I have been writing more on my little story and wanted to share.
This is everything I have so far. It is really the "bare bones" right now and their are probably some pretty awful grammatical errors, but it is just a start. I don't know how long I will continue to share publicly lol, since eventually my goal would be to be published or self published, but right now I am too excited to keep it to myself.
So here it is so far, from the beginning.
ELIJAH
“Can I send her another sunflower now?” Elijah asked as he knelt down on top of the cloud of giving.
“Ha. Ha. Slow down boy. She knows your there. I promise.” A gentle giant placed his hand on Elijah’s shoulder and comforted him.
“No. She doesn’t know. Look at those tears. She doesn’t believe it yet.”
Elijah ran back to what seemed like an unending field of golden sunflowers.
The skies were purple and pink and the clouds were silver. The air was filled with wonder and magic, and there was an ora of peace that earthly humans could never experience.
He struggled and spun around the stem of the first sunflower he could find until it broke off into his dirty hands.
Clumsily he ran back to the hole in the clouds, dodging the hands of the gentle giant.
The sunflower then slipped through his fingers and floated down to the Earth below.
“I miss you mom.”
——————————
Every morning it was the same 2 mile walk through the same old neighborhood.
It was the same judging stares from the fancy cats sitting in front of their fancy houses.
It was the same fake smiles of the other mom’s with beautiful babies and beautiful bodies.
She hated it. She hated every second of it.
She pulled at the drawstring of her baggy grey sweatpants and wiped the tears that welled up in her eyes. Her world was crumbling and everyone else’s world was still turning. It just seemed so unfair.
Suddenly there was a strong gust of wind. This clumsy breeze pushed all of her hair into her face as a blanket of leaves swirled and danced around her.
Stunned and startled she stood there with her eyes closed for a minute as if she wanted to believe this was a sign from the heavens above.
As she slowly opened her eyes, at her feet laid the most beautiful golden sunflower you had ever seen.
It had been one year today that her son Elijah passed away.
———————————————————————————-
“I don’t understand. Why can’t she see me?” Elijah strapped up his sandals and grabbed a golden pear off the table and shined it with his shirt. He packed it into his pocket.
The gentle giant dumped a whole bowl of pears into his mouth and talked through each bite.
“You have passed on from her universe. One day she too will pass into this universe and she will see you again.”
The giant finished his sentence with a loud and wet burp.
“She wouldn’t like that. Mom hated when people talked with their mouths full,” Elijah sighed.
“She sounds like a lovely woman,” the giant slurped up the last bit of pear skin between his teeth.
“Your not being very helpful.” Elijah stormed out of the house.
The sun was shining bright and the temperature was perfection. A breeze blew and the smell of fresh pancakes filled the air.
Elijah loved the smell of fresh pancakes.
When he was on earth with his family, the summer time was when his mom would make pancakes every morning. She would hold him and dance to oldies and they would both laugh.
The heavens were a beautiful place, and there was a peace that could never be felt on earth, but Elijah had always been quite serious and stubborn. He still didn’t understand why the separation of earthly humans and heavenly beings was so severe.
Taking a bite of his pear he started down the dirt trail.
Butterflies flew all around and everywhere you turned their where fields of sunflowers swaying in the sunlight.
———————————————————————
Kelly walked into the kitchen and placed the sunflower into a vase and placed it on the counter.
She grabbed a pear and took a bite of it as she stared blankly into space.
“Hey,” Kelly whispered gently as Elijah’s father, Levi, walked into the kitchen.
“Hey,” he whispered back.
“What do we do today?” She asked slouching over the island cradling the speckled green fruit in her hands.
“Go back to bed and stay there forever.”
“Ok.” She walked over and hugged his neck.
She had no idea what they were supposed to do with this day.
It was an anniversary of their worst nightmare, and while Kelly was against the idea of staying home in bed on most days, today staying hidden away from the world just seemed like the best thing to do.
She showered, got into her pajamas and climbed into bed with her laptop next to Levi who had already crawled back into a safe space of covers drawn over his head.
“It is 8:56am.,” she blogged, “and it is the first anniversary of the worst day of my life.”
She sighed as she wiped the tears away and took a deep breath.
As she placed her fingers back on the keyboard, the doorbell rang.
“Crap,” she looked over at Levi who didn’t budge and wondered if she should just ignore it too.
Today held all the excuses in the world to just be a horrible human being and ignore the rest of the world.
But then it rang again.
Kelly sighed and placed her laptop to the side and shuffled to the door.
She placed her head silently against the cool smooth wood and took another deep breath before slowly opening it.
It was her neighbor Erin with her six month old daughter strapped to her hip.
Erin was a larger woman with maple colored hair. She was obviously in destress and was juggling a diaper bag in one hand, her baby in the other arm, and a cell phone to her face.
“Hold on. Hold on. Yes. HOLD ON,” she shrieked as she smiled at Kelly and paused her phone conversation. “Is there anyway you could watch her today? Just for a few hours. I have a very important meeting and my sitter canceled.”
“Oh umm…” Kelly fumbled through her words as if someone had just punched her in the gut. She could barely breathe. Watching a baby? One year after she had lost her own? “I am…I am sorry. But I can’t today.”
“Tommy, I will call you back.” Erin shut off her phone and looked at Kelly like she was looking at a child that had just disobeyed her parent.
“I’m sorry. Today is the one year anniversary of Elijah’s passing…and….”
“God. I am so sorry,” Erin tried to fake sincerity but was more transparently selfish than ever.
“Oh! I know maybe this little pookie here could help cheer you up? She could give you guys some practice, ya know incase you guys are ready to have another one? Now is a great time to move on.”
As Erin continued baby talking her daughter in the grossest sweet talk voice imaginable, Kelly slowly closed the door and walked back to her bed.
The doorbell rang again.
“Who is that?” Levi asked from under his mini blanket fort.
“Satan.” Kelly answered.
——————————————————————————
The Giant ran behind Elijah huffing heavily and trying to catch his breath.
“Boy! Boy!” he shouted through the tired breaths.
Elijah continued to move swiftly down the dirt path ignoring the calls.
“Boy! Quit being so stubborn and come here.”
Elijah paused in his tracks and sighed. The giant caught up.
“Boy. There is something I want you to see. A surprise for you.”
While Elijah was a bit on the serious and stubborn side, he also loved adventures and surprises. So he decided to entertain the silly giant’s diversion. “A surprise? Where is it?”
“Come with me and I’ll show you.”
Elijah’s steady shuffle picked up to a nice brisk jog as he followed the giant down the dusty road. His laughter joined to the song of the birds. He was ready for an adventure. He was ready for excitement. He was ready for a…
“SURPRISE!” he heard as he walked behind some bushes and on to his favorite rocky beach, “Happy one year in Heaven!”
“I baked you a cake,” a sweet voice said coming from the crowd.
“I baked you an even better cake,” he heard from a second voice.
“They are both good cakes ladies. Let the boy be!” said a third voice.
It was Elijah’s grandfather, Gus and both his first and second wives.
“Hello Grandpa,” Elijah hugged his way down the line, “Hello Grandma Helen. Hello Grandma Josephine.”
Grandpa Gus was first married to Grandma Helen. The couple met in their teenage years and married younh. Helen passed away during childbirth with Elijah’s mother. Soon after Helen’s passing Gus met and fell in love with Grandma Josephine who helped raise Elijah’s mom. Later Gus and Josephine passed away in a tragic car accident, and since their arrival in the Heavens, there has been a constant “one up” battle between the two wives of Gus.
“I’m just saying that I know what the boy likes, and he likes chocolate. So my chocolate ganache cake is going to make him very happy,” Grandma Helen pushed her cake into Elijah’s face like a used car salesman who has trapped their next buyer into a corner.
Of course, Grandma Josephine had to top her. “But I know just how much the boy likes chocolate AND strawberries, and I made this chocolate cake topped with chocolate covered strawberries.”
The truth is that Elijah preferred a simple vanilla cake with sprinkles. The kind his mom used to make, and Grandpa Gus knew this.
As the grandmas continued to bicker Grandpa lured Elijah away with a vanilla cupcake with sprinkles. “How is your mom today? Did you see her?”
“I went to the giving cloud and sent her another flower. But she was still sad. She doesn’t believe yet.”
“It will come in time. You have to remember that she never wanted to lose you. She loved you more than anything, and she will miss you until the day she joins us in the Heavens. But in time she will be able to feel the connection you two have. I promise. Just give her time.”
“Yeah…I guess.” Elijah murmured as he shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth. The icing was blue and it left an awkward blue ring around his lips.
Grandpa Gus gave him a reassuring hug and told him to go enjoy the party. Elijah walked into the large group of family members and family friends who had gathered to celebrate his time spent in the Heavens. All of them he had seen before, except for one new face.
“Hi,” she said. “My name is Angel.”
————————————————————
Kelly hit the back space button on her keyboard and started over on her blog.
“It is 9:15am.
Today is the one year anniversary of the day we lost our son Elijah.
To those of you who are not familiar with the pain of child loss, it is quite possibly the worst pain you can humanly endure.
When we lost Elijah we lost all of our hopes and dreams for him. We also lost a part of ourselves…”
The doorbell rang again.
“Seriously?” Kelly dropped her laptop down beside her.
“Just ignore it,” Levi groaned from under the sheets.
The bell rang again.
Kelly looked to Levi, who pulled the sheets down and revealed his face.
“You want me to get it, don’t you?”
Kelly nodded silently.
“Fine.”
Levi stood up and made his way to the door. He swung it open to find some kid standing there selling cupcakes. He took two vanilla ones with the white sprinkles and gave the kid some money and closed the door and locked it.
He walked back to the bed, unwrapped the paper from the cupcake and shoved half of it in his mouth leaving a ring of icing around his mouth. He sat on the bed and handed Kelly the other one.
————————————————————
“You’re kidding me. Right? Your name is Angel?”
“No. No kidding. That is my name. If you don’t like it you can blame my parents.”
“Huh,” Elijah wiped he left over cupcake crumbs from his mouth. “Am I supposed to know you Angel?”
“I don’t think so,” Angel answered, “We are not related and we weren’t friends, but I saw that there was a party so I figured why not join the fun. You don’t mind do you?”
“Guess not,” Elijah shrugged.
The party was full of gentle giants and mellow monsters. There were humans and animals and mystical creatures all enjoying the beach together. Stars were twinkling in the sunny sky. Rainbows painted the mountains in the distance. Anything was possible.
“You look bored,” Angel bluntly stated.
Elijah didn’t know what to say. He was pleasantly pleased with the party, and he knew his parents had always taught him to be thankful, but he was bored. This was not the surprise he was hoping for, and to be quite honest he was finding it hard to celebrate the anniversary of leaving his parents arms and leaving them in devastation.
“I just don’t understand what we are celebrating.”
“Your at peace! You have endless joy. There are no more worries. The Heavens are a wonderful place to be.” Angel danced a little jig and laughed.
“I know…but,” Elijah started to explain.
“Shhh,” Angel stopped him with a finger on his lips. “I know.”
“Come with me,” she grabbed Elijah’s hand and lead him away from the party and into a field of lavenders and fairies.
They stopped at a cloud, and she waved her hands above it and created a small opening.
“Wait are we?”
Once again Elijah was interrupted by Angel, “At the giving cloud? Yes.”
“But where are my sunflowers? Where is my dirt road?”
“Oh boy. You are still a newbie. There is so much to learn,” Angel giggled followed by a dorky snort.
Elijah couldn’t help but laugh at this clumsy girl, but he was so confused. He had been to the giving cloud hundreds of times with the gentle giant and it had always been the same scenery: a sea of golden sunflowers and a dirt road lined with heart shaped pebbles, stumps and leaves. All of that was gone now. He did not recognize this place.
“You miss them don’t you?” Angel sat down on the cloud.
“Yes.” Elijah sighed.
“You know how I know?”
Elijah sat down on the cloud and looked down at the beautiful scenery below.
“How?” He asked.
“My parents are down there too.”
They sat in silence for a while just staring down to the Milky Way. Space was almost as beautiful as Heaven with shooting stars and colorful planets. The quasars danced with nebulas as the satellites danced dangerously with the black holes. It was the magical divider of The Heavens and Earth.
“Why can’t I see them?” Elijah asked with a slight panic in his voice. “I have always seen them before.”
“Oh newbie,” Angel giggled and snorted again, “When you come to the cloud are you ever alone?”
“No. My giant is always with me.” Elijah thought about this for a moment, but couldn’t make any sense of it. The Giants were not magical, and Elijah’s Giant was a bumbling annoyance at best. Did he really have to rely on him to use the giving cloud forever?
————————————————-
Kelly and Levi sat in bed eating their cupcakes.
“Well, I guess the door could have rang for more annoying reasons,” she took another bite of as Levi collapsed on the bed beside her, “I think I could eat a thousand cupcakes today.’’
“I could eat a mountain of brownies,” Levi suggested.
Comfort food could never bring their son back, but it never sounded better to the exhausted couple.
Suddenly, as he had been struck with a brilliant idea, Levi jumped to his feet and grabbed Kelly’s hands. He brought her into the kitchen and started to pull out mixing bowls, and flour and sugar.
“Let’s celebrate him. Okay?” he said in a desperate attempt to make Kelly smile. “We have to celebrate him. He is still our son and we can not let death win.”
“Ok,” Kelly lent a weak smile, “Let’s make some cupcakes.”
“And brownies?” Levi added ever so sweetly and pathetically.
“Any brownies.” Kelly agreed.
— —————————————————————————-
“So the giants are magical?” Elijah had to ask.
“Oh gosh no,” Angel exclaimed. Her giggle snort was growing less enduring to Elijah as his serious side started to show again, “Their amulets are.”
“Their necklaces?” Elijah was just trying to clarify as he was still a little confused as to why these graceless monsters could hold such responsibilities. “But why the giants?”
“Who knows,” Angel said carelessly. “Everyone up here has a purpose. And now that you are past your first year, you will soon learn yours.”
Elijah felt like he had to ask, “What is your purpose?”
Angel sat up straight and strongly stated, “I am a sky painter.”
“What’s that?”
Slightly annoyed at Elijah’s ignorance she boasted, “Sky painters add color to the skies at sunset, and send rainbows during the storms. We bring peace in the quiet moments and the promise of a new day,”
Elijah agreed that Angel was a perfect fit for her purpose. She was colorful and always full of joy. But the wheels in the boys head started turning as now started to scheme his way into being granted the purpose of guarding the giving cloud.
Alright, I need to get out of this bed and finish unpacking my car. Today will be a two blog day ;)
Be back a little later ;)
~Kelly
Did you know you can shorten your urls with BCVC and receive $$$$$ from every click on your short urls.
ReplyDelete