Episode 146: Rainbow Duty (Emma)

The most important part of being a princess was being a friend. That was Emma’s belief, and so when she saw Orris sitting alone at a table, kind of hiding behind some trees in a way that looked like he just wasn’t involved at all, she knew he was the best option to help her be a monster-regent-helper.

She marched up to him and said, “By command of the people in charge you have to come with me.”

Orris groaned. “Which people in charge,” he asked through the most dismal voice she had ever heard.

Wow. He needed a friend. She could be that friend. She was great at that job.

As twin to the first born child of the crown princess, she was the best at supporting people and making sure they knew someone was there for them. She was so duty bound she would never get bored, and with Orris she was extra going to be busy.

Orris needed a person that was a friend person.

She huffed her chest and thought deep, daddy Spence voice, thoughts, like twice as deep as his voice. The deepest she could imagine. Why didn’t anyone here sound like a tuba?

No matter. She found her tuba-dad voice.

“The dads,” she replied.

He puckered his lips in a furrow-ey way and his face went from normal to really short scrunched, and he stood up. “Fine.”

This was going to be awesome, Emma decided.

“You’re not my boss just because you’re more hairy than me,” Orris barked.

“I am not hairy!” she defended. She hadn’t even grown under the arm sprouts. Even her mom had those. “I’m a lady,” she declared.

“You are too!” Orris argued. “You’re the hair! I read all about it, you and Fortinbrag. You’re the hairs.”

Emma knew this one! Some words were two words like Rembrandt, her dad Ach’s dog, could bark, or bark could be on a tree, or the dwarves could be inside a mine, but that didn’t mean they owned it, and also that winter was not the kind of thing you used to season chicken.

She knew all about those words.

She laughed, because Orris thought she was the furry and not the princessy.

“The heirs, she said, with a silent h just like air fairies, just like she had heard her daddy Niels say.

“Like the next to be king and his best helper,” she explained. “Not the hairs. And not the hares either. We’re not bunnies.”

Emma liked bunnies. If she could have any animal in the world she would have a bunny. It didn’t look likely because her mom had a fox and her dads had a cat and an ostrich and a dog.

But she could dream of the day she had a bunny. Maybe she could even ask for one.

“Well you’re not in charge,” Orris said back to her.

“I know,” she said. She would never be in charge. She was the best helper not the heir. “But you needed a distraction. You were thinking too hard. It’s my responsibility,” she said, proud she knew such a big word, “to help you.”

She could have said it was her duty, but duty sounded like dooty, which was poop. She didn’t want him to think she was saying she was his poop or something. She wanted to be his rainbow.

“You could just do it to be nice not because someone stuck you there,’ Orris said.

“No one made me be nice, Ori. I just wanted to. I picked you.”

He smiled a little and suddenly he wasn’t her-short he was taller. “Okay.”

Rainbow in action, Emma the mood improver. It worked with Fort, sometimes it worked with her mom, and usually it involved cleaning up after some sort of mess with her dad Ach.

“Why do they need us?” Orris asked.

“Because we are the festival watchers,” she pronounced. “So we have to keep things moving and be secret spies.”

She loved her dad Spence. He was the best dad and he was going to be a secret spy someday and he had a sword and she knew she couldn’t touch it but sometimes when he was sleeping she would sneak out of her room and go look at it, and sometimes when he was snoring she would try and lift the handle, but it was too heavy.

“And keep the kids happy?” he asked.

“Yup.” Since her dads were handling the adults, they were probably just in charge of kids. Ori was the best, because she hadn’t thought of that and just watching the kids made the job a lot easier.

“And report things,” she added. “We’re really important.”

She wanted Orris to know he was important. He was new there and sometimes new people felt funny, like sometimes when she went places she felt funny, but he had her and she was going to be his friend.

They headed past the pole that everyone was dancing around with ribbons and stuff and she checked on all the kids. A lot of them were her cousins and her aunts and uncles and her brothers and sisters, but some of them were people from other places that she didn’t know or people from school that she did know but weren’t family. She smiled at her friend Hailyn and her other friend Miria. They kept walking and Orris seemed to be leading, which was okay because Emma was the best at following.

“Let’s test the food first,” Orris suggested.

“For poison! Yes!” Some people here couldn’t have poison. She could, even if it meant she took a nap for a few days.

“You’re a natural at this,” she told him.

“I heard desserts are the best place to hide poison because the most people eat them.”

Sometimes Orris said creepy things that made Emma wonder if his last mom and dads were not nice people.

But it made him the best spy. They went to the buffet, which was right there, and then they could get a table and watch the kids at the pole and at the art tables and at the ring toss.

She took a really big empty plate from the middle of the table and started putting two of everything on it, so they could share one big plate together and Orris wouldn’t have to carry it. They took the desserts to a table with a plant that blocked some of the view, but Emma dragged her chair across the grass so she could have a better seat and they began testing.

Orris was fun. She was glad she picked him. They could hang out and be spies and make her dads’ lives easier. She could be everyone’s rainbow.

Her dad had been sad lately. Maybe Orris knew about sad dads, since he didn’t seem to have happy ones before. She would ask him, just as soon as her mouth wasn’t overflowing with sweet berries.

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