Hop to It – Daniel 52

 

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.

There is some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Daniel episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Daniel wasn’t sure what to do anymore. He’d eaten the egg he’d bought for himself and, guiltily, the one he got for Daisy as well. He was going to hold onto that until she came back – a reward for being away and naturally something to show that he had been thinking of her while she was with her mum. But then he’d got all maudlin this morning and following the usual cup of tea, and before he could stop himself, he found the box was open and the chocolate was gone. Gone inside him. 

Daisy had been with Chrissy since Saturday. This had given Daniel ample time to tidy up, go through every room of the house and repatriate the things he could repatriate. He’d even had time to make everything untidy again and go round again. Was this all he did before the past year, he wondered? The bathroom had even been cleaned properly – sort of – which was something he’d never really considered doing, and yet there it was, almost like new. Having his daughter around had changed his priorities at least, and made it impossible to keep on top of everything domestically at most.

Bored of the news, feeling kind of anxious and frustrated with the next step of lockdown lift he watched Quiz TV until he realised half the day had drifted away. So he texted Chrissy and asked how she was doing and how Daisy was and whether their plans were still on track for Daisy to return on Sunday. Ten minutes later he got a text back that just said Yes, Fine. So that was that then.

Ten minutes later he asked if they could hook up on a video call and say hi and he could see how Daisy was doing. Ten minutes later he got a text back that just said Difficult now, maybe later.

Five minutes later he sent another text asking if they could do it at about 3pm as he was going out later. Despite the wildly unlikely nature of the claim, Chrissy agreed to the time adding the usual video channel would have to suffice as she wouldn’t be able to use the computer. 

Daniel switched up his game, deciding to make sure Daisy would look forward to her return. He flew around the house finding as many of her toys and costume pieces as possible. Then, thanking the gods for recycling, he retrieved a load of chocolate egg boxes from the cardboard bin and spent a merry quarter of an hour piecing and sticking them back together into box shapes.

Coloured paper and foil for sparkles - lots of sparkles - were found and either cut into star shapes or left to sparkle in their crumpled form. Searching round the house he ended up in the bedroom where a three part folding mirror stood on a dresser. He piled his findings on top of this, arranging the boxes as some kind of platform and the sparkles suspended in front of the mirror and scattered across the egg box landscape. 

Then he needed to position himself in front of it. Cursing himself for not having had the foresight to get some kind of tripod or stand for his smart phone to rest on he found a tall stool from the kitchen and, taping the phone carefully around a saucepan, he found he was able to position it suitably so when he reversed the camera he could see himself in front of the Easter grotto he’d created. 

So far, so great. Now for the final touches. In the bathroom he applied all his artistic skills to using Daisy’s face paints to give himself white cheeks and white teeth protruding from his mouth. He had to redo this a couple of times to avoid a more vampiric look. A bit of judicious back-combing and he’d fashioned ears from his own hair.

Resisting the urge to actually bunny hop back through the house he got to the bedroom with minutes to spare. He even found a magic wand and gathered together some extra sparkles to throw once they had connected. 

This was going to be a show-stopper, the Easter event that she’d remember forever - the time when the Easter bunny phoned her up and wished her all the luck spring could bring.

The phone rang and Daniel swiftly hit the answer button, quickly positioning himself back on the stool. He threw the sparkles in the air and in a high pitched voice - which he imagined all white rabbits would speak in - said “Happy sparkly Easter my lovely one!!!”

As the sparkles settled on the floor around him he focused on the phone’s screen to see Gordon looking puzzled.

“Daniel,” he said. “It’s about the statue. It needs to be better.”

Daniel picked up the nearest soft toy and flung it at the phone, knocking it off its mount and sending the construction to the floor. He was certain he’d heard the screen break, and the worst thing was if it was broken he wouldn’t be able to see Daisy at all.