As she sat and watched the waves gently creep their way onto the shore, she wondered why her dad was taking so long. The sunlight poured its warmth all over her body and embedded itself into the sand beneath her. She was happy. She was content.
“Possum!?” She looked back to see her dad waiting for her, She got up quicker than the light of day and hurried along to him. His warm arm protected her little shoulders as they walked up towards their favorite cafe on the beach. As they sat down to share a cold chocolate milkshake, she reminded her dad just how much she loved him and how she never wanted the holiday to end. How she never wanted this time with him to end, little did she know, it would, much quicker than she ever thought. She slurped up every last drop that she could find and looked at her dad with eyes full of bliss. She was happy. She was content.
The holiday had come to an end and the time to say goodbye to her dad had arrived. She dreaded saying goodbye. It was the one thing in the world she never wanted to do. Regardless, she knew she had too. She knew the time would come where she would see him again, It was only a small flight away. She clung on to his short peaceful figure and squeezed him as if there were no tomorrow. She felt her heart sink deep, her throat close up, the tears plummet from her eyes as he tightened his grip on her fragile little body and held her heart closer to his. But it was okay. She would see him soon right? She would be in his arms once again? The plane took off and there stood her dad, there he stood slowing watching a little piece of him fly away with her. Regardless of the pain that he felt when her fingers left his, he knew this time he had spent with her was precious and that was all that mattered. He was happy. He was content.
Time went on and the need to see her dad became less of a priority. He had his own life, she had hers. Communication was deteriorating and the beautiful bond they once shared was starting to dissolve into a endless sea of darkness. Every once and a while she would get a text. “I promise i’ll come see you this birthday” he would say. “I promise we will spend more time together”. As she sat in her room she wondered why he was never there. She was just a little girl who needed her dad. She knew deep down he loved her. But she knew she still had her whole life to make up for lost time right? She still had all the love in the world for him. She was happy. She was content.
Silence was all that was spoken between the two. The relationship had discoloured and faded into abundance of nothingness. She loved him but she no longer had anything to hold onto. A part of her always thought it would all go back to how it was, back to the cold chocolate milkshakes by the beach and the hugs that felt as though they lasted a lifetime. She held on to this thought and carried it close to her heart. She was happy. She was content.
March 19th an ordinary Thursday morning. She was getting her shoes on to walk out the door, when she watched the words she never thought she’d see leave her mums mouth. Her body started to shake, her head became light, and her heart had never felt such a deep pain. He can’t be gone. He can’t be gone. He can’t be gone. The thought spinning around her mind at what felt like a million miles an hour. Her lungs caved in and her body didn’t know how to react. She sat on her bed. She had no sense of emotion, it were as if someone had crept into her mind and turned off her humanity. There she sat in a chamber of shadows. She never got to say goodbye. The thought that she would never look into his eyes and hold him close to her crept into her body and started to eat away at her creating a large hole where his heart once lay. She was sad. She was lost.
There she lay, flat on her back. Her pillow submerged with the salty water that fell from her eyes. Her body numb to the core. She was dark. She was absent minded. Then out of nowhere a small glimmer a light illuminated her heart. The room of darkness had been lit. Out of her body flew a silhouette of light. It flew high into the sky. High enough to see the land of the spirits. It hovered just beneath the clouds, scared to see what was awaiting it on the other side. Up it went. There he was. It was her dad. Playing amongst the clouds, swinging from the rays of sunlight, surfing on the waves of wind. It had seen everything it needed. It slowly started to sink back to the ground. Back towards the room of darkness where the girl still lay. The silhouette of light found its way back into her body. There she lay flat on her back with only one thought in her mind. He was now happy. He was now content.
If only she had known, would she of done something different? If only she had known, would that last conversation be the same? I guess we will never know, and that sometimes is the harsh reality of life.
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