Harper nodded as she stared up at the demon, where Lily and Jeanne stood at the top.
I squinted, trying to make them out, and Lily was definitely hesitating. She sat between her mother’s legs, and they pushed off. Harper squeezed my hand as we watched them come down. With Jeanne behind Lily, she wasn’t moving quite as fast, and they stumbled a little at the bottom, but Jeanne was able to right them easily.
A few more kids arrived and made their way to the top.
“How was it?” Harper asked Lily.
“It was fine. It wasn’t even that fun,” her best friend said, keeping her voice low.
A few kids from their class showed up and came over to congratulate Lily.
“Are you going down?” Davey asked Harper.
“My dad won’t let me,” she said.
“And Violet isn’t her real mother, so she can’t even take her down. She’s just like a babysitter,” Denise said as she moved right in Harper’s space, the little stalker she was.
Harper shoved her back, which shocked me.
I’d never seen Harper get physical with anyone.
“Go away. Violet is a real mother. She’s not on the phone like your mom always is!” she shouted.
“Hey, hey, hey.” I took her hand and walked her away. “Harps, you can’t react to her. That’s what she wants.”
Tears ran down her face, and I bent down to get eye level with her and wrapped my arms around her.
“She’s been saying that all day. That you’re not a real mama. That I’m just a big, sad baby.” She sniffed.
I had the sudden urge to drop-kick Denise Quigley, even though I knew I couldn’t do that. It didn’t stop me from wanting to.
“She’s just unhappy. You’re not sad and you’re not a baby.”
“You feel like a real mama sometimes, Vi,” Harper said, her voice cracking as the words left her mouth.
I feel like a real mama when it comes to this little girl.
“I love you the way a mama does, Harps. And that’s all that matters. So Denise Quigley can suck a lemon,” I said, and Harper’s body shook with laughter as she sniffed a few more times.
I looked up at the slide as two more kids came down, one by one, without incident.
Jeanne had just done it with Lily.
“I know you do.”
“And we don’t care what Denise Quigley thinks, Harps. We know how we feel. We know who we are. She’s got her own issues. So let’s just have some fun today and ignore Denise, okay?”
“Okay. I like that idea.” She smiled after wiping the last of her tears away.
“Maybe me and Harper could go down the slide together,” Lily said. “It’s not really even bigger than the one at Blushing Park by your house that we go down all the time. It’s just not yellow and pretty.” Lily chuckled.
“Do you think I could go down with Lily, Vi?” Harper asked me, with all the trust in the world.
“Let me ask you something,” I said, tucking the hair behind her ear. “Do you want to go down the demon because it’s something you want to do, or because you don’t want Denise to tease you about it?”
Because we are not going to let a seven-year-old bully decide what we do.
“I don’t care what Denise thinks. She’s a meanie anyway.” Harper smiled this crooked little smile that almost killed me. “I just want to show Daddy that I’m a big girl.”
