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Emily was an ordinary girl with a very special friend. Her Papa was a kindly man with more creases on his face than cracks on a desert plain; when he smiled, she loved nothing more than to try to smooth them out with her fingers. 2
They spent every Sunday afternoon together, sitting on the bank of the creek at the back of her home. They talked and made things. No matter what they did, Emily would always laugh, happiness bubbling in her like warm soda drunk too fast.3
She watched her Papa now as he made a paper boat. She smiled as his fingers smoothed the paper, each fold slowly forming the shape. With a quick flick of his wrists, the paper shape flipped inside out. 4
“What shall we call her?” he asked, as he held it out to her in the palm of his hand.5
Emily stood thinking for a moment. “Can’t I just sail it, Papa?” she asked, eager to place the boat in the creek.6
“Every boat needs a name,” he replied.7
Emily stuck a blonde curl in her mouth and sucked on it as she scrunched her eyes to think. “Emily!” she exclaimed. “Oh, you must name it that, Papa!”8
Papa grinned. “There is no name more beautiful.”9
She squealed with laughter as she snatched the paper boat from his hands and ran to the creek. Without waiting for him to catch up, she placed it on the water and watched as it raced away.10
As it disappeared around the bend, she looked back to where her Papa should have been standing beside her.
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Five days later – on her sixth birthday – Emily crept through the lounge room where everyone wore black and no one smiled. Every other birthday had been filled with balloons, and gifts, and colour and laughter. And her Papa. It confused Emily.12
They told her that Papa was sick, and then that he had gone away. Emily’s lip trembled. Why would Papa go away on her birthday?13
Her Auntie Lynn, a skinny woman with a bony face, drew Emily to her. “He’s in a much better place,” she whispered, hugging her close enough that Emily could smell spearmint and roses.14
Tears ran down Emily’s face as she pulled away. “Why couldn’t he wait until after my birthday?” she demanded loudly. 15
Faces turned to her and whispers stilled.16
Auntie Lynn crouched down in front of Emily. “He didn’t know he had to go. But he’ll always watch over you.”17
“How?” Emily glanced around the room, trying to catch sight of her Papa, but she couldn’t see him.18
“He went to Heaven. I bet he’s watching you right now.”
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Later that night, after everyone had left, Emily lay in her bed. She stared at the ceiling. What good was it if Papa could see her, but she couldn’t talk to him? She threw her blankets off and jumped out of bed. After pausing to grab Ernest, she tiptoed to her window. 22
With her teddy bear under one arm, she gazed out the window and up at the dark sky. Wisps of clouds floated like pale candy-floss and stars sparkled around the moon.23
Crawling onto the window seat, she pushed the window open and a gust of wind blew across her face. “Papa?”24
No answer came, but another puff of air ruffled her curls. 25
“Why’d you go?”26
More wind blew. Leaves swirled on the breeze, dancing to their own tune. 27
Emily sighed and lifted her hand to pull the window shut. As she swung it, a flash of white caught her eye.28
“Papa!” 29
The paper boat cartwheeled in the gust of wind, riding the swell of air like the waves of the sea. It dipped and swirled, sometimes looking like it might tumble to the ground, but always righting itself.30
Emily grinned and pushed her hand through the open window, wishing that the boat would sail closer. Just when she thought her fingers would close around it, the boat darted away. Upset, she stuck out a trembling bottom lip. 31
The boat idled in the breeze as if it knew how sad she was, before tumbling toward her again. 32
Emily leaned forward, reaching out as far as she could, willing her fingers to snag the edge of the paper boat.33
Just as her fingers closed around the prize, she lost her balance and fell.
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She and Ernest landed with a soft scrunch on something that swayed. Emily sat up and looked around. White stretched out below her and to the sides, but above her stars nested against deep blue. She crawled to a side and peeked over.39
Her eyes widened when she saw her house far below, and she hugged Ernest tighter. She looked away and up at the stars. She shut her eyes and whispered, “I want to see Papa.”40
As if knowing what she desired, the boat rocked and swayed, chasing the leaves into the clouds. Emily opened her eyes as the boat crested a bank of fluffy clouds, bobbing up and down as it sailed the ocean of the sky.41
She sat against the end of the boat and hung onto the sides as the boat chartered its course. It soon left the clouds and tissue sails sprung up from the paper sides, billowing as the wind caught them. Soon the moon grew in size; first, the size of a dinner plate, then a beach ball and then so huge that Emily needed to twist her head from side-to-side to see it all. 42
“Emily.”43
She smiled when she heard his voice.44
“I came to see you, Papa.”45
As the boat stilled, he reached down and hugged her. “You brought the boat, I see.”46
Emily snuggled into his shoulder, breathing deeply. He still smelled the same – crisp apples and soap and the smoke that swirled from his pipe. She sighed. “You missed my birthday.”47
“I travelled to the end of my road, Emily, and needed to start on a new journey.”48
She lifted her face to him. “What do you mean?”49
“We live and then we die. We all have a path to walk. But the Lord gives us another. I will wait for you along this one and we shall walk it together.”50
“You promise?”51
“I promise. But you must go – you have your own path to walk,” he replied, touching his fingers to her face and shutting her eyes. He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Goodbye Emily.”52
“Bye, bye, Papa,” she whispered as she fell asleep.
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Next morning she woke, cocooned in her patchwork quilt, a paper boat clutched in her hand, with a smile stretching from one blonde ringlet to another.
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Silver trophy winner
Gold trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Adding your comment:
The background too, adds a fairy-tale-bedtime theme.
hahahhahhaah!
