Lucy doesn’t like going to visit her grandparents very much.
She doesn’t remember them, because they both died before she was born, so it’s kind of boring to stand in the cemetery and visit them. Lucy also doesn’t like how sad her mom is after they go.
Still, Lucy is five years old now, and so she’s old enough to understand that sometimes you have to do things that you don’t really want to do. She makes a flower crown that morning, and lays it on her grandma’s grave when they arrive. She also has some flowers tied together in a bundle for her grandpa, and puts them down on his. After that, though, there’s nothing else for Lucy to do.
Her mom stands beside their graves for a long time. She always does this, and then she always starts crying, and Lucy doesn’t like that at all. She walks a little ways away, looking at the other graves and wondering whose parents are buried there. She doesn’t go too far away, but she doesn’t like to look at her mom while the woman talks with her mom and dad.
It’s sad that they’re dead, and Lucy wishes that she could have met them, and sometimes she does tell them about something that’s happening in her life while she and her mom visits. There’s nothing new going on right now, though, so Lucy is silent. She’s not having a birthday anytime soon, and she’s already been in school for one whole year. What else is there?
“Hello, there,” someone says suddenly.
Lucy looks up at the sound of the voice, and an old lady is smiling down at her. Her hair is really pretty, and so are her eyes. They remind Lucy of her mom’s.
“Hi,” she replies. Lucy isn’t supposed to talk to strangers, but this is a cemetery, so the rules might be different. Besides, her mom is still standing only a few feet away.
“Are you here visiting someone?” the lady asks her.
Nodding, Lucy points back at her mom. “We’re talking to my grandparents,” she says, making sure to speak slowly and enunciate each word carefully.
The lady looks over at Lucy’s mom and smiles sadly. “It’s difficult to lose loved ones,” she says. “You seemed lonely, so I decided to come say hello.”
Lucy thinks that’s very nice of the lady, when she probably has other things to do. “It’s nice to meet you,” she says, because Lucy knows how to be polite. “My name’s Lucy.”
“Lucy is a very pretty name,” the lady says, and Lucy smiles happily. She likes that this lady thinks her name is pretty. “Well, Lucy, I have a gift for you.”
The lady reaches up to her neck and takes off her necklace, and, to Lucy’s delight and astonishment, the lady holds out the necklace towards her.
“I can really have it?” Lucy wonders.
The lady nods. “Yes, I think it’s perfect for you.”
Lucy reaches out a hand, and the lady drops the necklace into her palm. It’s yellow, and Lucy thinks that it’s gold, and it has a small, red rose hanging from the chain, and it’s the prettiest thing that Lucy has ever seen.
Five-year-old Lucy is at the cemetery visiting her grandparents with her mom when she’s given a very special present by a mysterious lady. Now, every day is an adventure for Lucy, as she tries to help the strange people around her who seem to appear and vanish very suddenly!
The past merges with the present in this fun, yet haunting, short story.
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Want to find out what happens next? Check out the full story on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZG4JWK5.
