The Ragdoll

Light

For Mom, Dad, Cassidy, Chelsea, Violet, Grandma White, and the rest of my wonderful family.

For Mrs. Julie Wilson, Mrs. Karen Mallory, and Mrs. Jennifer Cirhan, my

larger-than-life, incredible English teachers.

For Mr. Jay Bates and Mr. Paul Sundstrom, the men who taught me to reach

for the stars and work for my dreams.

For Eryn (Shut up, Scott)

For any kids who've ever felt just a little bit different.

Without you, this story would be impossible to tell.

And so she was born. She was born a tiny baby, with pale skin and tufts of black hair on the top of her head. She wasn't born crying like most babies, she came out into the light with a smile on her tiny face. Her eyes were open, too. Her big, blue, beautiful eyes. When the doctor took her out into the light, her eyes met his, and she started to giggle. It was infectious in the hospital room. Her mother laughed in relief, her father chuckled in response to the cute little smile. Even the nurses in the room had wide smiles on their faces. It was a happy moment, a happy day. The day Emily Mary Thomas was born.

The following years of her life would be normal for a child of her age. She would make friends, and learn new things. She would learn to walk, and soon after that, learn how to run. Emily ran fast, even faster than her Daddy. Emily liked Daddy. He was her favorite person in the world. She hated to admit it to herself, but she liked Daddy a lot more than Mommy. Mommy would hit her, and yell at her. Though she knew her Mommy loved her, Daddy was a lot nicer to small Emily. He would carry her around, and give her treats. He would give her advice, and tell her secrets that even Mommy didn't know. Daddy was a tall man. He had sparkling blue eyes, and a full head of stringy black hair. He always wore his favorite blue wrist watch. He wore t-shirts everyday with logos from bands he liked. He had wrinkles by the corners of his eyes, and laugh lines at the corners of his mouth. Daddy smiled as much as Emily did. And Emily smiled often. He was a stay-at-home Daddy, while Mommy worked all day. When she came home in the afternoon, she would start to yell at Emily and Daddy for not doing the chores she told them to do when she left that morning. When Mommy yelled too loud, it would make Emily cry. She didn't like crying. It always made her feel dumb. When she started to cry, she would run to her room, and bury her head in her pillow. She would hear muffled yelling from the other room over the sounds of her own sobs. When the yelling stopped, Daddy would walk into Emily's room, and sit at the foot of her bed. He would listen to her cry for a while, and then ask her if she can sit up for him. When she sat up, he would brush the long black hair from her face, and behind her ear. He wrapped his long arms around her tiny frame and said something she would never forget.

"Emily, baby. You are so beautiful. Don't let the small stuff get you down, it's not your fault. Nothing you do is wrong, honey. Okay? Can you do something for me? Smile. Smile that smile that I'm so used to seeing on your pretty face. It's all you can do when you have so many good things."

After Daddy said that, Emily would be happy for the rest of the day.

Mommy worked at a big company that sold newspapers. She didn't seem to like her job very much, Emily thought. Maybe that's why she always comes home so mad at Daddy and her.

Mommy took Emily to her office one day. She explained that it was her job to fix the spelling in the newspapers that the company wanted to publish. That was a boring day for Emily. All she did was sit in Mommy's office for hours, watching her type on a computer. The whole time Emily just wondered what Daddy was doing. What did Daddy do when Emily wasn't around? Was he happy? Did he have any fun without her? All of this made Emily worried, and made her anxious to get home. When Mommy's lunch hour finally came, Mommy took Emily back home to Daddy. He was waiting by the door. She got out of the car, ran up the driveway, and jumped up into Daddy's open arms. Mommy honked the car horn, and waved goodbye to Daddy and Emily as she pulled out of the driveway, and started to head back to work.

"Did you have fun with Mommy today?" Daddy asked.

"Not really," Emily replied. "I missed you too much."

Daddy looked at Emily with a sympathetic face.

"Let's go inside and watch a movie," Daddy said. He kissed Emily on the cheek, and she wiped it off with a disgusted look on her face.

"Ew!"