She's the perfect little princess girl headed for the diner in her white petticoat and pink gingham dress, her tiny white shoes spotless on her tiny feet.
Her brother went to the diner earlier and came home acting like a stupid hotshot again.
Joey might be her twin brother, but he's nothing like her, she knows. And he had hidden her best doll this morning, making her cry.
Bibbly is a sensitive doll with pretty blond curls just like her, so Joey has to pay.
Pussyfooting across the gravel, little miss feels every stone beneath her shoes, just like a princess would.
At the diner door, she stops and runs through the plan in her head one more time, then takes hold of the handle and opens the door.
Ding.
She smiles, closes the door.
Oops, the door shut all by itself.
Open the door again.
Ding.
Aah, such a lovely announcement. One more time.
The door closes, mysteriously.
Then ding, and slowly she makes her grand entrance.
Aunt Helena always says a lady should make an entrance, and making an entrance is my specialty.
Mrs. Buttercup sees who comes into the restaurant and she rolls her eyes.
"Good morning, Susie," Mrs. Buttercup says cheerfully, indulgently to the little miss walking so primly across the floor toward her.
"Good morning, Mrs. Buttercup. I know my brother was in here this morning. What did he steal this time?"
Mrs. Buttercup's eyes open wide.
"Nothing," she says. "Joey doesn't steal."
"Oh, yes he does. Did he eat anything?"
Mrs. Buttercup frowns. "A plate of fries."
"And how do you suppose he paid for that?"
"He had a quarter."
Mrs. Buttercup motions the little miss to sit on a stool so she can lean across the counter and whisper.
Susie Armbrewster does her best to climb the stool looking like a princess, and she almost succeeds.
If her petticoat hadn't got stuck on the red vinyl seat...
"Are you alright, dear?"
Mrs. Buttercup rushes around the counter and reaches to haul the mortified angel up off the floor where she's landed in an embarrassing heap of gingham and white silk and delicate legs.
"There. Sit down right there. Nobody saw you do that," Mrs. Buttercup whispers.
"I didn't do it," Susie hisses. "Your stool did."
"Sorry. I'll have it looked at. Now, why do you think Joey steals?"
"He's a no-good, mean old crybaby of a brother, that's why."
"I thought he was nice."
"Do you know where he put Bibbly?"
"Bibbly?"
"In the cat box, that's where."
Little miss straightens her pretty dress and looks forlornly up at Mrs. Buttercup and all that woman can see in the child's eyes is revenge.
"How be," she says quickly. "I dish you up a nice bowl of strawberry shortcake and pour you a glass of ginger ale on ice and play your favorite song on the jukebox and..."
Little miss smiles sweetly and looks around and sees a young man over by the cash register watching her. He is handsome and he smiles at her.
"Mrs. Buttercup?"
"Yes, Susie?"
"Joey stole the quarter."
"He didn't."
The young man can't take his twelve year old eyes off the village princess.
"I would like all of those things you said, please, and the same for Gavin over there, so you tell him to come and sit with me and I won't do anything about the red stool. Okay?"
Mrs. Buttercup nods and looks over at Gavin Harris.
"And Mrs. Buttercup?"
"Yes, dear?"
"The next time Joey comes in here, make him tell you the truth about where he gets his money, okay?"
"Alright."
Susie Armbrewster gives Gavin Harris the come-on look of the eight year old girl that she is, and Gavin just comes on over and slides down on the vinyl seat beside her.
Joey's "no-good, conniving bartender" skulks away back through the swinging doors of the saloon to the kitchen to make two strawberry shortcakes, on the house, shaking her head at the nonsense Susie Armbrewster has come up with yet again.
That little girl will rule the world one day, she thinks, and her sweet little brother Joey won't know what hit him.
Out in the restaurant, the small town girl sighs and bats her eyelashes at the handsome boy who is under her spell.
Life is so sweet.
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