The Noise Was Incredible (855 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Kristen (View user info) at 2004-10-03 12:42:38 EDT
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He watched her lips.
There was so much more to his beautiful child. She had a halo of golden curls, wide, blue eyes, a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She had chubby fingers, with flecks of peeling pink polish haphazardly dashed across her bitten nails. She had a rounded belly and perpetually scabbed knees and the slightest hint of a dimple in her left cheek. She was so much more than the tiny rosebud mouth.
And yet for the whole five years Sara graced his life, all he did was watch her lips.
He imagined what her voice sounded like. He was twenty-seven years out of practice, but he still came up with an almost audible tone.
He imagined it to be soft and lilting with a tendency to get high pitched when she was denied her pre-dinner Oreo or when she had to end her stuffed elephant and Barbie's adventures and hit the sack.
He imagined what it would be like to hear one simple word from those oft-observed lips.
"Daddy."
He imagined how it would sound when she was breathless from exertion, chasing the neighbor's weiner dog on her bike.
"Daddy, watch how fast I go!"
He imagined her excited squeals on Christmas morning.
"Daddy, Santa came, he really came!"
He imagined the awe in her voice on an especially clear evening, the black night sky lit up with millions of stars.
"Oh, daddy, lookit how many there are."
Yet for all his imagining, he was ill prepared for this moment. He watched as Sara leaned from Ginny's lap, reached into her mother's purse, and tried to sneak a piece of Juicy Fruit.
A kind, older face obstructed his view.
"Ready?" the lips asked.
His head swam. An icy fist gripped his heart and sent shivers down his spine. He managed to give Dr. Fuller a curt nod. His only stabilities were the plastic armrests and the suddenly clear visual path to his daughter. Ginny had discovered the renegade stick of gum and was busy prying it from Sara's desperate grasp. Her face screwed up in unadulterated sorrow as her mother triumphantly forced her tiny fist open and plucked the crumpled prize from her.
"Steven?"
"I told you, 'NO MORE GUM'!"
He stared hard at those lips.
"Daaaaaaddy!"
And there it was. The piercing wail of his only child.
The noise was incredible.
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Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2005-01-16 12:13:22 EST (#)
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