The characters of John and Samantha were created by me, Jeeves, and should not be used without permission.

"Mummy, why did you and daddy get married?"

Such was the way of a child. You took them out for the day, showed them the beautiful and spectacular sights of London for the first time, and the burning question on their lips had absolutely nothing to do with anything that they'd seen or heard throughout this little trip. As Mary Walsh looked down at her daughter though, the four and a quarter year old lemur gazing curiously up at her mother with round, expectant amber hued eyes, she couldn't help but smile. It may have been an irrelevant question with regard to anything in the Natural History museum which they had just departed, but it was a query that Mary was all too happy to answer.

Moving a little way over to the side of the museum's large, stone steps, the elder female gently lowered herself into a sitting position and tapped her knee.

"Come sit down with me for a minute, Sammy, and I'll tell you while we take a little break."

With all the energy and enthusiasm that you'd have expected from a cub on Christmas morning, not a warm but slightly overcast June afternoon, Samantha darted over to where her mother was seated and hopped up onto the older lemur's lap. She squirmed a little, trying to get comfy atop her mother's knees, but eventually settled with her hands folded in her lap and her feet dangling.

"You know me and daddy love you, right, Sammy?"

The young lemur giggled, nodding up at her mother before turning her gaze down to the pretty, sky blue shoes enclosing her footpaws. Each shoe bore a large yellow flower upon its buckle, and though she'd been wearing them for almost three months now Samantha still felt a warm glow of happiness in her stomach whenever she saw those gorgeous flowery shoes upon her very own feet. They'd been a birthday gift from her parents, her favourite gift ever, and if there was any object in this world that told Samantha her parents loved her, it was those shoes!

"Yes, mummy, an' I love you too! But, um... I still wanna know why you and daddy got married."

Mary chuckled, lifting her hands from where they had been resting by her sides and proceeding to straighten the elastic tie holding her daughter's black-haired ponytail in place. At the same time, ever the multi-tasking mother, she responded to her daughter's query more directly this time.

"What I was going to say, little one, is that me and your daddy love each other like we both love you. We met each other at University, that's school for people who are almost grown up, and started to date. After a while we realised that we were in love, so we lived together, and then, about ten years ago, we decided that we loved each other so much we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. So we got married."

Looking up at her mother, Samantha considered this explanation for a short while. Her generally cheery, smiling face was tempered by thoughtfulness, but rose to full geniality once again as the little girl's ears perked up and she asked her mother one more question of vital importance.

"So, does that mean I can marry you, and marry daddy too? I want to love you forever and ever!"

Unable to help herself, Mary snorted with laughter. Seeing her daughter's slightly confused, reproachful look, she bit her bottom lip to stifle any further outbursts of mirth, but couldn't bring herself to respond for almost another ten seconds as the silent, trembling laughter coursed through her.

"Oh, little one... Sammy, that's so sweet."

Leaning forward, the elder lemur planted a soft kiss upon the side of her daughter's muzzle. Samantha wrinkled her nose at the kiss, but giggled and pecked her mother back in a similar fashion just a moment later. Mary smiled down at her daughter, and clarified her explanation. Her child was bright, inquisitive and easily capable of grasping concepts which were explained to her, but even after four years of parenthood Mary still hadn't quite adjusted to the fact that there were some fundamental facts about various customs which children didn't know, and couldn't pick up on independently.

"Marriage is... oh, how do I put this, it's what people who aren't related to one another do in order to become a family. Now, I'm not saying that you need to be married in order for someone to be part of your family, but if you are already related to someone, like me and daddy are to you, then you don't need to marry us. Besides, you're far too young to get married, Sammy."

Almost as soon as she'd said it, Mary realised that she'd done something very stupid. She'd just made the classic parental mistake of telling her child that there was something she could not do. Sure enough, it took just seconds for Samantha's cheery, curious expression to turn into a huffy pout, as the young lemur pulled her grey and black ringed tail up between her legs, folded her arms around it, and began to sulk.

"S'not fair. Why can't I get married too?"

Stroking her daughter's hair with one hand and rubbing her back with the other, Mary tried to enact damage control as fast as possible. A sulky child was never an easy thing to handle, but when they still had two more museums to hit before dinner? Having Samantha in a bad mood would be a disaster.

"But why would you even want to get married when you're four years old, Sammy? If you get married then... well, you'd need to stop playing and buying toys so that you can get a job, and pay bills, and... and kiss boys!"

At that moment, another family wandered past where the two lemurs were sitting, on their way into the museum which Mary and Samantha had just left. Two adults, one boy of about ten years old, and a second who must have been about Samantha's age. Upon hearing her mother's final comment, Samantha raised her head to look into the older female's eyes with shock and disgust. Kissing boys?! Aside from kissing her daddy goodnight, why would she ever want to do anything which involved doing that? Boys were... they were... boys!

From her mother's gaze, Samantha turned her head as she heard a commotion emitting from the other family walking past them. The elder boy was saying something about how he didn't wanna go in, that museums were boring and that if they didn't go to the video game store now, he knew it would be closed before they got there. The younger male didn't seem particularly concerned either way, just looking around at the milling London crowd and the large building they were standing beside. It was during one of these sweeping gazes that his eyes met with those of Samantha, and for a split second the raccoon and the lemur watched one another curiously, each wondering why this other fur was looking at them. Another second or so later the raccoon boy stuck his tongue out at Samantha playfully, and she rolled her eyes. Then the family was gone, moving on up the stairway with their whining ten year old dragging his heels along behind them.

Turning back to her mother, Samantha released her tail from its vice-like cuddle and let slip an exaggeratedly deep sigh. She shrugged, and shook her head.

"No, you're right mummy. I don't wanna get married ever, not if I have to kiss boys."

Breathing her own sigh of relief much more quietly and covertly, Mary nodded in agreement with her daughter's renewed decision. She may have had to use what she and Samantha's father called 'parent logic' to talk her little girl out of her sulk, but for the next year or two at least the simplistic explanation of marriage which she had already given Samantha should be sufficient to keep her daughter as well informed as any of her friends. Doubtlessly the day would come when some sort of TV show would inform her about the pretty white dress and big cake, and then the backyard, playhouse marriages to teddy or whatever male friends she'd make in kindergarten later this year would begin in earnest with every little detail mapped out in her daughter's mind. Until then though, that was one less fundamental life question for Samantha to pop to them at the dinner table.

Gently easing the younger lemur off her lap, Mary rose to her feet and looked around at the streets of this large, sprawling city, then back to her daughter. Samantha had so much to look forward to from her life. Maybe one day she'd live in London with a man, and they'd joke about how years ago she said she'd never marry an icky boy. Or perhaps she'd stay out in the country where they lived now, marrying some hard working farm-hand or the owner of a small, family run bakery. Heck, she might end up staying single by choice, or marrying another woman. Mary could never in a million years imagine her daughter discovering that she was gay, but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. She couldn't have imagined her brother coming out of the closet, never mind doing so to her on his nineteenth birthday, and yet he had. Now Neil was living in Australia with the love of his life, and even if that love interest did change every two months or so, she knew that her brother was happy with his lot in life. Just like Neil, and indeed just like herself, that was all Mary could really ask for from her child. She just wanted Samantha's life to turn out a happy one. If that meant meeting the perfect guy, or girl, then great. And if not, well, she liked to think that both she and her husband would respect their daughter's choices.

"Mummy, why are you looking at me?"

Mary blushed lightly as she realised that she must have been staring at Samantha for almost twenty or thirty seconds. She shook her head, and reached out to stroke her daughter's cheek fondly.

"No reason, sweetie. I was just thinking how much I love you, how much me and your daddy both love you."

Bouncing cheerily on the balls of her feet, Samantha giggled. She wrapped her arms around her mother's legs, and for a few seconds cuddled the elder lemur as Mary caressed her daughter's hair. It wasn't long before she broke away from that affectionate moment though, and ran down to the base of the museum's steps with her ringed tail and her summery skirt flying out behind her. At the bottom of the stairway she paused, turning to watch her mother following with the same excitable curiosity shining in her eyes.

"Where are we gonna go now, mummy? Can we go to McDonalds yet? I'm so hungry I could eat two million chicken nuggets!"

Extending her right hand, which her daughter grasped eagerly, the two lemurs began to walk away from the museum. As they walked, Mary looked left and right, towards the adjoining roads which she knew contained an array of wonderful, high-class restaurants packed full of food that would make her mouth water. Then she looked back at her daughter, still staring up at her in giddy, hopeful expectation of a positive response to her query. What the childish fascination with McDonalds food was she would never understand, but if that was what would really make Samantha's afternoon in London memorable, and she feared that it would be, then so be it.

"Two million, huh? I dunno about that, you already spent your pocket money this month on that souvenir plushie from London Zoo. How about we buy you a happy meal first, and see if you're hungry enough for the other one million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety six nuggets after that?"

Giggling at her mother's playful, quizzical expression as she counted off the remaining number of nuggets, Samantha considered the proposal. She thought about the mountain of nuggets and fries her imagination was busy conjuring up, feeling her stomach rumble with hunger, and was about to say that she definitely wanted the two million nuggets straight away. Then, like a bolt from the blue, she remembered something important. Something very important indeed!

"Does the happy meal still have a toy in it??"

Beaming from ear to ear, practically able to visibly see the thought process her daughter had gone through to get to that vital, life altering question, Mary nodded.

"Yes, little one, if you get a happy meal then you'll get your free toy with it as always."

The squeal of joy which erupted from the little lemur a second later was loud enough to make her mother jump in shock, and for passers by all around to stop what they were doing and glance, wide eyed, at the bouncing, whooping, giggling child standing on the pavement beside her rather stunned but smiling mother. Even some distance away, standing on the upper steps of the Natural History museum while his parents tried desperately to convince his dumb, lazy big brother to stop sniffling and yelling about his video games and come and look at the cool dinosaur bones before even more people started to stare at them, the young raccoon heard Samantha's happy squeal. He didn't know who, or what had made that sound, but it made him smile nonetheless. Whoever was feeling that happy, he was glad they were.

"Come on, Johnny. Just because your brother's misbehaving doesn't mean you should suffer. Your dad will stay out here with Leo. If he wants to they can catch up with us inside, then we can go to the video game store afterwards. Or, if they're still here by the time we get back, we can go home a little early and Leo can head off to bed with no museum souvenirs, no new games, and no dessert."

Turning at the sound of his mother's voice, little Johnny Douglas trotted past his sulking, weeping brother and stern looking father towards where his mother was waiting for him. He slipped his left paw into his mother's hand, and together they headed into the museum.

"Umm, mummy...?"

The female raccoon looked down at her younger son, smiling, proud of how well behaved he was being today.

"Yes, Johnny?"

Looking back through the large, open doors of the museum, seeing his brother's tail whipping angrily back and forth as their father's finger wagged down at him in conjunction with what was probably a rather disciplinary word or two, the young male frowned.

"Why is Leo such a big dummy, sometimes?"

Trying her hardest not to smile, or indeed to burst out laughing, John's mother cleared her throat and stopped briefly, turning to face her son head on.

"First of all, Johnny, you shouldn't call your brother names. And second of all, though I think me and your dad both hoped you'd be a little older before you discovered this... there are some questions, big, complex questions about life and the people we know and love, which even mummies and daddies don't know the answer to."

By Jeeves