Mimi's Demons

Chapter 54: All Dads are Dorks

 Mimi woke up screaming. Demons had been smothering her face, lapping up her blood, clogging her throat with their long, purple tongues so she couldn't breathe. Somehow she'd been able to see the cold gaze of a dead man through them, watching from where he laid on dirty carpet, his organs exposed.

Warm arms wrapped about her.

"Mimi, Mimi, Mirianna, it's okay."

Her name wasn't Mirianna. But somehow, that one thought brought her back to reality. Mimosa had been alone. Mirianna had a safe mansion and a Papa who would take her camping and by her Voltron. Who believed her. He listened.

Mimi hugged her Papa back, sucking in air to silence her screams into sniffles.

Papa would keep the demons away. Mimi didn't have to do it on her own anymore. He'd scare them off, keep them away, hide the staring dead bodies telling her to strip.

For a long while, Papa rocked in place with her curled in his lap. He asked her what she had dreamed about, but didn't push when Mimi didn't respond. She didn't want to think about it. She wouldn't think about it. She wanted her ugly teddy. She wanted her safe, mermaid colored room. She wanted all her Barbies and her Voltron and Serena with a cup of tea and strawberries cut like flowers. But Papa was just as good. Papa was just as safe.

She must have fallen back to sleep at some point, because she woke up to the twitter of birds and soft morning light through the trailer's modest windows. Duke wasn't around, but she could hear someone clattering around on the fold out kitchen outside that could only be him and the smell of bacon.

For a moment, she laid there. Trailer beds, small and tucked up in a box, should not feel so comfortable. The forest sounded so nice, all whispery and clean.

Mimi breathed in deep.

If grandpa's spirit were still around, like Mom said it would be, she was sure he would be here, where the air was clean and green. They'd cook sausage over the coals kept warm in an ash bed over night. Then they'd crawl up into his old jeep and drive around till he found some water, where he'd angle his polarized glasses just right to see if there were any fish. If they happened to see a deer he'd say it was because of her, because she was his lucky charm, and that when she was big enough he would take her hunting with him. Though no great hunter, he'd get his biggest buck yet just by virtue of her being with him.

Her eyes burned a bit, but she managed to blink them back. Grandpa wasn't gone. But...

After sniffing and rubbing her eyes till they definitely weren't wet, she got up, dressed, slipped on her shoes, and stepped down and around the trailer to where her Mafia Papa flipped bacon.

"How do you even know how to cook?" she asked with a yawn. "Have you cooked people before or something?"

"Good morning to you too." He flicked his spatula to a mug and a little plastic cup filled with familiar purple liquid. "Take your medicine. Breakfast is almost done."

Mimi screwed up her face hard. "My tongue only hurts if I try to do gymnastics with it, do I still have to take medicine?"

"Yes."

She groaned, she whinged, she whined, but she went to the counter with the little plastic cup of medicine and its mug of chocolate milk to wash it down (it was never, ever orange juice, at least), and did as she was told. Way to ruin a perfectly good morning.

"Good girl. Though you could do with less whining." He flashed a smile at her. "Pussy."

She scowled at him, but she could be a boss and accept that she had earned that. It was just medicine, and grape flavored at that. She knew she was being a pussy. Her visit to the mental hospital had been years ago, she should be over it by now.