a story for when you wake

At first her mother had brought her, sitting her on the edge of the bed while daddy slept. Sometimes she'd curl up next to him and nap, enjoying the warmth of him and the steady rise and fall of his breathing. More than once she opened her eyes to spot her mother's silent tears.

After a while though, things started to change. The world was different. People were different. School was like it'd been before and the doctors, there weren't as many as there had been at first. Her mother, caught up in words from another adult that she didn't understand spent most of her time distracted. She was only nine but she could count the six blocks to the big building that Daddy slept it. It was across the street from his office. He used to joke about that with his mother. Jokes that she never understood but they'd made her mother smile or roll her eyes. Those had been good days.

The doctors and nurses, those who were left, they cared at first. That the little girl showed up to watch her father sleep alone. That her mother wasn't with her. Just like everyone else though, eventually they stopped caring. She didn't cause any trouble and they had no reason to believe she would.

One day, while looking for a bathroom, she'd found the children's ward and shelf full of books she could almost read. All other things forgotten she pulled the stack, as many as her small arms could carry, and took them back to his bed. It was then she started reading. It was slow going, sounding out words like he'd taught her but she worked at it, reading him story after story, day after day. Until he woke up.