Little Bird (new version)

AMARA

I giggle at the show, putting my hand up to my mouth to suppress another laugh.

     Dad begins to rub his thumb in gentle circles on the back of my hand. I like holding his hand. It brings upon me a sense of safety I've never experienced before. I've never really experienced much safety, so I don't know a lot about it. But I know that my dad is seemingly the epitome of it.

I shift in my seat, the coat becoming too hot. I glance away from the screen, over at Aria. Will she be mad if I want to take the coat off?

     She notices me looking at her, meeting my gaze. I turn away quickly, back to the show.

     Some time goes by before I look up at Dad. He looks back down at me and smiles sleepily.

     "You okay?" He asks gently.

     I nod. "But.."

     "Mhm?" He encourages when I don't continue.

     My eyes fill with tears. He sits up, concern radiating off of him. "What's wrong?" He asks quickly.

     "Wh—why is A-Aria keeping th—them there?" I ask.

     He furrows his eyebrows. He and Aria share a confused look. "Who, baby?"

     I point at the IPad. "The l-little people in the s-screen."

     For a moment he just looks at me, so I decide to say, "p-please?" Even though I haven't asked anything. I want to know why Aria wants to keep people locked up, so hopefully I can see why everybody wanted to keep me locked up.

"Honey, I'm not keeping anybody there." Aria tells me slowly. "That's recordings of people. It's their jobs to act, and people record it and put it on screens for people to watch."

"Y-you're paying th—them?"

"No." She sighs softly. "They're actors. They're not little people, they're big people. They live in America. They film stuff, and then it's put together and put onto different apps for people to watch. Nobody is inside of the iPad, sweetie."

I look up at Dad for confirmation. He just nods slowly.

     "Oh." I whisper, hurrying to blink my tears away. Instead one runs down my cheek and I quickly wipe it away. Dad holds my hand with both of his now, cupping it between them. "I—I'm s-sorry A-Aria."

     "You don't need to apologise, honey. It was very brave of you to ask a question like that. You can ask us anything you want." Aria tells me.

     "C-can I ask o-one more?"

     "Of course." Dad encourages, squeezing my hand in support.

     "Can I please take m-my coat off for a minute? It's really h-hot."

     "You don't need to ask to take it off." Dad tells me.

     "Oh. Sorry."

     "You don't need to keep apologising, either." He tells me. He lets go of my hand and I look up at him, confused. Why did he do that? Does he not want to hold my hand anymore?