The Silent Phoenix

42: His Little Silent Phoenix

"Don't worry mother,

your daughter is a soldier."

C H A P T E R 4 2

L U C I A N A

"Mom?" I asked softly.

"Yes, honey?" she asked, running her hands through my hair.

"I'm sorry." I sniffled.

Her eyes turned down in worry. "For what, baby?"

I focus on the cast on my leg. "For not being able to complete the mission. I promised you and Dad that I would ace this one."

Her hands stopped in my hair and pulled me closer. "Luciana, I don't care whether you completed the mission or not. I couldn't care less about that. Do you want to know what I care about?"

I gave her a nod. "Tell me."

She had a gentle yet firm look in her eyes. "The only thing I care about is you coming back to me in one piece. Nothing else. I don't give a shit if you decided to ditch your mission in favor of an ice cream, as long as you are safe."

"Okay. But I always mess up with something or the other when I'm on a solo mission. If there's even one other person with me, things go smoothly. The second I'm alone, things go downhill," I whispered. "Am I the problem here?"

Shocked, she remained frozen for a second and then snaps out of it. "What? No! Honey, how can you ever think of something like that? You don't know how special you are. You aren't my little angel for nothing. You know, your Dad doesn't call you his angel. He calls something very, very special. It's reserved only for you."

"What does he call me?" I asked, curious.

"He calls you his little silent phoenix." she answered with a smile.

I frown, confused. "Why?"

"Well, like a phoenix, you always raise from your ashes. Whenever you're put down, you find a way to get back up again. And silent because of the obvious reason. We both know you avoid  people like they have the plague. Talking is entirely out of the question."

I chuckled at that. "I just don't have anything to talk to them about, that's all."

Mom laughed along with me. "The point is, we never lost faith in you. Maybe now is not your time. One day that time will come and I will get to say 'I told you so' to you."

Thump

I blinked, trying figure out where I was. After looking at my surroundings for two whole minutes, I came to my senses.

Huh, haven't had that dream in a while.

I rubbed my head where it collided with the floor when I fell off the bed. I got into a sitting position and thought over my dream. 

It felt so weird saying dream and not nightmare. Weird and also good. 

I smiled at the memory. I used to suck at solo missions in the beginning. In the mission before this particular memory, I literally slipped on a banana peel and tumbled down the stairs. Ended up in a cast for a month with crutches. 

Let me tell you, going to the bathroom with crutches is not easy.

A little piece of advise, don't eat bananas. Because if you eat bananas, there will be banana peels and eventually you will slip on one of them and end up in crutches.