Flight was about to take off. Lucy was quietly playing with her Penguin toy that I bought her at the airport. I tightened her seat-belt. She looked up suddenly and said, 'Daddy, when will we see Mommy?'.
'Mommy will be at Phoenix airport, sweetheart. You are going to see her as soon as we land', I assured her. She gave a faint smile and got herself engaged in playing with her Penguin again.
'Daddy, when will I see you again?', she asked again looking up. My heart sank at the question. How was I going to explain to her that she was not going to see her parents together ever? 'You will come to see me during the summer, sweety' and I tried to look away, trying to escape the questions in her eyes. She held my hand tight and asked, 'Why?. Why will you not be with me and Mommy in Phoenix?'.
'Because Daddy and Mommy are not going to live together, honey. But you as soon as the summer arrives, you will come to Daddy and we will spend time together. Daddy will take you to the park and you can play on the slides and swings. Daddy will bring you ice cream and chocolates. But first you must be a good girl and spend time with your Mommy.', I said with a heavy heart, trying hard to keep my gaze into her uncertain eyes.
'Will Mommy come with me to see you then?'
'No sweetheart, Mommy will not see Daddy. You will come alone. Daddy and Mommy will not meet each other.'
'But why Daddy? Why?'
And a tear rolled down her left cheek. It has always been like this with her. It is always the left eye which gives way to her tears first. And she started sobbing then. Pressing her head against my chest and curling her little arms around me. I did not know how to comfort her. I did not have logical answers to her 'Whys'. I did not know what went wrong. All I know is Lucy did not deserve this.
I held her tight. Trying to calm her sobbing. The deep humming of the airplane engine went on in the background.
P.S. - Inspired by a little girl and her father, sitting next to me in one of the flights I took once. The conversation didn't take place actually. Just a work of fiction.
[Image Source: http://lh4.google.com/ericandamos/RfXMDzT7odI/AAAAAAAAAWE/
_bYT12yy5aE/IMG_2305bw.jpg?imgmax=512]
Posts
10 comments:
EXCELLENT!!!!!... tooo goood. BEST shortest story ever :)
Thanks Maga :)
beautifully expressed emotional turmoil of the girl.. your words brought the situation alive..:) nice job !
I don't like stories that talk of separation. Anyway, good piece of writing.
Nice imagination buddy !!! ... Does it throw some light on the 'US Marriage Structure'???...
@Nik
Thanks :)
@Tap
Sorry about it
@Soham
You are right. It always amazes me. The irony that there is so much of material comfort here in US but the drive to achieve more and more ends up being social trouble in many cases.
Hey nice story. The trend has hit India too. It's not always because of material pursuits. Can be anything. People no longer want to stick through things and weather the storm. And all possible things get blamed for the separation, which are not the true issues.
Great post :)
hmm...interesting. The sentence formation and overall structure is very "book" like...you sure know how to do it...but, it would have been nicer as a non-teary.
Hmm... Didn't intend to make it tragic like this .. but somehow it just came out as that ...
I just hate broken relations story...... when i read the story my mind becomes angry to those parents...... this is the proof that story is excellent....... can't comment more.... bcoz basically i m not a relationship philosopher...... i m a wealth & economic philosopher.....
ASAV PATEL (asav4u@gmail.com)
Post a Comment