“Tell me a story,” said the 12-year-old girl.
His goddaughter was lying in bed. He was tucking her in. They had spent a full day playing on the beach. They were moderately sunburned because both are fair-skinned and ruddy.
“There once was a little girl,” he began. “She lived in a village far, far away.”
“What color was her hair?”
He paused. “Um. I don’t know. Her hair was… Um. Blond.”
“Was she tall or short?”
“I don’t know. Short.”
“Was she a blind person like me? Or did she have her vision?”
“She was blind, just like you.”
“Thank you for making her blind,” said the girl. “There are no stories about blind girls like me.”
“Well,” he went on, “this is a story about a blind girl.”
This pleased her. “What’s her name?”
“Um. Rhonda.”
“No. That’s a really weird name.”
“Okay, her name is Sherry.”
“Nobody is named Sherry.”
“What do you think her name should be?”
“Rachel.”
“Okay. It’s Rachel.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “Continue.”
“Little Rachel was a brilliant young woman who had a voice like an angel. Whenever she sang, people came from miles around just to hear her angelic voice ring
throughout the land.”
“What songs would she sing?”
“I don’t know. Regular songs.”
“Does she know ‘Thunder’ by Imagine Dragons? It goes like this...”
The little girl began to sing.
“I guess so,” he said. “She probably knows that song.”
“Good for her. That’s a good song to know. Go on.”
“Well, sometimes, the young princess was sought out by people who were going through very hard times of their own. Pilgrims and travelers were always stopping by the little girl’s village just to meet her and talk to her.”
“Wait? She’s a princess now?”
“Um. Yes.”
“Why did they want to meet her?”
“Because, the little girl was special.”
“Why was she special?”
“Because Rachel had gone through a lot in…