The Smile

Working with children has been my long-time dream ever since my parents came back with my little brother. The smile he gave made me realise that everything will change. I am going to be a sister to someone. I am going to make someone smile and also someone I am going to give joy too.
Then I grow up and you know the rest, I left home and became a nurse and well I see my family on Easter and Christmas holidays. The love for children faded as I grow up and working with them don’t enlighten the spark I had when I was a kid.
The one day saw a kid in one of my rounds well she was new, I never saw knew her condition but yet she created something in me. I don’t know what, but she brought back something that I have missed for so long, the spark. As days went by, I began to know her by paper not by person.

He name was Emily, and she was diagnosed with cancer. She is only 6 years old. Ever since she was here only two people visited her, her grandmother and the doctor. I was stopped one night when I saw her vomiting when I was doing my night rounds. I helped he, I had to, I am a nurse. As I helped her to bed that night the spark came back again. I was beginning to love this girl. She held my hand when I was beginning to leave.

“Thank you”
“You are welcome.”
“Can you stay a bit.”
I looked at her. I couldn’t help myself besides I have finished my rounds. So I stayed.
“ Can you tell me a story”
I laughed, “ okay”

So I did, half way in my story, Emily fell asleep. I left the blanket on her and gave her a smile. As days became weeks I became very fond of Emily. She has a great laugh and also great at making stories. She once told me that one day she went out to the forest to watch birds. As she was looking at one bird she spotted. She was so amazed at the bird that she forgot she had stopped a bee hive. She revised to it and I think you know what happened after that. What saved her was the river close by. I laughed so hard only to find out that it never happened. She saw it from a movie. I felt bad about that, that she never had that kind of fun. She has been sick since the age of 3 years.

But all didn’t matter to her. In her heart it felt it was real. You could see it in her face even though she didn’t do it physically she did it in mind and spirit. So played along with her. As days went by, she became sicker. She talked less at time passed by. The sicker she became, the more I stayed by her side. I even took days off from work just to be with her. In those days, I opened a book I forgotten all about since college, the bible. I began to pray. I began to pray in heart and in truth.
One day I was by her side asleep. I was woken by a hand on my shoulder. It was Emily’s grandmother.

“Hi” she said.
“Hi”
“I saw you with my little Emily these days.”
“Yes. I am sorry if I am intruding.”
“No don’t be. I have never seen her this happy before.”
I smiled at her, “She is my friend.”
She smiled back, “Can I talk to you outside.”
“Ok”

I stood and we took a walk outside the hospital. We saw a bench and we sat down. She looked at me. I looked her shyly then looked down.
She laughed, “ don’t be afraid my child. You have been the best thing that has happened to Emily even since her parents died just a few weeks she was born. She only has me in her life. She was a beautifully baby. But years went by, she turned three years. She started getting sick. She was a baby. She couldn’t explain what is happening to her.”
I couldn’t see her face change and then tears falling down her cheeks. I placed a hand on top of her just to tell its okay. She doesn’t have to continue but the look in eyes had a yielding to tell me like it was very important for me to know.

She wiped her tears, “I took her to the doctor where they run test on her that we found out she has cancer. Luckily for us we had money to pay for treatment. We have moved a lot just to get the best treatment. Finally, we came here and the first time in years she was beginning to laugh. You woke up Emily, my old Emily thank you.”
“You are welcome”
“what made you to be attacked to her, if I may ask?”
“ I don’t know but she just created a spark that have lost long time ago. She reminds me of the old me.”
She looked at me, “ she does that. She reminds me of my daughter, her mother.”
She looked away a bit, like she was remembering and recapturing moments of her life.
“Well,” she placed her hand on top of mines. “Emily is getting better and that means she has beaten the cancer. It seems like the treatment worked.”

“Really. Oh, thank God.”
“Yes. I need a favour”
“Yes anything.”
“Can you adopt Emily for me, I think I won’t be able to look after her this time.”
“What do you mean this time “
I am dying. Seeing you with Emily, it showed me that you will make a great mother. So please”
I looked at her tears with tears in my eyes.
“ I am a stranger”
“ No you are not. You have became family the day you started caring for Emily”
“I…….”
“ Don’t worry about money, the lawyer will give you all the information you need” I looked at her . she looked back.
“ Yes I would be Emily mom”
Those were the last words I said to Emily’s grandmother. For that day was the last I saw her. She died two days later.
I came to Emily side after a few days her grandmother passed. She knew that she died and that, her grandmother was sick. She accepted very quickly.

“Emily”
“Yes”
“I need to tell you something.”
“That I am getting better, and I can go home.”
I laughed, “Yes but it's not that.”
“Okay”
“Your grandmother asks me if I want to be your mother.”
“And what did you say.”
“I said yes. But at the end of the day, it's your choice to make.”
She looked at me and smiled.
“So, what do you say Emily.”
Her smile grows.
“Yes, yes and a thousand times yes. I would love to be your daughter.”
As I looked at her, I realised that it was her smile that made the spark to be lit.