When a curse is broken

5. A day in the park

Chapter 5. A day in the park

It was half past five in the evening, to Marlyn's joy, Benjamin had not come to office that day and everything had gone well.

Mother and daughter were sitting on a bench in the little park near their house after getting off work. It was a sunny day, one of the first true ones of spring.

"Mommy, how can people sit in awoplane? It's so tiny!" Ellie asked, squinting her eyes to the sky.

Marlyn laughed, she scooped another spoon of Ellie's smoothy and fed her. "You see that building?" Marlyn said looking at their condo building that now was far away.

"Yesh"

"Doesn't it look little?" 

"Yesh," Ellie said confused.

"That's our home,"

"But thatsh soo big!" She said eating another scoop of food, then making a face. "No more," she said, indicating the vegetable mix. "Do we get tiny when we enter?" she asked.

"No darling, see this?" Marlyn asked, showing her the jar that contained her smoothed vegetables. She neared it till between her eyes, then moved it an arm's length away. 

"Doesn't it look so big, then little?" she said, moving it closer and away once more.

"Oh" Ellie said, her mouth agape and eyes wide. Marlyn took the opportunity to shove in another spoonful. Ellie gulped, then giggled, "That's like magic!" She screamed and jumped up to hug her mommy.

Marlyn's heart clenched painfully and her brows furrowed, that is no magic.

She kissed her daughter on the cheek, "do you want to go play?" 

"Yesh," Ellie said and with baby acrobacies got off the bench and ran towards the little baby slide. Marlyn put the jar in the bag and followed her, always alert to catch her mid fall anytime. 

The little girl even managed to convince her mother to climb up on the slide with her, they then moved on the swings and even the climber.

"Now you play darling, mommy is tired," she told her, deciding to sit down. Ellie would never get tired, even if the world collapsed, Marlyn chuckled. 

The sun was still shining, if only her father wa- no, no, no! Marlyn shook her head. Those were not nice thoughts to have on such a bright day. Although ignoring them was impossible. It was undeniable; Ellie had the same face as her dad, she could see it: her little nose, her lips, her sunshine hair, everything reminded Marlyn of her daughter's father. Only the eyes differed from her father's strange green ones. They were of a deep blue that sometimes tended to look purplish startling Marlyn to think there was something wrong with her daughter, but she had always concluded it to be a momentary trick of light. It would have been too much for her heart otherwise. It still was hard to look at her and think about the one who had once loved her more than the world, at least that was what Marlyn had believed, that was what he had her believe. But apparently, it was all an illusion. The fire of the moment, then only smoke, and tears. But her little light then came along, that was the best thing that happened to her. 

"Mommy, mommy, there is a shad doggy looking at us," Ellie brought her out of her depressing thoughts, she always did. She was pointing at a sad puppy curled up on the grass. His tail was down. "Can we ash-k him to play with us?" Ellie looked up at her mommy with big eyes.

Marlyn looked around, there was only a group of kids playing football, and the couple of people strolling around were not holding any leash or paying him attention. 

"Do you want to give him something to eat?" Marlyn asked, getting a piece of bread from her handbag.

Ellie took the bread and nearned the dog. The little creature got up and dashed to hide under a bush.