"I will not. I won't," she said, as if she really believed she had a choice. It would have been cute if she hadn't stamped my foot at the same time she said it.
"You will and there's no fighting it," I said.
"You can't make me! Foul demon, release me!" She wrenched free from my grasp and ran down the stairs, depositing a trail of dirt from the soles of her bare feet.
"Grace!" I yelled. "You come back here or you'll regret it." I chased after and caught up just as she rounded on the bottom of the stairs. Her small, slow legs were no match for me no matter how fast they moved.
She wiggled and jerked in my arms, an exhaustive effort that finally stopped as we got back onto the next floor. We entered the bathroom where she disrobed, relenting under my gaze. She got in the tub and looked at me with unmasked anger.
I took the sponge full of soapy water and shampoo and worked up a lather on her unkempt dirty blonde hair. I never know how she gets so dirty. It's as if she had spent the afternoon playing in a tar pit. She wasn't in a cooperative mood and swayed and dodged when I tried to untangle her hair, causing a bit of lather to get into her eye.
"Dad!" she wailed, her anger downgrading to moping.
"Oh hush." I wiped the offending puff of shampoo from her face. "What did you do today? You're filthy."
She smiled in triumph, quite proud of herself and eager to share her day now that she had temporarily forgotten that she was furious with me.
"I fought a T-rex." Her hands mimicked dinosaur claws.
"Did you win?" I asked and rinsed off her hair.
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