“To My Darling Granddaughter”

This is “To My Darling Granddaughter,” written by Ace Molloy on September 19, 2023. If you want to learn more about the thought process behind this piece, you can find it here!

To My Darling Granddaughter

Thick summer air scorched outside, but the young girl’s eternally-cold hands sought refuge in soft quilts she did not see often. Her dark wet hair dripped onto the sheets of a bed that seemed to stretch on for forever to her as her eyes flitted around the guest room. Her overnight backpack was thrown between the sliding white closet doors and the large guest bed in her haste to see her nana, and one of the two toddler beds that she was a bit too old for was made up with soft sheets and warm blankets. As her nana strolled into the room, she grinned, almost bouncing up and down. The pair moved through the motions of bedtime: the attempt to settle, the begging for stories, and the snuggling close. The little girl slid across hardwood floor to give her nana the storybook for tonight. The book was the one with the pink and blue cover and detailed illustrations that was beginning to fray and fall apart, but the delicate writing dedicating the book to the young girl was new. Nana flipped through the pages carefully. After so many stories, Nana barely needed to ask what the little girl wanted anymore; she asked for the same fairy tale time and time again. Her bouncing and begging from earlier was long forgotten as the tale of princesses and princes rang across the room. Soon, far too soon, she was forced into her toddler bed for the night by the “happily ever after.” None of her pleas for another tale could sway her nana into letting her stay up longer. Despite her cries that she wasn’t tired, the little girl quickly fell asleep.

I still have that old storybook. It is still holding itself together by a thread. The only difference is that the name prettily signed on the first page is no longer mine.

Once upon a now,

That young girl’s bed was too small

For this young man