invisible string

year 7

Meredith made her way over to the Shepherds house. It was really quiet. Usually she would see the kids playing in the yard and then run over to join them, but for the last couple of days, there was no playing. But now Derek was sitting on his front porch alone.

"Hi Derek." She said as she sat down next to him. His eyes were puffy and red and there were tears streaming down his face. Derek never cried. There was something really wrong.

"Hi Mer." He said quietly, not turning to look at her. There was something really really wrong. Derek always smiled at her. This wasn't right.

She tugged lightly on his shirt. "What's wrong Derek?"

Derek sniffled and tried to say "My-" But then was cut off by hard sobs. Meredith put her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"It's okay." She said quietly. She didn't actually know if it was okay or not. She had the feeling that it definitely wasn't okay, but whenever she cried, Derek always told her that it was okay, and that usually made her feel better. "It's okay."

He took a deep breath, "It's not okay." He choked out.

"What happened Derek?" She asked again.

"My- My- My dad died." He finally managed to get out.

"Oh." She said. That's really sad. Meredith's dad had gone away a couple years ago. Having dads leave really sucks.

"He's- he's gone." Derek cried.

"You will be okay." Meredith said as she hugged him tighter.

"No-" He shook his head. "No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"How do you know Meredith? You're only nine." He said.

"My dad went away. And you told me I'd be okay." Meredith whispered.

"Oh Meredith." He sighed as he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"So we will be okay." She said softly.

"I hope so." Derek sniffled.

"Dads aren't supposed to go away." Meredith said.

"No, they aren't." Derek agreed.

"It really sucks." Meredith sighed.

"Yea, it does." He said.

They sat together for a while in silence just hugging each other. Meredith didn't know if it was helping but she liked hugging Derek. So maybe Derek liked hugging her and she was making him feel better. Derek had made her feel better when her dad went away. Though her dad didn't die. He just went away. Meredith didn't really understand what dying was, but she knew that sometimes her mom's patients died and that made her mom really angry. Derek didn't seem very angry, he just seemed really sad. Derek wasn't supposed to be sad. Derek was supposed to be happy and smiley and call her Wonder Woman.

She came to the conclusion that dads were really stupid. Why would a dad leave Derek? He was the coolest. He was Superman. And he gave the best hugs and would always help someone when they asked. People shouldn't make him sad. Derek said that Meredith was really cool too like Wonder Woman, so her dad was probably really stupid too.