Princess Ferret In Taffeta

20250526

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

There’s no weary sigh quite like a child’s weary sigh. Wholehearted and unburdened by proportional perspective. “That’s not what a ferret princess would sound like, Mummy!”
“Sorry, poppet.” Rebecca firmly suppressed a giggle. Genny viewed play-pretend acting as Serious Business and would not tolerate lack of care. “What would a ferret princess sound like?”
“Like…” Genny screwed her face up and produced an incredible melodious squeak. “Oh, brave Sir Toad!”
“I can’t even begin to do a voice like that, poppet. Mummy doesn’t have magic, remember? But I think I can do a toad voice, if you’re willing to do the princess.”
Genny puffed her cheeks in annoyance. Then sighed, graciously this time, and they swapped dollies.
“Alright then.” Rebecca delicately re-centred Sir Toad’s shiny measuring cup helmet. “Where were we? Was it…”
She dropped her voice to a deep rough grumbly one, which she personally felt was a good toad impression, albeit nothing compared to her changeling daughter’s, and ribbited “Oh Princess Ferret! You are resplendent!”
“He complimented her dress, Mummy.” Genny’s whisper clearly communicated what a burden it was to be writer, director, and prompter of this production. Not to mention being one of the cast.
“Oh yes, of course - ‘And your new dress! Is that taffeta?’”
“It is!” Princess Ferret trilled, twirling between Genny’s palms so the pink skirt flared.
That’s what had prompted this game - Genny loved the word ‘taffeta’, and strongly associated it with fine gowns, so her granny sewing her a doll dress made of genuine taffeta, in true fairy-tale princess style, called for immediate celebration.
Once the performance met Genny’s exacting standards they would film it and send it to Granny, who’d doubtless get merry chortles from the sight of a ferret stuffy from the zoo wearing the dress, not to mention the big rubber toad clad in tinfoil and kitchen equipment. But her review would be entirely earnest and tailored to her granddaughter’s theatre ambitions.
Sir Toad croaked “Resplendent, my dear princess! You are a vision of loveliness! Oh, if only I could dance like you!”
“Alas, Sir Toad! But I will dance for us both.”
“Thank you, Princess. I shall play for you.” So saying, Sir Toad picked up his little toy banjo (out of place in the supposed setting of the story, but media had taught Genny that amphibians played banjos) and waved his arm up and down in front of it. Hopefully vaguely in time with whatever music was added to the video.
But the focus would be on Princess Ferret anyway, who was swishing and bobbing like a puppet under Genny’s shining gaze.
The carefully choreographed piece went off flawlessly, and Genny clapped her hands with an ear-splitting whoop. “Break for refreshments, then we’ll do it for real!”
Rebecca smiled and planted a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “Sounds good, ma’am director. I’m gagging for a cuppa. And a brownie.”
“Brownies!” Genny’s eyes sparkled.
“You didn’t even see what else was in the box, hm? Come look.”

Prompt was “Write a piece with a whimsical mood”.
[‘Whimsical’ is one of those moods which once I started thinking about it I wasn’t sure how to deliberately invoke it. So I went for a whimsical concept - play-pretend with a child who uses magic during. Does the story itself feel whimsical? Perhaps I should have written it from the child perspective…]
Rebecca and Genny first appeared here.