The Last Daisy

 The little girl sat and cried for all the hard things. She was a sensitive soul, and today she had seen things in her town that made this soul hurt badly.

    There was a dog with three legs and a scar in place of an eye, a poor man who asked for bread which no one gave him, an old woman who struggled to cross the street because the traffic would not slow, a little boy crying because he could not find his mother... And on and on it went until she fled because it broke her heart in too many pieces.

    She ran to a meadow and it was there she sat and let her tears fall.

    This particular meadow was filled with small daisies, and it was on the petal of one of these daisies that one of the little girl's tears dropped. And as the tear hit the petal, an idea hit her mind and began to bloom.

    She dried her tears, plucked five flowers and made her way back to the town.

    Taking a very small sandwich out of her pocket, she shared it with the poor man and gave him a daisy—though they both parted a little hungry, still, they were happier for having shared bread together. The little girl ran off to the old woman, placed an arm around her, and walked boldly first into traffic holding up a hand with a daisy in it--and when the old woman had crossed the street, the girl slipped the daisy into her bag. Off she went again, this time to the little boy, whose chin she tickled with a daisy until he laughed, and then helped him find his mother. She tucked the daisy behind the little boy's ear, blew him a kiss, and on she went until she came across the three legged, one eyed dog. She smothered the dog's face in kisses, and then ran along with his galloping stride back and forth until the dog fell asleep. The little girl carried him home, placed him by the fire, with another kiss and a daisy poking out of his collar.

    The last daisy was placed beside her bed in a tiny glass of water so that when she woke the next morning, she would remember to pass out all the pieces of her broken heart again.

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