"ｗｈａｔ ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｏｆ ｃｈｉｌｄｒｅｎ？"
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- "always doing the smallest right, and doing it for love" // characters: piper jones, landon o'connor // words: 1477
- That day wasn't particularly special. It was just like any other Saturday, spending their afternoon at the children's hospital. They were part of a group, a community of people who just wanted to help. A simple way to give back, in a small yet meaningful way.
Landon watched the on-goings of the room with a bemused smile on his face. He thought back to the first time he and Piper volunteered there, just a few months before. It was a strange experience, a first for him, but he knew instantly that it was something he wanted to come back to every week. It quickly became a part of their lives. Like breathing, like eating - a second nature.
And he observed, taking in every small detail. There was Dominic, the sickly boy who constantly ran fevers, reading a book on astronomy. And a little girl called Joan, who had burn scars all over her face, was dueling with another boy using balloon swords. Francis, the boy with visual impairments, was playing with the animal plushies, lost in a world of his own.
His eyes continued scanning the room until they landed on Piper. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of her. He thought she looked so wonderful, sitting there at the craft corner helping children make small objects. He noted that Therese was there with her, as she always was. Every week, she'd join the craft corner with Piper, folding paper into roses again and again.
Therese was entirely focused on her roses, folding them to utmost perfection. Her tiny fingers made the smallest, most detailed of creases and folds, creating rose after rose. And she would put them neatly in a jar, which was slowly getting more full with each rose she completed.
And Landon watched her, captivated by the meticulous manner in which she created something so beautiful. It was like magic, and he couldn't take his eyes of it.
Suddenly, the bell rang, and all the children let out a groan. They seemed to hate it when their activity time was over, but Landon saw it as a good thing. That meant that they were enjoying themselves. Regardless, they dropped what they were doing and filed out of the room.
Landon stood up to place the books back onto the shelves - that was his duty, being in charge of the reading corner. It was a simple task, but he enjoyed it. Of course, it had its perks, since it was the easiest to pack up, unlike Piper's craft corner. And since he'd always be the first to be done, he'd faithfully walk over to Piper's area to help.
"Hello, stranger. Fancy seeing you here." That was his usual greeting to his girlfriend.
And, as usual, Piper rolled her eyes, smirk on her lips. "The biggest surprise of my life," she said sarcastically in response, before leaning in to kiss his cheek. "But the most pleasant too."
He winked at her before proceeding to help, collecting the stationery strewn on the table and placing them in the box. "How were the children today?" he inquired.
Piper smiled at the question, thinking back at the afternoon spent together with the children. "Wonderful, as always." She picked up the pieces of scrap paper on the table and floor. "How were they for you?"
"Good!" He used a rag to wipe the dried glue and paint off the table. "Dominic's reading astronomy books now, you know."
"You're probably very happy about that," Piper laughed. "Must be like watching a younger version of yourself."
Landon shrugged, but there was a grin on his face. "I was more of a physics than an astronomy guy." He glanced down at some of the leftover paper and gestured to it. "You missed some of the paper there," he pointed out as he put away the box of stationery.
"That's not scrap paper." Piper frowned thoughtfully and picked up the two pieces of origami, folded neatly into roses.
"Roses?" Landon queried, appearing next to her. "Therese must have forgotten and left them here."
Piper scanned the room and her eyes met another pair, belonging to a small girl peering into the room through the window. "Something tells me she didn't forget." She smiled knowingly at the pair of eyes watching her.
From outside the window came a laugh, and the couple watched as Therese ran off, skipping happily to herself. Her work was done.
Landon smiled to himself at the sight of the young girl skipping away. "No, I guess she didn't." He looked down at the tiny, red, paper rose in his hands.
Later that day, when they were in the car driving to dinner, he asked the question. It was a casual question, almost like a passing comment. But it was something he'd been thinking about for quite a while, and he wanted to know her answer.
"What do you think of children?" Landon stole a glance at her, diverting his attention from the traffic for just a millisecond.
"You're asking me? Landon, we just spent the entire afternoon with children. I've got to at least like them, right?" She laughed jokingly.
Landon shook his head. "No, I didn't mean children in general. I meant...what do you think of raising children? Like a family."
Piper blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected that. "As in...being a mother?"
Landon shrugged. "I guess."
Piper breathed deeply to give herself time to think. "I think I'd want children. Children...they bring so much light, you know? I think a married couple without children can feel too empty." She paused for a moment and he nodded, partly to show he was listening, partly to show he agreed. She hoped he didn't misunderstand. She was still a student and she had no intention of getting married at such a young age. She still had her entire career in front of her. "But...it's too early."
Landon suddenly nodded very enthusiastically. "Yeah, I didn't mean now..."
"Yeah, of course..."
There was a short moment of awkward silence. He hadn't realised how loaded his question was. To an outsider, it might have sounded like he was asking her if she wanted to have children with him. That hadn't been his intention. At all. Landon coughed. "I think I'd want to be a parent too."
Piper glanced at him. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
The rest of the car ride was silent, but when he thought no one was looking, she caught him smiling to himself. And, she realised, she was smiling too.
_._._._._.
A few days later, they got the news. Therese, the young tuberculosis patient, suddenly had a lung infection. The next day she got pneumonia. They rushed her to the intensive care unit, to the operating theatre, in a desperate attempt to save her life.
She didn't make it.
Piper and Landon attended the funeral, their eyes moist with unshed tears. They knew that it was part of the job, a reality that they would have to face, with them volunteering at a hospital. But imagining the scenario in their head was one thing - feeling it in their heart was another thing entirely.
They watched with heavy heart as her parents - Louis and Marie - delivered the eulogy. It was a beautiful eulogy, telling the story of Therese's short but fulfilling life. They described the feeling of holding her in their arms as a newborn child, so weak and helpless but full of light and life. They shared their joy at watching her grow, their pride at the sight of her spreading the love she held inside of her, their fears at the news of her illness.
Her life, they said, was a gift from God, and no matter how short it was, every second of every day was a blessing. They knew deep in their hearts that she was in a better place. And when they looked out of their window and saw their rose bush in bloom, they'd think of her. And they'd know, that she's looking down on all the people on Earth, from her place in Heaven - a place without hatred, without illness, without pain.
By the end of the eulogy, there was not one dry eye in the church.
One by one, each person went up to drop a rose onto the coffin, until the wood could no longer be seen, covered by a blanket of red.
As the coffin was lowered into the earth, Piper glanced at Louis and Marie, holding each other as they watched their daughter descend into the ground. She wiped a tear away, her heart crying out for them, joining them in their grief. Her hand reached out to take Landon's. He offered as reassuring a smile as he could, but she kept her eyes locked on Therese's parents, her lips in a grim line.
No parent should have to bury their child.
[ note: "heart's needle, hostage to fortune, freedom's end"
