February 2024 Flash Lit 6 (Alternate Version) - Alternate

 

Alternate

“But that means she never gets any jam!” Mary cried, outraged.  “Mama, that’s cheating!”

 

Julie sighed inwardly, but answered gently, “Yes, it is a kind of cheating.”

 

“Then I don’t want to be a queen,” Mary declared.

 

“You’ll have to settle for President, then,” Julie said, setting Through the Looking Glass and its alternating days of jam aside.

 

“Do Presidents get to wear sparkles and crowns?”

 

“Sparkles yes, if they want, but no crowns.”  Julie badly wanted to lie about the crowns because she would really like bedtime to be peaceful for once.  Some snide friend of Matt’s had asked her one time if she thought she was wasting her college degree staying home with Mary.  Clearly that woman in her spotless tailored suit had never had to debate this particular five-year-old, because it was like the Socratic method and the Inquisition at the same time.  Julie needed every bit of rhetoric and philosophy she’d ever learned.

 

Mary had been sleepier than Julie thought.  She curled around her favorite stuffed rabbit, flushed and angelic and deeply asleep.

 

Julie straightened the covers and patted the book on the nightstand.  When she stood up, she caught sight of herself in the mirror, a splotch of red paint on her cheekbone and another on her shirt.  They looked like hearts.

 

It was good to know she was loved, even in Looking-Glass World.