Daddy Feet
By
​
Ben
​
Wilkins
**
Note to readers: This is a web-story with animations, so it works best if you scroll slowly.
**
...almost.
Once upon a time (in a far,
far away land) there lived a little girl who looked just like her mother...
She even had some
of her mother's freckles.
She had her mother's ravenwing hair, her warm brown eyes that glowed when she laughed, and her delicate pinch of a nose.
This little girl, who was called Graceful, was not very happy.
AT ALL
Oh, she didn't mind looking like her mother: "the most beautiful woman in the whole world," according to her father.
(The gossipers, idlers, and busy-bodies of the land said otherwise.)
Little Graceful didn't mind the gossipers, idlers, and busy-bodies because she knew better. And besides, they all agreed on one thing: Graceful's mommy had the most beautiful FEET in all the Land.
They were shaped just how feet SHOULD be shaped, which when you think about it, isn't much like how feet actually ARE shaped. They matched for one thing. They weren't too long or too short.
And the exquisitely chiseled toes decreased
in just the right order.
And Graceful looked just like her mommy: except for her feet.
S
H
E
​
H
A
D
DADDY FEET
Don't get the wrong idea: Graceful loved her Daddy. Just not his feet.
One day when she and her mother were playing outside in the soft grass (without wearing shoes so they could wiggle and wriggle their toes in the dirt), Graceful had had ENOUGH.
"They're too long," little Graceful replied, "AND too wide. It's not fair that feet that are too long are also too wide. And the toes are all strange and crooked and not even at all!"
She thought for a moment. "And Daddy bends them and twists them and scrunches them up - just like a gorilla!" she added.
"I don't want to be
a gorilla!"
said her mother (who was not only beautiful but wise)
asked Graceful, who could not believe it. But she also knew that her mother did not lie or gossip or idle or even busy-body.
"They are so wide, you can paddle a boat with them."
"Crooked, scrunchy toes are perfect for picking up your keys without bending over.
"Or for playing catch while you brush your hair!"
"You can climb trees with no hands!
Brake your brake-less bicycle when you race downhill!"
Shake hands...
...when your hands are too dirty for shaking!
"And even Everybody knows that Daddy Feet are the best for dancing," Mommy added.
"I do love to dance," Graceful said thoughtfully, and she did a little twirl right there in the grassy dirt.
NAILED IT.
Daddy said,
sneaking up on Graceful from behind
HuMoNgOuS gAlLuMpHiNg
(which was quite a FEAT,
considering what
FEET he had.)
he shouted, and tickled Graceful with his
C
R
O
O
K
E
D
S
C
R
U
N
C
H
Y
toes until she couldn't breathe from laughing so hard.
"And for giving BIG hugs," Graceful said after she caught her breath.
And she gave her father a great big Daddy Feet hug.
After that, little Graceful decided that maybe, just maybe, Daddy Feet weren't so bad after all.
No matter what the gossipers, idlers, and busy-bodies said.
