The Princess: A Walkabout

“Daddy, do you think I might be a princess, someday?” asked Tammy, his five-year old, adopted daughter, as they were preparing to go to the park to see the royal visitors. “Like the real princess we are going to see today?”

“You are my little princess,” replied Theodore, a single dad and a police officer. “Your mother and I chose you out of all of the children in the whole world to be our little girl. Now, your mommy is in heaven, but you will always be our little princess.”
      
“I want to be a real princess, Daddy,” insisted Tammy.

“I might have to find a prince charming for you, then.”

“Like in fairy tales?” asked Tammy. “That is only make-believe, Daddy.”

“If only I could make your dreams come true.”

“Do they have princesses in heaven, Daddy?”

Tammy continued to bombard him with questions about princesses. He did not know how to answer all of her questions. He only knew that seeing the royals might help her understand the meaning of the word princess.

Theodore stopped at the flower shop to buy flowers for the prince and princess, who were going to do a short walkabout.

“If the royals are close by, you can give the princess this bouquet, all right, Tammy?”

“They are so beautiful, Daddy!”

Theodore did not expect to see the huge crowd that had gathered in the park.

“If we are lucky, the prince and princess will walk by us and say hello. I brought my camera, so that we will have a picture of them even if we do not have a chance to talk to them.”

Tammy waited patiently behind the barrier that had been set up. She held the flowers very carefully.

Theodore took a photograph of her just as the royals walked up to her and the princess graciously accepted her floral gift.

Tammy was thrilled and talked about the princess, all of the way home.

Later, Theodore enlarged the photograph he had taken earlier

“My God, the hit-and-run driver who took my wife’s life is standing beside my daughter!”