Breaking barriers

37- Quarantine

"Daddy, go park?" Delilah asks, tugging on lukes shirt as he sits at his desk in his office.

"No babygirl, we can't go anywhere." Delilah frowns at that.

"Yes, daddy." She says, tugging on him. "Go park!"

"No, we're not allowed to." Luke chuckles. Delilah frowns.

"No, I good!" She whines. Luke sighs and pulls her into his lap.

"We can't go, not because you were bad, no one is allowed to go anywhere."

Delilah frowns. "Why?"

"So we don't get sick." Luke explains and she shakes her head.

"No." It makes no sense.

"A lot of people are getting really sick so everyone has to stay home for a while so no one gets sick anymore." Luke tries to explain and Delilah nods, giving up.

"Go uncle?" She asks and Luke smiles and shakes his head.

"Go nana?" Luke shakes his head again and Delilah whines.

"We can only go to the store, and only if we really really need to."

"Go mall?" She asks excitedly and Luke shakes his head and chuckles. "Sorry baby, only to get food." Delilah pouts and lays against him, bored.

"Go play baby, daddy's needs to do some work, alright?" Delilah doesn't budge, glaring at Luke.

"I'm sorry, I'll come play soon, but for now you go on. Color daddy a picture, okay?" Delilah sighs and nods, crawling off his lap after kissing his cheek.

"Aright babe, cmere. Luke eventually calls. Delilah comes bounding in and frowns when she sees Luke holding flash cards.

"What?" She asks pointing to them and Luke smiles.

"Sit down." She sits in front of him and he holds one up. "A." He traces the letter and says it again. "A." I don't know how to type this without explaining it but he's not saying A as in Kate he's saying a as in cat, the sound of the letter not the name, as with other letters Bc When you teach kids to read you teach them the sounds of letters not the names at first because that's what you use when you read if that makes sense, when I put A usually he means ah not aye.

Delilah frowns. "Can you trace it baby?" She does what Luke did when he traced it. "Good job. A. Apple." He points to the picture on the flash card.

He has no clue what he's doing but he figures while they have all this time he should teach her the alphabet and how to read and write.

"Say a." When she obeys he smiles and loves on to the next sound. Delilah frowns and looks at him after about three more sounds. She pushes the flash card away and glares at him.

"Why?" She asks in an irritated tone. Luke laughs.

"Because you have to learn how to read and write baby." He explains and Delilah shakes her head.

"No want." She doesn't know what it means but she knows she doesn't want any part of it.

"Yes baby. Cmon. Let's just stick to these ones for now, okay?" She sighs and nods as Luke puts the rest of the flash cards to the side and lays out a b c d and e.

"What's this thing called?" He asks her as he points to the bunny on the b card.

"Bunny."

"Good, baby. What sound does bunny start with?" He points to the letter. Delilah shakes her head and he smiles. "B. Bunny, Buh-nee. B."

"B. Buh-nee." Delilah repeats.

"Good girl. Now this, what's this?"

"Elephant." Delilah says and Luke nods.

"What sound does elephant start with?" Delilah frowns and says it slowly and then smiles.

"Eh!" She says, happy when Luke tells her she's right. She points to the letter above elephant and says "e." Before tracing it again.

She happily does the rest before Luke starts asking her to point to the sound. Next he covers all the pictures and asks her to point to each sound based on just the letter and then asks her what each letter is without the picture.

The whole process lasts about an hour and by the end Delilah is clearly not enjoying it anymore, probably getting hungry, so Luke tells her she did a good job and puts the cards away, picking her up and taking her to the kitchen for lunch.

Delilah slowly grows more frustrated, used to leaving the house at least every other day. She's tired of drawing and daddy trying to teach her stuff all the time and not letting her watch tv and play on his phone all day and ignoring her while he works. He's started teaching her to write Aa Bb Cc Dd and Ee now that she recognizes the letters and she'd much rather scribble on the paper then make neat letters.

"Baby where did the letters go?" Luke asks as he comes into her room after searching for them so they could do another lesson.

Delilah shrugs but Luke instantly notes she looks suspicious and he turns her to face him, intently staring into her eyes. "Where'd the letters go baby?" He asks and she frowns and looks down, shrugging again. Luke groans and picks her up.

"I know you hid them Delilah, you better tell me where." He tells her in a stern voice and Delilah frowns, staying silent. "Delilah baby, why dont you wanna learn your letters? It's fun!" Delilah shakes her head and Luke sighs.

"Well, you have to learn them anyway. Where are they?" She stays silent and Luke gently grabs her chin and makes her look at him.

"Babygirl, if you don't tell me where they are I'm gonna put you in timeout, okay? Where are they?" Delilah hmphs and yanks her face away, crossing her arms and turns away as best she can while being held.

"One... Two... Last chance Delilah, where are they? We're doing a lesson whether you get timeout or not." Delilah remains silent so Luke mutters a "three." And takes her downstairs to the timeout chair, setting a timer for ten minutes after he sets her pouting self down and walking away.

Delilah sits silently for the ten minutes until Luke comes and she begins so stand before Luke stops her.

"You can get out when you tell daddy where you hid the letters." He says and Delilah glares and sits back down stubbornly so Luke shrugs and sets another ten minutes on the timer before leaving.

Again, she refuses. After another ten minutes he sighs exasperatedly. "Little girl, we could've been done by now. Tell me where they are or I'm gonna smack your bum." He warns and Delilah whines and kicks her feet.

"I don't wanna!" She protests loudly, kicking her feet. Luke sighs and lifts her up, landing a firm seat which makes her squeal start crying, mostly out of frustration and crankiness, and then looks at her again.

"You better go get them and bring them here right now, little girl. I don't appreciate you being so sneaky and disobedient." Delilah stomps and Luke raises his eyebrows. "Right now!" He orders, sending her off with a swat. She huffs and slowly makes her way up the stairs as Luke sighs and rubs his eyes. At this point he doesn't even really care about the lesson, her going behind his back and being sneaky and hiding them and then being disobedient is something he can't let her get away with or she'll progressively get worse, it's about setting a precedent.

"Thankyou. Now please go sit on the couch. Well just go over what you already know today." He sighs and Delilah reluctantly does as told.

Luke lays all the letters she already knows on the coffee table in front of her.

"Alright babe, point to e." They go over every letter that way.

"Okay, what's this letter?" Luke asks as he points to a letter, and Delilah answers. Once they're all done with that, Luke puts the letters away somewhere she won't be able to steal them and scoops her up.

"See? Wasn't so bad. Are you gonna be good now?" He asks and she pouts and lays her head down, not answering. Luke sighs. "What do you want for lunch?"

"Nuggies."

"Alright. Go play while daddy makes them, baby." He kisses her head and sends her upstairs.