My Little Rock Airman by Brittany Fichter

Author:Brittany Fichter [Fichter, Brittany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

25

What I Wanted

Jessie

July flew by, during which we were in the car more than we were at the house, and when we were home, we were busy practicing Jade’s song. She struggled with enunciation and rhythm, and more than once, she wanted to quit, but I was seeing too much progress to let her. Essentially, we were busy all the time. We practiced so much that pretty soon, the show tune we’d picked was stuck in my head nonstop.

But I was okay with that. Between Jade’s lessons and therapy sessions, the contest was hot underway. Now that Amy was gone, something inside Derrick seemed to have been set free. He laughed more, teased more, and played a lot more pranks. And though I spent most of my time retorting and scolding and fending him off, it was impossible not to enjoy myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone so many places just for fun.

We visited the children’s science museum, the presidential library, and the submarine, just to name a few. Every day was something new. Jade was rather smug once she realized what we were doing, and she used that to her advantage, making us beg and plead for her approval, and more than once, she finagled new crayons or lemonade or souvenir stickers out of us, using our zeal to win as motivation.

As the weeks passed, however, it became apparent that the golden ticket that would determine the winner would be awarded to whoever figured out what Jade meant by “chocolate”.

Not long after our frozen yogurt venture at the mall, Jade had begun asking for “chocolate”. But whenever we got her dark chocolate chips (in my attempt to make her dessert somewhat healthy) or even the Hershey’s bar Derrick bought her, her answer was always the same.

“No. The right chocolate.” She would pout, crossing her little arms with as much disgust as a six-year-old could possibly muster.

In vain we tried. We visited the North Little Rock mall, the downtown mall, the outlet mall candy store, the gas station near her house. And every time we offered her a new source of chocolatey goodness, she would huff and shake her head. Derrick and I would exchange a look, and whoever had suggested the most recent attempt would sigh while the other breathed a sigh of relief. This went on until Tuesday morning of the third week of July when Derrick came dancing in from the casita.

“Should I be worried?” I stepped back as he slid into the booth with his toasted waffles. Still dancing in place as he cut them, he gave me a wicked grin.

“I think I can safely say that I will be winning this contest. So if you had plans for that day out, forget it.”

I put down the juice pitcher I was holding. “No way.”

He shoved a bit of waffle in his mouth and wriggled his eyebrows at me. “Hey, I forgot the whipped cream. Can you get it out for me?”

“Not until you tell me where you found out.

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