He had not seen her for quite some time. Sitting outside the cafe she just happened to run into him with her two young daughters . She was a diminutive woman with fine features and blond hair and her name Anastasia meant resurrection . Her two daughters were dressed identically like two tiny porcelain madeleines except that one was distant ,the other thin and very affectionate .

The thin little one immediately jumped into his lap as if she had suddenly found her long lost father and gently laid her head against his shoulder .She looked up at him with soft hazel eyes . He noticed her eyes had many tiny specs in them .There were so many that together they rivaled and almost crowded out her pupils .”Your daughter is not well”
He said .The mother immediately got up and ran into the cafe .She came back shortly .

He noticed her eyes were red .She had been crying, Her blonde hair slightly disheveled and showing her black roots  She was angry ; not with him but rather at fate and how circumstances could fall together in such a way that her fatherless daughter at such a young  age could be ill and riddled with so many problems.

The little one nuzzled even closer to him.“ Have faith he said . “Time rectifies all things “They kissed each other on the cheek and she went on her way, with her two daughters on either side, holding hands.

The morning broke and he awoke from a deep sleep  .
His eyes slowly opened ,to the sounds of all the birds welcoming the morning, many small birds in a garbled melody of chirps, and the solitary refrain of an intermittent cooing dove nearby .This would be his last day. The pain of the wounds was excruciating now again, and he was sweating blood.

There were crimson tears at the corners of his  eyes,dried blood and dirt on his face  .As dawn broke to a new host of torture he realized the little one ,with her head on his shoulder , had been the dark one himself . He braced himself as the door opened .

From “Mercy Brother ” by PWChaltas