Five Minute Fiction Week 109

Week 109 Finalist

“It’s called a Koru,” I tell Melanie.

Her little fingers wrap around the delicately carved bone. “Aunt Cara sent it from New Zeeland?”

I chuckle at my daughter’s pronunciation, but I don’t correct her. Not today. “Yes, she did. She had this plant sent, too.”

I show Melanie the fern, and then place it on the mantle where it’s surrounded by other flowers, condolence cards and candles.

“The Koru is like this plant. A fern frond unfurls as it grows.” I gently caress a stalk of the plant, wishing my best friend never had to send it. Wishing none of this had ever happened. “It stands for peace, harmony and rebirth.”

“What’s rebirth?” Melanie asks as she squeezes the pendant in her palm, tests the weight of it, and holds it up to the light.

“It means new beginnings.”

“Oh.” She pauses, her mind taking it all in. “Beginnings come from endings.”

I sigh, kneel down and pull her into my arms. “Yes, they do.”

Melanie looks down at the pendant, rubbing it slowly, and then presses it to my chest, her fingers above it and spanning the length of my heart.

“So this is for Daddy, too?”

I choke back a sob, not wanting to think about Jeremy, and where he lies now so far underground.

“Yes, baby. It’s for Daddy, too.”

Speak Your Mind

*