Ariel's Day Out (II)

Ariel was super, super, excited.

This was her first time spending all day with Daddy.

Correction.

First time by herself.

No Mummy, no Brother Alex, no Sister Rory.

Daddy was all hers today.

Her face scrunched up a bit.

Okay, maybe not all hers.

She would have to share him with Uncle Sam.

Ariel pursed her lips with a little bit of dissatisfaction, but the low mood passed by quickly when she turned to look at her father.

Seeing the familiar sharp jawline, smooth skin and silky black hair, Ariel smiled.

That was her Daddy.

He was the bestest best best Daddy in the whole world and only Mummy was good enough for him.

Her sweet, gentle Mummy that was so soft and smelled like … well, like what a Mummy should smell like. Ariel couldn't quite describe it, other than the fact that she would get all soft and comfortable once she was with her Mummy.

Like how it was with Daddy, though it was slightly different.

Daddy was also sweet and gentle but he was strong. Ariel felt like no matter what happened, if Daddy was there, everything was fine.

She felt safe and secure with her parents, but the feeling was different.

She felt comforted and safe with her mother, knowing instinctively that her mother would do anything to protect her. If anything scary happened, she just had to hold her Mummy to feel loved and comforted.

With her father, though, the sort of comfort and safety she felt was slightly different. As if nothing would go wrong - and if anything scary did happen, Daddy would take care of it and she just had to wait.

Mummy was like a soft cushion while Daddy was a steel wall.

Mummy was so pretty and Daddy was so handsome. Together, they were like Angels that came from Heaven.

So perfect and she loved seeing them together. Especially since they were always holding hands, or kissing, or hugging, or looking at each other so lovingly and sweetly.

Ariel felt she was the luckiest girl on Earth to have them for her parents.

She didn't understand why anyone would try to be like Mummy.

Nobody can be like Mummy.

Mummy is Mummy.

She had seen many, many women with the same hairstyles like Mummy, or wearing the same dress as Mummy, or even talk like Mummy. They even looked at Daddy the way Mummy looked at Daddy.

But Daddy never looked at them.

Daddy was smart.

He can tell who is the real Mummy and who is the fake Mummy.

They didn't look like Mummy anyway.

Mummy is Mummy.

Ariel looked at her father again and a rare contemplative look flashed on her face.

Would there be such people at Daddy's office?

As soon as the thought entered her mind, Ariel's eyes went wide open in shock and she shook her head subconsciously.

No, there couldn't be.

Mummy wouldn't allow it, right?

Ariel nodded her head then threw the thought out of her mind.

Since she felt this was not a problem, there was nothing for her to worry about.

Mummy had always told her: just do what you feel.

Something about she can never go wrong by doing so. Ariel didn't quite understand what her mother meant by that, but she followed it faithfully.

She also didn't really understand why, by doing so whenever the brothers and sisters asked her while they were playing in class, they would clap.

Didn't really matter.

Ariel was just happy that they liked it.

Right now, though, there was still something she felt like doing but she couldn't. Not bein able to, and because it was not within her control, made her feel rather helpless.

She looked down at her simple T-shirt and 3/4 pants outfit and sighed again.

Pity.

She knew that people would still call her cute and what-not in this simple outfit but it certainly would be better if she was wearing her Princess Dress.

She felt prettier in it.

While in this outfit, she just felt comfortable.

She just felt it was important to dress appropriately for the occasion, and wearing what she felt was best in what they were doing, also impacted the way she acted.

If she was in a Princess Dress, she was a princess.

In this comfortable outfit, she was just a pretty kid.

Not the same.

Ariel patted her pants.

Luckily, it was a good pair of pants.

She just had to make do.

Begrudgingly.

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Soon, they reached Smith Industries Headquarters.

The building was huge.

So huge that Ariel couldn't see the top even though she tried to. She plastered her forehead on the window as much as she could, craning her head upwards but she could only see part of the building.

Half of her vision was obscured by the roof of the car.

"Daa-aaa-ddyyyy…" Ariel called out, stretching the name a bit.

"Yes, Rie?" Kyle answered, skillfully driving the car into the carpark, thereby enveloping them in slight darkness.

Ariel huffed, not happy at not being able to see the majestic building.

"Why are we here?"

Kyle raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you want to come to my office?"

Ariel pouted and looked around, "This is your office?"

Kyle laughed, then rubbed her head after parking the car, "No, Rie. This is where I park the car before going up to my office."

Ariel frowned.

"Carpark? This?" she asked as she saw her father get out, then come to her side to open the door.

"Is this below the ground?" she asked as she watched in fascination as her father unbuckled the seatbelt as she could never do that no matter how she tried.

How did Daddy do it so easily?

"Yes, Rie," Kyle answered, "We are underground. That means, we are below the building that is my office. We will take the elevator up and go straight to the floor that my office is at."

Feeling him putting his hands under her armpit, Ariel allowed herself to be carried out and clung onto her father's neck as she still looked around.

Sure enough, there were a lot of cars parked around. It wasn't really dark, but Ariel was feeling rather weird being underground as everything was concrete and closed. She was used to open space and even in the mall, the ceiling was high.

It was like a man-made cave.

A bigger cave than normal, but smaller than being in a mall.

Ariel looked up and for some reason, she just felt her heart beating faster.

What was it that Daddy had said?

They were underground, and that above her, were heavy buildings. How could the top hold it up?

She didn't like it.

Kyle looked at her frowning face and he was slightly puzzled at her reaction. Then, he realised that this was the first time Ariel was in an underground carpark.

Before this, they would either park in an open space, or, be dropped off at the entrance.

Ariel clung onto her father's neck tightly, leaning on him and feeling secure in his arms.

"What's wrong, Rie?" she heard her father ask.

Ariel shook her head, not being able to explain the reason for her uncomfortableness. So she just whispered, "I don't like it."

Feeling her father hold her even tighter, she closed her eyes and just listened to his heartbeat.

That calmed her down.

Daddy was here.

Daddy would make everything all right.

Kyle, seeing this, frowned even more.

It was obvious that Ariel was feeling very uncomfortable and agitated but could it really be due to the underground carpark? She had never displayed any signs of being claustrophobic, as there was no problem whenever they used the elevator.

Claustrophobia would be the fear of enclosed spaces and Ariel certainly never displayed such fear.

But this?

He could actually feel her trembling a bit and her rapid breathing, but she kept quiet and simply clung on to him like a koala bear.

He looked around and a conjecture came to his heart. He went to the elevator quickly and once inside, he patted her back, saying, "We're now in the elevator and we're going up."

Ariel nodded and open her eyes a bit. Seeing the familiar box and feeling the movement, she was feeling more settled.

"Feeling better?" Kyle asked.

Ariel nodded again.

Which confirmed that it wasn't claustrophobia.

"You did not like being under the ground earlier?"

Ariel shook her head.

"Why?"

Ariel shrugged.

"Was it scary?"

Ariel nodded.

"Can you tell me what was scary?"

Ariel looked up at her father and blinked, then held her hands tightly as she leaned back on him.

"Can the building fall down?" she asked softly.

Her question verified his initial conjecture.

"Not on its own," Kyle answered, "The structure is very solid and it has existed for a long time."

Ariel wasn't convinced but she still just nodded.

Kyle sighed.

Turned out his youngest most likely had Taphephobia - the fear of being buried alive. He held her tighter to himself and thought that this visit certainly revealed a lot about his youngest.

What other things would she surprise him with?