Smile Like The Sun

🍁EPILOGUE🍁

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" A little girl rushed inside the house, gleaming with artless excitement.

"Look what I have found! Look what I have found!"

She opened her small paw, soiled from playing in the dirt, showing the perfectly round gray stone with great enthusiasm to the old man sitting in his study.

"Isn't it just beautiful!" She marvelled.

"It is! My God!" The old man said, studying the small stone with great interest.

"It is a priceless one. Only one of its kind."

"I knew it!" The girl jumped up and down with glee, feeling immense pride of her little discovery.

"I will give you a big box." The old man smiled benignly in approbation.

"You can store all your treasures in there."

"Oh! Thankyou grandpa!" She cried, hugging her grandpa and staining his robes with her soiled hands.

******

The night was dark and bitter. In a dark corner of the room, a ten year old girl sat on the cold ground, her shoulders shaking as she cried.

She lifted her head when she remembered something, her face all swollen and messed up, and scrambled to the little drawer on the bedside.

She rummaged through the things and found a letter. She dropped down on the floor and stared at the dainty envelope in her hand, her heart ached even more.

She tore it carefully and pulled out the note, neatly handwritten by the hand that she so loved, as she started to read the gift meant for her tenth birthday.

Fresh tears trickled down her cheeks as she finished, her heart felt so heavy, she did not know what to do to relieve the agony infflicted by those mere words.

My dear,

Life is precious and beautiful.

Never ever give up on it, no matter how hard your day is.

Never ever quit walking, no matter how weary your legs are.

Remember without the darkness of the cold night, there will be no warmth of the soft sunshine.

And the happiness will become flavourless, if the woes never show their existance.

A mixture of laughter and tears, joy and misery, is what make life colourful.

So my dear, never give up on life, never quit walking.

- Grandpa.

******

An eighteen year old girl stood watching the stone, after gently placing her flowers on the grave.

"It has been more than eight years now. But I still miss you so much grandpa."

"A lot of things have happened since the last time I visited you."

She laughed.

"I think I have become more matured, and I made some friends too."

"And you know what, I have finally graduated highschool. Now I will go to university."

She smiled wistfully as she stared at the picture on the stone, which was smiling so heartily as ever, as a drop of tear dripped down her cheek.

"I have grown so much, haven't I?"

She wiped the tear.

"So you don't need to worry about me anymore, I can take care of myself."

She laughed a little, her hazel orbs glistening in the evening glow.

"You are right grandpa. I was not unwanted and never will be."

A tall boy approached her from behind, stopping a few feet away to not intrude her privacy, his aquamarine eyes fixed on her small frame.

"Life is beautiful and precious.
I promise to you grandpa, I will never make the same mistake again."

She turned back and her smile grew wider when she saw him. She whispered the last part, the rustling wind carrying it away.

"I will never give up."

******