Beauty and the Demon

1

I heard a car door shut from outside, and I launched out of bed.

"Father!" I hopped down the stairs, and opened the door to see my tired father come home from another one of his trips.

"Hello darling! How are you?!" He smiled at me.

I took his arm and brought him inside and he sat in his reclining chair.

"I am good now that you are home." I smiled widely.

"That reminds me, that was my last trip. I'm a retired captain." My father said with a smile.

"What? But you love exploring! And what about the trip you promised me!? You promised you would take me on one of your trips." I frowned. I've always wanted to go with him because it would be fun to go to the places that I read about in my books and heard about when my father came home.

"I guess I could tell the crew to fire up the ship one last time." He said with a smile playing onto his lips.

"Oh father thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I said hugging him and he just chuckled.

"We will leave in a few days. Why don't you get a head start on packing while I take a nap?" He said smiling tiredly. I felt bad about making him go on another trip. After all, he had just been on one. Plus he is going to retire. Sometimes it amazes me that my father indeed is pretty old.

"Father, we don't have to go. I mean, I want to, but you are tired and I don't want you to get even more run down." I said with a frown.

"Oh but Beauty, I want to take you. I promised." He said winking at me.

"Okay. But you better be careful when were out there." I said jokingly.

"I think you should be the one that should be careful. You don't have your sea legs." He chuckled.

"True. Well I'm gonna get packing." I turned and started walking up the stairs but I realized I didn't know where we were going and what that would require me to wear. "Where are we going? And what should I wear?" I said turning around on the third step from the bottom.

"It's a surprise. And I would pack something's for all types of weather. Warm and cool weather." He said smiling.

"Okay father." I turned back around and started my climb up the stairs and I soon heard the familiar sound of my father snoring. I smiled to myself and headed into my bedroom.

It was an ocean blue and had many shelves full of books, and I had maps hung up and finally in one of the corners in my room was one of my most prized possessions, my guitar. It used to be my moms.

Even though I have never met her, I missed her. And I know my father did too. I was never able to talk about her to my father because if I did, he would get really mad. That only happened once, and other than that I've never seen him mad at me before. I just stayed away from the subject with him.

I walked into my closet and grabbed my brown leather jacket that was really warm (It too had also been my moms) and put the jacket into a blue duffle bag. I then put some other clothes in the bag, and when I was done I zipped the bag shut.

Then I grabbed my light brown satchel that has gotten beat up over the years, and put in my three favorite books. 1984, The Odyssey, and the book that would've been given to me by my mom when I would first come home as a new born, a beat up copy of Peter Pan. It was a childish choice yes, but I could read the story over and over again. It also made me think of my mom, and it always made me smile.

I then put in my journal where I wrote songs, and put in my lucky blue pen. If you haven't noticed already, I liked the color blue. I then put my guitar in its case so I could play it on the trip. And with that, I was done.

I laid on my bed looking at the ceiling satisfied, and fell asleep.