A Sunny Afternoon | [Open]
[Slight panic warning below cut.]
Penny was dressed in her best, which, if she was being very, very honest, wasn’t much better than her usual: A little purple jumper and a yellow button up with fraying sleeves was over her usual lilac leggings and mary-janes. Miss Duffy had dug the outfit out special, and even let her wear her easter hat to walk down the park and do as she did every mother's day.
One balloon, wound tight around her palm and tied, was to be released skyward with the same note she'd written for as long as she could remember, for as long as Miss Duffy had carefully printed it, or as of this year, helped her to print in looping, bold letters:
"Dear Mama,
I miss you, and I hope you're someplace better.
I love you still.
Penny."
Penny arrived at the park at half-past eleven, and the day was bright and warm. It was better than last year, when she'd been--
The thought slammed shut like an iron gate. She would not dwell on where she had been that last year. Her hand tightened around the string and she took a deep, shaking breath.
She'd missed a year. She'd missed doing it, and that meant maybe her mother had moved even further away, gone off somewhere else, and would have a harder time finding this one--