Goddess Had The Fright Of Her Life

Yesterday, I met up with a friend for the first time this summer. We had been trying to get the kids together for a while and the planets were finally aligned. Or should I say, we finally touched base on the phone.

My daughter loves her daughter and was asking for the past 5 months to see her. Her daughter, let's call her Kitty, will eventually be my Goddaughter whenever it happens but in my heart she is already my daughter. I adore her and so does Goddess.

So, we headed to the park. Ok, they were an hour late and expected lateness because that is the way they roll.

Everyone had a blast, playing, laughing, talking, catching up, swinging, sliding, running, climbing, bouncing. We did it all!

Then we headed to the lake. It was a beautiful, relaxing day. The kids were playing in the sand and water. I took a thousand and ten pictures and life was great.

I put the camera down and headed into the water where I spotted the biggest damn dead fish I had ever seen. It looked like a shark and was as big as my daughter. It was belly up and floating under the dock. There isn't a picture of it but trust me it was big. I tend to not take pictures of dead things.

The kids were all trying to catch fish in a net off the dock so I told them about the big, dead thing. Everyone at the lake headed over to inspect this huge Muskie. The life guard removed it and all was well.
The kids were kneeling at the edge of the dock with bread and a fish net. My girlfriend and I headed to the end and sat with them.
Everyone took a turn with the net, trying to snag a fish. There is Goddess in the middle.

Well, eventually the girl in brown, snagged a fish and shouted, "I got one!" and all the girls did what girls usually do, they screamed. The girl with the fish walked in a circle dripping water everywhere which sent my girlfriend screaming because the fish water was about to drip on her. All of this commotion, took about 10 seconds but in that 10 seconds from the first scream, my daughter screamed and tried everything in her little 4 year old power to get away. With all the screaming she didn't know what to expect beside the fish in the net with dripping water. I was holding my beautiful, expensive camera on a dock surrounded by water, so I held the camera above my head and grabbed onto Goddess' life vest to keep her from jumping off the dock in her fright. My girlfriend said, "Come here baby" but I knew that if I just had the fright of my life I would want my Mommy so I asked her to please take my camera. I snatch a very shaking Goddess up who was sobbing uncontrolobly at this point into my arms and walked off the dock. As we walked she sobbed and tried to say, "it was so scary mommy" over and over.

I have never in my life seen someone so afraid. Looking back now, I see the fright in her eyes and feel bad that I ever saw that look on her face. The crying, sobbing, shaking, lasted 45 minutes. There was no consoling her. She was scared to death and nothing I could say would make it better. It was frigtening to me as well because at one point I thought this is one of those times that people take others to a doctor for a shot to calm them down.

During the moments that I was able to get actual words from her she told me that the fish spit at her. I tried to tell her that when the girl was spinning in circles with the fish in the net, water dripped on her face. She swears still that the fish spit at her. When I couldn't calm her down I asked if she wanted me to called her daddy.

I want her to always know she can go to him for anything. I never had a father who I knew was there for me and would wipe away my fears. I have always brought her to him for comfort after I comfort her because I think it is important for little girls to know their Daddy is their hero. Hopefully it will make her aim high when her time comes to choose a man to be with the rest of her life.

When he answered I told him what happened, she couldn't talk to him but as the phone was ringing she asked me to tell him that the fish had spit at her.

He tried to tell her that the fish didn't spit and that the fish just wanted to go back in the water, but I over speaker told him to just tell her everything was going to be ok. That was what she needed to hear from him.

She begged to leave, "mom-my c-c-c-c-caaaa-nnnn we g-g-g-gooo h-ooo---me?"

I told her of course and headed for the car. Kitty was concerned that Goddess would never talk to her again and that she was made at her. I assured her that it wasn't her and that Goddess was upset about the fish. When we finally closed the car doors and no one was around she sobbed out loud instead of the quiet sobbing she had been doing. It was the saddest thing to drive and not be able to hold her. I drove straight to her daddy's office which was only 5 minutes away and had Handsome go knock on the door.

Teach came out and came to the passenger window trying to talk to Goddess from across the car. I told him that she needed him to hold her and he took her out of her car seat and together we all headed into the office.

He held her as she cried and eventually she started to talk about the dead fish and how big it was.

Finally 45 minutes later, she was talking, smiling and laughing.

Ahhhhhh....peace at last.