Ava's Three Goodnight Kisses

Every night, Ava got three kisses.

One for the nose. One for the toes. One for the top of the head.

That was the rule. It had always been the rule. Mum did it, or Dad did it, and sometimes Grandma did it when she stayed, and Grandma always got the order wrong and had to start again, which Ava secretly liked.

But tonight Dad lay down on the end of the bed with a big sigh, and did not get up.

"Dad," said Ava. "Kisses."

"I know," said Dad. "I'm just so tired, Ava. It's been a long day. Could you do them tonight?"

Ava looked at him. Dad was very long when he lay down. His feet went off the end of the bed.

"Me? Do them to you?"

"Just this once."

Ava thought about it. She had never been the one who gave the kisses. She had only ever been the one who got them. But a rule was a rule, and if Dad was too tired, then somebody had to.

She climbed out from under the covers.

"One for the nose," she said, and leaned over, and kissed the end of Dad's nose. It was a bit cold.

"Thank you," said Dad, with his eyes shut.

"One for the toes." This was harder. Dad's toes were a long way away, right off the end of the bed, and she had to crawl all the way down the covers to reach them, and when she got there his socks were on, so she kissed the sock.

"That counts," murmured Dad.

She crawled back. "One for the top of the head."

Dad's head was on her pillow. His hair was sticking up. Ava put her hand on it to flatten it, the way Mum did, and kissed the top of it, right in the middle.

"There," she said. "Done."

Dad did not say thank you this time. Dad's breathing had gone slow and heavy, like the sea when the waves are small.

"Dad?"

Nothing. A long, soft snore.

Ava sat and looked at him. Her dad, asleep on her bed, with his feet off the end and her three kisses on him. It made her feel very big, and very quiet.

She pulled the edge of her blanket over as much of him as it would cover, which was his middle. Then she lay down in the small space that was left, with her head next to his shoulder, and thought about the rule.

Nobody had done her kisses. Not the nose, not the toes, not the top of the head.

But Ava found she did not mind. She had done them for somebody else, and it turned out that giving them felt the same as getting them, only warmer.

"One for the nose," she whispered, to herself, and touched her own nose. "One for the toes." She wiggled them. "One for the top of the head."

And that was the last thing she remembered, except that somewhere in the night somebody big got up very quietly, and tucked her in properly, and did all three.