Anne, I could've sworn I responded to this piece (maybe you posted in IWWG Members Room, and I responded there).  Anyway, reading it again, I'm struck by how your piece moves my mind:  I get caught up in the story, delighted by its creativity, its absurdity--and the narrator's tone seems to give me that permission to stay in amusement because she, too, was amused for a while, plus language like this--"His movements continued like poetry: a prince waving from his carriage on his way to be crowned king; a flower girl casting white rose petals on the path of the bride; a matador sweeping the bright cape that he knows the bull cannot resist."--detracts from the horror--UNTIL I remember that it's a metaphor, and then I'm horrified by it, by the father's violence (psychoemotional, or physical, or both) on the daughter, and then I'm even more horrified by my having been enchanted by the story just a moment ago. It was a surreal reading experience, beautifully choreographed: Russell Edson would have approved :)