empathy

SIXTEEN

„Mommy," Anastasia yells excitedly after coming home from the kindergarten. Her mother has been gone for a few days to visit family and just came back. "Hi, little moon."

Her mother is a pale woman with bright blonde hair and roots that nearly reach her ears, their colour more bland, more greyish. A colour that mirrored in grey-blue eyes. She is on the curvier side and very comfortable with that. She eliminates confidence as well as power, but despite everything, she's the kindest woman Anastasia has ever had the pleasure of meeting.

"How have you been, has daddy bought you your ice-cream?" she sets her daughter on her hip, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "He got me ice-cream for breakfast today," Anastasia grins. Her mother gasps and looks at the empty spot in her mouth. "Did you lose another tooth?" "Hm. Daddy closed the door again."

Her mother chuckles and turns to her husband, kissing him lightly.

--- -- -

"Hyperion fathered three children. Selene and Helios, the moon and the sun. and Eos, the dawn," the mother means quietly, stroking her daughter's hair as she fights sleep to listen to more of the story. "He was the titan god of light, right?" Anastasia mumbles. "Heavenly light, yeah. And Theia, his wife and sister, was the titan goddess of sight and vision."

"She sounds cooler," Anastasia yawns, on the brink of sleep. "She was," her mother leans in to whisper in her ear before kissing her head. "Good night, little moon."

--- -- -

Sitting on her father's shoulders, Anastasia squeals when her mother splashes her with water. She wiggles around, trying to hide herself from the drops.

"You want to take revenge?" her father asks her, a mischievous tone in his voice. "No," her mother quickly swims away. "Hold on tight, baby," her father means and does his best to run after his wife, reaching her due to her swimming slowly. His arms wrap around her and he pulls her into his chest before a smirk overcomes his lips. He kisses her quickly before letting himself fall back.

Anastasia screams the moment she notices before being thrown under water. Her father quickly pushes her back up, though and let's her dunk him down in return.

--- -- -

"What are we painting?" Anastasia asks her mother, who is holding her hand as she moves their hands over the canvas. "Icarus' fall. Have I told you the story yet?"

"He built wings with his father, but they melted because of the sun," Ana nods. "Do you remember why they built wings?" "They were held captive. By king... mentos?" Anastasia frown, not remembering the name. "Minos," her mother corrects her gently. "But yeah, very good."

"Here," her mother lets go of the brush and Ana looks at her in confusion. "You know the story, paint it."

Ana frowns for a moment but eventually turns to the canvas to move the brush, trying to mirror her mother's movements from before.

--- -- -

"Happy birthday, little moon," her mother wakes Anastasia up, holding a cake in her hands, a big candle shaped like a four on top of it.

"Are those the Olympians?" Anastasia gasps when she sees the decoration. It's a simple white cake with pillars along the side and the 12 Olympians in between two pillars. "There's Apollo," she sits up excitedly. "And Ares."

"See, I told you she'd like it," her mother turns to look at her father, who sits down on the bed next to her and kisses his daughter's head. "Happy birthday, baby."

--- -- -

"I love you, little moon. I need you to remember that," her mother means when she drops of Anastasia to kindergarten. "I love you, too," the little girl grins and her mother chuckles. She has lost another tooth a few days back and is now rocking a set of teeth with one only half grown and one completely missing.

Both in the front, of course.

She leans in and kisses her daughter's forehead, hovering for a moment before she finally pulls back. "I love you so much."

--- -- -

"Ana," her father picked her up early and brought her straight home before sitting down to talk to her. "Your mom, she, uhm, she was in a car crash earlier," he is clearly trying to find the right words to say. "She didn't make it?"

"What didn't she make?" Anastasia frowns and he takes a deep breath in. "I'm sorry, Ana. She's dead."

--- -- -

Standing in front of her father, Anastasia watches the casket being lowered into the ground. She doesn't understand half of what's going on, but she did seemingly understand her mother won't ever come back. Her father's hand is on her shoulder, though he isn't sure where he is squeezing her shoulder for her or for him.

She doesn't know a lot these days. She didn't know anything before, but it seems like everything she did know, slipped her mind. She just keeps on forgetting.

--- -- -

"Daddy?" Ana slowly approaches her father with a bottle of water she isn't strong enough to open. Over the last year he has become rather inapproachable. He doesn't call her 'baby' anymore or help her when she needs to get rid of a tooth. All he does nowadays is sit on the couch and drink.

And she doesn't understand why, but she does understand he seems to be angrier with her the more time passes. She just wants to know why. She just wants to understand.

"Can you open this for me, please?"

"Go away," he brushes her off. "Please?" she tries again, tears pooling in her eyes.

She just wants her mom. "I said go away."

Anastasia flinches back the moment his palm meets her cheek, and she immediately let's go of the bottle. Her father's eyes widen, and he gets up from the couch to crouch down in front of her.

"I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry."