Handcuffs

Last night I babysit an 8-year-old girl with pink glasses and mermaid hair. We held hands as we walked uptown to pick up a pizza for dinner, and I asked her what she was going to be for Halloween.
"A police girl," she said, "with magic handcuffs. So I can arrest my daddy."
"What will you arrest him for?" I asked. "What's the crime?"
"For being the best daddy in the world," she said. "And I'll handcuff him so he can never leave me." Then she added: "Until I'm a grown up; then I'll set him free."
And that was that. There we were: two daddy's girls walking on Broadway, one with magical handcuffs and the other whose daddy had been set free.

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