Free Shoot the Moon by Joseph T. Klempner Page B

form promising to pay the $1,100 himself if it turns out his insurance doesn’t cover it. He figures that ought to buy him about three weeks.
    From there, he takes his daughter for lunch at McDonald’s, where he eats his own Big Mac and finishes most of her Happy Meal. He wonders how long she can survive on french fries and Coke. She looks so pale and thin to him.
    He presents her with the plastic dolphin he bought her at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. She seems to like it, but asks him if he can carry it for her. She explains to him that she has to carry Larus, and Larus is very big.
    They go to Carl Schurz Park and watch the boats that go up and down the East River. They find a bench to sit on, and Kelly curls up in his arms.
    “I’m ready for the story,” she announces.
    “Are you certain you’re not too tired?” The truth is, he’s never been a very good storyteller, and he has no particular idea for one in mind.
    “I’m certain,” she assures him.
    So he does his best.
    The Little Princess
    Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a little princess-
    “Was she a ballerina?”
    “Of course she was a ballerina.”
    The Ballerina Princess
    Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a Ballerina Princess. The name of the kingdom was Yew Nork. It was a kingdom much like the city where we live, except that instead of having tall buildings all around, it had hundreds and hundreds of tall castles. And instead of being surrounded by rivers, it was surrounded by a wide moat. And one other thing: It was a magical kingdom. It was magical because it was a place where things could come true if you wished for them hard enough, and if you tried hard enough to make them come true.
    Now the Ballerina Princess was six years old. She had been born to a beautiful mother and a loving father. But there came a time when her mother had to go away, and of course that made the Ballerina Princess very, very sad.
    “Did her mother go to heaven?”
    Her mother went to heaven, yes. And that meant that her grandmother had to look after the Ballerina Princess for a while, because her father was so busy with work. But she also had someone else to help look after her. And that was the brave and loyal Prince Larus. So, in a way, the Ballerina Princess was luckier than most little girls, because instead of having just two people to protect her, she had three. And that’s an awful lot, especially when one of them is the brave and loyal Prince Larus.
    Even with his eyes closed, he can tell from her rhythmic breathing that his ballerina princess has fallen asleep in his arms. As he looks down at her little face, her tiny mouth slightly open, Goodman aches with worry. The worst part about flying down to Florida was leaving his daughter behind, even for a couple of days. The thought that he might lose her, that she could actually die, is simply too much to imagine.
    “Please let my angel be okay,” he says softly. He has always believed, for some reason, that if you give thanks or say prayers out loud, even in just a whisper, it counts more than if you just think the words to yourself.
    “Please,” he repeats.
    That evening, Goodman drops Kelly back at his mother-in-law’s. She cries when he leaves, and he promises her that it won’t be long before she can come and live with him. His own eyes water as he walks home to his own apartment.
    For some reason, Goodman’s key won’t fit into the lock of his door, and he’s forced to ring Tony the Super’s bell on the first floor. Together they trudge up the four flights, where Tony finds he can’t get the master key to work, either. He bends down to inspect the lock.
    “Aha!” he announces as he extracts a broken piece of toothpick from the lock. “Here’s the problem.”
    But it turns out the toothpick is only a symptom of the problem. As soon as Tony opens the door, Goodman sees that the place has been trashed.
    “They put the toothpick in the lock to jam it, in case