Page 48 of Little Doll

She giggled and darted to me, bending to hug me. “I’m sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to startle you!” When she straightened and looked down at me, her face fell. She placed both her hands on my face and gently swiped my tears with the pads of her thumbs. “Why, Nova! What’s wrong, Little Doll?” she worried.

“It’s my grandmother. Cleo. She’s passed away.”

Ren’s jaw dropped, and she sank to her knees before me, clasping both my hands on my lap and staring up at me with her lip trembling. “Oh, my darling, darling girl. I am so sorry.”

I hung my head and nodded sadly. “Thank you, love. I wish you could’ve met her.”

She nodded. “I wish that too. She sounded positively lovely.”

“She was lovely,” I whispered.

Ren stood back up and walked behind me to look over my shoulder. “What’s that you’re reading?”

“It’s a book of poems that Cleo wrote.”

“Aw, how wonderful! Read me one,” she suggested.

In the garden where the lilies bloom,

I find my heart’s eternal room,

With every petal, every leaf,

A story told, a memory brief.

In laughter’s echo, in children’s play,

My love for you finds its way,

In every smile, in every tear,

My family’s joy, forever dear.

Through time’s embrace, through days and nights,

In tender moments, soft delights,

My heart beats strong with endless grace,

For each kind word, each sweet embrace.

In golden fields where dreams reside,

I walk with you, close by my side,

For family’s bond, so pure, so true,

Is where my love will always bloom.

By the time I finished the poem, we were both quietly sobbing. Ren massaged one of my shoulders. But then we heard a messy stumbling sound and before I knew what was happening, my father Costel had blustered into my room, drunk and disheveled, and yelling something.

But as soon as he crashed through the doorway, he stopped dead in his tracks.

The color drained from his face in an instant and his mouth dropped open.

“No, it isn’t possible,” Costel said in a strangled whisper. Then he began stumbling backwards, back out the door he’d just come in.

I leaped to my feet, full of terrible anxiety. “Father! Be careful!” I cried, darting after him.

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