Miss Parsking's Angel

It was late morning of an ominous spring day when Miss Jane Parsking awoke. She lazily turned her head toward her alarm clock. It was half past eleven. Miss Parsking had slept in because she was up late the night before at her friend's annual bonfire.

The blazing sun half blinded her, so she proceeded to close the curtains. As Miss Parsking grabbed the silky green material, she noticed something peculiar out the window. Her mother was picking flowers of all kinds from the garden. Miss Parsking shrugged her shoulders, and sauntered into the next room to check on her pride and joy.

Her one-year-old, Lillian, appeared to be sleeping. After kissing her head, Miss Parsking silently exited the room and ventured down the stairs for breakfast.

After eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, she went up the stairs with her golden locks bouncing. Her goal was to rouse Lillian. After calling her name several times, Miss Parsking concluded that Lilian must have been in a deep sleep.

She then walked up to the one-year-old with a new tactic for waking her. She dipped her fingers into a container of water that was near Lillian, and began playfully splashing her with it. The stubborn thing still would not wake up so Miss Parsking proceeded to shake her.

When she placed one hand on Lillian's side, Miss Parsking became overwhelmed with horror. Lillian's body was ice cold and didn't appear to be breathing. Miss Parsking felt her six-year-old heart break in to two as she realized Lilian the hampster had died. At that moment her mother walked in holding an arrangement of flowers.

"I found her like that earlier this morning," her mother said, in a solemn voice. "I was going to wake you, but I thought it was more appropriate for you to find out for yourself."

As Miss Parsking began to tremble, her mother dropped the bouquet of flowers to allow Miss Parsking to fall into her arms. Jane's blue eyes welled with tears as she sobbed uncontrollably.

"Mommy." the six-year-old said, while tightly hugging her mother. "Can hampsters go to heaven?"

Her mother hesitated. After a brief moment of silence, she stroked Miss Parsking's golden hair and then nodded.

Miss Jane Parsking wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked up towards her mother. "I think Lillian will like being an angel."