the edge of the table.
She shook her head, a smidge of a tortured expression appearing in her worried eyes.

"A little bit?" She encouraged.
"For Stevie?" She tilted her head forward, reassuringly.
Bella sat in her uncertainty, feeling her spine hunching as Stevie picked up a small piece and tore it in half.
Suddenly, Bambi's fur didn't feel velvety. It felt like the powder, sprinkling into the tray as Stevie set the chicken piece down again.

Bella groaned, eyeing the crust encircling the meat, unable to distinguish from the sight and the sensation of them tumbling down her throat.

"Not a little bit?" Stevie said gently.
Bella shook her head.
"Alright." She soothed, grateful to have avoided a meltdown.

Stevie manoeuvred herself out of the door, egging Bella to walk under her arm, which trembled as it insisted the door not to shut on her. She urged the stroller through, just about swerving away from the heavy sheet of glass bashing shut behind her.
The sky had shrouded into a grey wash, charcoal sponged into the clouds, which loomed over the cars whizzing past. Stevie bunched her coat around her shoulders, encouraging the fur lining toward her earlobes.
Bella clung to the side of the stroller, cowering closer to the ground as she noticed the quilt of thunder warnings smeared across the sky.

Stevie squinted at the inked ceiling over the city, scooting the stroller to the left, trying to manifest the driver back to the space she'd left him in as she hurried Bella down the street. She watched the little girl hurtling herself across the pavement
beside her, hoping that they would reach the car before the thunder throttled through the street.