"Daddy" ... pause ... "Daddy"
Katie stood at the bedroom door and called into the darkness, the every unknown dark gray shrouded the whole room invisible. Her bare feet were feeling the carpet. Carefully, she stepped a foot forward, feeling the carpet engulf her soles. She had entered the dark gray, unable to see all around her. Step by step, she moved deeper into the dark gray until her toes touched the frame of the bed.
The double curtain emitted a shapeless lighter gray. Looking back at the bed, the cones in her eye registered nothing but the random sparks of color and floating dots that were errant electrical sparks in her own head. Her hands felt shambles of bed sheets that had been tossed around by nightly movement. She lowered her knee onto the mattress, digging a deep hole. Her fingers found the entrance to the sheets, and she slept stealthily under, welcoming the embrace of warmth and weight all over her body.
She was split naked, as she was used to sleeping every night growing up in a European household. Her body was svelte. Her bones were delicately slender. Her skin was van and smooth. She had not an ounce of fat on her. Her body was sinewy and flowing.
Her hands reached under the sheets for his chest, that hairy chest with inch long curls. His chest was twice as wide as her and twice as high. Strong pectoralis major muscles from working on fixing remote gas lines in the wilderness covered his chest. There was also a little speck from enjoying a beer with his football game in the evening. She nestled her body, a tender 90 lbs, against his manly, almost beastly 200 lbs. Her bare chest nestled against his bare body. Her boobs were a cup B. They were firm and small, so that she sometimes got away with not wearing a bra at all.
She felt the warmth of his body with the ebb and flow of his breathing. He was so strong, so big. It made her feel small, like she was an ant who had to be swift to get out of the way of the elephant moving through the forest. Yet, she liked his warmth, the manly sense of security, his peace as he slept relaxed with not a care in the world. The breath flowing out of his nostrils fascinated her. It was so warm and full of essence of him. She could smell who he really was in it.
"Daddy, a nightmare really scared me. I was walking to college. Just as I got to lawn with the big oak tree where all the girls stand and toss a football, I noticed that one of my shoe laces got undone. I bent over to tie it, I tried to pin the books under my elbow. And I noticed my book bag was gone. I tried to run home to find it. But when I got home, my pants had a stain. I tried to change into that new dress that you got me. By the time I found it, my panties were gone. I felt so panicked, because I kept getting later and later for lecture. When I woke up, I was so scared about going to school. I don't feel ready."
Her father was calmly breathing through her animated re-telling of the story. His chest open large and sunk deep. Her mouth opened wide to display the pain and desperation. Her eyes shifted sides, even in the darkness. Her hand clamored on his bare chest, moving through the forest of his hair, for emphasis. When she was done, she nestled her head on his shoulder to take in the consolation of his calm presence where everything was alright. And she fell asleep.
A gentle tug on her shoulder roused her. The bright light filtered through the double sheer curtains. Her slender long arms were wrapped around him. Her eyes were dreamy, full of buggers, offering her only a blur of the bedroom scene.
"Honey, you can't be sleeping naked in my bed anymore. You are too old. You are in college now. And with mom fighting in court, we can't give them a reason to separate us."
Every so gently, he spoke the words to her, not wanting to upset her, carefully trying to nudge her to do the right thing. He felt her whole body leaning against his side.
"But daddy, you always make me feel so good. I love you so much."
In her sleep drunken ways, she wrapped her arms even tighter around him.
"Baby, it's not okay anymore. I'll go get a shower."
Lovingly, he struggled pulling her hands off his large body. Her hands glid over his body as he got out of her reach. Her face was still hiding in the blanket. He was sitting on the edge of his bed bent forward. His back was a ginormous surface with hair running over it. He stood up and walked out. His firm butt squeezing alternatingly left and right. His penis and balls dangles limp, as he walked a little bow legged.
The next night, Katie stood again in the doorframe, peering into the darkness. "Daddy?" she tested if he was already asleep. She had been waiting for him to fall asleep. He would have surely sent her away. He was out cold. He had come from a repair job on a faraway mountain side. Pretty much, he went straight to bed after he took of his big contractor boots. The silence welcomed her to slip back inside.
On the carefully toed path over the carpet to the bed, her feet stumbled onto something soft, like pajamas, a strange occurrence in their family. She moved on. Happily, she snuggled under the blanket at his side. She gave him a peck on cheek.