Daughter

"Why do they look at me like that mummy?" the little girl asked.

"Because they don't understand," said the woman holding her hand. "They don't look inside you."

"How can they look inside me? Do I have to take my head off? Does it unscrew?"

"No, sweetness. I mean they don't see how your heart shines."

The little girl looked down at her chest.

"I can't see it shining mummy."

"No, baby. It shines inside and comes out through the things you say and the way you are. And you shine, my beautiful girl."

The girl giggled and her mother's heart swelled a little more. She blinked back a tear, not for the first time that day.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get you home."

"Just a few minutes more?" said the girl. "Please?"

Her mother was quiet for a long moment. The little girl, wrapped up tightly in the bandages that kept the sun from burning her much too sensitive skin, looked up. The sunglasses protecting her eyes hid her expression and the scarf covering her face prevented her mother seeing the way her daughter's bottom lip would be ever so slightly out, the eyes beseeching. It was a well practised look and, though the mother knew it was an act even if she couldn't see it being performed, she pretended to fall for it each time.

"Just a few minutes," said her mother. "Then we need to go. We're at the hospital this afternoon, remember."

"OK mummy. Thank you."

"You're welcome hunny."

"Mummy, you know I don't like hunny. Can I be jam today?"

Her mother laughed.

"Baby, you can be anything you want to be."

"Good. Then I'm jam."

"What flavor?"

The girl was silent, thinking. She seemed to always need to ponder about what she might say, in case she didn't have the chance to say everything she needed to in her potentially short life.

"Strawberry."

"My favourite."

This time, the tears couldn't be blinked back. They flowed freely. Luckily, her daughter was watching the other children playing. Her mother could feel the girl smiling. She could feel the warmth of her daughter's pleasure radiating from her in tiny waves.

Her little girl shone. At times like this, her mother found that shine almost blinding. She felt her daughter had captured starlight in her soul.

"Why are you crying, mummy?"

Her mother didn't realise the little girl had looked up. She hurriedly wiped the tears away.

"No reason, baby. They're tears of happiness."

"You can cry happy?"

"Yes. You can cry happy."

"So why are you happy mummy?"

"Because you are beautiful. Because you're beautiful."

"But you can't see me under here, silly!"

"Oh, I can, sweetness. I can see right inside you. And you are beautiful."

"You're funny, mummy."

The little girl giggled again. Her mother, who felt her heart couldn't hold any more love for her daughter, realised it could. And she felt it fill and she felt it overflow, and she felt the tears fall freely from her eyes.

And she smiled.