I brought the strings and Whisper's new instruments to the car. Whisper waited for me, just inside the mall doors.
When I walked back in, she was staring at an arcade.
.
'What's wrong honey?"
.
I watched as the young boys and girls, many not much older than her, walked in and out of the arcade.
.
'Do you want to go in?'
.
She shook her head.
'No Daddy.'
Her voice was so sad, as she walked away from me.
.
I caught up to her and knelt by her, pretending to tie my laces.
"What's wrong, honey?"
.
She looked back at the arcade.
At that moment three young girls walked out, laughing and chattering to each other.
.
"I will never be a real girl," she sighed.
She looked down at her nightgown and bare feet.
"I don't even have any clothes, other than what I have on."
She turned and walked away from me.
"I am going back to the car, Daddy. I will wait for you there."
.
She walked away from me.
My heart was breaking. I could feel tears coming to my eyes.
'Whisper? Wait hun.'
.
She disappeared.
I took a deep breath.
The three young girls walked by me.
.
Suddenly I heard a scream.
I looked around. No one else was reacting.
.
"DADDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYY."
.
Whisper appeared a few feet in front of me.
"Look at me, Daddy."
.
She was dancing around, showing off her new clothes.
She was dressed similar to the three young girls we had seen earlier.
.
'You look beautiful.'
.
She ran to me, floating up and hugging my neck.
"Thank you, Daddy. I love my new clothes."
She floated back to the floor, spinning around.
"What do you think?"
.
'You are absolutely beautiful.'
.
She strutted up to me and took my hand.
"Come, father. Let us finish our shopping."
.
I must have looked like a fool, walking through the mall, with a huge smile on my face.
But I didn't care.
.
We went to the Sobey's grocery store. I needed to pick up a few items.
I learned very quickly that shopping for groceries, with Whisper, was something else.
.
"Look at all the food, Daddy. Have you ever seen so much food? There must be enough here to feed the whole world."
.
'Not quite, hun,' I laughed.
I took a shopping cart and we started down the aisles.
I wanted to get some steak and lobsters for later. Jessie and Bobby were coming for a barbecue and our first recording session, so I wanted to treat them.
.
While I was ordering the lobsters, I looked over at Whisper.
I had to laugh.
.
"You okay, Sir?" the young lady asked me.
.
I nodded.
"Sorry. A funny thought just hit me."
Actually, Whisper was sitting in the live lobster tank, playing with the lobsters.
.
"Are these pets, Daddy?"
.
'Not quite, hun.'
I got her away from there as quickly as I could.
.
I needed pet food for Ghost and Spirit.
While I picked up the boxes of food, I saw pet toys falling into the cart. Whisper was taking one of every toy that was on display.
"I think Ghost and Spirit would love these."
.
'Okay, hun. But do we need two of every one?'
.
She stood in the cart, hands on hips.
"Daddy. You know our cats do not share well."
.
I rolled my eyes and started pushing the cart.
.
"I saw that," Whisper cracked, as she jumped out of the cart and headed off down the aisle.
.
We ended up going up and down every single aisle in the store and it amazed me how many things I needed, that I didn't know I needed.
.
Apart from foods and snacks that I would never have bought, but ones that Whisper thought looked yummy, apparently, I needed all new dishcloths and tea towels.
.
"These are so pretty, Daddy," Whisper informed me, as the hooks emptied, into my cart.
.
And all my kitchen utensils, were old and dingy.
.
"These are so much shinier."
.
At least I was able to convince her that we only needed on of each.
By the time we were through about 1/4 of the store, my cart was full. I pushed it to a closed checkout where a lady said she would watch it for me.
.
"You must be setting up house."
.
I nodded, laughing.
"It certainly looks that way."
.
I grabbed another empty cart and found Whisper waiting for me in the cleaning section.
I didn't know my house was so dirty.
.
By the time we finally made it through the entire store, I had filled 4 shopping carts and was on the fifth one.
The fifth one was the Whisper special.
Sobey's had a toy section and a stationary section, which they had to replenish, by the time Whisper was finished.
I tried to explain that we did not have to buy every notebook, scrap book, colouring book, crayons and leads, and so on and so on, but ...
she had a logical explanation.
.
"What about there are none left when we come back again?"
.
At least it was logical to Whisper.
We could have bought everything at the local $1 Store for about 1/4 of the price, but I quickly decided that I would never bring her into one of those.
.
I had no idea how I was going to get all the merchandise into my Rav4, but I would worry about that when we finished.
Lucky for me, Bobby was in the mall, at the same time.
He agreed to bring the groceries home for me and even put the perishables away.
.
As we loaded his truck, he looked at the boxes of toys and stationary.
"You opening a daycare?"
.
"For the library," I half lied.
At that moment I decided to donate half of it to the library. I was sure Whisper would not be upset.
.
"That's a great idea, Daddy. I don't mind sharing."
.
I still had a couple stops to make, so I told Bobby I would meet him at home.
I gave him some money to pick up beer, which he refused, which I snuck into his coat pocket, which I found out later, he somehow, snuck back into mine.
.
We left the mall.
Whisper pouted a little, but I assured her we would make many more trips to the mall, in the future.
"Besides, we have to go to that big store over there."
I was almost afraid to take her to the local Canadian Tire store, but I had to pick up some specialized anti-freeze, that only the Canadian Tire carried.
.
Once in the store, Whisper looked around.
"This is all yucky stuff," she complained.
.
'We won't be here long, hun. I just have to get one thing."
I hurried to the seasonal department and picked up the anit-freeze.
When I turned, Whisper was not with me.
.
'Whisper?'
.
'I'm in the pet place, Daddy.'
.
I hurried to the pet section. She was there, looking at some cat beds.
.
'Sweetie, you shouldn't go off like that. What if you get lost?'
I knew the difference, as soon as I said it.
.
She giggled and pointed to the cat beds.
"Ghost and Spirit would love those."
.
I agreed, but the only two left were on the top shelf and there was not a staff member in sight.
.
"I'll go look for someone," I said aloud.
.
"Daddy."
.
I heard her but couldn't see her.
.
"Up here Daddy."
She was on the top shelf, some 10 feet in the air.
.
"Be careful sweetie."
.
She giggled. "Catch."
She pushed the two cat beds off the shelf and down to me, one at a time. As I caught the second one, a woman appeared at the end of the aisle, staring very strangely at me.
.
"I shook the shelves," I said, half grinning.
.
She looked up at the shelf. Whisper was sitting on the shelf, her legs dangling over the side.
.
I don't think the woman was convinced.