The child took the sand dollar in her fuzzy paws gently, inspecting it, holding it up close to her eyes and nose, sniffing.
She huffed quietly, looking up at him slightly.
“I guess I can forgive you… gee, I wonder what I could buy with sea-money… I was just really worried! You weren’t here when I tried looking, it made me scared! What if you were hurt?… oh! I was practicing my cool teleporting stuff, but it didn’t really work. I’m still getting used to it, it’s pretty buggy… by the way, whoever you had in charge was a total buttface! They didn’t let me in at all.”
She pouted slightly, tightening her grip on the sand dollar as her tail coiled and flickered behind her. Her face softened slightly as she continued.
“I’m getting better at my teleporting, but there was this one really funny time where I teleported to the completely wrong place! I can’t read the screen really well on my weird new magic stuff, so I just try thinking real hard about where I wanna go, but that doesn’t work well often. I gotta get more specific…”
She shook her head gently before starting again.
“So, I was thinking really hard about casinos, cuz that’s where you’re at! But when I did, I showed up at exactly the wrong place! It was still a casino, but not nearly as pretty as yours. I walked around, and I thought I saw one of your men, he sure looked like it, with the suit and the cool glasses and a hat like yours too! When I asked him if he knew where you were, he gave me a really funny, twisted up look, kinda like what I look like when I’m in deep trouble. He pulled me close and bent over, askin’ me all these questions, like how I knew you and where I came from, and who I worked for! I don’t got a job! After I answered them, he told me never to be around you again, that you were bad business and I couldn’t trust you. He said I’d be safer not knowing or being around you. Then he walked me out the building and I left on foot- er… paw. Who was that guy? He was goofy, thinking you’re dangerous! Ha ha! I’m not gonna listen to him, silly guy… he had this cool gold tooth too. But whatever. Funny story, right?”
The child giggled fondly at the memory, like it was such a crazy thing. Some random guy, telling her he was bad news and that she needed to stay away, who did he think he was? Her uncle Don wasn’t a bad guy! He was the kindest adult she knew.