Karma Buddy Karma

The wind ruffled his brown hair as Mark sat in his daughter's treehouse . It was his wife's idea of bonding with his daughter. Having an afternoon bonding time in her treehouse was something he honestly wasn't too sure of. The boards had creaked from his weight and size. He stood about six foot four and at his last doctor appointment, he weighed in around one hundred seventy pounds.

The sun was heating his tanned face and he was perfectly tanned on his face and arms. Under his shirt was another story because at the beginning of his sleeves was also where his tan stopped. He loved his daughter ,so why his wife decide they needed bonding time was beyond him. Woman came up with the craziest ideas. Here he was sitting in an treehouse waiting to have tea time with his eight year old daughter.

Trying to keep two females in the same household happy enough ,so as they won't killed each other or won't kill him was an accomplishment to say the least. They were different in age this he knew and what they wanted was totally different. His loving wife was a handful just by herself, she was twenty going on ninety and wanted bigger things from him like a new car. His daughter was a cutie pie at the age of eight and wanted a new puppy to play with.

From where he was sitting, he could see that Mary, his wife was putting grape juice into her teapot for the tea time and adding chocolate chip cookies on a plate to eat. She looked up to see him watching her and she waved in response to his smile. His wife was beautiful and he knew that several other men had been biding for her attention when they had been dating. Why had she chose him as her soul mate would be something to ask himself for the rest of his life.

His daughter was bouncing around with excitement as she thought about the many hours to come that dear old dad would be centering his attention solely on her. She loved playing "Tea Time" with her dad because he would pretend gossip about the family and their lives. They would end up rolling around on the floor from some of the thing they had said and did.

Mark hoped that none of his friends came by while he was up the tree having tea, because he knew that he would never hear the end of it. The jokes about "tea with his daughter" and listening to all the wise cracks would drive him crazy. He knew deep down, he would have some mixed feeling, one would be that he wanted to kill the whole bunch while on the other hand, he would be proud of himself for having spent the afternoon bonding with his precious daughter.

He could see his daughter coming out to the tree with his wife carrying the tray. She put it on the box that Mark would lift up to the treehouse. It was a personal projects of Mark's ,so his daughter wouldn't have to climb up carrying something in her hands. Then the thing that he would dread would probably happen which would be his precious little tomboy daughter would fall and probably break something. He would feel very responsible for the accident.

With his daughter sitting opposite of him, they enjoyed grape juice and cookies that were still warm from being out of the oven. They told jokes that they both knew and laughed out loud as they made fun of the neighbors. Mark knew he was being a bad influence on his daughter ,but she had pinky promised that she wouldn't say these funny remarks in front of the neighbors.. They were having such a good time that Mark had to admit he was enjoying himself more than he thought possible.

"What do you want to do now? Play a game or invite some of your friends over to play? Is it time for you to ditch the old man?" He watched as tears began to gather behind her soft brown eyes and he began to wonder what he had said wrong. "Honey, what is it? You can tell me anything!"

He watched as his daughter took a couple of deep breaths before she softly replied "I don't have any friends. Everyone at school hates me." He had a shocked look that crossed his face briefly before he gathered his little girl to his chest. Feeling, his shirt getting wet, he knew she was crying and why his wife wanted this bonding time for the two of them. She knew that his daughter would tell him what was bothering her since the beginning of school. He wondered how and why these other children didn't like his little sweet pea. She was charming, loveable to him, and likeable to everyone else. How could these children not like someone like her?"

How could anyone ever hate his little girl? She was sweet, caring, and would love to have friends, be friends with anyone in her class. He looked over at his daughter who was trying to wipe a single tear away that rolled down her face before he noticed she was crying again. Knowing for sure this would take his wife's evil mind to think of ways for his daughter to go from being a wallflower to being the most popular kid at school. Or maybe she knew already since he could remember coming home from work to find his wife drying his daughter's tears. How could he miss the signs that something was wrong in his daughter's life?

Ash sat there with his daughter in total silence for the first time in his many years and he thought back to his school life time, he knew he had no advice about how to be popular. He had always been popular, always been the cool kid. He talked to the right kids and sat at the cool table. He also picked on the nerds and weaker students just for fun. He looked at his daughter as he tried to hide the fact that he had been the bully of his class and pick on kids just like his own loving daughter. A single thought rushed through is mind which seemed to bounce off every corner of his head, "Karma Buddie Karma!"

He thought of the many parents whose hearts must have broke and how their anger must have soared when their own children came home crying because of this bully had been the mean to them at school. What advise did they give their children as tears flowed and they refused to go back to school because of him? They refused to go back to school where the bully would push smaller kids into lockers, just for the fun of it. How stupid he had been back then?

A single thought crossed his mind from God Above which was to make friends with one or two of the other children at a time which would make their, her circle of friends grow by the day. Make friends with the bully, the one that was telling everyone not to like her. He gathered his daughter in his arms and softly whispered the words that many parents had probably said about him in the days of the past. "Never fear! They have the problem not you! We are going to the park tomorrow and have a picnic plus you can play while I cook my famous hamburgers." He smiled to himself as he thought how he would put his plan into action. As he was lost in his own world, he missed the first genuine smile his daughter had on her face for a long time.