Promptly Collected

Story: Crocodile Tears

Prompt: The image of a sad little girl.

Summary: All Anna wanted was a red balloon.

Rating: K+.

Crocodile Tears

“Daddy! I want!”

Momentarily forgetting her tiredness, Anna lifted one podgy arm skyward and made a grasping motion with her hand. The round object bobbing playfully overhead with its multicoloured friends was mesmerising. It was red and shiny and almost bouncing in the air; she knew it was meant to be hers.

“Daddy! Balloon!”

“Not today, honey,” Mike said wearily. “It's time to go home. We've been in the park all day and I have to get you back to your mum before 6 o'clock.”

“No! I want balloon!” Her mouth set in a stubborn line, Anna grabbed two great fistfuls of her father's sweater, tugging and twisting the material until he focused his attention solely on her. “Balloon! Balloon! Balloon!”

The threat of a screaming, leg-kicking, stiff-bodied temper tantrum – the kind of performance that had already earned both candy floss and a ride on the carousel today – lurked in Anna's every shout, but this time Mike was unmoved.

“I said no, Annabel.”

The impatient edge to his voice made Anna stop to reconsider her tactics. If embarrassing her father with a loud and public scene wasn't going to win the fat red prize she coveted, she would have to bring out the big guns. Biting down on her bottom lip and screwing up her face, she concentrated as hard as she could until she felt the first familiar sting of tears.

“Daddy...” her voice was quiet this time - almost a whimper - and she formed her mouth into a perfect pout as large droplets of water prepared to spill from her pleading brown eyes. “Please, Daddy. Please?” The final tremulous request and quivering of her lower lip completed a masterful demonstration of childish disappointment.

Mike sighed. “Oh, all right.” Bending down, he placed Anna carefully on the grass. “But you wait here for me.” As he straightened up he smiled indulgently and reached out to ruffle his daughter's dark brown curls. “You're getting too heavy for Daddy to carry all the time, honey. Soon you'll be too big for balloons.”

“Balloon!” Anna squealed, clapping her hands in delight, the tears she hadn't yet blinked away entirely forgotten. “I want a red one!”

She watched as Mike crossed the small road and made his way to the balloon seller, her smile widening to reveal a gap where she was missing a tooth. Her father looked over his shoulder and waved while the vendor carefully untangled the string keeping her precious balloon lashed to the bunch. Then Mike started to walk back to Anna with the thin rope carefully grasped between three fingers, his smile as bright as hers.

“Balloon!” Anna shrieked. “Love you, Daddy!”

In their excitement, neither saw the ice-cream van driving towards the park exit. And the vehicle's driver did not see Mike step out without checking for traffic; at least not until it was too late.

The impact lifted Mike's overweight frame in such a way that it almost appeared to bounce in the air for a moment. A long hiss escaped from his mouth as he crumpled to the ground, as if he'd suddenly deflated, and then he was silently still. The last glimpse Anna had of her father before she was hustled away by concerned passers-by was of his face, all red and shiny with blood.

This time she didn't have to concentrate at all to summon the tears and as the sound of her wailing pierced the warm summer air, the red balloon floated up into the sky and drifted away.