"Everything that's alive grows from a tiny seed," said the man as he
pulled his granddaughter onto his lap,
"you know the little tomato seeds you and Stu planted in the garden,
and how they grew into big, red tomatoes?"
She laughs, her long hair blowing in her face.
"Yeah!"
The little girl grows taller as the weather grows colder.
"Look Pap!" she points down at the plant that no longer bears fruit.
It has died along with the warm, summer breeze.
He stares off into the distance, his thoughts on something far away.
"Pappy?"
The little girl is all grown up.
She holds her grandfather's wrinkled hand as tears fall down her cheeks.
"Remember how I told you the hen lays an egg?" he had said to her,
"when the baby grows up to be an old man, and dies,
they bury his body in the ground."
"But his soul goes to heaven."
Now look here.
There is nothing to be sad about, for what have you lost?
You have only gained.
You were once nothing, and now you have become something.
Now that your soul knows happiness
It can never die.
"I'm bundled up," says the woman as she walks from her grandfather's grave.
"I got on, like, two jackets,
Two pair of pants,
About three socks,
A hat,
I might need a scarf too, 'cause it's cold."
Real cold.
