Milly

The classroom throbbed with nervous laughter and chatter of children waiting to begin the new school year after the long summer break. Their new teacher entered the classroom unnoticed and sat at her desk. She said nothing. Instead, she sat quietly observing the new pride she had been charged to nurture for the duration of the next accademic year. She watched as the children buzzed and howled, but noticed one small girl sitting quietly on her own, just occasionally smiling along with the frivolity that filled the room.



Finally, when she had seen enough, the teacher brought the class to order. 'Good morning class. My name is Miss Williams.' She turned her back to the class and wrote her name on the board, finishing with a swirly flourish on the last letter and a full stop so hard it broke the chalk. 'I will be your form tutor for the next year.' She beamed as she looked around the room. 'I know most of you know each other, but I do not have that privilege. As I call your name from the registar, would you please stand up and tell me a little about what you did during the summer break.That way I can put a face to the name and learn a little bit about you.' Miss Williams looked intently at the registar. 'Ok. Baker.'



Baker jumped to attention and began to talk about his summer break. A mixture of nerves and excitement made his voice inaudible as he spoke faster and faster, gasping for air as he finished, Baker sat back down as fast as he had shot up. Milly sat staring at her desk. One by one the children stood and described their exploits of the previous six weeks, until, finally the registar came to to Milly.



Milly did not respond to her name. Miss Williams called it again. Milly slowly raised her head and looked up from her desk. Miss Williams immediately recognised Milly as the child she had observed sitting withdrawn in the corner. Miss Williams looked back at the registar to find her first name. 'It's Milly, isn't it?' she gave Milly a warm, welcoming smile.



'Come on Milly! She ain't normally this shy miss. Normally the loudest here!' shouted Josh from the back of the class.



Miss Williams walked around to the front of her desk and sat on the corner. She directed another warm smile towards Milly. 'Good morning, Milly. It really is a pleasure to meet you. I am going to be spending a lot of time with you over the next year. I am sure we will get along just fine. But, to help me, I really would like to know a little bit about you. What did you do during your summer break?' Miss Williams gave another welcoming smile.



'Well,' said Milly, 'The holidays started quiet badly.' She stood up and for the first time made eye contact with her new teacher, although her head stayed bowed. 'On the Monday, the first Monday of the holiday my dad came to our room and woke Alfie and me. Alfie is my brother, he's only four.' Milly broke eye contact and stared back at her desk. 'Dad sat on the end of my bed and called for Alfie and me to sit on his lap. I could see he looked a little sad.' In her mind Milly viewed the event all over again. As she related the story back to Miss Williams.



'Guys. I've got some really bad news.' Dad said with his head low. Mainly so the children could not see his own tears. Dad took a deep breath, 'Guys. Mummy is not coming home.'



'When dad said that, it felt like someone had just cut my legs off. I couldn't feel my legs they just went numb. Alfie started to cry, the whole situation was awful and wrong.'



The class went silent. Milly sat down but continued to unravel the events to the whole class. Her mind wandered back in time to the exact moment, as Milly remembered her fathers words.



'I was with mum last night.' Dad said. 'I was with her when the angels came. I begged them not to take her, not yet. But they insisted she had a very important job to do. I could only watch as mummy changed into an angel and floated off to help the other angels.' A few tears ran down dads face. He wiped them them away hoping nobody had seen them. 'It's ok though,' dad said, 'Mummy's still with us. She'll always be with us. We just can't see her or hear her. But she can see and hear us. If ever, whenever you need to talk to mummy, you just talk to her because she will hear you.'



Milly's mind came back to the classroom and she again made eye contact with Miss Williams. 'Alfie began to cry, I mean really sob.' Milly said solemnly. ' Dad hugged us both. " We are all going to miss mummy so much," dad said, " But we are special now. Not everyone has a mummy that's a real angel." Alfie was sobbing his heart out now and dad gave him a big hug. "Alfie, listen to me," said dad, "A caterpillar spends his whole life sitting on a branch eating leaves. Eventually he goes to sleep and when he wakes up he has wings, he is a beautiful butterfly. He is still alive, even more alive than he ever was before, but he can never be a caterpillar again. Well, the same thing happened to mummy. She spent her whole life as mummy, then she went to sleep and when she woke up she had beautiful, big, white wings. She had changed into an angel. She is still alive, doing angels things, but she can never come back as mummy. Just the same as the caterpillar and the butterfly." '



Milly inhaled and filled her lungs, then sighed, 'I know my dad is very sad, but he never lets us kids see him sad. He spends his time trying to make us laugh, make us happy. But, I know he is very sad. Alfie is ok, he misses mummy sometimes, but me and dad make him laugh and he's ok. Me? Well I guess I am mummy now, at least to Alfie I am. He started calling me mummy the very next day and he still does. I'm mummy for dad as well really. He doesn't realise it yet, but I just quietly look after the house. It'll be ok, I'll look after them both until dad gets better. I started my summer break as six year old Milly and I finished as mummy Milly. I really miss my mum. I love my dad and now I am a hero to my little brother. That's what happened on my summers break.'