July Exclusive - "Plans" - Part 5 (Patreon)

In her sailor dress and knee socks, wearing a toddler’s underwear, she has never felt so helpless.

The basest of French returns to Cassie. Ah, merde.

She turns to face her father. Who isn’t what she thought he was. Who is a whole different animal.

Dad points at Cassie’s phone. “You can continue your chat when Sara Beth gets here, we have to get ready.”

He’s telling her to hang up? Seriously?

Cassie barks out a laugh. And then she looks down at the phone screen. The call has been ended.

What now? Call the cops? Her numbers have gone; she might as well have a toy phone in her hands, for all the good it will do. And yet she keeps it gripped in her hand; a weapon to throw, a threat to make.

“What’s that frown for?” Dad asks. His tone is sweet, playful. Cassie thinks to herself, He sounds like he’s talking to Mom. And then, She loves it when he talks to her like that. As if she’s just a baby.

Cassie backs away, aiming for the bed, as if she might just hide underneath it. “What is this?” she asks, her voice reedy. Whiney. “What are you doing?”

“Are you dry?” asks Dad mildly. “Or do you need changing?”

The question is asked so innocuously, as if this is routine, that Cassie finds herself looking down, ready to lift the skirt of her navy dress, ready for inspection.

She blinks. She holds her hands in front of her. “The dress is real,” she whispers. “All of them.” She cringes, and then says, “You swapped my underwear for diapers.”

She watches her father shrug. “You didn’t give me much choice, honey. You were having accidents and not telling me about them.”

Cassie points with her phone. “You…you’re making this happen. You’re doing this on purpose. You want me to be as babyish as Mom.”

Dad shakes his head sadly. “What I want is for you to be happy. But you’re going through the same thing as your mother, and I wasn’t about to pretend it wasn’t happening. Was I supposed to just let you leave home, go to Europe, go to school?” He holds up his empty hands. “What kind of father would I be, letting you go off into the world, when you can’t even stay dry at night? When it was going to come crashing down around you?”

He steps towards his daughter. “Better to be here, safe and sound, when it happens. Better to be home with me.”

Cassie shuffles around to the other side of the bed, wishing her father wasn’t between her and the bedroom door.

Can she make a break for it?

Yes. She’ll probably have to run.

“You turned Mom into a child,” she says. She moans.

“Mommy’s happy,” Dad replies. “She’s happy every single day. She wasn’t before. She was all pent up with anxiety. You don’t remember, you were just a baby, but Mommy…it was all too much for her.” He goes to the nightstand, picks up the music box, turns it over in his hands. “Pressures of parenthood, having a baby, she couldn’t handle it.”

Cassie stares at him. “Are you seriously saying that it was my fault?”

Dad starts to turn the brass key. “Oh, I don’t blame you. A woman is either meant to be a mother or she’s not. Your mom found it was all too much, and so if she couldn’t be a mom, then she could be a little girl. I didn’t do it to her, Cassie, your mom did it to herself.” He puts the music box back down and lifts the lid.

The looping music begins, and Cassie wrinkles her nose in distaste. She didn’t realize until this moment; she really can’t stand that tune.

Dad smiles indulgently. “I know,” he says, as if reading her mind. “Your mother didn’t think much of the music box either. He steps away from the nightstand. “But she grew to love it.”

Cassie watches as Dad goes to the bedroom door, turns around and folds his arms. “There,” he says, as if the matter is settled. He checks his watch. “Sarah Beth and her daddy are on their way.” He frowns. “But I don’t think you’re wearing the right dress for today.” He points at her A-line sailor dress. “That’s much too formal, and today’s a day for fun, don’t you think?”

Cassie shakes her head. “What are you talking about?”

“The answer’s in the music box, honey.”

She stares over at the box. She might have lost her letters and numbers but she’s not an idiot.

It’s the music. It’s draining her education, her maturity.

She runs around the bed and picks up the box. She raises it above her head, ready to throw it down and watch it splinter into pieces.

Dad waggles his finger at her. “Now, now. We don’t break our things.”

Cassie blinks. That’s a rule. She doesn’t break the rules.

Dad nods. “That’s a good girl. Put it down, and then Daddy will get you changed into your special dress, so you’re ready for your friend.”

Cassie does as she’s told. Because she’s a good girl. She’s Daddy’s girl.

And then she imagines herself greeting Sara Beth dressed like this, acting like her mother and not knowing any better. Just like those other simple, giggling women.

Cassie grits her teeth. And she finds a loophole to the rules.

She won’t break the music box, but she doesn’t have to listen to it. She sits down on the floor and puts her fingers in her ears. The sound muffled, she grins up at her father.

There. She can’t get into trouble for that. She looks at the music box, perfectly at eye-level. She watches the ballerina spin slowly around, again and again.

Cassie laughs.

Much better. She can’t hear the music, but she can see the pretty dancer. What a clever girl she is!

Dad walks over, but Cassie isn’t worried. She grins, and then she sticks out her tongue. What a silly girl! She turns her attention back to the ballerina.

Dad crouches down in front of his daughter and says something, but Cassie can’t hear because her fingers are making her ears all quiet.

What a lovely thing, to watch the spinning, around and around. It’s not just a plastic figure after all, it’s something magical, like a fairy.

Yes, that’s exactly it! A magical dancing fairy.

She keeps watching the dancer, even as Dad starts stroking her hair. And then the music comes back, because the music must be magic as well. Cassie is beyond worrying about cause and effect, her forgotten hands limp in her lap, and she gazes at the music box with open-mouthed concentration, swaying gently as her mind simplifies.

Dad talks again, and this time Cassie hears him. “You’re too little for ‘addlepated’. Remember what Daddy used to call you, when you got all playful?”

Cassie nods. Of course, she remembers. As if to prove the point, she produces the sweetest, trilling laughter.

“That’s right, Giggles.” Dad smiles, tickles his daughter’s sides gently, provoking another round of laughter. “I can see how giggly you’re getting. My sweet, silly little giggly girl. Just like Mommy.”

Cassie nods again. She continues to stare at the pretty fairy as pieces of understanding lock together in her diminishing mind. She knows how this must go. It happened to Mommy, and now it’s happening to her. Silly, giggly Cassie. Just like Mommy. “Muhhh…moh-mee,” she mumbles.

“That’s right, clever girl!”

Dad pulls the 18-year-old onto his lap and cuddles her, continuing to stroke her hair, waiting for the music box to complete its important work. “It’s not the music, of course,” says Dad gently, “it’s what’s inside. The ballerina makes your head all sweet and innocent for Daddy.”

Cassie manages to nod, barely noticing as her bladder releases and she wets her training pants.

“Mmm,” says Dad, “I think my little giggles is all done now.” He reaches up and closes the music box, and then he wraps his arms around Cassie’s waist and kisses her head. “I know you had all these big plans, honey. And I thought I could let you go. I thought I could let you out into the world, but I can’t. It’s too dangerous, and you’re too sweet and innocent. Better to keep you here, safe and sound. Here with Daddy.”

Cassie doesn’t disagree. She sits contentedly, happy to be in her father’s arms, as he strokes her hair and tells her what a good girl she’s being.

What a relief. Cassie sighs, leaning back against her father. Dad lifts Cassie’s skirt and inspects her underwear. “Someone did a tinkle, didn’t the,” he says mildly, patting her leg.

Cassie looks down at her exposed crotch and nods. She pokes at her training pants and announces, “All wet, Daddy.” Aw weh, dah-dee. And that’s okay. Everything’s okay. Daddy’s going to take care of everything.

Just ten minutes later, Sara Beth and her father arrive. She wanted to say goodbye before leaving for her big journey to Paris.

Sara Beth tries to explain the trip to Cassie, but the concept of connecting flights and different countries is too much for Cassie’s simple mind to grasp. And so Sarah Beth must make do with promising to bring Cassie back a gift from her time in Paris. Some candy, probably, or perhaps a doll.

Cassie isn’t jealous of her friend’s plans. She has plans of her own, after all! A trip to the princess spa, so they can make her nails all pink and sparkly, and she can be a pretty princess for Daddy.

Cassie is already looking pretty of course, in her smocked dress, the one with the angel wing sleeves and her name stitched on the front. Even though she can’t read, because she’s just a sweet, little thing, she can run her finger along the letters.

“Says cassie,” she explains to her friend. Sez cah-thee.

Sara Beth nods, and she gives her friend a hug. “It sure does! You look so cute!” And then she puts her lips to Cassie’s ear and says, “I’m so sorry,” an apology that Cassie doesn’t have the intelligence to understand, but the words tickle her ear and she giggles. Of course she does. Cassie is Daddy’s giggly girl.

“Well,” says Daddy to Sara Beth. “You’re off on your adventure.” He nods at Sara Beth’s father. “Sure you wanna let this one go?”

The man chuckles and nods. “We made a deal,” he says, taking Sara Beth’s hand and squeezing it.

Daddy smiles. “Reckon I made a deal with Cassie, too. As long as she’s a good girl and wears her Pull-ups, she can be a princess.”

Cassie puts a finger to her mouth, trying to understand the grown-up’s conversation. And then, at the mention of Pull-ups, she giggles and lifts her skirt, pointing at the Disney princess decorating her padded underwear. “Look!” she exclaims proudly, “I got Tangled!” Ah goh tan-gud!

Daddy laughs. “You sure did, honey.” And he takes Cassie out to the porch so she can wave bye-byes to her friend.

THE END

When a sudden bedwetting habit doesn't stop Cassie's plans to go travelling in Europe, her father resorts to more extreme measures - Byron