A birthday….

[lyw101]

A birthday…

“Daddy, my balloon is still floating”, Katrina excitedly said to her father when they opened the front door of their west Seattle home. She ran over to it as it floated in the middle of the living room even though it was relatively dark with no lights turned on as yet. Bulluck flipped up the light switch to “on” and the metallic Mylar balloon casted off a sparkly reflective glow. Katrina did not know this as yet, but her Grandfather Bob, her mother Brooklynn’s dad had been part of a team of scientists who had developed Mylar for NASA in the early 70’s. The balloon gently hovered on the ceiling of their small living room and emitted effervescent warmth towards them both. It was as if it, the balloon spoke to Katrina and her father Bulluck, “to set me free” as she pulled the string hanging below it down to her.

“Dad, I will be right back, I need a felt tipped pen”, Katrina said as she dashed to the kitchen with the balloon close in tow following her long blond tresses. “Ok”, Bulluck said over his shoulder as he opened the back door of the house to set free their dogs, Brutus and Buckeye for their nightly pee. Bulluck stood on the back deck, staring at the starlit sky. A bit of sadness filled his heart, because on this day and night would have been Brooklynn’s 41st birthday.

“Dad, come here!” Katrina yelled from the front foyer of their house, “bring the dogs in too,” she further demanded ever present in the moment knowing that maybe her father might forget something when his mind drifted to another place and time. “Ok, ok, we are coming Kat, BRUTUS, BUCKEYE, get your ASSES in here, NOW”, Bulluck called out to his lone companions. With a tail wagging and a butt shaking, the two animals climbed the back stairs and willingly complied with their owner’s demand. The “butt shaking” was Brutus the Old English Sheep dog who had his tail bobbed at birth, so now when he was happy he would shake his behind back and forth to show his own joy of the moment.

“Look Dad”, Katrina said as she handed the silvery metallic balloon to her father. Bulluck took the balloon in hand and read the inscriptions his daughter had just written with that found blue felt tipped pen.

“Dear Mommy, we love and miss you very much and wish you a happy birthday” was written on the heart shaped front and when turned to the back a daughter’s words continued with, “I love you Mommy and wish you were here, Love you, Katrina”.

Bulluck read the last set of words over again and with tears welling up in his eyes, looked down at their nine year old daughter and asked, “Are you sad”? “Yes”, Katrina said looking up at her father and back to the balloon and then continued, “Let’s go outside and set the balloon free, it can go up to heaven and be with Mommy”. “Ok, let’s go do that”, Bulluck said back as he followed his daughter and the dogs out to the front deck. Bulluck was in some level of shock over these moments, because in the past two years since his wife, Brooklynn’s passing, their daughter had no shown very little of this type of warmth of remembrance of her mother. When Katrina spoke of her mom, it was always about something fun or something they had shared together. The “warmth of remembrance” was what Bulluck saw in their daughter now almost two years later after her mother’s passing and he felt it was derived from their daughter’s heart and soul. “A breakthrough”, the psychiatrists would say since after Katrina had participated in seven months of grief therapy that produce no result other than to state that, “she does not feel empathy” towards others. What did they know or understand in the bond between a mother and a daughter is forever, no matter how or when it presents itself.

The Bulluck and Katrina stood on the deck with their very tall, formidable evergreen trees surrounding the deck. “We need to stand here Katrina to release the balloon so it will not end up in the trees”. “Ok Dad”, Katrina said back to her father as they stood under the stars back lighted by the city of Seattle. Brutus and Buckeye sat looking at the sky too, quietly behind the daughter and the father. Suddenly, Katrina kissed the balloon and set it free. The balloon rose immediately and began its ascent into the late night sky. Soar the balloon did, free of the obstruction of the trees and power lines rising quickly over the Puget Sound below. The daughter and father watched the balloon until it could not be seen with the naked eye. Wisps of jet stream clouds formed shortly after the launch and Katrina said to her father who sat silently on a couch on their deck deep in thought or lost in the moments, “Dad, I think the balloon went into the clouds, do you think that is where Mommy is”? She softly, quiet as a whisper asked. “Yes, Katrina, that is where she is and she is smiling down to you with that balloon in hand”.

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[Duskyviolet]

thank you for sharing. An open honest buckeye at his best.

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[JoB]

well written

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