In Memory of Your Childhood
8-19-07
The sky gleamed twilight, the copper colored hue was slowly fading into dark. The park was empty. The mothers had all come to collect their children long ago.
Now, but one remained.
In her large yellow sunhat alone on the swings, sat the last little girl left on her own to play. The swings squeaked slightly as she rocked gently in the breeze. Little pink slippers could not quite touch the ground. Sighing in defeat the little girl grasped the chained sides, kicking violently she ushered herself higher and higher in to the dying sky.
Her pink skirt inflated with every opposing thrust. The bow on her sailor top hung crooked. Twinkling ruby eyes looked out. Inhaling deeply, she flung herself from the swing, mid-kick.
The quick moment of free-fall was a memory of a place she hadn't been, in an eternity.
Legs hit the ground buckling, you feel the world again.
With pouty lips and skinned knees, our little girl heads home. Powdery pink hair done up in ribbons, in a familiar style.
"She looks just like her mother."
That's what they say.
Daddy wasn't home. He never was. Daddy spent his days in a place she could never reach. In an office with people she would never know, working on things she could never understand.
Momma left before she could ever remember, but in her dreams she saw golden hair flickering in the sun, rosy cheeks, and a warm smile. The girl knew that if her momma was anything like the woman in her dreams she could understand why she left.
Warm people like that don't belong in cold worlds like this.
It seemed unfair that everyone got to know but her. The girl lived in a constant state of hushed tones and smothered sounds. At school all the children starred unabashed at the daughter of the president. In a small town like this one people like her daddy who owned large corporations that employed more than half of the population were regarded with a cold respect and an allotted distance that none would dare cross.
And being the daughter of such a venerated man left her in an isolated crystal bubble.
It was once, in a mandatory school function (which her father didn't attend) the girl caught a whisper of a conversation two mothers were having on their most favorite subject, her father.
"It is a really shame he never married again, he's too young to be alone for the rest of his life." With a flick of bleached hair the other replied,
"That, and the fact that he's unimaginably handsome. I should think he would have gotten over that woman by now."
Quickly scanning the crowed the first lowered her tone a decibel, "That woman though was said to be unearthly, gorgeous to the point of sin. My husband once told me that they had known each other in high school, and that she got pregnant at sixteen! Supposedly Taishou-san[1 then eighteen married her on the spot, like the gentleman he is.
"When she disappeared he was devastated, and now he can't even look at…" That had been all the useful information the girl had been able to divulge from the pair of squawking hens, and it still didn't explain where her mother was or why she had gone.
Only that father had no intention of ever becoming close to the girl she had left behind, but she already knew that.
The ride to school was always uncomfortable.
All the other kids walked in pairs to the school around the corner.
Not the heir of the president.
She was driven the two blocks to school in the morning, and driven back at night. It was a pointless excursion, and everyone knew it, but it was as the president decreed and so it must be honored.
The luxurious limo would pull up to the school gates, let off their little princess wait at the gates until she entered the building then slowly drive away.
The girl knew her father well enough to know he was simply keeping up appearances.
A shrill scream echoed into the folds of her pillow. Wrestling with the folds of her sheets she silently cursed the nine thirty curfew imposed upon her by the shadow that she was forced to call daddy.
The girl sat up looking around her room shrouded in darkness, but she could still see, the pristine curtains hanging from the large bay window, the plush pink carpet, the whickered wood of her bedroom set, all the toys and knick-knacks a little girl could ever dream of. It was cold though from lack of use, she could have whatever she asked for but it could not replace the one thing she truly wanted.
With a sigh the girl fell back onto her down sheets.
Her pink nightgown itched terribly, with the many bows and buttons. A poorly suppressed sob erupted from the girls chest, she sniffled, curling into herself she whispered oh-so-quietly, "I want my mommy."
"Is that true Chibi-Usa? Do you want your mother?"
Startled the girl looked up.
There at the foot of her bed sat a small silver cat with a crescent shaped bald spot at the center of her forehead. "Is it true princess, do you want your mother?"
The girl starred wide eyed before nodding tears streaking her face. For the first time in her seven years of life Usagi had made a decision, an irrefutable choice. She choose to deny the world in which she lived in pursuit of a figure that lived in the deepest corners of her mind.
"Yes."
"Well then, we best take you to her."
It would not be till morning of the next day that a maid would stumble into the unperturbed room and find in the wake of fluttering pink curtains, she would discover their little princess was gone.
1. Taishou-san: roughly boss, honorific
Hey everyone! Wow I haven't posted anything in ages……sorry bout that but I've been meaning to post this IMOYC for a while I don't know how good it is… so review!! She will be loved in on temporary hiatus (shocking I know) I had so many ideas for it but I sort of lost interest but I'm trying! lol but any way review…please (oh and this is a HU pairing haha)