BEAUTIFUL STRANGER

quarantine

Usually you wouldn't mind being quarantined with Ashley, in fact you might have actually enjoyed it.

But now, it wasn't just the two of you, and quarantining with a 3 year old and a 6 week old was not easy. 

You were grateful that you had Ashley to help you, but she was so busy, writing poems for her new book or working in the studio. You were basically left to do it all by yourself.

You didn't tell her how overwhelmed you felt with this though, she already had so much going on and you didn't want to burden her.

"Lavender? Honey? Time to come inside, its naptime" you called out to your three year old daughter who was playing in the backyard with Jagger.

"But mommy! I'm not tired!" She said and you laughed at how cute she sounded. 

"I know your not princess, but I just put your sister down and mommy needs some quiet time, you can play with Jagger when you wake up, ok?" Your daughter frowns, but nods walking over to you anyways.

You pick her up, kissing her tiny nose and smiling when she erupts into a fit of giggles.

"Mommy?"

"Yes sweet pea?"

"Can mama tuck me in pwease?" 

You feel your heart melt at your daughters words. Unfortunately, you both knew the answer to this question.

"Not right now baby, shes doing an interview, maybe later during bedtime okay?" You ask and Lavender nods sadly making your heart break.

"Thats otay mommy, you tell better stories anyways." You smile and kiss your tiny princesses forehead, tucking her into her small bed that was the perfect size for her.

"What story do you want tonight?" You ask, even though you were 99.9% sure you already knew the answer.

"Tell the princess story!" Lavender said excitedly making you laugh.

"In a faraway kingdom there lived 2 girls, Rosie and Daisy. Daisy was the elder sister and Rosie the younger. They lived in a castle. They were princesses. Daisy was really mean and selfish. She loved to hurt everyone including her sister, but Daisy was really kind to her father as she believed her father, the king, would hand over the kingdom to her in the future. Rosie was really kind, loving and helpful. She never complained to her father.

One day the king decided, to divide the kingdom in two equal halves for his daughters. The king asked Daisy, "Daisy, what is it that you like the most in the whole world?" Daisy thought if she uttered pearls or jewels, her father might be displeased and give the whole kingdom to Rosie. Instead she lied, "Daddy, of course it is you!" When it was Rosie's turn, she smiled and said, "Oh! Daddy, there are millions of things that I like. But the best ones are the rain, rainbow, smiling babies, helping other people and seeing people smiling." The king's face turned red with anger. He punished Rosie by asking her to leave the kingdom for a week.

Rosie left the castle really sad. She started walking out when she heard someone sobbing. It was a coconut tree. Rosie inquired the reason for the sobbing. The tree answered that none of them had watered it in a few days and hence it may die. Rosie said "Don't worry, my friend. I will help you." There was a lake nearby and she dug a narrow canal from the lake to the tree, so that the coconut tree could be watered constantly. The coconut tree was immensely happy and thanked her. Rosie waved the tree and resumed her journey.

She saw a cow and a calf crying. She went near them and calmed them. The calf cried "My mum has not had any hay for many days, if this continues she will not be able to feed me. I will starve to death. Our master is not here. If he had been here he would have fed my mom." Rosie reassured the calf not to worry. She went in search of hay and grass. She returned with a big bundle of hay. This was more than sufficient till the owner returned. Having been thanked by the mother cow and the calf, Rosie smiled and walked happily ahead.