Crescendo

Paper Crown ~Alec Benjamin

3rd person POV

Her large, innocent brown eyes peeked out from under the brim of the crude paper crown. "Do I look beautiful, Mommy?"

Her mother laughed. She bent down and tucked a stray strand of hair behind the girl's ear. "You look absolutely stunning, Princess Coralie."

Coralie giggled and pulled away, trying to center the crown on her head in vain. When she gave up, her mother had already left her at the counter. "Wait! Mommy, I fixed it!" she called after her.

Her mother turned around at her voice. She was standing with a coffee pitcher at a booth occupied by two burly men. She gave her daughter a strained smile. "Baby, just stay there, okay? Just sit down. I'll be right there."

The little girl pouted. Every other day she was forced to wait in the diner for her mother while she worked double shifts just to keep her small family afloat. And once they were home, her mom immediately fell asleep, exhausted. She never socialized. She didn't have a husband. She didn't have friends. All she did was work, work, work, so that her daughter might have a better future.

But little Coralie didn't understand any of this. She only knew that her mommy never had time for her.

After five minutes of struggling, she managed to pull herself up onto one of the red bar stools. They always made Coralie feel tall, like one of the adults. She fixed the askew crown on her head again and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting until the sounds and smells of the diner faded into obscurity as her imagination took over.

What would it be like to be a real-life princess? With beautiful dresses and perfect hair? A crown, bejeweled and shiny, nothing like the paper cutout currently on her head? A kingdom to rule over, full of people who adore her and she adored in return?

She smiled at the thought, but it soon vanished as she remembered the real world.

At school, nobody liked her. She didn't have the latest toys or played the latest games. Her clothes were always clean—her mom made sure of that, even if she had to sacrifice her own hygiene in the process—but they certainly weren't new or in style. They didn't look like the clothes her classmates wore. Coralie never complained, but she still felt really bad. So during recess, she never talked to anyone, instead working on her homework. She thought that maybe if she did her homework early, she'd have time at home to spend with her mother. It rarely happened, though.

Instead, she was here. And she decided to make this diner her kingdom.

With new determination, she adjusted the crown on her head and stood on the barstool, painstakingly balancing on her tiny feet. At her new height, she looked over the subjects she considered herself to have adopted as the Princess, with her mother as Queen. Most were tired-looking truckers taking a break from their long journeys. There were a few families, but none with girls her age that she could play with—ah, employ as part of the royal court.

"Hare yeah hare yeah," she said over the bustling crowd, her voice lost in the chatter and calls for the waiter. "I am now the Princess Coralie and I say you must all listen to Queen Mommy!" She pointed at her mother for emphasis, who turned around and with wide eyes mouthed, "Sit down!" When Coralie refused, she came over despite more calls from the booths and hastily lifted the little girl off the stool.

"Baby, what are you doing?" she whispered. As she dusted her daughter's dress, the paper crown fell off.

"My crown!" Coralie cried, leaping from her mother's arms and into the fray to catch the runaway tiara. Someone was holding the diner door open while talking, and an evening breeze had whisked the crown out. "Coralie, come back!" her mother yelled in shock as Coralie brushed past the surprised customers and onto the sidewalk. She finally grasped the paper with her tiny hand on the edge of the street, just inches away from the tar slick with rainwater. She waved her prized possession over her head in triumph.