Status: One more chapter left!!!
I Should Have Known
Loving Daughter
Here Lies Annabelle Maria James
9/12/83-12/29/10
Loving Daughter
Cherished Sister
Beloved Teacher
Vivet anima vestra
If you translated correctly you would find that the Latin part means “your soul will survive”. That was the part that shook him the most; it just felt eerie. He shook off the feeling though, and placed the yellow rose at the foot of the grave stone, standing back to view it as a whole. He stood there for a few minutes just staring at her headstone, before sighing and deciding that it was time for him to leave. He turned to go, but before he even had his back to her, he saw a something interesting from the corner of his eye. He turned, and there she was; a girl, maybe around the ages of eight or nine, all alone and standing in the middle of an empty portion of the cemetery where no one had been buried yet. She looked lost and confused. She wore a white dress, and had her blonde hair in ringlets around her face. She looked like she might be crying, but he couldn’t tell from a distance.
He wanted to help her; maybe she had gotten lost, or wandered away from her parents. It was dangerous for a child to be on their own like that, especially one so young; you never know what could happen. So he decided to make his way over to her, to try and help her. She saw him before he had finished walking over.
From a distance she shouted “Excuse me mister, have you seen my mommy? I can’t find her anywhere!”
He knew it; she had gotten separated from her mother. When he got close enough to reply he asked her how long it had been since she lost her mother.
She scrunched up her face in confusion. It was odd. There was something familiar about her; something he couldn’t quite place. Kind of like when you watch a movie and you can’t figure out the name of the actor who plays one of the characters in it. Of course, nowadays you could simply type it in on Google and get your answer, but this was not quite as simple as that. Maybe he had seen her elsewhere. Some public place like a restaurant or a bus stop, or perhaps even on the street, he didn’t know, all he knew was that he had definitely seen her before.
“I don’t know,” she whimpered. She truly did look petrified, poor thing. He himself remembered what it was like being lost from his parents when he was that young. It had only happened once or twice in the grocery store, but it had still scared him half to death. He sighed for a moment and decided that spending fifteen or so minutes helping this poor child find her mother was worth missing his 4 o’clock bus.
“Well here, come under the umbrella so you don’t get even more soaked; we’ll walk around and see if we can find her, okay?” She nodded briskly, and they set off.
He asked her questions; what does your mother look like, where were you when you got separated, do you know her cellphone number, and all that kind of stuff. All to which she replied that she either didn’t know, or she couldn’t really describe it too well. Her mother had brown hair and blue eyes, she couldn’t remember where they had been, and she didn’t even know what a cellphone was. To say the least, he was shocked. Most two year olds nowadays knew what a cellphone was…some even had their own, and this eight year old girl had never even heard of one? Strange, he thought, but he supposed anything was possible.
Yet as he talked with her more, he felt more and more like he had actually known her from somewhere. He had that strange feeling of recognition, but he couldn’t quite place it. Eventually he began telling him about why she was there. Apparently she and her mother had been visiting her aunt’s grave, but she had lost he mother on the way. Then he asked him about why he was there, and for some strange reason, he found himself telling her.
“The woman I was about to marry is buried here,” he answered. “I was visiting her grave.”
They walked in silence for a few moments; the only sounds where the rustling of the trees above them, and the squishy squashy sound of the mud under their feet. He kept his eyes peeled for the girl’s mother, all the while wondering where he had seen her before.
9/12/83-12/29/10
Loving Daughter
Cherished Sister
Beloved Teacher
Vivet anima vestra
If you translated correctly you would find that the Latin part means “your soul will survive”. That was the part that shook him the most; it just felt eerie. He shook off the feeling though, and placed the yellow rose at the foot of the grave stone, standing back to view it as a whole. He stood there for a few minutes just staring at her headstone, before sighing and deciding that it was time for him to leave. He turned to go, but before he even had his back to her, he saw a something interesting from the corner of his eye. He turned, and there she was; a girl, maybe around the ages of eight or nine, all alone and standing in the middle of an empty portion of the cemetery where no one had been buried yet. She looked lost and confused. She wore a white dress, and had her blonde hair in ringlets around her face. She looked like she might be crying, but he couldn’t tell from a distance.
He wanted to help her; maybe she had gotten lost, or wandered away from her parents. It was dangerous for a child to be on their own like that, especially one so young; you never know what could happen. So he decided to make his way over to her, to try and help her. She saw him before he had finished walking over.
From a distance she shouted “Excuse me mister, have you seen my mommy? I can’t find her anywhere!”
He knew it; she had gotten separated from her mother. When he got close enough to reply he asked her how long it had been since she lost her mother.
She scrunched up her face in confusion. It was odd. There was something familiar about her; something he couldn’t quite place. Kind of like when you watch a movie and you can’t figure out the name of the actor who plays one of the characters in it. Of course, nowadays you could simply type it in on Google and get your answer, but this was not quite as simple as that. Maybe he had seen her elsewhere. Some public place like a restaurant or a bus stop, or perhaps even on the street, he didn’t know, all he knew was that he had definitely seen her before.
“I don’t know,” she whimpered. She truly did look petrified, poor thing. He himself remembered what it was like being lost from his parents when he was that young. It had only happened once or twice in the grocery store, but it had still scared him half to death. He sighed for a moment and decided that spending fifteen or so minutes helping this poor child find her mother was worth missing his 4 o’clock bus.
“Well here, come under the umbrella so you don’t get even more soaked; we’ll walk around and see if we can find her, okay?” She nodded briskly, and they set off.
He asked her questions; what does your mother look like, where were you when you got separated, do you know her cellphone number, and all that kind of stuff. All to which she replied that she either didn’t know, or she couldn’t really describe it too well. Her mother had brown hair and blue eyes, she couldn’t remember where they had been, and she didn’t even know what a cellphone was. To say the least, he was shocked. Most two year olds nowadays knew what a cellphone was…some even had their own, and this eight year old girl had never even heard of one? Strange, he thought, but he supposed anything was possible.
Yet as he talked with her more, he felt more and more like he had actually known her from somewhere. He had that strange feeling of recognition, but he couldn’t quite place it. Eventually he began telling him about why she was there. Apparently she and her mother had been visiting her aunt’s grave, but she had lost he mother on the way. Then he asked him about why he was there, and for some strange reason, he found himself telling her.
“The woman I was about to marry is buried here,” he answered. “I was visiting her grave.”
They walked in silence for a few moments; the only sounds where the rustling of the trees above them, and the squishy squashy sound of the mud under their feet. He kept his eyes peeled for the girl’s mother, all the while wondering where he had seen her before.
♠ ♠ ♠
So the second chapter is finally up! This is a short story, so there will only be 3-4 chapters. Comments are appreciated!