DAUGHTER

A small girl in a red dress and too big black gumboots races down the hill.  She clomps across the wooden bridge, pausing briefly to gaze down into the swift, glassy water of the creek.  Walking up to the garden gate on the other side, she quickly opens the latch and dashes past the raised vegetable beds with their bright green, tiny seedlings between the covering of straw.   There are fiery flashes of red as she runs between the fruit trees towards the house.

“There she is, I saw her,  she’ll be here in a minute!”,  Sarah turned towards him with a rare, sunny smile.  “Time for a quick cup of tea, then”,  he smiled back cheerfully, turning away to the kitchen.  He wiped a tear from his eyes.  When he returned, she was asleep, her head resting on the embroidered cushion.  He gently adjusted the blanket around her knees and put the cup down on the side-table, glancing at the photo in its silver frame.  How bright the colours still were, after all these years!  The red of the dress, the shiny rich brown of the wavy hair.  Just as if she could walk in the door right now.