The Little One

Jordan was sitting on her couch working on a paper for her music history class and Maddyn was running around in her Disney Princess night gown. She would be three next month, March 6th, and Jordan couldn't wait for the terrible two's to be over with.
"Maddyn Honey where are you?" She called for her daughter who had wandered into the next room without returning immediately, breaking the pattern she had set over the last 20 minutes.
"No where!" Jordan heard her small voice call back. Maddyn wandered back into the room with a paper crown on her head that she had made at day care and was banging her diego doll along the wall as she came back down the small hallway which linked the playroom to the living room. She reached up on top of a table and got down her mom’s iPod.
"I want to turn dis on" She said trying to untangle the chord. "Turn on the music for me" She asked her mother, taking the crown off her head and letting it fall to the floor. "I can't do it! Help me Help me!"
"Alright" Jordan said turning the ipod on for her. Maddyn took one ear phone and held it up to her tiny ear since it wouldn't fit quite right and began dancing, which quickly turned to sprinting around in circles. Jordan tried to return to her paper but her cell phone started ringing. If it wasn’t Maddyn distracting her from her school work it was her best friend Sarah. She glanced down at the screen. “Of course.” She muttered before answering, “Hey girl.”
"The boys are back!" Sarah said in a sing song voice.
"What boys?" Jordan acted like she didn’t know who Sarah could be talking about when she knew exactly what boys.
Sarah was talking about John, Jarred, Garrett, Kennedy, and Pat, or The Maine, as most people knew them now. They had all gone to high school together. Kennedy had been best friends with Maddyn's dad, Carter. Carter had been Jordan’s boyfriend since eighth grade. Maddyn came from their very first time together and. Carter had stuck around. He was a great dad and still a great boyfriend. They were going to get married. But the January before Maddyn's 1st birthday he had a car wreck. A bus had ran a stop light and Carter was killed on impact. It had been hard and The boys had done a lot for Jordan and Maddyn. Though over the past year they had drifted apart. Jordan couldn’t recall the last time she actually spoke with one of them. They always emailed though, Kennedy mostly. She figured It was because he felt sorry for her or maybe he felt some kind of responsibility since he was so close to Carter. That's why Jordan hadn't been emailing them back recently.
"Jordan!" Sarah yelled pulling her from her thoughts. “The Maine boys! You know Kennedy, John, Garrett, Jarred and Pat! Best friends of ours since high school? Ring any bells? They’re playing this Saturday in town!”
“Oh right them,” Jordan said uninterested. “Well I can’t take my 3 year old to some loud, smokey, rock n roll show.”
"I bet that you could get some one to watch her." Sarah offered. “I’ll even help you look for a grade A sitter.”
"Well if you can find me some one I'll go, but I don't have any time to call people or anything so have fun with that.” Jordan told her
"Fine I will find some one!" Sarah confidently replied, “I’ll find the best babysitter in all of Arizona!”
"Kay I'll talk to you later." Jordan laughed.
"Bye girl! I will see you Saturday! " She hung up the phone.
Jordan looked down at her daughter. Maddyn smiled up at me with her big blue eyes. "Sing mommy!" They sang with each other all the time, normally the songs Jordan liked, but they sang nursery rhymes too occasionally.
"Should I write myself out of the history books and mark a place in time for every chance you took" Jordan sang softly, Maddyn joined in with her and by the end of the song was smiling ear to ear.
"Maddyn, do you know what time it is?" The small child frowned because she did know, but shook her head in protest. "It's nap time sweetie." Jordan said in the nicest possible way, knowing that no matter how she said it Maddyn was not going peacefully.
She started crying and Jordan got her some "Chocolate milk in a bottle" that was really a sippy cup. It wasn't even chocolate milk, it was 99% white milk with a drop of chocolate milk in it, Jordan didn’t have time to explain to a doctor why a three year old had cavities, so she tricked her a little for her own benefit. She picked up her crying child and carried her upstairs and put her in the crib.
Jordan had lived with her aunt when her mom kicked me out. When her aunt passed away she left Jordan everything. It wasn't much in reality but to a single mother of 18 it was a lot. She had been gone for a little over a year now. Jordan was 19, she had graduated High School with a 3.5 that she was extremely proud of. Now she was doing online courses with ASU to get her degree in music with a minor in social services.
She wanted to do Music Therapy with kids who were dealing with difficult situations. She sat down in the rocking chair across the room from the crib and started singing to Maddyn. She owed this one to The Maine. Daisy always made Maddyn fall asleep. Except she sang a softer quieter version that lulled her to sleep. "Well I picked you up, and lifted your wilted frame to the sun" Jordan sang until she saw her daughters tiny eyes flutter shut. Then she got up and walked down the stairs of the house that was too big for just the two of them and called Kennedy. He had given Jordan his number a long time ago, but she had never used it, but figured instead of writing a long apologetic email she would just call.
"Jordan?" He asked into the phone.
"yeah, hey Kennedy, It's me." She replied sheepishly.
"Why haven't you emailed me back?" He asked her, he deserved a truthful answer, but Jordan wasn't sure she could give him one.
"I don't know, busy I guess." She took the easy way and made an excuse.
"Is Maddyn okay?" He asked, worry, clearly in his tone.
"Oh yeah she's fine." Jordan said realizing he didn't know why she was calling him. "I just wanted to talk?" She asked him unsure of weather he was busy.
"Oh yeah I can talk, What's up?" He said with nothing but concern in his voice.
"I was thinking about coming to the show Saturday and well do you wanna stop by like before or after? You know see Maddyn and maybe catch up?" She didn't really know why she wanted to see him but she knew she definitely wanted to see him.
"Yeah I'd love to see the kid, would it be okay if John came with me?" He asked Jordan.
"Only if he sings with Maddyn, I swear she never stops singing." Jordan said laughing a little.
"Yeah I'm sure he'd love to," He paused, "I've missed you Jordy, you can't just stop talking to me again okay? I've been worried about you." Concern filled his voice.
"Yeah I'm sorry, I've just been in kind of a rut lately. School's been stressing me out and Maddyn's been a handful," Jordan’s heart tugged but she swallowed the knot in her throat. " You wouldn't belive what she remembers, about ... well the night that Carter died."
"Really what does she say?" He asked worried about his late best friend’s daughter.
"She talks about the blue and red lights, about people crying" She replied solemly.
"Jordyn I'm gonna come over as soon as we get there okay? We're gonna get there around 8 tonight, I'm bringing John too." Kennedy was always there for her when she needed him.
"Kennedy don't do that. you don't have to. I know you feel responsible because you and Carter were so close but It's not your problem, don't make it yours." Jordan begged him, knowing that he was coming no matter what she said.
"Jordan I don't do it for Carter, I do it because I care about you and Maddyn. We used to be close. I was there when you went into labor with Maddyn, I was in the waiting room when she was born, I babysat Maddyn loads of times. I've watched every damned barney episode there is. I was there the night Carter died and until I had to leave for tour I was always there for you when you needed me and still tried to be there when you needed me. I'm here now so just let me be there for you." As Kennedy recalled the memories she realized he had been there, through all of it.
"okay Kennedy you can come." She gave up.
"I have to go now, we're stopping for something, but I'll be there around 8:30 okay?"
"Okay, bye Kennedy"
"Bye Jordan."