A story of a little girl's travel

The little girl in red said to her father, “Can I go out and see the world for a while? I promise I will come back.”

Little girl dreams of the excitement of the wild world where people hug each other and seem overly happy after drinking a strange liquid from the bar. She dreams of the endless chitchat and shopping journey with fellow little girls. She dreams of traveling to Africa, Europe and maybe Antarctica. She dreams of a little prince who will hold her heart for the rest of her life. She said to herself, “I can’t find such things by living at this house on top of the hill.”

Her father looked at her worriedly. He knows that she was not capable of a long journey on her own. His little girl has been captured by the flowing love of her parents and spoiled by all the protection that money can buy.

Bodyguards watch over her for 24 hours a day. Noone is allowed to get near to her within a 10 meter distance. “This is to ensure her safety because she is my most precious possession,” said the father.

After a couple of days of quarrel that involves an eating strike from the girl, her father gave up.

“We can have her bodyguards protect her from behind and we do not have to be seen by her to protect her and give her our love,” mother said to father.

Then comes the grand day of little girl’s first adventure out to the wild world. In her little red riding hood she jumps around and runs all over the house.

“I will soon be free and see the beauty of the world that I have never experienced before!” She shouted in excitement. Her maids thought that she is crazy but they love the little girl anyway because she is an angelic girl that is so easy to love.

“We will miss her a lot,” the said among each other, “but we can prepare all the things that she loves in discreet. We should put it in her carry bag and give it to the bodyguards who will protect her from afar. That way, she will always get what she needs should trouble comes.”

So there she goes… She gave a hug to her parents and promised that she will be good.

“Remember what we always teach you. Don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t lie, don’t….”

“I know, I know, don’t worry that, I know those rules by heart because you always repeat it every day since I was born!” The little girl cut her father's words off.

“Now, I will go and will return perhaps in a long year. Therefore, try not to miss me too much,” Little girl said to her parents. “Actually, maybe you should try not to love me too much because it might be bad for you.”

Father and mother wonder, “How can we possibly not love and miss someone who is born of us, who has been with us with all this year, who has been loved so dearly and taken care off by us?”

But they let her go in sadness, hoping that oneday she will return home and able to embrace her parents’ love back.

So, little girl starts walking… She went into a bar and ordered the drink that is often curious about. She sees people laugh after they drink it so it must be a happy potion, she thought. It might make me happy forever.

But when she tasted it, she found out that the smell is irritating and it does not taste good at all. So, she spit it out. “How could something that makes people look happy taste this bitter and awful?” She shouted.

“Maybe you should try my cocktails,” the barman said while giving her a glass of a bright colored liquor. “It’s called Cosmopolitan and it is sweet and bright, just like you,” he said.

The little girl laughs and feels flattered to hear such compliment. She drank the Cosmopolitan and said, “Wow, it does taste good. I do feel cosmopolitan after I drank this glass.”

“Let’s try this Midori Illusion,” the barman said, handing the green liquid over to her. “It certainly makes my eyes green with greed when I look at you. You are such a possession to have.”

Little girl wondered what the barman said. She did not know that the barman know how rich and greatly feared her father is. He has a hidden hatred for her father and deep down inside, he wants to be like the little girl’s father.

“If I can have this girl, the father will give up all he has and his richness and power will be mine,” he thought.

After the girl drank the drink, she did feel some sort of illusion. The barman appeared to be nice and handsome. “He could be the prince I am looking for,” she thought, “After all, he knew exactly what I want to drink and say nice things to me. He gives me what I want easily without giving me a lot of advices like my parents do.”

She then drank more of the red and green liquid. After a while, she started feeling dizzy.

“Excuse me, but I feel awful. I thought that the happy potion will make me happy but I sure don’t feel happy feeling like this!” She shouted.

“I want to throw up.”

And she did, all over the bar and the barman’s face.

“Nevermind, little girl, don’t worry about spoiling my clothes and making this acidic smell linger in my bar. I am used to it. After all, you are a treasure of richness,” He said. “I will even close the bar now and take you home with me.”

Off they went to the barman’s house. The house is big and there were so many people working on the courtyard. Some of them approach the barman and gave him money they stole from others.

Other people said, “Here are the girls that you asked me for.”

“Here are some more soldiers for you to fight the feared man on top of the hill.”

In her drunken state, the little girl was confused but she felt alright in the barman’s embrace because the barman does not give her rules and she feels that she can do what she wants.

But the barman left her lying on the garden because he feared that she will throw up in his magnificent home and spoil all the furniture.

The little girl was cold but then she fell asleep after throwing up some more.

“I need a blanket and perhaps some medicine,” she groaned before falling asleep.

The bodyguards who have been watching her took out the blankets and tablets that were prepared by the maids. They discreetly put the medicine inside her mouth and covered her up in blanket.

“We can actually bring her back to the house on top of the hill but her father told us to let her be where she wants to be while we take care and guard her,” They said to each other.

After around five hours, little girl woke up and was hungry. But she saw that the barman was busy giving orders and laughing. She approached him and said, “Do you have any food I can eat?”

The barman looks at her and said, “My sweet darling girl, of course you may have everything you ask for with one condition.”

“What is that? I will do it,” The little girl said quickly because her stomach was calling for food and hunger has made her sense of thinking blunt for a while.

“First, you must promise that you will forget about your father and do what I tell you to do. To be happy and to have what you want, you must not be attached to him. Because all his rules and so called teachings have turned you into a goody goody and people don’t think you are fun when you don’t do something because your father tells you not to,” The barman replied.

“Okay, I will do it!” She replied, thinking that what the father doesn’t know wouldn’t hurt.

So the barman gave her all the food she loves.

After a few months, the girl grew tired of doing things for the barman, especially because the barman does not give her the loving and hugging that her parents give her. She misses her father’s love and how he tells her how he loves her.

“Maybe, following a bit of rules isn’t as bad as it seems. At least, he really loves me and never tells me to do stuff for his own good only. When he tells me to do something, he always wants me to think about the people around me. He really loves me for who I am,” she said to herself while sobbing.

“I want to go home,” she told the barman.

The barman looked at her and said, “You can’t. You promised me to forget about the house on top of the hill. You have been disobedient so I shall punish you because that desire can ruin the kingdom I am trying to build!”

He put the little girl in a prison at night and during the day, she must work in his garden and clean his courtyards.

“That’s why so many people were working for him. He isn’t a great man I thought him to be,” little girl often said to herself at night. “He is deceitful!”

Her father, who knows about the daughter’s story from the bodyguards often cry too. He cries when she cries but she does not know it. He longs to bring his daughter back to his house where she can be safe and sound.

So made a tactic that his soldiers and bodyguards would rescue the girl and other people in the barman’s capture. They raided the barman’s house and saved some people who were trained to be good soldiers too.

One day, the barman came face to face with the father.

“Let’s end this war and live happily next to each other ever after,” The barman said. He almost lost the battle.

“I cannot live with you because you are full of wickedness and will turn my household wicked. Therefore you must be vanished,” The father said.

“You are known for being someone who is nice to everyone, so let me live in this world along with you and do our own stuff. We will fight the battle again oneday and see who will win,” said the barman.

The father let him go because he knows that the barman was given a place in the world too. “But oneday,” he said, “There will be a great battle between us and I will win because I love my daughter and other people in my household so much that I want to protect them from you. They will live happily ever after and will no longer seek for love potion.”

So off the barman went. Where he went, noone knows, but he said before he leaves that he will be everywhere and noone can see him because he will disguise himself. He said that he will build his own kingdom without anyone knowing.

So off the bodyguards and the father went to look for the little girl. They took her out of her prison. She ran to her father and said, “Father, I am so sorry for being such an unfaithful daughter. I looked for happiness outside the house not knowing where I’d end up. I am so bad that I no longer worth living at your house,” she cried.

“Daughter, no matter how filthy you feel and no matter how bad you have been, I would always be here for you and will always love you because my loves is never ending and I know that you would eventually return home,” The father said.

Little girl felt stupid for not realizing what a great man her father was. Out of everything that she looked for, everything was stored at the house on top of the hill. Everything that she wanted was love.

So she returned home.

She is still grumpy and complained about her father’s strictness and rules but she understood that it was for her and other people’s good.

And after living away from home and her parents’ love for a while, she knew that she would never go back to the barman’s house.

She smiled as she writes this story.

The little girl was me.