Lily Near the Shadow

The family now of five instead of six sat down at a booth in the diner, Little Mac and Cousin Minnie on one side and Mac's daughter Delilah and grandson Noah on the other. Sir Barksalot stayed under the table but looked up at Noah expectantly.

As they were about to order, Little Mac excused himself, saying he had left his wallet in the car.

After five minutes or so, Delilah went out to look for him. Standing by Cousin Minnie's Cadillac, she called out "Daddy!" and heard him call back "Over here!"

She found him across the road, crouching by a small pond, staring at a water lily near the shore.

Afraid he had been overwhelmed once again by his grief over the death of Big Bertha, she said nothing but crouched down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"They don't have to be perfect, you know, because they are perfect," said Little Mac.

"And their petals can sag and the shadows overtake them, but real perfection, no there's nothing can be done about that," he said also, minutes later as Delilah was feeling the ooze from the pond's edge make its way into her sandals.

"Are you feeling sad, Daddy?" she asked.

"I don't know how to describe what I feel," he said, turning and smiling at her, "but it's not a bad thing."

"Shall we go eat now?"

"And that is not a bad idea."

As he seemed disinclined to initiate any action, she helped him to his feet and led him back across the road.

As they went, he was singing, to Delilah and a passing car and a gull swooping overhead, "Bertie here, Bertie there, Bertie Bertie everywhere," but softly, and once they were back in the diner, he stopped and sat and ordered a lobster roll and asked Cousin Minnie if she knew pink Cadillacs could be had, if a person really wanted one.

21 August 2018
Texas Jim
Hackett's Cove, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca