The Girl

Kat

I finish reading my book and get up to go home. I am 17, and live with just my father. My mother passed when I was seven. She had brain cancer and there wasn't anything they could do. But when your seven, you're just taught she went to Heaven and lives happily now. Taught that she can fly around with angel wings and wears a silk white gown with a golden halo. Taught that she is in a better place.

But I don't believe any of that. I think she is just dead. She is gone. She no longer exists. And there's no point praying to God because if he were real, he would have saved my mother. He wouldn't want a seven year old to lose her mother so quickly and grow up with a clueless dad.

I walk home and see my bike in the driveway. I still need to get it fixed. I would call a mechanic soon. Because what good is a leather jacket without a motorcycle?

Walking into my house, I smell the aroma of food being made. Dad was home early today, I guess.

"Kitten is that you?" he asks from the kitchen. 'Kitten'. Why must he choose such a pathetic nickname for me? It sounds like it is for a three year old.

Or a cat.

"Yeah, I'm home." I call, following his voice. "You're home early today."

"Yeah, boss said today I could go spend time with my daughter." he smiles. He has this quirky smile that looks like he is genuinely happy and laughing about everything.

Maybe he was, but how could you be that held together after your wife dies?

"Alright." I say, and sit at the table. "I met a boy today." I raise my eyebrow, hoping to rattle him a little.

"Oh? What kind of boy?"

"The kind that stutters when he speaks, called me gorgeous right off the bat and wasn't too shabby looking." I say. "I'm meeting him tomorrow back where we met today."

"Where would that be?"

"The park."

"THE park? Or A park?"

"THE park." I say. The park where he met my mother.

"And you say he tripped over his words?"

"Sure did." I say, tossing my hair over my shoulder.

"Well, he sure knows which girls are the best." my dad smiles at me. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

Not even slightly rattled...