Sea of Love

000. Love Stories

AUGUST 3RD, 1986!

"Daddy, will you tell me the story of how you and Mammy met?"

The little girl smiles up at her father, baring the holes where her two front teeth should be. She loved sticking her straw through the gap and the way her tongue felt poking around the empty space of her gums, feeling for a sign of a new tooth growing in, but they were still holes. Holes that needed to be filled.

The man smiles down gently at his insatiable daughter as he washes her plate by hand, "Niamh, I've already told you that story twice today."

"I know, but I wanna hear it again," She giggles.

The father sighs dramatically, rolling his eyes as if it was a chore. The small, playful grin remains on his lips. He loved to talk about his wife. "Alright, princess," He chuckles, picking the small girl up in his steady arms, hoisting her onto the island's barstool.

Scrubbing the spaghetti stains from the pot, he begins to tell the story once more, his daughter eagerly hanging onto every word. He speaks as if it is a bedtime story, a book which he has memorized, a fairytale from his lips.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess... She was the Princess of Derry, but she didn't like that title so much," He scrunches his nose up playfully at his daughter, eliciting a giggle from the girl, "She was the most beautiful girl in all the land..."

"You look just like her," The daughter recites the line simultaneously with her father. He sends her a light-hearted glare.

"Hey! I thought you wanted me to tell you the story," His voice is playful, a stern look painted onto his features, "Less of the cheek, or I'm not gonna finish it."

The little girl giggles, "Sorry, Daddy."

"Now, where was I?" The man ponders to himself as he rinses the spaghetti pot, "Oh, right. She looked just like you. Well, one day, this beautiful princess had been assigned a very special mission. She would need to head to the village to study her kingdom's behaviour and report back to the King on all the details of the people and their issues. Now, to do this, she needed an entrance into the commoner's way of life. This is where a less-than-beautiful peasant boy comes in..."

"I think you're beautiful, Daddy," The little girl chirps up at her father, eliciting a chuckle from the man.

"Thank you, sweetheart," He chuckles, "Anyways, this peasant boy had been assigned as the princess's host. At first, he was miserable. Why did he have to show some snobbish princess around the village? That wasn't a part of his job. But, alas, it was for the King..."

The little girl's mother wasn't really a princess. If she was, the family wouldn't be living in a run-down apartment above the father's pub. He knew his little girl deserved better, which is why he would stretch the truth whenever he told this story. If a fairytale about a magical princess made his daughter smile, then he would recite his fairytale as much as she wanted.

"So, the peasant boy frustratedly made his way up to the castle. Only when he got there, he realized that the princess wasn't the snob he thought her to be. In fact, this princess was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside," The man continues the story, eliciting a gasp from his daughter. Despite having heard this story over a hundred times ─ at her request,  ─ she still pretended to be surprised by this twist.

"She was kind-hearted, courageous and bright. She was incredible," The father smiles warmly as he recounts the first time he had met his wife, the day they had been paired up for a school assignment, "So incredible, that the little peasant boy couldn't help but fall in love with her, right there in the throne room."

"Right there?"

"Right there!"

The little girl giggles at her playful interaction with her father, causing the smile on his face to widen. "Now, this peasant boy had never been in love before. What was he supposed to do?"

"Ask her on a date?" The daughter smiles cheekily.

"Wrong!" He counters playfully. The little girl bursts out into a fit of giggles as he continues, "That would make him look dumb. So instead, as he took her out into the village, he pretended not to care about her. He would lazily explain things and roll his eyes whenever she asked a question. That would make him seem cool, right?"

"No!"

"Yeah, the princess didn't think so, either. She could've had him beheaded right there," The man chuckles, "Some still think she should have. Instead, she told him, right then and there, that if he couldn't at least try to be as kind to her as she was to him, she could find another peasant boy to show her around the village."

"Mammy makes a really good princess," The little girl smiles.

"Aye, she does. That's why the peasant boy liked her so much," He smiles warmly down at his daughter as he dries the dishes, "Now he knew that if he wanted the princess to like him, he would have to treat her how she deserved to be treated. She was royalty, after all."

"So, the next time that he saw her, the peasant boy made sure the princess was showered in attention and love. He dressed up his family's carriage with flowers. He took the princess to all his favourite spots in the village, even the ones that were secret. He made sure to tell the princess everything she wanted to hear, from the history of the town to how beautiful she looked in the sunlight. He bought her ice cream and roses and anything her heart desired," The little girl's father explained, "And the princess was happy."

"I would be happy if he bought me ice cream too," The little girl smiles cheekily.

He chuckles, "The princess didn't really care about the ice cream, love. She was a princess, she could tell any one of her servants that she wanted an ice cream and it'd be in her hand within a second. The princess was happy because she could see the amount of effort the peasant boy had put in. He couldn't afford much, you see. The horses that had pulled the carriage, he had taken from the family barn. The flowers he had picked for her, he had stolen from his neighbour's garden. Everything he had bought for her, he had paid for with the entirety of his monthly allowance."

His daughter stares up at him with wonder in her eyes and he explains, "The princess was happy because she could see how much the peasant boy cared for her. He didn't need to do any of that. He could've just shown her the village and his job would be done. So, at the end of the day, to thank him for everything that he had done, the princess gave the peasant boy her hand and they lived happily ever after."

The small girl giggles happily as her father concludes the story. He finishes putting the dry dishes away, and turning around she speaks up. "Daddy, do you think a peasant boy would do all that for me, even though I'm not a princess?" She asks curiously.

"Aye, you deserve nothing less, love. As long as you stay the kind, clever little girl that you are, you will always be a princess, and you deserve to be treated as such," He smiles warmly, pressing a quick kiss to the top of his daughter's head.

"Tell you what," He rests his hands down on the countertop, looking down at the small girl, "Why don't you go get your shoes on, and then we can go visit Mammy?"

"Can we get ice cream on the way back?"

"One scoop."

She smiles excitedly at her father's answer, jumping down from the barstool. She quickly runs to the doorway to put on her velcro shoes. The man smiles warmly at his daughter's excitement. He looks over at the car keys, debating on driving before shaking his head gently and following his daughter out the door.

The cemetery was close enough.

⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹.
diorangeI.
aug 23, 2023.