Age 5: Hero
“Mommy?”
It was on nights like these, with their inquisitive child refusing to sleep, that Lomadia really wished he was still around.
“Mommy? Can you tell me more about Daddy?”
The five year old stared up at his mother with curious blue eyes, his head tilted slightly. Lomadia let out a quiet sigh, she knew he would ask one day.
“Well, honey, what would you like to know?”
The boy scrunched his nose up and thought for a moment before bouncing excitedly on his bed,
“Oh! Oh! What did he do? Like, we help the owls! Did he help you with them too?”
Lomadia chuckled and sat on the boy’s bed, letting him snuggle into her side as she explained what his father did
“Well, he was most known for being an adventurer, some even say a hero”
“A HERO?” the boy exclaimed, bouncing a little on his bed
“My Dad was a hero? Awesome!”
Lomadia chuckled softly and smoothed out her son’s wild hair
“He sure was…”
A few minutes pass before the boy finally calmed down, and believing the boy was done asking questions, Lomadia began to say
“Do you want me to read you a stor”
“How come Dad has never came to my birthday party?”
She stiffens slightly and sighs, feeling the back of her eyes prick with moisture
“Well, honey, he’s on his next great adventure.”
The boy looks up with wide curious eyes
“But heroes always come home eventually, right? That’s how all the stories you read me end. He loves us, right?”
Lomadia smiles sadly
“Yes, he loved you very much. As for when he comes home…Well, you’ll know someday”
Age 10: Father’s Day
It’s a lovely day in June, nearing the end of the school year, when Lomadia sees her son walking the path back to their house with slumped shoulders and a melancholy expression. She stops her work with Mr. Owl and instead hurriedly makes her way towards the boy.
Her strides grow slower when she reaches her son and they walk in silence until he breaks and says
“Aren’t you going to ask me what’s wrong?”
She shrugs,
“Only if you want me to.”
The boy glares at the ground before sighing in resignation, he hated when his mom did that.
“Today is Father’s Day.”
Lomadia’s eyes soften and then she places one of her arms on his shoulders in a comforting manner, but it isn’t long before he has shrugged her arm off and stopped walking all together. He fidgets with the sleeves of his shirt before making eye contact with his mother, asking
“Why haven’t you taken me to his grave before?”
She presses her lips together and closes her eyes for brief moment before answering back in a gentle tone
“They…buried him in the city and the time it takes to travel there is a week on foot, a few days by owl, weather permitting. The journey can be dangerous and you were too young to even think about trying to travel over there.” She paused and looked him up and down “But I suppose you’re old enough now. How do you feel about playing hooky for a few days?”
YOU ARE READING
Cold Coffee (Xephmadia)
RomanceXephmadia one shots Prompt 5: "And that was why he was in a medical wing set up for the old and dying, blinking at the sight of the woman he loved, aged and wrinkled in a way he thought they would one day do together."
