“Right, so, let me get this straight,” said Annabelle. “You want me to go and live in the mansion on the hill.”

“Yeah,” said her Father.

“You want me to go up there and live with… some guy?”

“That’s… yeah, that’s more or less it.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then he’ll force me to live with him.”

Annabelle arched an eyebrow. “This all seems questionable to me. It’s like you’re, I don’t know, giving me away in order to save your own hide.”

“No!” laughed her Father. “No, no. Of course not. That’d… that’d be dumb. No, I just think you should spend some time with this guy. Get to know him. You deserve someone nice.”

“And,” said Annabelle, folding her arms, “Is he nice?”

Her Father started wringing nervously on his baseball cap. “Sort of.”

“Whadaya mean ‘sort of’? Either he is or he isn’t. What’s the catch?”

There was a pause. And then, “Well… he’s… sort of…”

“Yes…?”

“A Republican.”

“A Republican? How beastly!”

“I know, dear. But maybe with time he could learn to become… human.”