Madison (Maddy) Briggs is from Manhattan, New York. She was in 3rd grade, just 8 years old, when the World Trade Centers fell on September 11th, 2001. Her dad was a firefighter, and his station was one of the first on scene that day.
Her dad, Larry...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It's two days removed from Maddy's visit to Tim's grave. A place she hadn't been to in over two months. TK went with her, again solidifying his immense love for Maddy. She knows that she is so blessed that he's in her life, and she tells him that as often as she can. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maddy was woken by the sound of steady raindrops on her bedroom window, and rolled over to check the time, 5:30am. Maddy sighed, but decided to get up anyway. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. She pet Tex's head as she passed her as she walked into the living room.
The rain still pitter-pattered on the sliding glass door of her apartment. She listened with contentment as she got up and cracked her curtain slightly, so she could watch the drops race down the glass.
She turned on her tv, and the morning news was on. As she watched the stories of the morning, her mind wandered— she thought of her mom, and how much she missed her and couldn't wait to see her next month, she thought of her dad... Owen, and how from the moment she met him, he was so welcoming and supportive of her and TK and everything she did in her life.
Maddy often tried to reflect on her life, and how amazing it was.. even after Tim was gone. She had an amazing job, amazing life, amazing friends.. she was happy. She got closure from Tim and his parents, and she was keeping her promise— she was trying to be happy, and she was going to keep working at doing things, and being with people who made her happy. Eddie was one of those people. ——————————————————————— Maddy checked her phone 7:30am. She got up from her couch to make herself a bowl of cereal with almond milk, the rain still hitting softly against her door.
*switching the positions for you..* 'Hi Ed! What's up?' 'Hi sweetheart! Just haven't heard your voice in a while, wanted to say hi!' 'Awh, you're sweet! I'm just watching the news.. isn't it only 5:30 there? Why are you awake?' Eddie laughed, 'shift sweetheart.' 'Ah! Makes sense!' Maddy laughed. 'How's the weather there today? It's raining here.'
'Surprisingly.. it's raining.' Eddie chuckled.
Maddy smiled into the phone. 'Well I am shocked. And uhm.. also, I don't have an exact date yet, buuuuuut I think I'll be up for a LA visit in a few weeks! I just have to make it work with my work since that schedule's still fucked up from my accident, but yeah.. I just wanted to let you know that it will be happening... soon ish.' She chuckled.
Eddie let out a refreshing sigh, 'well that's great news Maddy. I'm excited to hear you say that!" Maddy smiled again, 'yeah.. I've done a lot of life reflection and thinking over the past few days. And yeah.. I'm good, it's just a visit anyway!'
'Yeah.. exactly.' Eddie cleared his throat.
'Oh.. I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that.. uh it's a visit, it's not like we'll be getting married, or that I'll be moving there.'
'Well yeah!" Eddie laughed. 'Oh.. GOTTA GO SWEETS. CALL!' Maddy laughed as his screaming, 'okay bye! Be safe!'
Maddy did do her self-reflecting as she said; part of that was talking to Tim's parents. Having both of them tell her that Tim just wants her up he happy, really helped. ——————————————————————— As the morning news rolled off, and 'Good Morning America' rolled on, Maddy knew it was 8:00am. The rain stopped, and Maddy heard Tex jump out from her hiding place, and onto the hardwood floor. As she walked towards Maddy, she stretched several times— the adorableness making Maddy smile.
Maddy got off her couch to get Tex some food, when her doorbell rang, "Tex.. visitor at 8:30 on a Sunday?" She shrugged to her cat, and carefully crept towards her door and looked out, it was a delivery lady from, judging by her uniform, the local flower shop. "Oh hello.. sorry you have to deliver on a Sunday, but thank you!"
The lady smiled, "no problem dear! Someone really cares about you! Have a good day!"
"You too ma'am!"
Pink roses, baby's breath, and yellow daisies. Maddy took a deep smell of the lovely flowers and grabbed the note to read it:
'Mads, Just thinking about you. We love you. - daddy-O, TK, and moms.'
"Oh my gosh.. I'm so lucky!" Maddy exclaimed to Tex before she left the kitchen for a moment, to get her phone to send a picture of the flowers to her mom, Owen, and TK in the group text Maddy just created.
'Y'all are crazy! These were probably expensive! But thanks so much! Brought a giant smile to my face! Love you all!' 'That was the goal! Love you too my peach!" 'Love you kiddo!' 'Anytime Mads!'
Maddy got a vase from under her sink, and filled it halfway before cutting off the tips of the stems, and sticking the bouquet in the water. She smiled to herself— random flowers from her three favorite people, a random phone call from Eddie, and getting to talk to Tim's parents again after months? She knew how lucky she was. ——————————————————————— Maddy was going back at work this week, and she was almost at full time. She asked off for that coming Thursday and Friday, so she was going to be working a 12hr shift on Tuesday to make up for it.
It was going to be a lot on her head and wrist (which was now out of a hard cast), but she would be lying if she said she wasn't beyond excited. She loved working, and loved her job.
While she was expecting the shift to be difficult, she was not expecting the pure depth of that difficulty.
