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Short Story - Too Little, Too Late

 

            Daisy clutched her parents' hands as they swung her through the dirt smothered streets of New York on a quiet Sunday afternoon. After arriving home to their apartment so small it could barely fit light, Daisy's father, Christopher, was dialed by his police station to come in for a night shift. Daisy's mother, Andrea, prepared dinner, leaving an extra serving for Christopher. While setting the table, Andrea received a call that Christopher had been shot when reporting to a robbery on 5th Avenue. Andrea grabbed Daisy as the two of them hailed a cab. Daisy stayed with Christopher's partner while Andrea visited her unconscious husband in the hospital. The two stayed overnight, yet Christopher's condition didn't alter and Andrea was forced to take him off life support.
             At a young age of six, Daisy didn't understand what had occurred, except that her father was not able to tuck her in at night, to make her blueberry pancakes in the morning, or to kiss her tears away. When the sky was painted with darkness, all Daisy asked was for her "Daddy to tuck her in" and every night Andrea was at a lost for words of what to tell her inconsolable daughter. One morning as the crisp winter dawn gave birth to the city, Andrea dragged herself and Daisy out of bed and went to a store selling magnificent dolls. Andrea asked Daisy to choose the doll that "made her smile like Daddy made her smile." Daisy pointed towards a sulking yet lovely doll. That night, Daisy asked for her father to tuck her in again and Andrea told Daisy, clutching the newly bought doll, "When you feel tears building up and words getting harder to say, hold this doll and I promise you will be okay," and planted a kiss on Daisy's forehead.
             As time went by, Daisy matured and Andrea began to forget about the man who once held her, and introduced Steve into their lives. This man worked on Wall Street and held a great deal of money, yet a small deal of kindness.


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