A Flower for Daddy

This story is about a six-year old girl named Lily who has cancer and is trying to meet her father.

A flower for Daddy

 

Lily looked at the old crumpled up box in her hands. The letters written on the box were elegant and flowing and Lily felt as though it was important, so she decided that she would show her mom just what she had found. With a feeling of euphoria she left the room holding the box close to her chest as if to keep it protected from the whole world.

            She found her mom in the kitchen, setting the table in preparation for tonight’s dinner. She carefully laid out three plates along with accompanying silver ware. Why her mother laid out three plates when it was always just she and her mother, Lily didn’t know. She had tried to ask her once but her mother just sat there, never answering, so she never brought it back up. By the time her mother had finished setting the table Lily was restless. She was eager to show her mom the box with the pretty letters on it. Maybe it would make her happy because she has been so sad these past couple of weeks. When her mom finally noticed that Lily had come into the room, she smiled.

“Hello sweety, what have you been up to?” She asked.

“Look mommy, look what I found!” Lily beamed, holding the box above her head. Her mother’s face went from happy, to confused to angry all in the span of two seconds. She reached out and grabbed the box from Lily screaming:

“Where did you find this??” Have you been in my room plundering through my things?”

“But mommy I thought you would be happy, it has pretty letters on it. I just wanted you to be happy, you have been so sad looking for so long. I didn’t mean to make you angry. I’m sorry mommy.” Lily said with tears falling like dew dripping from the petals of a morning lily.

“No sweety, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I know you were just trying to help, but next time I need you to not go through mommy’s things ok?” Her mom said getting down and stroking Lily’s head.

“Ok mommy.” She said hopping into the nearest chair. “Let’s eat!”

Her mom sat down and they ate supper, talking animatedly about Lily’s day at school and what all she learned. It wasn’t until Lily finally left the table that her mother looked down at the knot of hair twisted around her fingers.

The next morning the phone rang shrilly through the house. By the second ring Lily’s mom had the receiver smashed to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Renee, this is doctor Allen…I’m sorry to say this but I have bad news…” Lily’s mother listened to the voice on the other line, not willing to accept everything the doctor was saying.

“But she’s only six! How am I supposed to explain this to her?? Just tell her she only has two months to live? That there’s a tumor the size of a grape in her brain, that’s the reason her hair is falling out?” Silence from the other end of the phone. “Well doctor? Tell me what I should do!!” “You said that you could help us that she would be able to live a normal life…” 

            “What’s going on mommy?” Lily’s mother immediately stopped talking and hung up the phone. “Oh nothing sweety just someone with the wrong number, would you like some breakfast?”

            “Yes please…but…I don’t feel so good.” Lily began to sway back and forth and her vision began to blur. She tried to make out the black shapes that were now clouding her vision but couldn’t. The last thing she remembered was her mother scream.

            When Lily opened her eyes, she was not in her bed. She looked around her and saw funny looking machines that she didn’t know what they were for, and wires and tubes that ran from these machines to her. She began to feel anxious, wondering where she was and why she wasn’t at home, until a gentle hand placed itself on hers.

            “It’s ok sweety, mommy’s here.” Lily looked over to the smiling face of her mom and, for an instant, saw a flash of pain cross her face, but it vanished as soon as it had appeared.

            “Where am I mommy?” Lily asked glancing around the room.

            “You’re in the hospital honey, you…had an accident.”

            “What happened?”

            “You’re…sick sweety, but it’s all going to get better, you’re going to be ok alright honey. Mommy’s going to take care of you.”

            “But I don’t understand.”

            “I know baby I know, but it’s going to be ok, you’re going to be fine. Here, I want to show you something.” Renee reaches into her purse and pulls out the old crumpled box. She opens it and inside is a golden locket.

            “Wow it’s pretty mommy, who’s is it?” 

            “It’s yours sweety.” Renee says, a tear falling down her face.

            “Mine? Who gave it to me? Is that what the pretty letters said on the box? Did they say the box was for me?” Her mother handed her the locket. Lily was so excited; she had never been given anything so beautiful in her life.

            “It’s so pretty mommy, who gave it to me?” Renee looked away from her daughter, not wanting her to see the tears glistening in her eyes.

            “You’re father.”

            “My daddy? I didn’t know I had a daddy. Where is he? Can I see him?”

            “One day sweety, one day.”

 

One month Later….

           

            Lily has gone from bad to worse. The doctors never thought that the cancer would spread as fast as it did, so her life is fading faster than they thought. Now a days, all she asks for is to see her dad, and asks frequently when he is coming to see her.

            One morning Lily wakes up screaming in pain, and Renee shoots up out of the chair next to the bed. Nurses rush in and try to calm her while she screams: “Mommy make it stop! It hurts so much! Mommy!”  Then, as the sedative slowly takes hold of Lily’s already withering body, the screams stop, and she begins to whisper: “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.”

            Later that evening, when Lily finally came around and the sedative wore off, her mother said that it was time she finally got to meet her daddy. So, with the permission of the doctors, she took Lily out to the car, and left the hospital. A few hours later they came to an open field with a small church in the background. Renee lifted her daughter out of the car, placed her in a wheelchair and began to walk into the field.  Lily thought as they progressed through the field that the flowers here were the most beautiful she had ever seen. They reminded her of herself, small and pretty. She reached out and plucked one from its quiet sanctuary thinking “maybe daddy will like it.”  When they reached the far end of the field, her mother stopped and Lily wondered why they had stopped. Her daddy was not here. She looked at her mom, but her mom was staring straight in front of her at the grey stone mounted on the ground. It was then that Lily finally understood. She looked at the grey stone, then at her mother, then back again. Taking the locket from around her neck, she wrapped it around the lily, placing both of them on the stone, and closed her eyes.

 

Author's Note

You know what to do. :)