Celwriter: Important I have noticed a great decrease in reviews. I don't know if I've lost readers or if they just aren't reviewing. If you think that there is something wrong with my writing and that's why I might be losing readers, please tell me. If you read and just don't review, please review this chapter and the proceeding chapters occasional.
Chapter 33
Cel entered the house with her dress behind her back. She didn't want Mort to see it until she could try it on for him. She found him just waking up from a nap on the couch. She saw his ruffled hair and sleepy eyes and thought that he was just the best dad in the world and she loved him very much. She ran upstairs to put on the dress so she could show him.
Mort yawned; he was rather tired in spite of the nap he had just taken. He saw Cel enter the room with a package hidden behind her back, smiling happily. She skipped up the stairs as light as a feather.
Mort sat up on the couch and stretched, knowing that there had been something he was worried about, but he couldn't remember what it had been. He knew that he had wanted to ask Cel something, but his mind had gone blank.
Cel came down the stairs, slowly but joyously. Mort turned and saw a gorgeous girl in front of him. She wore a light green dress with a zigzag bottom. The straps were thin and beaded with blue, pink and purple beads. Cel's skirt lifted up slightly as she turned to show Mort the full dress. His little girl was all grown up, but he hadn't seen the process of how.
"What's the matter, dad?" asked Cel, her joy fading into concern for her father. "Why are you crying?"
"Because my girl is already grown up and I didn't get to see her," he sniffed.
"I'll always be your little girl, dad, I love you."
"I love you, too, Cel," Mort said as he hugged her, all memory of any worry drifting from his mind. "Now, go upstairs and change. You wouldn't want anything to happen to it before you got to wear it to Homecoming, now would you?"
Cel shook her head, smiling with happy tears in her eyes.
"You do look beautiful in it, though," he said as she turned to go upstairs. She turned and her smile broadened further than Mort thought any smile could go.
"Thanks, dad," she said. She raced back down, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and another hug. Cel smiled and went back upstairs.
Mort went into the kitchen and began preparing supper, smiling to himself. She's as pretty as Amy was when I went with her to our senior prom, he thought as he put out his hand to turn the water on. Mort's hand stopped mid-reach, something in that thought had triggered a memory that he couldn't reach. The more Mort tried to catch the memory, the further away it got from him. His concentration broke when Cel joined him to help with dinner.
Celwriter: there were a few touchy moments there, but you have to remember that a hole was left when Amy stopped loving him. Cel is now beginning to fill the void and her void, that can only be filled by a parent, is also brimming.
