September
5, 2003
I walked over to the
other side of the brightly decorated room to Skyla. Hours had gone by since the
celebration had ended. And she was sitting at the window,
“I thought he would
come to me.” She whispered, “I thought if I was really good, he’d come back.” I
plucked her up and set her in my lap,
“You are good,
Skyla.”
“But why didn’t my
wish come true?” I thought for a moment before answering,
“Well, sometimes
wishes take time to come true, there might be something in the way. Or there's something
better waiting for you instead.” The five year old looked at me, unbelieving.
“I’m serious,
Sunshine, just because, he couldn’t come now doesn’t mean that he’s not coming
at all. Just might be a little longer.
“But that’s what I
wanted!” she cried; the tears threatened to fall,
“None of that, you're
supposed to be happy today.” I spoke wiping off the tears that had escaped.
“Now why don’t eat a
little of that cake, you didn’t have any yet.” I suggested to my child. She
shook her head no.
“I’ll have more,”
“I don’t think so,
Timmy, you’ve already had three, you’ll never sleep.”
“Yes I would.” Once
he’d saw my face he took off to find Tanjia so they
could play.
“Go!” Skyla demanded,
shoving me back hard. I fell back.
“Skyla!
“ I scolded. “Just because
you're upset doesn’t mean you can act like that” She shrugged. Seeing that I
wasn’t getting anywhere, I walked off and started cleaning up the mess that
twenty children can make. We'd had all my children and the Neo Color Kids, and
their parents here; it was kind of nice to have all my friends here like that,
and with all the children around , and it being
Skyla’s fifth birthday, it seemed to be the new beginning for everything.
Friendships in all directions, trusts being rebuilt and enough love to go
around. I was surprised but not too surprised at Rainbow’s usage of her
rainbow, she'd let the beautiful ribbon surround Skyla and just cover her in the beautiful
sight; I knew that she only did that with ones that she was really close with,
so I knew that she must have called truce on her decision from long ago. I’d
seen her do it a few times but not many, so like I said I was and I wasn’t surprised
at the action she took. I noted that her daughter, Iris, was mimicking her
learning as she watched her mother. I
said nothing and just watched. It surely was like the old
days, that’s for sure.
“Mamma, I don’t
think Skyla’s here anymore.” I was snapped from my thoughts when Darlita spoke
to me,
“Sure she is, Skyla’s sitting in the other room at the window.”
“No she isn’t, I was
just in there. Probably went to the lake,”
“I know, even if it's
getting late, I think we can over look it.” I told my oldest then told her to
go get herself and the other younger ones ready for bed.
“If that was one of
us, you would go nuts!” I grabbed hold of Darlita and turned her so that she
was facing me, so that I could look her in the eyes.
“You know that I let
things go at times, especially when I know that you need the time to yourself.”
“Right,” Darlita
snapped, rolling her eyes,
“Darlita Rose, are
you sassing me?”
“I guess I am.” She
snapped back,
“Just get to bed,
now!” I instructed, pointing to the loft.
“Fine!” Darlita shouted, stomping on her way out of
the room. I sighed as I picked one of my toddlers up.
“You're not going to
start doing that kind of thing, are you Chase?” I asked him; he shook his head
no.
“Good boy” As I said
that, I kissed his forehead.