She Dines With My Father

He stood there, standing at the border of the line that separated him from the one he had grown so close to. How could something so simple cause something so horrible? She was only sixteen, and now she was gone. He couldn’t grasp that he would never see her smile again.

He denied it all, because that’s all he could do. Seeing her body mangled and bloody, thrown from the collision made his stomach wrench. She hardly looked like the beautiful girl he had been proud to call his girlfriend. She was simply a mass of flesh that was barely breathing. He wanted to cross the line, to be there with her, if it was her, until the end. He wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything would be all right, that she would be fine.

But he couldn’t. For his own safety, they had said. So he wouldn’t hurt himself in the rubble and shrapnel that had littered the ground all around her. He fell to his knees, weeping. Asking questions, Why her? Why now? Why like this?

He grabbed the small charm on the necklace he wore. It had been hers, but she had given it to him the day before. She told him she always wanted him to have something to remember her by. Did she know? Had she any idea that by simply going out with her friends, she would be half dead on the ground?

As the small cross dug into his palm, he felt an overwhelming sense of calm. He looked up to see a man; standing with his had opened up to assist him in getting up. He reached out, and grabbed the hand. It was soft and warm. The boy looked up into the man’s eyes and saw something more, but he didn’t know what. He saw his face, but the details looked vague, as if blurred. The man’s smile made the boy want to smile, but he couldn’t, not with the sight he had seen.

He turned to where she was laying, and realized that she was now, and forever gone. The strange man’s arms wrapped around the boy, and he felt himself gripping the stranger tightly. As the man loosened his grip on the boy he whispered into his ear.

“Tonight she dines with my Father, so that others will eat at his table also.
She loves you.”

And then the man was gone, and the boy gripped the charm tighter, now knowing that he would one day see her again.