Gifted

Originally posted on October 4, 2020.

Mike never would’ve described himself as a good father. He didn’t even know he was a father until an ex of his contacted him on his daughter’s two year old birthday. He tried to just ignore her existence, and even that worked for another year or two. He tried a bit, but his heart just wasn’t into the girlie things his daughter wanted to do. On her fourth birthday, he figured he’d just buy her a nice present and be done with the child.

He wasn’t quite sure what compelled him to stop in the odd shop or why he was drawn to the music box with a ballerina inside. But it was a reasonable enough price, and the exactly the sort of thing his girlie daughter would love. On her birthday, he gave her the gift and simply headed out, thinking he’d never see her again. He was wrong.

The next morning, he awoke on a wooden floor with pink fluffy pillows all around. The light in the room seemed to be shaped like a keyhole. He quickly realized he was wearing silver heels, a pink tutu, and a tiara. He looked for a door, but there seemed to be no way out. Mike was panicking when a floor of light shone in the room. He felt compelled to dance, and he couldn’t stop himself from giving a robotic ballet performance to tinny music. As he looked around, he could see his young daughter towering over him, and he realized the horror of his situation. He was the miniaturized ballerina in his daughter’s music box!