Obdurate

obdurate.
adjective. Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action.

Growing up, Laura became accustomed to hearing the word "no." She routinely asked her father for all sorts of things, assuming that it wouldn't hurt to ask: a dog, a horse, a trip to Disneyland, permission to go to a sleepover thirty minutes before it was scheduled to begin.... His response was negative so often that it became the default in her mind.

She learned before she started kindergarten that it did no good to plead with him to change his decision. Once his mind was made up, it was as obdurate as diamond. No amount of wheedling or whining, tears or appeals to her mother for her intervention would affect him. As for her mother, she was almost as stubborn as her husband. Laura became more crafty as she grew older, and knew that asking her mother's permission first sometimes yielded results, but only sometimes. Usually, her response was, "Wait until your father gets home and ask him." Laura knew without pursuing that option what the result would be. If Mom was uncertain enough to make that statement, Dad's answer would almost certainly be "No."

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Nap

nap
verb, intransitive. To sleep lightly or briefly, especially during the day.
noun. A short sleep, especially during the day. The raised hairs, threads, or similar small projections on the surface of fabric or suede, used especially with reference to the direction in which they naturally lie.

Laura entered the front room and took a seat at the table. This was her favorite part of each day. Mike and the baby were both napping, her chores were finished for the moment, and she had a brief stretch of time to own completely.

She eyed the pencil cup and box of stationery. Should she use the time to answer her mother's last letter? This might be the only opportunity she would have for days. She looked away, gazing out the window at the expanse of wild prairie grass curving away from their mobile home's site to the little valley where a creek ran. Time crept. A bird swooped through the scene. In the distance, a flock of crows skimmed the treetops. She could hear their caws from inside, faintly.

Sometimes, she reflected, the best gift you could give yourself was the freedom to do nothing at all. She settled back in the chair and continued watching the landscape outside, letting her thoughts range and roam.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.