It was another cold winter evening. A little girl sat shuddering on the front porch. Daddy’s going to be mad.. she thought. He made her promise she’d wait inside. “You don’t want to get a cold do you? Then who eats all the ice cream?”. But she hated waiting inside, all alone. The excitement tingled in her veins. SHE WAS FINALLY GETTING HER BIKE!!!! Daddy never went back on his word, she knew. He always came through. Always.
The sound of the front door creaking woke her up. She’d fallen asleep waiting. With what could only be the ‘widest grin ever’ on her face, she ran out to greet him. “Daddy! daddy!”, she screamed all the way there. He stood in the drive way, next to the prettiest pink bike with rainbow ribbons and a shiny bell . It even had a pink basket with the little daisies she loved. She stood there speechless, staring at her brand new bike with utter amazement. “Do you want to go for a ride Princess?”, he asked knowingly. Her eager eyes gave her away.
He sat there, tired, after a hard days work. All the pain was non-existent when he was watching her. After hours of ‘going for one last round in the yard’, he finally got her to put the bike away. He carried her back to her room and tucked her into bed like every other night. Five minutes into the bed-time story and she was sound asleep. At last he retired to his own bed and turned the lights out, preparing himself for another day. Another day of picking trash and sweeping floors. He would do anything to provide for her.
What they had, though it was not much, it was enough. In a world full of people who spent their lives counting dollars, they lived theirs counting stars.
Inspired by the song – Counting Stars by One Republic.
© Abirami
THE OBSESSIVE WRITER 