Shark Girl

Daisy sat in her mom’s office pulling at the thread holding the hem of her dress together. Her grandmother had made the beloved dress for her. After her mother snapped at her to stop touching the thread, she traced the sharks all over the dress quietly naming each one. After naming each shark about twenty times each, she got up and began spinning wildly in circles causing the tulle in the dress to bounce, tickling her legs. She giggled softly at first, which turned into a contagious fit of laughs as she collapsed to the ground. Her mother snapped loudly, waving her hands and making threats with her tensed lips. Then she threw an adult coloring book and some pens on the floor snapping again and pointing aggressively at the stack. Daisy scooted across the ground with large pouty lips and a furrowed brow.

Daisy watched as her mother furiously clacked her keys and tapped her feet amazed that she didn’t wear a hole through the floor. She watched as the picture frame on her desk wiggled its way towards the edge and as it inched closer and closer, she tensed, but her mother snatched the picture and slammed it face down on her desk before it fell to its demise. Then the foot came to a halt and her mother grabbed a squishy ball instead, ferociously pumping it with her bear-like grip.

Daisy knew that grip well. It was the grip she got as she was being dragged through the store or the grip she got when she was being scolded and forced into a corner to think about her behavior and the repercussions it has caused us all. Daisy didn’t even fully understand what her mother meant when she chirped the all-too-familiar phrase at her six-year-old daughter. Daisy took it to mean sit here and think about the ways you could punish me for being a mean mommy.

Daisy didn’t hate her mom, but she definitely considered herself a daddy’s girl, even if she didn’t see her daddy that much. Her daddy was a famous actor, and she didn’t really understand why, but she only got to see him for very brief visits in very secret spots with lots of security. She didn’t mind completely, but as each quick visit came to its end, she always secretly wished her daddy would swoop her up in his arms and take her with him so she could live with him. But, it never happened, and at the end of each visit, she had to drive home with Mom, which she always felt was her mother’s fault. She must be telling Daddy bad things about her to sway him to leave her behind with Mom. And after each visit, she vowed to be better or cuter or smarter or more entertaining the next time.

As Carla hung up the phone, she could see the misery her daughter was enduring, and she felt for her. She knew she constantly let her down, and she was only six years old. She also knew she had promised to take her to the aquarium today to see the new sharks they brought in, but with the disastrous mess created on some of their clients’ social media pages, she knew she had no time to step away. She knew her only option at saving the day would be to make her intern, Marcus, take her daughter to see the sharks. He was the most incompetent and therefore wouldn’t be missed, and she thought how hard could it be to watch an enthralled shark enthusiast at an aquarium? She knew her daughter, and she knew she would be glued to the sharks the whole day.

With one crisis averted thus buying her ten minutes to spare, Carla buzzed Marcus in and handed the young man three crisp hundred-dollar bills.

“Listen, you are taking my daughter to the aquarium downtown. This money is for two tickets to see the new sharks, the whole she-bang, and spare no expense. She can have one souvenir and the rest of the cash is yours. Return her in one piece and I will have another hundred waiting here for you. Do you understand?” Carla didn’t wait for his response and instead spun around on her Versace pumps. She picked her daughter up from her wallowing spell on the floor and stared at her curtly.

“You, young lady, are to listen to every word Marcus says. You under no circumstances leave his side. You will have no sugar, so don’t even beg for it. And, you will pick out one souvenir. No more. I promised you sharks, my love, and you will see your sharks. Now grab your backpack and Marcus will escort you to the car.” Carla’s tone softened near the end as she kissed her daughter’s round nose and whispered in her ear, “I love you.” With the buzz of her phone, she marched her way back to her desk and waved her hand towards the door, which Marcus took to mean leave now before you no longer have an internship.

Marcus recently graduated from Arizona State in marketing and communications. He had clearly been a frat bro and probably only squeaked through on his parent’s generosity to the school. His blond man bun sat neatly pinned to the back of his head, which prompted Daisy to ask why he had girl hair. Marcus had no patience to answer her and ignored her question. Daisy then proceeded to spout off every fact she knew about every shark in the world to impress her glorified babysitter, and yet he still walked through the parking garage, eyes glued to his phone. Daisy gave up on her keeper for the day. She had been to that aquarium and many other just like it around the world millions of times, and she was determined to have a good day.

As they approached the car, Daisy was shocked to see Mr. Edward driving. He only drove on special daddy days or fancy occasions for Mom, and even this morning Mr. Chuck had been their driver. Daisy thought it weird, but she liked Mr. Edward. He always snuck her a piece of candy after each disappointing return to the car without her father. Since Daisy’s interesting shark facts fell on deaf ears with Marcus, Daisy mused Mr. Edward the whole drive to the aquarium with fact after fact about the sharks. With each high-pitched giggle, Mr. Edward cracked a large smile and complimented Daisy on her infinite knowledge of sharks. Marcus continued to watch TikTok videos with his AirPods snug in his ears, oblivious to any of the conversation going on around him.

Daisy began to recognize the streets and knew they were close. She homed in on the facts she knew about the brand new sharks at the aquarium. As the large glass windows and the statues of sea turtles and fish came into view, Daisy squealed with delight. She began making what she called “shark growls” and pretended to bite Marcus. They came to a stop and Marcus and Daisy got out of the car while Mr. Edward parked the car. Marcus was always fifteen steps slower than Daisy, who snaked her way around the tanks and enclosures on a mission to find the sharks. As she whipped her way down the stairs she saw them gently swimming this way and that all around her. She was overwhelmed with the options on where to look. Marcus took the liberty to sit on a bench and continue texting while Daisy remained stunned. Her eyes fixated on these great beasts making her little heart full in the moment. For whatever reason, Daisy always felt a sense of peace and calm at the aquarium. The little girl had no idea that her heart possessed so much anxiety about her father, but the sharks and their gentle swimming steadied her young mind.

She ran up to the glass and pressed her face against it scouring the enclosure studying every nook and cranny. She had to make sure they were happy and spent the next thirty or so minutes glued to the glass which is why she jumped as she felt a hand close around her arm. She whipped her head around to see Mr. Edward standing there.

“Daisy, your father is waiting for you. Come with me,” Mr. Edwards whispered excitedly. There was absolutely only one thing in this world that trumped her attention to the sharks and that was the option to visit with her father. She would pass up every opportunity with the sharks every time to see her beloved daddy. Her jaw dropped but before she could let out her cheer, Mr. Edwards whipped his finger up to his mouth.

“We have to be quiet dear. We can’t let Marcus know we are leaving. Your father said to come alone.” Daisy peeked around Mr. Edward and noticed Marcus’s lack of attention towards her. She shook her head compliantly and grabbed his hand. He led her to the car, strapping her into her booster seat. He gave her a Capri Sun and some snacks, but she was out after thirty minutes on the road.

The sky had turned a soft purple when Daisy woke up to the car bouncing down a dirt road.

“Where are we?” Her little voice whined with exhaustion. She yawned and barely noticed that Mr. Edward didn’t answer her.

“Are we close to Daddy?” Again, she heard nothing from Mr. Edward, which made her a little angry. She hated being ignored, so she began thrashing her legs screaming, “I want my daddy. Where is Daddy?” The car came to a very abrupt halt which knocked the wind out of her as her body slammed into the seat belt. She began to cry and her hands clamored for the seat belt release. She managed to find it, but Mr. Edward ripped her door open pulling her out. The aggressiveness of it all sent fear barreling through every vein in her little body. Mr. Edward marched up to a small shed, fumbling with the key to the lock as he held the thrashing girl under his arm. She managed to wriggle her way to the ground only to feel the wrenching grip of his hand fling her up into the air, slamming her back down to the ground where he lightly rested his knee on her. The weight of his knee squeezed every morsel of air from her lungs, but it was all over shortly as he maneuvered the lock from the shed. He shoved little Daisy so hard through the door that she lost her footing and the door was slammed harshly behind her.

The days turned into nights all too slowly. Daisy was getting restless in her dungeon. Her little space contained a cot with a Dora the Explorer bed set, a mini fridge with water and capri sun. There was a small camper toilet for her to relieve herself and a small travel TV with old Disney VHS tapes. Mr. Edward had showed her how to use the ancient technology and every few days he came in to empty her toilet. Each day he brought her food and sometimes he would even bring her little treats like a shark coloring book with a box of old, broken crayons or an old gaming system called a Gameboy, which she had no desire to try out. She whined for her daddy every day and sobbed until her eyes throbbed and her lungs ached. Trying to appease Daisy, Mr. Edward gently reminded her that she would see her daddy soon if she was a good girl and listened to him. Daisy had started to lose hope in his promise.

Two weeks crept by and Daisy’s sadness crippled her. The little precocious girl lay with a half nibbled Uncrustable on her bed watching 101 Dalmatians for the 100th time in two weeks. Her body tensed as she heard Mr. Edward’s voice getting louder and nearer. He sounded very angry and uncollected, which was unusual for him as he was mostly a calm, collected man with very strategic and calculated plans. Not even Mr. Edward could have planned for the conversation he was having with Daisy’s father, movie legend: Stone Morris. There was a very limited number of humans on the planet who knew the truth about Daisy’s father’s secret, and he had been one of them. He had hatched this plan many moons ago simply waiting on the right time to snatch little Daisy away. He couldn’t have planned it any better and was very pleased with the ease of snatching her right in front of that unsuspecting, self-involved intern.

For the past two weeks, he had been mailing objects to Stone Morris hoping to insight fear and a sense of urgency to get his daughter back; however, he was annoyed to find little communication and certainly no urgency from the actor. Today, with little patience left for the rouse, he decided to make the call to Stone threatening his daughter’s life. He dialed the celebrities phone number as he marched out to Daisy’s shed shouting angrily because of each hoop he had to jump through to get to Stone Morris’s personal line. As he whipped Daisy’s shed door open the sun burned her eyes. She covered them with her small hands and shivered in her bed.

“Listen here. Tell Stone to get his ass on this phone or I will start cutting every little finger and toe on this girl’s body and mail them to him. Do you understand me?”

Daisy tried to run at him and slip around him, but he grabbed her by her ponytail, kicking the door closed with his foot. Daisy thrashed and screamed and watched Mr. Edward’s black eyes soften and his hands gripping her hair relaxed.

“Mr. Morris. You’ve finally gotten my message.” A smirk grew across his acne scarred face. He put the phone on speaker, and Daisy could hear the gruffness of her father’s voice.

“What do you want?”

“Mr. Morris. I think you know what I want, and I think I have a very enticing offer for you.”

“I highly doubt you could offer me anything enticing. Get on with it.” Mr. Edward’s confidence quavered. What could he possibly mean by that? Surely he knew that he had his daughter. He pushed on with his demand, “I have your precious daughter, Daisy, and you can have her back unharmed for $15 million dollars, but every day you go without…”

“Listen here. I have no daughter so stop with these threats. You will get no dime from me you low-life bastard.” The line remained quiet and Mr. Edward couldn’t find a word to say in the audaciously curt denial. It was Daisy who broke the silence as she screamed, “Daddy! Daddy help me. Help me!”

Mr. Morris simply responded with, “Call the girl’s mother.” Then the line went silent. Mr. Edward slumped over and crawled to the corner. He wrapped himself up in a ball, latched onto his hair, and screamed. He knew Mr. Morris was an ass, but he couldn’t have predicted the heartlessness of such a man. Daisy crawled under her cot shaking, unable to comprehend the situation. She kept whispering, “I want Daddy” over and over and over to the point where Mr. Edward jolted up from the ground screaming, “Well he doesn’t want you!” He slammed the door and left the child for the rest of the day. Daisy reached for a little shark figurine he had left in the shed for her and she tried remembering the sharks swimming around her until she fell asleep with tear and snot trails on her face.

It was only a day later that Daisy was rescued. Her mother came busting through the door scooping her up in her arms. She kissed her ferociously scanning every inch of her body for wounds. Daisy couldn’t hear anything her mother was saying. The world seemed silent as her eyes scanned the earth for signs of her father. With every second that passed with no sign of her father, the world grew noisier and noisier. Small bits and phrases entered Daisy’s brain. She was attempting to listen for anything indicating her father was nearby, but each word and phrase fell empty upon her. She did turn to see the police carrying a body from the nearby cabin wrapped in a black bag, but Daisy had no interest in figuring out what the large object was.

It wasn’t until her mother gripped her chin, forcing their eyes to meet that Daisy even realized her mother had been calling her name.

The only thing Daisy could utter was, “Where’s Daddy?”

Her mother set her on the tailgate of the Sheriff’s truck and Daisy sullenly watched her mother clutch her chest and rest her palm upon her lips. The sobs forced her mother to hunch over gasping for breath. Daisy stared at her mother’s agony for the next few minutes and felt a twinge of relief as her mother wrapped her arms around Daisy. She snuggled her head into her mother who repeated over and over how much she loved her, and even though she ached to see her father, she couldn’t help feel the same sense of peace she felt watching the sharks swim around her.