Sisters

Honorable Mention---7/24/09

ID: 896794   (Rated: 13+) Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  Enter your story of 300 words or less. Note new starting time! by arakun the twisted raccoon

                                                                     SISTERS

         

         I had seen them before, earlier in the day.  The little girl and the two women, mom and Grandma, I guessed, and the child whose features showed the unmistakable signs of Down syndrome.    The little girl seemed to be having the time of her life, walking the midway of the county fair.  I found a bench to rest my tired feet and enjoy my lemonade when I saw them again, approaching the same bench.  That was when I noticed that pinned to her sundress the little girl wore a big round pin emblazoned with the message, “Hi!  I’m Gretchen.”

         There could not be a clearer invitation to start a conversation and make a new friend.  I said “Hi, Gretchen!”

         She turned to me with a big smile.  The two women were smiling, too.  Gretchen asked “what’s your name?”

         I said, “I’m Mollie.”

         Gretchen said, “This is Mommy and Grammy.”

         “I saw you before having a lot of fun.”

         Gretchen showed me her prize souvenir of the day, a penny with a hole drilled and hung on a ribbon around her neck.

         It was getting late and time to go home.  I said my goodbyes and got a hug from Gretchen.

         As I began walking back to the parking lot I heard someone behind me.  It was Gretchen’s mom.  “Thank you for talking to Gretchen, it made her day.”

         “It made mine, too.”

         “So often people pretend they don’t see her.  It made her so happy that you talked to her.  She loves everybody and just wants to be friends.”

         “She’s a special little person.”

         I kept walking.  I was thinking of another little girl, my own little girl, now an angel, who had looked enough like Gretchen to be her sister.







293 words