Will I Ever See You Smile Again

The Young One

Mary was an only child. So just imagine how good her life had been. She was such a prodigy when she was younger. She could sing, dance, draw, and act like the best drama queen there was. Her mother, May, had always tried her best in keeping her daughter off the streets. Monday through Friday Mary would be at her dance lessons, music lessons, vocal lessons, or practicing singing in her church choir. Saturday would be the days that she spent all day with her father since he was so busy. On Sundays her, her mother and father would all go to church together. Mary loved going to church, especially because she was in the church choir.

People would often compliment Mary on her singing. Everyone said she had the voice of an angel, the kind of voice that would make you daze off dreaming about the lyrics, turning those lyrics into real life. All day everyday you would see her smiling, even on the days when she knew everything wasn't going well. She kept it together, and every night she would pray, asking to keep that smile up and let no one see her tears. Her father always told her that if someone ever see's your tears, you have given them an open way to a weakness, they take advantage of that and will use it against you in so many ways.

Mary loved getting advice from her father. Every advice he'd ever given her, she used. She felt as if her father was the most wise person she knew. Every time something was wrong she immediately went to her father about it. It's crazy because it seems as if Mary trust her own father more than she does her mother. Sure her mother wasn't as busy as her father but Mary just felt like she couldn't talk to her about anything. Remind you, when this was happening Mary was only 8 years old. The very first fight she had got into with her Bestfriend was about a school crush. Mary had been crushing on him first and then all of a sudden her Bestfriend, Katie, started crushing on him too. They had talks about this a million times before it even happened.

Anyways, Mary tried explaining the situation to her mother but all her mother told her was, " You'll get over it, there isn't no need to find love." See, Mary wasn't looking for love, she was trying to figure out if what her friend did was disloyal. Later on that day when it was time for dinner, Mary was still upset. She didn't even touch her food, so her mother began yelling at her. "Eat the got damn food, I don't want to hear you talking about how hungry you are later on tonight." "May shut the hell up, can't you see it's obviously something wrong with our child and all you worried about is wasting some fucking food? Get the fuck out of here with that foolery." "Sweetheart what's wrong?" Her father asked gently. As she began explaining to him what happened her mother butted in, " this is ridiculous."

"I've had it up to here with your bullshit May, how about you go lay down somewhere," Mary's father says.

"Daddy all I want to know is if she's disloyal or not, I can always remember you telling me that if they're disloyal one then they'll be disloyal twice, and in this case two isn't better than one."

"Well sweetie, you are right but I don't think this should effect your friendship with her yet, you're both still extremely young. Make up and when you guys get older and she does it again then that's when you let go of her"

"Okay daddy thank you so much," Mary said in joy with a huge smile on her face.

"No problem sweetie, now good night."

See it was days like these that made her attached to her father more and more. He didn't judge her for her mistakes, he didn't laugh at her when she said some of the most ridiculous things she was serious about, and finally he had unconditional love for her that he showed. It was more than her mother had ever given her. Mary tried getting along with her mother but she pushed her away more and more until one day Mary completely stopped talking to her mother. Mary still had a big smile on her face even though all of this was happening behind closed door. "Don't ever show them you're weak," Mary said under her breath.

Mary was 8 when all of this happened. She had to detach herself from her mother, watch her mother and father fight about who was in the right or who was in the wrong, she watched her mother break down when her father told her mother that if she didn't start to act like a real mother towards Mary he was going to gain full custody of Mary and leave. Seeing and hearing all this at the age of 8?! Mary can still remember it til this day. She's 17 now, in 5 months she graduates, in 6 months she'll have her own apartment and car, and in 9 months she will be on her way to Spelman to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer.

I guess time really does fly.