Minnie [#Wattys2017]

Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley

Minerva's imagination had been caught up in the idea of magic. She kept a stick by her side at nearly all times when she wasn't around her father. Malcolm and Robbie thought she fancied herself a pirate on a ship upon the sea, and teased her for slipping the stick through her belt as though it was a scabbard and kept telling her that there were no such things as girl pirates. "Of course there are," Minnie argued from the rafters of the barn one afternoon, where she sat brandishing her stick about, "There can be a girl anything! Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I've got to be limited at what I want to be!" She stuck her tongue out.

"Course it does," Malcolm argued, "You're meant to cook and clean and be a wife and a mum one day, and I'm meant to get a job as Reverend."

"I could be the next Reverend, you don't know," Minnie said hotly.

"Could not," Malcolm said.

"Says who?" Minnie demanded.

"God!" Malcolm replied, "The Bible says so!"

"Don't be stupid," Minnie answered. "The only reason I won't be Reverend is because I don't want to be." She swung her legs on either side of the beam and waved her stick.

Malcolm rolled his eyes and gave the pony he was stroking a couple sugar cubes from his pocket.

Robbie said, "I want to fight martians when I'm older!"

"There's no such thing as martians," Malcolm said sternly.

Robbie, who was laying about in the straw, sat up and looked at Malcolm in shock, upset by the notion. "No martians?" he asked, his lip trembling.

"There could be martians," Minerva argued. "Don't listen to Malcolm, darling Robbie."

Malcolm looked up at her. "Must you argue everything I say?"

"Only when you're being a dolt. Who's it hurting if he believes in martians?" she demanded.

Malcolm said, "Himself is who. He'll grow up believing in silly fantasies and he'll never appreciate reality."

Minnie rolled her eyes, laying back against the rafters.

The barn door opened and Isobel stepped inside. "Minerva!" she said, seeing Minnie's legs hanging down from the rafter beams. "How many times --"

Minnie sat up and scrambled back to the ladder that she'd climbed up to the rafters and slunk down to the straw beside Robbie.

"Come along, Minerva," Isobel continued, "It's time for our little ice cream date." She held out her hand for her daughter to take and Minnie hopped down from the pile of straw and dusted the bits of it from her dress as she scrambled to her feet.

"I want to go for ice cream, too, mummy," pleaded Robbie, sitting up.

Isobel knelt and cupped her hands about Robbie's little cheeks. "It's part of Minnie's birthday present, little one. On your birthday, mummy will take you for ice cream all by yourself, too, I promise." And she kissed his forehead and Robbie smiled and climbed back onto the straw, contented with the answer.

"And me?" Malcolm asked.

"Of course, sweetheart," Isobel promised.

Malcolm nodded and turned back to the horse.

Isobel led Minerva out the barn and across the yard to the lane, dusting her of the straw that still clung to her backside. "Why on earth do you have a switch in your belt for girl?" Isobel asked, seeing the stick that Minnie was imagining to be her wand.