Mommy's Little CapitalistBy Gidgetgirl
Dear Bearded Man
“Watcha doing, Jen-Ben?” Xander asked his four year old daughter. “Are we coloring?” A goofy grin crossed his face.
“Because if we’re coloring, Daddy could help.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to mention that Daddy was very good at coloring spaceships, and monsters, and cute little houses with white picket fences, but Xander held back the words and bent down to her level instead.
Jenny looked up at him, her eyes wide. “Oh no, I’m not coloring, Daddy,” she said brightly, sounding as hopelessly earnest as only she and her mother could. “I’m writing a very important letter.”
“All grown up and supporting the US Postal office,” Xander mused sentimentally.
Jenny tilted her head to the side, confused, her honey brown pig tails bouncing with the movement.
“Nevermind,” Xander said. “Who are you writing the letter to, Baby?”
Jenny knew that she was her daddy’s baby, and her mommy was her daddy’s Oh Baby. Daddy called Mommy ‘Oh Baby’ all the time when they were having special happy sex time.
“Can you read me your letter?” Xander asked, recognizing the expression on Jenny’s face and sensing that she was seconds away from asking a cheerfully blunt question that he didn’t want to answer.
Jenny beamed at him, and began to read her letter out loud.
“Dear Bearded Man,” she read. “You may not remember me, but we met at the mall last Friday. My name is Jenny Harris, I am four years old, capitalism is fun fun fun, and I have been a very, very, very…” she took a deep breath and Xander waved his hand toward her, as if he were conducting a musical, “very, very, very, very good girl this year.”
It took Xander until that moment to realize exactly what the letter was. It was a letter to Santa Claus. Bearded man.
Jenny continued reading her letter. “For my yuletide presents, I would like two items,” she said, and Xander, ever the proud papa, marveled at the vocabulary she’d picked up in the past few months.
“I would like whip cream,” Jenny said, and Xander stared at her, confused. Why in the world would she want whip cream? He wasn’t even sure if she liked whip cream. “Mommy says to tell you that she would like whip cream too, and she has been a very, very, very…” Jenny took another breath, “… good girl this year, too. Daddy would like a Barbie doll, and Mr. Tweed Man would like some more tweed and funny smelling British stuff.”
Xander had to laugh at her description of Giles, but he couldn’t let the Barbie comment pass without saying something. “A Barbie?” he asked.
Jenny looked at him and nodded. “Yes,” she said decisively, and that was that.
“I would like one more tiny thing,” Jenny continued, her voice taking on a hopeful tone and looking at her daddy out of the corner of her eyes. Xander sighed. He wasn’t good at resisting his daughter’s advanced wheedling skills. He wasn’t good at it at all.
“So I would like you to please bring me a baby brother,” Jenny finished with a flourish.
Xander looked at her, and she looked back unflinchingly. “And that’s the end of the letter?” he asked. She nodded solemnly. “Did you sign it?” he asked, stuttering a little. Jenny nodded and showed him the sheet.
“Right there,” she said.
He looked down at the sheet of paper, and what he saw reminded him that Jenny couldn’t yet write anything except her own name.
“Jen-Ben,” he said, looking at the body of the ‘letter,’ “that’s a dollar sign.”
“The Bearded Man will be able to read it,” Jenny said confidently. “Mommy said he will.”
Xander peered down at her. “So you already showed the letter to Mommy?” he asked, wondering what Anya had thought of Jenny’s teeny tiny request.
Jenny nodded.
“And what did Mommy say when you asked Santa for a little brother?” he asked her, his heart beating like crazy at the thought of sharing another child with the woman he loved. He’d never felt closer to her than when she’d given birth to Jenny, and she’d been so beautiful, so earthy and sexy when she’d been pregnant.
Jenny’s words snapped him out of the memories. “That’s when she asked for the whip cream,” Jenny said cheerfully. Without another word, she returned to her letter. Xander watched her for a moment, and then, wordlessly, he went to find her mother.
After all, he wasn’t very good at resisting Jenny’s wheedling.