Lola laid on her parent's guest bed, in the guest bedroom and stared at the ceiling. She would have loved to sleep.
She had been daydreaming of the great maple tree in her parents old yard, the shade it brought in the summer, the great pile of leaves in the fall, and icicles in the winter. She had dreamed of tapping it for syrup when she was little, but her dad always insisted you needed more than one tree, which their tiny suburb parcle lacked. She then spent a whole summer loathing the poor hickories that grew instead.
She had been so deep in thought she hadn't heard the front door, or her aunt, until the bedroom door creaked gently open.
She made her way in, and sat on the edge of the bed.
"My sweet Lola Bola," she began and reached behind her to rub Lola's knee gently. "I wanted to come check on you, I heard it hasn't been easy. So first thing first, you need to know, this is not easy. No matter what anyone tells you. And second..." she wiggled for a second then pulled out her dirty gardening gloves from her back pocket. "I forgot those where there! And here I was with a lump under me! That's better. Now where was I? Yes, secondly you need to fight. You need to fight hard. You need to get up everyday and take a walk to anywhere as long as the sunshine is on your face. Then stop, take your shoes off and put your toes in the dirt."
She studied Lola's face for a moment, clicked her tongue, and put her glasses to her nose.
"One last thing. You might not be familiar with your Great Grandma Lola, although you were named for her. During the war, she was pregnant you know."
Lola nodded.
"Well," she said. "What you might not know, is that the baby's father died in battle leaving poor Grandma Lola by herself. Of course, later she remarried and had more children. But I thought you should know. I dug a picture of her out of the attic to bring to you." She shuffled through her oversized purse, laying a jar of earthworms on the bed.
"Here we are!" she handed Lola the picture.
There in black and white stood a very young Lola holding her baby, smiling.
"You have fight in your blood. You just have to find it." She said. "Now where's your brother? These worms are for his snake!"
Thanks for reading and sharing this with me! If you would like a fuller picture I've inlcuded the other parts below!
To learn more about the 5 minute freewrites visit @mariannewest or click this link!
Stacie D
