INSIGHTS Yh no, we're coming up on the ‘IT WAS Ms. Emily’s ninth birthday. ‘““Oh goodie,’’ she gloated. ‘I’m coming up on the Big One-Oh.”’ . STRICTLY PERSONAL. _” Her mother set to work with zeal, arranging to have every kid in Ms. Emily’s school over for a pool party, complete with lifeguards, lemonade, birthday cake, pizza, everything short of actual posters of the nine-year-old wonder herself. - Something like 30 or 40 people, including teachers, came. ~ - Everyone had a fantastic time. At exactly the perfect moment, Ms. Emily strode out on the div- ing board in her new bathing suit and accepted the cheers of the multitude. : It was all videotaped, of course, and the young princess, along with her adoring fans, got to watch it on the screen afterwards. Incredibly, some of the kids had never seen themselves on TV! Can you imagine a modern -home with no video camera? {, personally, was shocked. A sub- cult of video-chalienged youths growing in our midst? There ought to be a royal commission. You should have heard the squealing of delighted little egos. And the star of the movic? Ms. _ Emily, of course. I could see sev- eral of the little boys were hope- | FULL HOUSE DEAL Ask about the adchtional savings on custom blind orders tor 8 windows or more. RORTH VANCGUVER 4226 Marine Drive 984-4407 CONTOUR lessly in awe of her. She immediately went mad with power, of course, and started confusing guests with slaves. Her mom, knowing this was bound to happen sooner or later, had arranged for everybody to be leaving just about then, Emily stormed off to her room to cry, her empire having dissolved just as she was starting to have fun ordering people about. She liked being a princess. Well, if she couldn't have total power, she might as well become a iragic heroine. So she sobbed loudly. Ms. Emily is a fabulous actress, and with the Big One-Oh still a year away, life stretches ahead of her like an endless theatrical pro- duction, which, God knows, it probably is. She got over her brooding soon enough, the tragic heroine role having drawn no audience at all, except herself, not that that isn’t a . considerable audience. She came downstairs and apolo- gized. She’s very goad at this, too, which I take as a hopeful sign. Apologizing is a bit like confes- sion, a Catholic sort of thing, quite crafty, when you think about it. A person who doesn’t know how to apologize is a fool. Sliding onto Daddy’s lap, and wrapping her little arms around my neck, she inquired with heart- wrenching sweetness: ‘What'd you get for me, Daddy?”’ Daddy, who always forgets birthdays, thought fast. “Whatever you want, Ssweet- heart.” “Take me to work with you,’’ Ms. Emily said immediately. Thus it came to be that the next day I set off to work with Ms. Emily. As it turned out, this was her actual birthday, the poo! party had been tied to school schedul- ing. It was just’'a warm-up. Today was to be the real day, and the thing would happen that Daddy had planned all along, right? Daddy wouldn’t let her down, would he? Ms. Emily had draped herself in a gorgeous white party dress, with Choose from a wide variety of Mini, Micro and Vertical blinds from our WINDOWWEAR collection. WINDO' (3,1; aa WEST VANCOUVER 925-3655 black pumps, and insisted on a smudge of makeup, to Daddy's alarm. She had fitted a sash around her waist, and adopted a pose I believe she had copicd from Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, which we had watched on the VCR a couple of weeks before — the part where Cleopatra makes the ultimate grand entrance into Rome. One of my clients is a TV sta- tion in downtown Toronto. Emily had been there a few times, and had left in her wake a small crowd of admirers. When we arrived at work, I was amazed to see the building fes- tooned with blue and white and purple balloons, and lineups of peuple waiting on the sidewalk to be allowed in by security. Some sort of major station- sponsored gala event was in the making. Inside, musicians were tuning their instruments, and there was bunting everywhere. Emily's eyes shone. She hugged me, and said: ‘‘Oh, thank you, Daddy.” I started to say, ‘‘This isn’t for you, sweetheart,’’ but the words p Aircraft inspired Engineering Currently Available For tmmediate Delivery § ‘92 9000 SPG, executive driven was $46,070-Now $37,850 ‘92 9000 CD Turbo, Automatic Demo was $47,770 Now $38,985 '93 900 Turbo Convertible, emerald green Now $41,58S ‘94 900 Turbo Convertible Special Edition, Call for details. CALL THE FACTORY TRAINED EXPERTS AT wouldn't come out, so I thought I'd just float along with the situa- tion and see what happened. A television station is a childless environment. Adults put out the news and entertainment. Accordingly, when a precocious little golden-haired, blue-eyed girl bounces in, and starts talking with everybody as though they were old friends going back decades, char- ming them all out of their wits, she can take over, if she wants. Word went out through the newsroom that it was her birth- day. I told her to stay out of the way, ideally please sit at my desk, while I got some editing work done. The moment my back was turned, she tripped around the newsroom, chatting people up. Everybody congratulated her on her birthday. “Coming up on the Big One- Oh,’ became a hit line. Shortly after six, in the midst of the news, I looked up from my editing bay to the monitor show- ing the live broadcast only to see Ms. Emily sitting on a desk, doing a rehearsed comedy routine with the sports broadcaster. The whole newsroom broke up with happy laughter. The sports- caster ended his bit by telling the audience that Emily was nine years old today, “‘coming up on the Big One-Oh.”’ After that, I collected her from the midst of the small crowd of reporters and cameramen and technicians who were hanging on to her every cute remark. She was by now standing on top of a desk, entertaining. We went down the hall toa huge warehouse area converted into a party room, Colored lights wove twisting patterns through the gloom. Thunderous music. A wall-to-wall crowd. Daddy led Ms. Emily to the centre of the dance floor, amid the lights, and danced with her, considering himself deeply honored. When I tired, I left Ms. Emily to dance for a while by herself in the limelight, watched, it seemed, by everyone. What we do for her when she hits the Big One-Oh, I honestly don’t know. ~& SON CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND VALANCES Labour $8.50 per panel unlined, - $9.50 lined. CUSTOM BEDSPREADS. & COVERS Low, low prices on biinds & tracks. 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