Only in My Nightmares

You beautiful baby from the outside in
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again
Go on, take on this whole world
But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl
-Tim McGraw, My Little Girl

Exiting a white minivan, a little four-year-old girl with her dark blonde hair in pigtails spotted her mother sitting on the porch, smiling at her. She was a pretty woman, with short blonde hair and soft blue eyes. She had slight crow’s feet and laugh lines, but that added to the mature beauty that she had and was.
”Mommy!” the little girl shrieked as she ran into the slim woman’s arms. The woman laughed and spun the girl around outside of a beautiful cottage in the country. She waved goodbye to the car that was pulling out of the gravel driveway.
“Did you have fun at Madeleine’s?” The woman asked as she took her daughter’s duffle bag into the house, with the little girl in tow.
She grinned toothlessly, “Ja. Mommy, mommy! They took me skiing!”
The girl’s mom laughed and dropped the duffle bag then lead her daughter to the kitchen. “I heard! You are so adventurous!”
“I know!”
“So, Katrin, your daddy’s going to be home soon –“
Katrin’s eyes widened to saucers, and she ran back to the duffle bag in the front hall. She came back to the kitchen and held out a crudely drawn picture of three people.
“See? It’s our family!”
The woman smiled and took the drawing from her daughter’s hands. There were three stick figures, and the man was wearing a polizei uniform.
“It looks just like daddy!”
Katrin nodded. “Madeleine let me borrow her crayons.”
“That was very nice of her. I think you should hang this on the fridge. Daddy will love it.”
“Yeah. It’s a very a very nice art.”
Her mom laughed again. “It is a very nice art.”
Katrin reached for one of the magnets and placed it over her drawing on the fridge.
“I was thinking we could make some cupcakes for daddy.”
Katrin gasped. “Chocolate!”
“Chocolate it is, then.”
Her mother tried to bake the cupcakes well, but she couldn’t stop laughing and scolding her daughter for sticking her finger into the homemade batter every three seconds or so.
“Mary?”
“Liebe, we’re in the kitchen!”
A young man, with a bright white smile and dark hair came into the doorway. He was wearing a polizei uniform. “Katie!”
“Daddy!” Katrin ran into her father’s arms. Mary leaned against the counter and watched her family with a smile. He dropped his little girl on the ground and made his way to his wife.
He pulled her into a hug. “How’s my favorite lady?” He pulled back and put his hand on her stomach. “And our little baby.”
She slapped his hand away and turned around to keep mixing the batter. “You can’t feel the bump yet.”
He hugged her from behind anyway and rested his head on her shoulder. “I love you and our unborn baby and our very much alive daughter!”
He jumped around and grabbed Katrin and threw her around in the air. Her shrieks of laughter filled the air as the small family laughed.

“Katrin, are you okay? You need to wake up.”
She jumped with a start and started breathing heavily. She felt sweat on her brow and looked up, terrified, to see Dani. He looked at her with pity.
“We’re in America?” Already?
He chuckled, “No. We have to get on our connecting flight.”
“Oh.”
Katrin followed the band out of the plane. Clutching tightly to Dani’s iPod, she eased herself into one of the chairs at the terminal.
She vowed she wouldn’t fall asleep for the rest of the trip.