I’ve spent many years in a dark, seemingly bottomless pit I never thought I’d be able to crawl out of. I deemed myself unworthy of happiness. But now as I’m in this bed, in extreme pain, my screaming is cut off when I hear a loud, piercing cry, and it’s music to my ears. A bundle of joy. A page has been flipped and a new chapter is here.

She’s in my arms, tiny and wrinkled but the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I named her Jane, after my favorite author, Jane Austen. I’ll teach her to love her namesake when she’s old enough to understand. I hand her to her father, who will teach her how to play guitar, and show her the kind of man she deserves. Exhaustion begins to overtake me and I’m asleep before I even know it. I have nothing but the sweetest dreams of Jane and think about how incredible it’s going to be to watch her grow up, to raise a little girl into a young woman. But I’m in no rush. She can take her time, and I will cherish every second of it.

Now I’ve changed. I’m a phoenix that rose from the ashes of the old me, lost in the dark pit. I’ve shed it all so I could fly higher and be better than I was. For my daughter, my sweet baby Jane.

©Heather Ann

#Fiction #ShortFiction #Story #ShortStory #Challenge

Where does a thought begin or end or 

is it like a line in math, infinitely stretching in either direction even when it loops back on itself

Now that is a novel idea 

The original sin, original thinking

-- origin, originator, the first

A new dawn, day, life 

is supposed to feel good

Instead it saddles on like an untrained loafer.

Melanie’s stomach hurt in the middle of the night waking her from a restless dream. It was probably the spicy takeaway her father had picked out for dinner that caused it.

She traipsed to the bathroom, her belly aching uncomfortably. She’d had diarrhea before, but it hadn’t felt quite like this.

She pulled down her pajamas to see...

Spots.

Red.

A lot of them.

She checked her underwear.

More spots.

More red.

She was too frightened to scream.

“Daddy?” asked Melanie peeking into her father’s bedroom at midnight. Thankfully he was still awake. “Can I ask you something?”

“Mellie, you’re still awake?” he said enthusiastically putting down a dull book on stocks and trading. “Come in.”

Melanie entered but stood by the door looking distressed and twiddling her fingers nervously.

“What is it honey?” asked her father worriedly.

“Daddy, I think I’m hurt.” she said trembling slightly.

“Hurt? Where are you hurt dear?” he asked looking for scrapes or bruises on her knees and hands. But there were none.

“Um it doesn’t hurt...but there’s blood...a lot of it.” she stuttered gesturing meaningfully towards her lower belly. “I don’t know where it’s coming from.”

It took her father just over a minute to realize what she was talking about. Melanie was eleven years old and hadn’t had the birds and bees talk yet. From what he knew, they didn’t teach it at school until later that semester. Frankly, he had forgotten about it. Goodness he was such a bad father.

Before he could berate himself further, Melanie started to cry.

“Daddy am I going to die? I’m bleeding out!” she said wiping at her tears.

Alarmed at her words, he got into protective Armageddon mode and within seconds he was up from the bed and running to his daughter.

“No honey, what’s happening is natural, it’s normal., it happens to every girl when they enter puberty.” he scrambled to explain.

“It’s natural?” she asked, her eyes widening. “But why?”

Good question. But it had a long and uncomfortable answer. Her father was about to launch into an explanation when he noticed that her pajamas were getting soaked.

Tampons, pads where is it? He thought.

Shit. There were no products in the house, because there were no women. Melanie’s mother had passed away ten years ago, and he doubted any lady products she’d left behind in the closet now relocted to the basement would be safe to use.

“Mellie, here, put on my coat, we’ll make a quick trip to the store.” he said grabbing his wallet and car keys and handing Melanie his smallest jacket.

She put it on, effectively covering herself completely like a long raincoat.

“Ready Mel?” he asked giving her his hand.

“Ready Daddy.” she said taking it.

“Would you like the pink one or the purple one?” asked the bored male shopkeeper stifling a yawn. “Or the green one or the blue one...”

Melanie picked out the simplest one with a picture of smiling girl her age. “This one. She looks happy to be wearing it.”

Her father smiled. “There’s a bathroom, out at the back. Let’s go so you can put it on.” he said.

He waited outside as Melanie stepped in the tiny cubicle and ripped open the pack of pads. They smelled nice, like flower scented paper. She dutifully read through the instructions.

Stick the pad onto your panties like this

There was a nice image of how she should do it and she followed it properly. She suspected she messed up however, because when she stepped out of the bathroom, she couldn’t walk.

“Daddy, I can’t move my legs.” she said uncomfortably. How on earth did women do all the stuff commercials showed them doing while wearing this?

So he just picked her up like he did when she was younger and took her home.

Melanie spent ages in the washroom, cleaning and analyzing and whatnot while her father worked on his laptop.

When Melanie finally emerged, she was all cleaned up and wide awake, but still walking awkwardly. He sat her down at the table with a nice big scoop of chocolate ice cream and extra syrup.

“Now Mellie, I have a presentation for you.” he said turning his laptop to face her. “Think of it as a quick course in biology.”

“But I hate biology.” said Melanie happily starting to tuck into her ice cream.

“Not my best subject either.” he admitted. “But we all need to know some important stuff.”

She nodded. “Go on Daddy.”

And thus began the most unexpected five minutes of their lives.

He used as much self explanatory scientific diagrams as he could, hoping she would understand well enough. She did, everything was going smoothly until...

“Wait that’s what a guy has?” she asked fascination lacing her voice as she looked at the diagram.

Her father groaned internally. He was hoping she wouldn’t be interested, he’d picked the worst diagram he could find.

He hurriedly changed the slide and went onto the last one which had a diagram of both sexes side by side.

“So , um  that goes in that and that’s how you get babies.” he said quickly hoping she wouldn’t ask questions.

Melanie winced just then and stopped eating, clutching her stomach. “My tummy hurts.” she said tears prickling her eyes.

Oh dear.  What was he supposed to do?

Should he call the doctor? It’s 1 a.m.

Should he call his best friend? His wife could help...

“Daddy, will you wrap me up in blankets and watch Princess Diaries with me?” she asked sweetly.

Of course he would.

About fifteen minutes into the film, Melanie started to doze off.

“Thank you Daddy.” she said before she fell asleep, tucked into a little ball on the couch.

He carried her to her room and kissed her forehead after tucking her in. His throat closed up suddenly, overwhelmed with emotion as he turned to leave.

His little angel was turning into a lady. But one thing was certain, no matter how many new beginnings came their way---her first job, first love, first time away from home...

“Anything you need love, you can count on me.” he said, softly closing the door on his way out.

#Father

#Love

#NewBeginnings

#fresh

#HappensToEveryone

#prose

#girl

#dad