All I Want Is This

2

One of the things that Mark and Alicia Sloan had in common? They weren't morning people.

Back in Manhattan, Alicia didn't have too much trouble with pre-kindergarten leaving. Mrs. Sloan, Crystal, always took care as her granddaughter to be fed and dressed properly before leaving to kindergarten with her father.

Now Mark was on his own and a complete madness started to describe their mornings. Mark was freaking out because he didn't know what to do first.

"Daddy, I think I am sick." The girl cried out from her seat in the back of the car.

Mark sighed as he heard her complaining again and looked at her through the rear-view mirror "Who ate all the cookies from that jar?" He asked her with a reproaching voice.

"I was hungry." Alicia frowned as she justified the empty jar.

"You had toast with butter and jelly on your plate and you didn't even touch them. Now stop whining; I will give you something for pain when we will get to hospital."

"I don't want a shot." She looked at him frightened.

"I will give you something good, don't worry!" Mark assured her.

"Drive faster, daddy!" She urged him as she wrapped an arm over her belly and bent over the seatbelt. "I think I am going to poop."

"What?" Mark hit the brake paddle and slowed down the speed. "You can't poop in here. You have to hold it until we get to hospital."

"I will try" the girl winced. "But I don't think I will can."

"You have to can. You are a big girl now and you cannot poop in your pants. It's a shame." It wouldn't have been the first time though. Alicia did it a couple of times while she was with him and her grandma in park. He used to change her diapers very often, but cleaning her after she quit on diapers was something for what Mark was very grateful to his mother. "Let's talk about something to make you forget about it. What do you want to talk about?"

That caught Alicia's interest. "Umm...Santa!" She exclaimed with excitement.

"Ok. Let's talk about Santa." Mark agreed hopefully.

"When is Santa coming?" She asked him.

"On Christmas." He answered simply. Stupid of him, because she would have been satisfied with that answer.

"When is Christmas? Is it tonight?"

"No" Mark chuckled. "We are still in September and the Christmas is in December, so we have three more months until there."

"Like in next week?" She asked him confused.

"No Ally" That was one of her nicknames. "A week has 7 days and a month has 30 or 31 days, so a month means more than a week."

"Why?"

Mark groaned with exasperation as he stopped at the red light. "Because..." He would have wanted to give her a full answer, but he didn't know how to do it, so he stopped at 'because'.

Alicia, on the other hand, didn't stop there. "Because why?"

"Ally" Mark whined as he turned around to face her. "Because... that's how God created this world."

"Ok" Alicia sighed. Their talk wasn't that interesting. "But why doesn't Santa come in September too?"

Mark chuckled at her cute question and started the car again. "Because Santa's elves are on holiday in September and because they would ruined your daddy's credit card."

Alicia didn't say anything back, which surprised Mark. He looked back at her and saw her contemplating on something as her eyes were fixed outside on window. He sighed with relief and hoped that she would not start again with the poop thing.