A Question of Hope by Lynn Landes

Author:Lynn Landes [Landes, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Maggie knows where to find him. “Daddy?” she calls walking into the garden in the backyard. He’s on his knees furiously weeding the vegetable beds. She watches him and her eyes are struck by the veins and age spots on the back of his hands. He’s aging, and time is passing. Every second is another second lost.

“Help me understand Dad. Why does it matter what I was doing? Wiping noses or amputating a soldier’s leg, both are the same job,” she insists, and he stops and looks at her with tears in his eyes.

“No! Magdalaine, it’s not the same thing!” he shouts and shoves back to his heels to stares at the woman before him. The August sun is shining down on them, highlighting her light blonde hair and blue eyes and he’s stunned.

“You’d rather I lie to you?” she drops to her knees in front of him and asks, “Have I brought nothing but shame to you?”

Conner drops his head, unable to look at her as her words strike him in the heart. “You look so much like your mother,” he whispers and tosses the weeds on the pile. Her head drops and she struggles not to scream out.

“I’ll leave in the morning. Shep will take me…”

“That’s not what I meant! Why are ya always twisting my words,” he snarls.

“I don’t mean to, Dad. I’m doing the best that I can. I left here a naïve, ignorant young girl. Life soon taught me that the world is a violent, dangerous place, I could choose to live in fear or step into my place.” She grips his hands. “I’m don’t want to live in fear, Dad. After the war, I found work at the hospital in San Francisco and working with the children washed away my nightmares.”

Conner grips her hand, “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I do, Dad. These children are immigrants, most of them. Some are homeless, living in horrific conditions but they still laugh, smile and hope. I couldn’t believe it Dad.” Her bright blues eyes shine with tears. “How could a child look at this dirty world and see beauty? I started going to church again and reading my Bible, trying to understand.”

Conner pulls her to her feet and walks hers through the garden to a bench beneath a tree. “Did you find the answer?”

“Yes. They are his gift to the world. Through their eyes we can see the light in a dark, crime ridden alley. An adult would look and see danger and death, but a child might look and see a single, untrampled flower growing in the hard-packed road.”

“Magdalaine,” Conner grips her hands. “You were that light in a dark world for me. When you Ma died a part of me died with her. I know I didn’t show it, but losing you was a second death for me.” His tears flow freely now, and she sobs into her hands.

A few minutes pass as they gather their thoughts.

“Watching you today, made me so proud, but also ashamed.

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