Chasing the Stars

Nineteen Years Later

-------Hazel's POV-------

*Sizzle* *Sizzle*  have spent 18 years married to Augustus Waters and I wake up next to him every morning more in love with him then I was the night before. (Maybe because he cooks me bacon every morning, yes I now eat bacon seeing as in heaven they have a way of getting it without causing death.) Heaven is amazing. Gus and I spend days wandering through parks and I tell him some stories about my time on earth and he tells me about heaven before I was here. All in all life was pretty great. I could check up on Isaac's life and my parents to make sure they were doing alright and they were. Augustus and I even have a dog, Pongo, who is waiting to be reunited with his owners.

"Imogen would you stop dancing for two minutes." I begged.

Imogen was the 11 year old girl we were taking care of. She had cancer and her parents are still on earth so we are watching her for them. Imogen is really creative and she has walls in her rooom that she can color and draw on. Augustus is great with her, which is adorable, especially when she was younger. (Can you picture Gus playing with a five year old? Adorable, right?")

Anyway, life is amazingly perfect, well except for one thing. I begged Augustus to tell me the name of the child that The Dutch Tulip Man and Anna's mom had, but for nineteen years, he has evaded the question.

Today is our 18th wedding anniversary, so we are going out to do all the things we did the day I arrived in this beautiful heaven. After our date at the Oranjee-esque restaurants we went to the park where he proposed (and I accepted).

He looked at me and began, "Hazel Grace Lancaster, for nineteen years, you have begged to know the answer to one question. Well let me tell you a little story:

-----Anna's Mothers POV-----

*The day of Anna's Funeral* "She's gone. She's gone and she is never coming back. How? Why? What did she ever do to deserve this? Even though her fate was inevitable I thought we had months, maybe years, not days." I cried onto my boyfriend's (the Dutch Tulip Man) shoulder. He comforted me with a strong embrace and a promise to never leave me, but would that ever fill the hole in my heart left by my poor sweet Anna? I whispered "I love you". He replied he loved me too, not realizing that I meant my I love you was for Anna, who I would never see smile or laugh or even cry again. Anna, why Anna?  After saying my goodbyes, I silently watched as she was buried with a handful of red tulips, wearing a blue dress. She hated wearing black as it reminded her of how short a time she had with us. Her headstone read simply "For all the ships that never sailed."

The funeral service was over, and Anna's body was lying in a casket, being buried by piles of dirt, the amount of contact between my daughter and I lessening with each mound of dirt, something becoming smaller as another became larger. The Dutchman gave my shoulder a tentative squeeze, and then looked at me with a reserved smile.
"Time," he said. "Time will heal this."
"I hope you're right."
He guided me toward his car, and I got in then sat down, unmoving. Reaching over me, he buckled my seatbealt and I gave a miniscule nod in return. My mind, thoughts, and entire being were elsewhere; I thought about how I would never see my daughter again, only through pictures and flashes of memories, but knew that she would always be my daughter, and that death cannot get in the way of relationships. Just as my dead mother is still my mother and the Dutch Tulip Man's deceased family is still his family, Anna, my daughter, is still my daughter. Dead or alive.

It has been a week since my sweet Anna's funeral. I visit her everyday. As of now, the Dutch Tulip man could not have been more wrong. Nothing- nothing will ever heal my hurt for I have lost the one most important to me. Sisyphus was adopted today by Christine, one of Anna's pre-cancer friends. I couldn't bear to see him without thinking of Anna. He seemed happy in his new home. The Dutch Tulip Man returned from work ten minutes ago. We are going out for a picnic, then we are going to see Anna and plant some orange tulips over her gravesite. I just miss her so much!