Who in the heck is Girl? I don't know any girl in any of the movies and she will not answer to any other name, including her own. So I call her Girl. And this works for a while. Until she tells me that she is not Girl. She is The Witch. And as she says this, she holds her hand up to me and says, "An apple, have a bite." And then she cackles the cackle of the witch.
This was the second to third year of Hayley's life. She was always someone. She was always in a twirly dress and pretty shoes. She was singing and dancing and playing Barbies. She was Snow White, Dorothy, The Witch and Girl.
Hayley had a lot to say, and said it. Even if it meant interrupting her sister, Ashlyn. Who also had a lot to say. But Hayley would say it with an accent, or very loud, or when it wasn't her turn.
And Hayley had these cheeks. Oh, my goodness. These big cheeks and the blondest of hair. And blue eyes.
She was such a neat little girl. But also very angry. Hayley had this way of looking at you. She cocked her head down, furrowed her brow and looked up at you through her eyebrows. When that look came your way, it was on. She didn't take much from anybody.
In Germany, we had one television station, so most of the time, the kids watched movies. Often, musicals. We had the complete collection of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classics. The opening of each movie was a musical montage of each movie and bits of each song were played. Hayley knew this opening by heart. Once when we were in Salzburg the girls sat outside a t-shirt shop with me and the dog. Hayley would not look at anyone but sang that montage at the top of her lungs. It was awesome.
Years later, when Hayley was roughing them up on the soccer field, the other parents found it hard to believe that this defender was ever twirling in pretty dresses and wearing fancy shoes! They could definitely believe all the rest.
And Girl? Turns out that's Lauri from Oklahoma. The pretty blond (Shirley Jones) in the twirly dress.
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